It’s a wonder how such huge losses last Saturday could have such little impact on the upcoming weeks of college football.

In this week’s BCS standings, Alabama (as expected) retook the No. 2 ranking from Texas, who fell to third.

Let’s examine how little this actually means:

With their win over LSU on Saturday, Alabama clinched the SEC West crown, punching their ticket to the SEC Championship Game.

If the Tide and the Florida Gators meet undefeated, the winner will play in the BCS National Title game, regardless of where in the losing team falls in the rankings.

The hardest remaining game for Florida is its trip to South Carolina, while Alabama still must play at Auburn, however both of these opponents are unranked.

The undefeated Texas Longhorns should also finish strong against a depleted Big 12, and will likely meet a four-loss underdog in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Win out and Texas is in the BCS National Title game too.

So three top 10 teams lose on Saturday, and the national title picture hasn’t changed in the slightest.

The interesting part of the BCS actually starts at No. 4.

This week TCU jumped up to claim that spot from Iowa, giving them a good shot at an at-large BCS bowl bid.

No. 5 Cincinnati needed a near-perfect performance from QB Zach Collaros to stay undefeated, and is now the top-ranked team from a BCS conference outside of the Big 12 and the SEC.

No. 6 Boise State should be thanking its lucky stars that No. 10 Iowa lost on Saturday.

Now it’s unlikely that the Big 10 will get more than one BCS bowl bid, which opens the door for non-BCS conference teams like the Broncos.

No. 7 Georgia Tech gained the most from the weekend losses by jumping up three spots. The Yellow Jackets should be Orange Bowl-bound.

There is a huge gap between No. 7 and No. 8, but after their loss, LSU should be pleasantly surprised.

The No. 9 USC Trojans find themselves back in the BCS top 10 this weekend, after just one week outside, but have no chance at a national title.

No. 11 Ohio State and No. 12 Pittsburgh round out the top 12, with the Panthers giving the Big East two top-12 teams for the first time this season.

BCS Rankings – November 8th

USA Today Coaches’ Poll

Harris Interactive Poll

Three top ten teams lost this weekend, but did you notice? More importantly, will the BCS notice?

True, the losses by No. 4 Iowa, No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 LSU were all important in their own ways, but in truth, the three losses did almost nothing to change what we already knew about the BCS.

LSU’s late loss to Alabama gave the Tide the SEC West crown, and made it all the more certain that an undefeated Tide would face an undefeated Florida Gators team in a defacto BCS Semifinal at the SEC Championship Game.

Iowa and Oregon both needed a lot to happen in front of them in order to think about a chance at the national title, but their losses all but eliminate them from that distant hope.

In fact, the two teams who seemed destined to meet in the Rose Bowl if everything went according to plans are now going to have to battle it out in their own conference for both the Rose Bowl bid and their respective regular season conference championships.

The important teams still in the national title picture remained undefeated – romps by Florida and Texas against overmatched opponents joined them with Alabama in the ranks of the undefeated.

The Longhorns, who last week stormed to the No. 2 ranking in the BCS might actually see it slip away for this week, but as we said last week, that doesn’t really matter. Alabama will likely rise to the No. 2 spot once again on a boost from both the computers and the human polls for beating a highly ranked Tigers team.

Cincinnati, who had to be excited seeing the Hawkeyes slip up to a unranked in conference opponent, almost had it happen to them on Saturday, needing an almost perfect performance from replacement QB Zach Collaros to avoid falling to Connecticut, handing the Huskies their third straight heart breaking loss in a row.

Both Boise and TCU won, and will likely see their BCS rankings unchanged from a week ago, but it almost wasn’t such a ho-hum weekend for the two teams, as Boise had to hold off a late storm from Louisiana Tech to avoid the upset.

Georgia Tech, pride of the ACC, looks to gain most from the bevy of losses from the weekend, but they too almost fell to an unranked Wake Forest team, and needed overtime to get past the Demon Deacons.

Ohio State may yet get another shot at the Big Ten crown following their win over Penn State on Saturday, and will also likely take back a position in the BCS top ten on Saturday on the strength of that victory.

We also may just see a third non-BCS school take a seat in the top twelve teams this week, after Utah handled New Mexico on Saturday. If the Utes do enter the top 12, it will more than likely be at the No. 12 spot. Houston won’t be far behind either.

Although in reality the change won’t mean a whole lot, the BCS will look a little different tomorrow, so here is a quick stab at what the BCS top 8 might look like when released between the early and late games on Sunday:

Projected BCS Standings November 8th