With Houston’s upset loss to Southern Miss in the C-USA Championship Game, the race for the automatic bid to the BCS given to the highest-ranking non-AQ conference champion has been thrown into relative disarray.

The BCS selection procedures stipulate that a non-AQ conference champion that finishes in the top 16 in the final BCS standings will be afforded an automatic bid to a BCS bowl. In last week’s BCS standings, however, the highest ranking conference champion of a non-AQ conference, TCU, was outside of the top 16.

Boise State and Houston were ranked far higher, but because neither will be conference champion, neither can claim the automatic bid. Both can still be chosen as at-large teams.

If TCU enters the top 16 on the final weekend, the Horned Frogs will be BCS bowl bound for the third straight season.

With the bowl season complete, the time again comes for our annual postseason BCS rankings.

Unfortunately, it seems as though Jeff Sagarin has not released a postseason set of rankings, however all five other computers have. As in years past, we will substitute the AP Poll for the Harris Poll as the Harris does not reveal a postseason rankings.

Sagarin’s delay has caused a delay on our end as well, but here’s a set of rankings anyways.

The same formula that the BCS uses will be utilized here, except we use all five computer rankings.

Mostly, this is just for fun, a good look at what the BCS standings would look like if they were released after the end of the season.

Not surprisingly, BCS national champions Auburn comes in on top, well ahead of the rest of the field. TCU finishes second in a fantastic showing for a non-AQ school.

Oregon drops to No. 3 following their BCS National Championship Game loss to the Tigers, and are followed closely by Pac-10 counterpart Stanford at No. 4.

Postseason BCS Rankings

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TCU Horned Frogs (12-0)

How They Got Here: As the highest ranking champion of a non-automatically qualifying conference — No. 3 in the final BCS standings and champions of the Mountain West Conference — the TCU Hored Frogs were awarded an automatic at-large bid to a BCS Bowl.

Because of a new clause in the selection process for the five BCS bowls, TCU was awarded a bid in the Rose Bowl after the “Granddaddy of them All” lost its traditional Pac-10 conference champion, Oregon, to the BCS National Championship Game.

TCU’s 2010 Season: The Horned Frogs started the 2010 season playing second fiddle to Boise State as the non-BCS conference darling of the year. But after starting the season with victories over Oregon State and Baylor, the Horned Frogs cruised through most of their 2010 schedule and after Boise State faltered late against Nevada, TCU was left atop the ranks of the non-BCS conference schools.

Led by quarterback Andy Dalton, the Frogs spent most of their 2010 season looking forward to a meeting with an undefeated Utah Utes squad in Salt Lake City, but that meeting turned into a blowout victory for the Frogs, all but assuring them of an MWC crown.

TCU’s truest test actually came the very next week, as the Frogs struggled to stay ahead of San Diego State, finally prevailing 40-35 before finishing the season against New Mexico with an easy 66-17 victory.

Wisconsin Badgers (11-1)

How They Got Here: Wisconsin finished in a three-way tie for the Big Ten conference title, and won the conference on the strength of their finish in the BCS standings. Wisconsin’s No. 5 finish in the BCS was higher than that of Ohio State’s (No. 6) and Michigan State’s (No. 9) and gave the Badgers the automatic bid to the Rose Bowl despite the fact that all three teams finished 11-1 and 7-1 in conference.

Wisconsin’s 2010 Season: After stating the season with victories against out-of-conference opponents from around the country, Wisconsin dropped its first Big Ten conference game against Michigan State in East Lansing.

But from that point on, the Badgers could be considered one of the nation’s hottest teams, running off seven straight victories including an upset victory over Ohio State when the Buckeyes were ranked No. 1 in the country.

The Badgers ended the season with huge offensive output against its final three opponents — scoring a total of 201 points in their final three games against Indiana, Michigan and Northwestern.

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Matchup to Watch: Both teams have 520 points on the season, but TCU’s defense is among the most vaunted in the country.

How will Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien and his stable of running backs — James White (1,029 yards rushing), John Clay (938) and Montee Ball (864) respond to the threat of a strong TCU defense?

And will Dalton and a tremendous core of receivers be able to take control of the game against the Badger defense?

BCS Know How Prediction: Wisconsin’s 201 points in its last few games were an incredible feat, but also sent some negative media coverage the way of Madison. Will the nearly five-week break have a restorative effect on two rough and tough teams or will either be rusty?

TCU 31 vs. Wisconsin 20

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t learn a whole lot from the ACC or Big 12 Championship Games. Both teams looked both good and bad at times. So I’ll give the winners slight bumps, but for the most part, I can’t say it changes much of my opinion.

The SEC and MAC Championship Games did hold some eye openers though, like maybe Northern Illinois and South Carolina aren’t as consistent as we thought.

Last ballot until post-bowl season.

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BCS Know How Ballot – Week 15

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oregon Ducks	–
2	Auburn Tigers	–
3	TCU Horned Frogs	–
4	Wisconsin Badgers	–
5	Stanford Cardinal	–
6	Ohio St. Buckeyes	–
7	Boise St. Broncos	–
8	Alabama Crimson Tide	–
9	Arkansas Razorbacks	–
10	Oklahoma Sooners	1
11	Michigan St. Spartans	-1
12	LSU Tigers	–
13	Virginia Tech Hokies	1
14	Nevada Wolf Pack	-1
15	Nebraska Cornhuskers	–
16	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	–
17	Texas A&M Aggies	1
18	Missouri Tigers	-1
19	West Virginia Mountaineers	3
20	Utah Utes	3
21	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	3
22	Hawaii Warriors	3
23	Florida St. Seminoles	-2
24	Connecticut Huskies	–
25	South Carolina Gamecocks	-6
Dropouts: Northern Illinois Huskies

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

*******

What I’m Thinking:

• So Oklahoma and Virginia Tech are both up one spot.
• South Carolina down bid along with Northern Illinois after their aforementioned losses in championship games.
• I can’t find a reason to drop Nebraska past Oklahoma State or Texas A&M even with the loss.
• Florida State only down two spots post-ACC Championship Game.
• Just one new team this week: Connecticut!!! Yes, after projection the Huskies to make a BCS bowl before the season started and ranking them as high as the mid-teens in the preseason ballot, the Huskies make a return appearance in my ballot. The Huskies are on their way to the Fiesta Bowl and are not ranked in the BCS standings — a first.
• Conference Breakdown: SEC (6), Big 12 (5), WAC (3), Big Ten (3), Pac-10 (2), ACC (2), MWC (2), Big East (2).

So what do you think? Missing anyone? Giving anyone too much/too little credit? Let me know!

Following their dominating victory over South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game, the Auburn Tigers overtook the Oregon Ducks in the season’s final Harris Interactive Poll.

The Ducks had a blowout victory of their own over instate rival Oregon State, however voters were more impressed with Auburn’s body of work, which helped the Tigers make their way to the BCS No. 1 spot tonight.

The Harris Poll was held until the release of the BCS standings in order to build suspense, but it was easy to determine that Auburn and Oregon would be on their way to the title game.

Not much other movement was evident in the Harris Poll, although some teams saw their support rise and fall.

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Harris Interactive College Football Poll – December 5th

The 2011 BCS bowl matchups have been announced, with the long-awaited Auburn-Oregon BCS National Championship Game highlighting a slate of five marquee BCS bowl games.

The BCS will begin as it usually does, with the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, followed by the Fiesta Bowl that night.

The Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl will played on January 3 and January 4 respectively, with the title game not coming our way until January 10th.

Represented are the champions of all six BCS conferences, the MWC conference, the Pac-10 runner up, the Big Ten runner up and one of two SEC teams to finish 10-2 but miss out on the opportunity to play in the SEC Championship Game.

Here is your official schedule:

Click bowl names for BCS Know How previews!

BCS National Championship Game

Glendale, Arizona. January 10th, 2011

	Auburn Tigers
vs.
	Oregon Ducks

Comment: There were stumbles and potential pitfalls on the way, but ever since the initial unpredictability of the early part of the 2010 season, the Ducks and Tigers returned a sense of stability to the top of the rankings — and will meet in Glendale as the two best teams in the country.

The champions of the SEC and Pac-10 respectively, Auburn and Oregon have ruled atop the BCS rankings these past few weeks and put exclamations on their fantastic seasons with dominating performances on the final weekend of the year, and set up to potentially give us one of the most exciting BCS National Championship Games in memory.

Rose Bowl

Pasadena, California. January 1st, 2011

	Wisconsin Badgers
vs.
	TCU Horned Frogs

Comment: Two teams who have a legitimate claim at being the “hottest” team in the country as the season finishes will have to make do with an invitation to the most prestigious bowl on the BCS slate, the Rose Bowl.

Wisconsin gets to play in Pasadena on the strength of a Big Ten tiebreaker and a strong showing throughout the season, while TCU takes advantage of the much-discussed non-AQ clause in its first year and will join the Badgers on New Year’s Day.

Fiesta Bowl

Glendale, Arizona. January 1st, 2011

	Oklahoma Sooners
vs.
	Connecticut Huskies

Comment: Few if any prognosticators saw Connecticut as a viable threat to make their way to a BCS bowl in the 2010 season, but here the Huskies are — champions of the Big East at 8-4 overall and headed to Glendale for the Fiesta Bowl.

Waiting for the Huskies will be the Oklahoma Sooners, who will fulfill the Big 12′s contract with the Fiesta Bowl as the conference champion. The Sooners will be looking to break a string of poor performances in BCS bowls following successful seasons and the Huskies will be their next opportunity to do so.

Orange Bowl

Miami, Florida. January 3rd, 2011

	Virginia Tech Hokies
vs.
	Stanford Cardinal

Comment: South Beach, long the home of a January Orange Bowl between two East Coast teams will see a surprise visit from cross-country invaders Stanford, who automatically qualified for one of the four at-large BCS bowl bids on the strength of their No. 4 finish in the final BCS standings.

The Virginia Tech Hokies will be less of a surprise entrant here, playing in their third Orange Bowl in four years as the champion of the ACC and riding an 11-game winning streak into their bowl date with the Cardinal.

Sugar Bowl

New Orleans, Louisiana. January 4th, 2011

	Arkansas Razorbacks
vs.
	Ohio State Buckeyes

Comment: Two teams looking on the outside of the automatic bowl bid picture had their lots picked up by the Sugar Bowl, as the New Orleans-based bowl selected a replacement SEC team — Arkansas — and a very attractive at-large opponent — Ohio State — to feature in their tradition-filled bowl.

Both teams finished just short of making runs at their respective conference crowns, but were well rewarded with a bid to the Sugar Bowl to play in a marquee Big Ten-SEC matchup.

With the final weekend in the books, the coaches pushed some added support Auburn’s way, but the Tigers fell just short of getting to No. 1 in the season’s final Coaches’ Poll.

The Tigers finish the season with 24 first-place votes to Oregon’s 34, and the Ducks finish the season at the No. 1 spot they’ve held for more than a month.

TCU picks up one first-place vote to go along with its strong poll support overall to finish a strong No. 3 in the final coaches’ ballot.

The top 12 is unchanged from last week save Oklahoma gaining enough support with their Big 12 championship to move into a tie with Arkansas at No. 8.

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USA Today Coaches’ Poll – December 5th

The final BCS standings have been released, take a look HERE.

It’s on.

With victories on Saturday afternoon, Oregon and Auburn both clinched spots in the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, giving college football fans a dream matchup between two of the most prolific offenses in the country.

Entering the weekend needing to just take care of business, the Tigers and Ducks did more than that — dismantling South Carolina and Oregon State easily — and will play for a BCS title.

If either had fallen, extreme BCS chaos would have ensued, but for a second straight season, we avoid any real controversy on the final weekend and with few other top teams playing, the usual BCS confusion will likely be avoided tomorrow.

However, there still remains the important and somewhat complex task of filling the other BCS bowl bids with AQ conference champions and other at-large teams, and in pursuit of some clarity, here’s what we know so far:

• TCU, as the highest ranked champion of a non-automatically qualifying conference, will be given an automatic BCS bowl bid.
  • Because the Rose Bowl will lose the Pac-10 champion (Oregon), TCU will fulfill a new Rose Bowl clause, and be headed to Pasadena.
• Wisconsin, who will likely be the highest ranked Big Ten team in the BCS standings when they are released tomorrow, will be headed to the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten’s representative.
• Stanford — the highest ranked BCS AQ conference member to not win its own conference and still rank in the top four — will automatically qualify for a BCS bowl. We just don’t know which one.
• UConn, the surprise Big East champs, are also BCS bowl bound, but with no direct ties to any BCS bowl, could be headed to the Sugar, Fiesta or Orange Bowl.
• Virginia Tech will be on their way to the Orange Bowl as champions of the ACC.
• Oklahoma will be headed to Glendale to take part in the Fiesta Bowl as the Big 12 champs.

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That leaves two openings. Michigan State, Ohio State, Boise State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Arkansas and LSU will all likely be eligible come tomorrow.

It looks like the Sugar Bowl will want to replace Auburn with another SEC team and Arkansas looks to be that team. The Sugar Bowl will have another at-large opening, and could pick any of the available teams, but will likely bypass Stanford and UConn in favor of a team from the at-large pool — in all likelihood Ohio State. Check out our BCS Bowl projections here.

That’s the bowl picture — it’s messy at best — but the BCS standings shouldn’t be so difficult to digest when they’re released tomorrow.

The BCS standings should look relatively unchanged to the naked eye, and that distance between Auburn and Oregon (.0002 last week) should continue to be paper-thin and could go either way although, of course, who finishes first and who finishes second doesn’t matter in the slightest.

Here’s a shot at what the top-18 will look like when they are released tomorrow at 8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN:

Projected BCS Standings – BCS Week Eight (December 5th)

So a bunch of teams lost, but it doesn’t riddle this ballot with changes. That’s what happens when all the losses come to ranked teams.

One week left, how sad is that?

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BCS Know How Ballot – Week 14

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oregon Ducks	–
2	Auburn Tigers	–
3	TCU Horned Frogs	1
4	Wisconsin Badgers	1
5	Stanford Cardinal	1
6	Ohio St. Buckeyes	1
7	Boise St. Broncos	-4
8	Alabama Crimson Tide	1
9	Arkansas Razorbacks	3
10	Michigan St. Spartans	–
11	Oklahoma Sooners	2
12	LSU Tigers	-4
13	Nevada Wolf Pack	5
14	Virginia Tech Hokies	–
15	Nebraska Cornhuskers	–
16	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-5
17	Missouri Tigers	-1
18	Texas A&M Aggies	-1
19	South Carolina Gamecocks	–
20	Northern Illinois Huskies	1
21	Florida St. Seminoles	1
22	West Virginia Mountaineers	2
23	Utah Utes	–
24	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	–
25	Hawaii Warriors	–
Dropouts: N.C. State Wolfpack, Iowa Hawkeyes, Arizona Wildcats

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

******

What I’m Thinking:

• As I said, I’m not so big on punishing ranked teams for losses to other ranked teams, I think my ballots have been that way all season.
• So the ones who drop are; LSU, Oklahoma State, Iowa and Boise State. Furthest drop is Oklahoma State at five spots, but that’s intensified by Nevada’s jump.
• Nevada is also the beneficiary of the biggest leap because of an upset victory over a ranked opponent, moving five up.
• New teams: Utah, for escaping BYU, which verified them beating San Diego State last weekend. Mississippi State for taking an Egg Bowl. Hawaii for being part of a WAC conference that is obviously better than advertised.
• Dropouts pretty self explanatory: NC State for dropping the chance at a ACC Championship Game berth. Iowa for losing to Minnesota (???). Arizona for losing to No. 1 Oregon, although if the ballot were more than 25 teams, they wouldn’t drop more than a couple spots.
• My preseason darling Connecticut is lurking here, and a Big East championship would practically force me to give them a spot next weekend, just for amusement’s sake.
• Conference Breakdown: SEC (6), Big 12 (5), WAC (3), Big Ten (3), Pac-10 (2), ACC (2), MWC (2), MAC (1), Big East (1).

So what do you think? Missing anyone? Giving anyone too much/too little credit? Let me know!

Fueled by losses by LSU and Boise State, the Wisconsin Badgers and Stanford Cardinal are rewarded for convincing wins on the weekend, jumping up to No. 4 and No. 5 respectively.

TCU also reclaims the No. 3 spot after seeing it slip through their grasp and into the hands of the Broncos these past few weeks.

Oregon remains the No. 1 team, although they lose some of their lead on the Tigers, who pick up most of the first place votes that the Broncos lost.

Only Oregon, Auburn and TCU receive first-place votes, with the Ducks receiving 46 of the possible 59, Auburn taking 10 and TCU claiming the remaining three.

Boise State falls from No. 3 to No. 10 and LSU falls from No. 6 to No. 12.

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USA Today Coaches’ Poll – November 28th