For the fourth straight year, it seems likely that a team that is not a member of the six BCS conferences will make an appearance in one of the BCS bowls.

This has been assumed since Boise State beat Oregon to open the college football season. But suddenly, it looks like it might just be Texas Christian University – better known as TCU – instead of the media darling Broncos.

In the season’s second BCS rankings, TCU, following a convincing victory over their first ranked opponent of the season, jumped two spots to No. 6, while Boise State dropped three, a victim of their weak schedule, from No. 4 to No. 7 to place the two teams back-to-back in this week’s standings.

The BCS sets up quite nicely for one non-BCS conference team to make an appearance in one of the five bowls, but doesn’t really facilitate two BCS busters during any single bowl season. TCU and Boise State may have something to say about that.

Many will likely call for both to be included, but a bevy of other teams who find themselves amongst the nations best in this week’s BCS standings will play important roles in figuring out just what the matchups will be when announced in six weeks.

Florida, Alabama and Texas are all just where we saw them last week, except Florida continues to lose ground to the two teams chasing them, as unconvincing performances against the lower portion of their SEC schedule inserts doubt into their dominance.

Iowa (No. 4) gets a boost from the computers after they played a good Michigan State team on Saturday and were victorious in the final seconds of the game. Ranked first in five out of the six computer rankings, the Hawkeyes are the first team this season to claim a perfect computer score with a 1.000.

USC also sees a spike in their BCS rating, jumping from No. 7 to No. 5 this week following a close victory at home over Oregon State on Saturday, although the computers remain unconvinced, ranking the Trojans ninth.

No. 8 Cincinnati and No. 9 LSU get left in the dust, after the Bearcats played a less than stellar opponent in Louisville and the Tigers were idle.

Oregon, Georgia Tech and Penn State round out the top 12 in this week’s standings, and will look for some help from the teams above them, which could come for the Ducks as they play USC next weekend at home.

BCS Rankings – October 25th

BCS Computer Rankings

For more information visit the BCS Formula page.