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

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