The Arkansas Razorbacks just completed a somewhat surprising 31-23 upset of the No. 4 team in the recent BCS standings, the LSU Tigers. The Razorbacks led or were tied the entire game as they had little trouble with a good LSU Tigers team. LSU had no answer for Ryan Mallett or Knile Davis and it cost them big time, as they are on the edge of BCS bowl contention at this point.
More importantly for our purposes, the Stanford Cardinal are now in a position to potentially clinch a BCS berth with a victory over the Oregon State Beavers, which just started at Stanford Stadium. The LSU loss, combined with Nevada’s monster upset of Boise State will move Stanford past both teams in tomorrow’s new BCS rankings. In that situation, Stanford would be fourth in the BCS standings. As Avinash discussed earlier, the rule instituted after Cal was hosed out of the Rose Bowl would require Stanford be selected for a BCS bowl, even if it’s not the Rose Bowl.
One possible hiccup would be if Wisconsin leap-frogged Stanford after their beatdown of Northwestern. Based on the computers a Stanford win over Oregon State should be more valuable, but Wisconsin solidly claiming the Big Ten Title with a beatdown of Northwestern could influence the Coaches and Harris poll. I’d hope that doesn’t happen, but crazier things have happened.
Stanford obviously has to handle their business first tonight against Oregon State. Consider it a possible “win and you’re in” scenario.