A cascade of conference realignment and expansion has left Brigham Young University (BYU) in a strange position as its in state rival and Mountain West Conference foe, Utah, left the Cougars behind to join the Pac-10.

Seemingly left out in the cold — without an expected invitation to join another conference — BYU is now reportedly considering taking a completely different step — becoming a football independent.

Early reports told that BYU was looking to the BCS to afford it “Notre Dame” status, relating to the agreement the Irish have with the BCS that guarantees a bid for Notre Dame if they finish in the top eight of the final BCS standings.

More recent reports have told that BYU is interested in the opportunities that being an independent presents, including the ability to mold their own schedule, unbound by conference affiliation, and the ability to keep all of the bowl payout it receives.

The payout for a BCS at-large bid is reportedly six million dollars this season.

The Cougars’ planned independence only is in regards to its football program — the Western Athletic Conference (WAC)  has reportedly promised BYU a spot in their new look conference for all of their other sports if the Cougars leave the MWC.

BYU’s departure could have long-lasting consequences for the Mountain West.

The BCS will be looking into the automatic qualifying conferences in the coming years to determine if the current six conferences which are considered AQs (ACC, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, Pac-10, SEC) are adequately deserving of their relationship with the BCS.

They will also be looking to see if any of the other five FBS conferences should be added to that AQ list. The Mountain West had been in discussion as a possible candidate before the conference realignment began this offseason, but the departure of BYU would only take away from those chances.

BYU, like Notre Dame, has its own television network deal and a religious affiliation to its name.

The current FBS independent schools are Navy, Army and Notre Dame.

As much as the upset is a part of college football, so too is the Houdini-like escape of a national power to avoid such a fate.

On Saturday, we saw not one, but two teams pull exactly that, and let another week go by without any questions about where this college football season is going having been answered.

In fact, only one top-25 team fell victim to an upset from an unranked opponent (Miami), although Michigan State and Tennessee did almost everything in their power to add to that number.

In Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide hosted a very hungry Volunteer team that stifled the Crimson Tide attack that had eaten up other SEC defenses. Missed and blocked field goals held the Volunteers from claiming a lead late in the game, but it seemed to not matter, as they lined up for a game tying field goal with four seconds left.

But Terrance Cody, who had blocked an earlier field goal, worked his magic on the point of attack once again, and blocked a second Daniel Lincoln attempt to save the Tide’s hope for a national title run.

Iowa did not have the convenience of home field advantage to aide in their last second touchdown drive of 70 yards on ten plays, but they used every last tick of the clock to their advantage, saving their season on a Ricky Stanzi touchdown pass with no time left on the clock to send the Hawkeyes to 8-0 for the first time in school history.

Iowa and Alabama were not alone on Saturday as many top teams faced conference opponents who ended up giving them all they could handle, although Miami was the only one to fall. Florida, USC, Utah and West Virginia all struggled for victories, but were able to make good on their favorite status, claiming victories late in their matchups.

TCU-BYU, which had been the story heading into the weekend, turned into a non-contest, with the Horned Frogs holding down Max Hall and the BYU offense, 38-7.

The second BCS standings are due tomorrow, and likely will look very similar to the ones you saw last week, quite simply because no one loss. One change that might just be in the works would be Iowa taking the No. 5 spot away from Cincinnati.

Last week the Hawkeyes were .0001 points behind the Bearcats, and with the Hawkeyes beating a Michigan State team (4-4) with victories over teams like Michigan and Northwestern. Cincinnati, on the other hand, beat Louisville (2-5), a team with a slightly less impressive track record, and will likely see the consequences of that in their computer rankings this week. Without much information on hand, including the very unpredictable nature of the human poll voters, it looks like the Hawkeyes will jump the Bearcats in tomorrow’s BCS standings, but much of the rest of the standings will look very familiar to college football’s faithful.

Without any polling information, here is a quick stab at what the BCS top 8 might look like tomorrow.

Projected BCS Standings October 25th

The first BCS standings are nearly a week old. Teams now know the climb that faces them over the next seven weeks if they are to make it to the national title game.

That climb starts tomorrow.

Almost every single team ranked in the top 25 will face a tough in-conference match up this weekend, highlighted by four of the top five BCS teams facing tough road games in hostile environments.

No. 1 Florida will travel to Mississippi State, to face a Bulldog team that will be no pushover. And from the looks of the past few Gator SEC games, a few mistakes may send Florida tumbling down the BCS rankings if they aren’t careful.

No. 4 Boise State risks its undefeated record at Hawaii, never an easy place to claim victory, against the Rainbow Warriors in a tough WAC matchup.

No. 5 Cincinnati travels to Louisville to take on a Cardinal team looking for any sort of redemption, trying to reclaim the Big East glory that has become all Cincinnati’s in the past two years.

But the real test of the weekend will be the No. 3 Texas Longhorns, already with doubts cast about them already due to poor showings against Oklahoma and Colorado in two of their opening Big 12 conference games.

No. 2 Alabama, playing at home, doesn’t come up all roses, facing a Tennessee team looking for a way to make some national noise in coach Lane Kiffin’s first year.

But the game of the weekend would find itself in the most unlikely of places, Provo, Utah. BYU and TCU will face off in a battle of two of the three BCS busting hopes of the nation (the other being Boise’s bid). For TCU, a victory could spell increased support from both the computers and the human element. For BYU, a return to the top ten could be in order after falling following a loss to Florida State.

This week following the initial release of the BCS standings always presents intriguing storylines. How will teams that felt they have been slighted by the computers in the first iteration of the BCS iteration react?

Something to look for in the coming weeks is the effect of conference scheduling on the computer rankings. For those conferences with multiple teams in the top 15 (Pac 10, SEC, Big 12) the conference portion of those highly ranked teams may provide a boost in the computers.

For those conferences with lower turnout in the BCS rankings (Big 10, Big East, ACC, BCS buster conferences), the coming weeks may kick out the stool from under their high rankings, as many will take a shot from the computers, and see their averages decline.

But that’s all discussion for the future, for now, lets enjoy a weekend in which 24 of the top 25 AP teams are in action, and see just what the BCS standings look like on Sunday.

Maybe we’ll see something completely different.

And why not? A week following a rather unexciting weekend of college football, where most of the favorites pulled out easy victories, and little shakeup was seen in the rankings, even the most old-school and staunch of college football followers must have been expecting some sort of realignment to come from this weekend.

Recent history has probably readied us for the constant jumble that early season college football brings us almost every year, and this past weekend was no different.

It all started rather early, as Washington, who just before last week’s victory, had been riding at 15 game losing streak, decided to turn their attack all the way up, and shocked the USC Trojans 16-13.

Just a week ago, it seemed the Trojans were ready to reclaim their spot in the BCS National Championship game after a great come-from-behind victory over the Buckeyes of Ohio State, but the shocking loss sent the Trojans tumbling in the standings and may have once again dashed their hopes for a national title.

BYU, who also had high hopes of playing for a national title, hoping to break the six BCS conference strangle hold on the event, also fell hard, but in their case, much much harder, 54-28 to a very hard hitting Florida State squad.

This allowed a large collection of teams to take jumps up the standings, especially Miami, who after defeating Georgia Tech on the national Thursday night broadcast, skyrocketed into the top tens across the board.

Most of the teams behind the Trojans also took steps up towards the top, but nothing too shocking. Boise State replaces BYU as the mid-major of the hour, as they make a top ten appearance once again, cementing themselves as mid-major darlings of the nation on a permanent basis.

You can find a projected top eight BCS standings at BCSKnowHow.com!

LSU and Mississippi get a lot of help in BCS Know How’s Projected BCS because of the strength of their future schedule in SEC, which will likely be very big when it comes around to Novemeber. That puts four teams of the top eight from the SEC, which may change once SEC conference play hits its stride.

-BCSKnowHow.com

The mid-major. It’s always been a topic of controversy among college sports enthusiasts and analysts.

Recently, in college football, the mid-major has made some major noise. The BCS finally recognized the noise, and added an almost guaranteed BCS birth for at least one mid-major team. But maybe, just maybe, this year the mid-major may begin to show just how far they’ve come, and how much more respect they deserve.

This opening weekend’s action was all about the mid-major, and may have set the tone for parity friendly 2009 college football season. It all started on Thursday, when Oregon faced off against media and mid-major darling Boise State. In a game marred by a punch, Boise showed its poise in its first ever home game against a ranked opponent and won 19-8.

On Saturday, the mid-major success continued, as BYU stunned the Oklahoma Sooners 14-13, in what will likely set the tone for a change in the college football landscape. No one can quite know yet, but it looks like more than six conferences have teams that are capable of vying for a national title, who knows? Maybe this is the year one finally gets to the national title game from a non-BCS conference.

Other than those two upsets, chalk ruled most of the day, although quite often the games were closer than expected. Ohio State and Iowa squeaked out victories, while USC, Texas and Penn State rolled on by their weak openers. Alabama and Oklahoma State verified the early season hype by defeating other top-15 opponents on Saturday.

Perspective BCS rankings are sure to get a shake up in the polls this week, but the only real shocking movement will come from Oklahoma. Pollsters may be hesitant to drop them too far, seeing as though Sam Bradford’s injury could be blamed for the loss. Va. Tech and Georgia may fall, but losing to ranked opponents is never a terrible thing this early in the season.

All told, we are sure to have a very interesting season, and maybe, we might just see that level of parity that experts have been expecting for the past few years.

-BCSKnowHow.com