As the 2011 college football season rolls on, the schedule adds more Thursday and Friday primetime games, featuring some of the top teams in the country. This week we got one of the more exciting games of the season as the 27-point underdog Iowa State Cyclones shocked the world and upset the No. 2 Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys were on the cusp of a bid in the BCS National Championship Game and 24 hours later they will be battling for a spot in any BCS bowl game.
For the Stanford Cardinal, and the BCS in general, Oklahoma State's loss creates all sorts of turmoil. All of a sudden the Oregon Ducks have a modest shot at getting into the title game. Of course, they will likely need an Alabama loss to Auburn (or Georgia Southern, I suppose) to get into the title game. But, if Oregon could somehow sneak into the title game, that opens the door for the Rose Bowl to invite Stanford if they really want to maintain the Pac-12 vs. Big Ten matchup.
It is a pretty low key Saturday for the top ten, but most people probably thought it was low key for Oklahoma State on Friday. Barring any significant upsets, the BCS bowl picture is already looking a bit jumbled. If things go as expected, LSU and Alabama will line up once again as No. 1 and No. 2 in the BCS. The question is how far does Oklahoma State drop with that loss. They had a sizable lead over the No. 4 Oregon Ducks, so is it enough to prevent the Cowboys from dropping beyond just Alabama?
As the rankings are likely to shake out on Sunday, LSU and Alabama would be in the national title game and Oregon would face either Penn State or Michigan State in the Rose Bowl. Oklahoma State can still claim the Big-12 and a likely Fiesta bowl bid while Cincinnati is on top of the Big East and Clemson vs. Virginia Tech will likely decide the ACC. That leaves three potential at-large bids to be battled over by the likes of Oklahoma (or Ok State if the Sooners win that season finale), Stanford, Boise State and Houston.
I'd say today should go relatively according to chalk, but after yesterday, nobody can really say much of any certainty. Insanity is once again at hand and we have BCS chaos. It should make for a fun Saturday.