All eight teams of the BCS’s top eight remain unchanged this week, after the middle weekend in November held no surprises for the nation’s best.

Moving up into the ninth spot was Pittsburgh, the beneficiary of Iowa’s loss and of some national exposure from their game against Notre Dame. The Panthers’ entrance into the BCS top ten is the first time this year that the Big East has had two teams in the top ten, joining constant No. 5 Cincinnati.

Even the scores don’t see much change along the top of the standings, as the distance between Florida, Alabama and Texas remained rather unchanged from a week ago.

Also seeing great improvement was Ohio State, on the heels of their overtime victory over Iowa, but was unable to make their way into the top ten. Not to worry though, the Buckeyes are assured a Rose Bowl bid, and therefore don’t really need to worry much about final BCS standings.

Important progress has been made in the realm of at-large bids in this week’s BCS standings despite the lack of movement at the top.

USC’s third loss of the season kicked them out of the top 14, a necessary requirement for a BCS at-large bid, and opened the door a little more for two BCS buster schools to get at-large bids this year – which would be a first.

Penn State lingers at No. 14, who theoretically could be chosen above the Broncos for an at-large bid, but they will have to survive one final test at Michigan State next weekend.

Its unlikely that the Big 12, Big East or ACC will get an at-large bid, which leaves a few spots open for at-large selections, and hope for Boise State remains.

BCS Rankings – November 15th

On Halloween, the fear is supposed to come from the costumes, or even the scary movies. But the scariest thing on this Halloween might be what the BCS will look like tomorrow.

Oregon’s upset victory over USC at home, although not completely unexpected, may have some completely unexpected ramifications on what the BCS will look like tomorrow.

Boise State, who zoomed by San Jose State on Saturday, may see the Oregon victory help them back up the BCS standings.

Last weekend, the nation was shocked when TCU bounced past the Broncos in last week’s BCS standings. Assumed to have the BCS bid locked down if they were to run the table, the Broncos instead saw the rug ripped out from under them, and thought they had to claw their way back to the BCS, and hope for a TCU loss.

Now, with Oregon’s victory over the No. 5 Trojans, the computers will likely reward the Broncos with a helpful boost. Oregon’s only loss of the season came at the hands of the Broncos in their season opener, and although both teams know that the Ducks team that night was nothing like it is today, the computers wont see it that way, rewarding the Broncos big time.

TCU, who was also victorious, might see themselves slip down, through no fault of their own, and have the tables turned on their BCS boost from last weekend.

Oregon, will likely jet past a few BCS teams as well, likely including LSU, Cincinnati, and maybe the two BCS buster teams as well, also leaving teams that were victorious over the weekend wondering just what went wrong.

On another front, Alabama, who was idle this past weekend, may just slip to No. 3 in this week’s standings, and Texas may jump over them after a very convincing victory over No. 14 Oklahoma State on Saturday night.

There is no reason for the Crimson Tide to worry, however, as an undefeated record in the SEC, and then a victory over Florida in the SEC Championship Game will more than certainly be enough for them to make it back up to the top two at the end of the season.

Either way, the BCS is sure to look a little different tomorrow, so without any polling information, here is a quick stab at what the BCS top 8 might look like when released after the NFL games on Sunday:

Projected BCS Standings November 1st

The final college football Saturday in October just so happens to fall on Halloween this year, and in that spirit, here’s your weekend college football preview, as guided by the Halloween classic, “Thriller” by Michael Jackson.

“It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark”

No reason not to start from the beginning.

After this weekend, just five weeks will remain before the final BCS standings are released. And for teams that need losses for them to even have a shot of competing for a national title, the clock creeps ever closer towards midnight, sealing them out of the BCS National Title Game.

That evil lurking is the possibility that some of those teams, like TCU, Boise State, Cincinnati and Iowa are in danger of finishing unbeaten, and still missing out on the national title game. They will all have to start putting on a show for the nation, and soon, if any of them hope to be playing on January 7^th.

“Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together, yeah. All through the night I’ll save you from the terror on the screen”

Alabama and Florida are like a happy couple atop the BCS standings right now; seemingly nothing can be done to break them up. They can cuddle as close together as they’d like, without threatening what will likely be their final date, December 5^th at the Georgia Dome for the SEC Championship.

It might be tough for either team to save the other from that “terror on the screen,” the remaining SEC schedule for both teams, but all signs point to a messy breakup just before Christmas-time.

“Creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorize y’alls neighborhood”

Creatures, in this case in-conference opponents with bad records, with axes to grind and noise to make, could make this Halloween weekend a scary time for in the neighborhoods of the BCS’s top teams.

Indiana (4-4, 1-3 Big 10) comes into Iowa City to face off against the No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes, in search of blood, and a victory. The Hawkeyes are already injured (although probably not yet bleeding), as they lost top running back Adam Robinson last week for the season.

Both No. 6 TCU and No. 7 Boise State also welcome opponents with uninspiring records into their neighborhoods, afraid of what a shocking loss might mean.

“And grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom”

Teams resting on the idea that they’ve secured something in this topsy-turvy college football season beware. Here are two chances for the top of the BCS to topple, against tough, ghoulish-like opponents closing in to seal a terrible fate.

No. 5 USC heads up to Eugene, Oregon to take on the equally scary No. 10 Oregon Ducks, who could not only knock the Trojans out of the “one or two mistakes and we’re in!” seat, and claim it for their own.

No. 3 Texas – set up to take advantage of that messy breakup between Alabama and Florida – could see some scare tactics from No. 14 Oklahoma State, and fall victim to their toughest remaining opponent before their schedule gets a little less intimidating.

“Thriller, thriller night.”

All told, this may just be one of the most thrilling college football nights of the season, the fact that it happens to be on Halloween makes it that much better, for no mere mortal can resist the evil of the thriller. (Insert creepy Vincent Price laughter)

Enjoy.

Note: The Week 3 (November 1st) BCS standings will be released during FOX’s “The OT” post-NFL wrap up show at around 7:30 PM EST. You can see a full schedule for the releases at the BCS Guru.

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 BCS rankings cause controversy. There’s no debating that.

But usually that controversy doesn’t come until at least a few weeks into the BCS rankings, when people can see a trend that they might disagree with.

This year however, there may be some griping to do just after one BCS rankings, following one of the most exciting and jam-packed action weekends of the college football season.

The top three of the first BCS standings may give some Alabama fans some pain, as the Crimson Tide sit at No. 2 on the first rankings, although the Associated Press poll, which is no longer a part of the BCS, had the Tide at No. 1 in their poll.

Alabama sits behind Florida, who has struggled to win the past few weeks, but in the eyes of the voters and computers, is strong enough to warrant the .046 point lead over the Tide.

Interestingly, Boise State and Cincinnati follow Texas (No. 3) in the BCS standings. Boise State gets healthy love from the computers and the human element, but Cincinnati is able to jump USC, who find themselves the victim of a poor computer ranking, and at No. 7 in the first BCS rankings.

In between the Bearcats and Trojans you can find the class of the Big 10, Iowa. The Hawkeyes also got love from the computers that was not shown in the human element, as they ranked seventh and eighth in the two polls, but find themselves at No. 6 in the BCS, just .0001 points behind Cincinnati for that No. 5 spot.

Ready to pounce on the BCS buster opportunity if Boise State is to falter, TCU enters the rankings at No. 8, a guaranteed BCS bowl berth position for the Horned Frogs if the Broncos are unable to win out.

LSU and Miami, each with one loss on their record round out the top 10, and will definitely need some major help to climb back up the rankings, where they had stood earlier this season.

Oregon, whose only loss came to Boise State, comes in at No. 11 followed by Georgia Tech, whose shocking victory over previous No. 4 Virginia Tech dropped the Hokies out of the top 12, and let the Yellow Jackets make an appearance in the year’s first BCS top 12.

BCS Rankings – October 18th

USA Today Coaches’ Poll

Harris Interactive Poll

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

For two straight seasons now, USC vs. Ohio State has defined the early parts of the college football season. And now, for two straight seasons, the definition that we’ve got is that the Big 10 continues to struggle against tough competition, and that USC continues to be a BCS National Title contender.

After their 18-15 victory over the shocked Buckeyes in the final minutes of their game, USC now may position itself in the driver’s seat in terms of controlling their own destiny for the national title game. There was already good evidence to suggest that USC would have major computer poll help, and would be able to jump Texas if there was to be a BCS standings released today, and likely this victory has only improved those chances.

Oklahoma State, on the other hand, completely ruined their chance at perspective national glory by not showing up to play against Houston, and wiping away any hope that they had of a national title shot.

Texas, who started slow against Wyoming, suddenly decided to turn it back on in the second half, and will continue to be second in the poll tomorrow, most likely, but will continue to lag in the perspective BCS standings, due to the computer boost USC is to get tomorrow.

Florida will continue to hold top spot in the polls and BCS rankings, while Alabama will hold steady at #4, waiting for their chance to prove themselves against the Gators in SEC play.

BYU, mid major darlings of last weekend, also showed real strength this weekend, confirming their place in the top 10, and likely positioning themselves for a boost up, with help from the Cowboys loss. Their opponent last weekend, Oklahoma rebounded nicely, shutting out Idaho State even without Heisman candidate Sam Bradford.

Boise State joins BYU as mid majors of the moment, and would likely land themselves at #8

Other top teams cruising to victory included Penn State, Cal, LSU and Va. Tech. Some top teams who struggled were Georgia, North Carolina, Missouri, and #18 Notre Dame, who by all accounts was ready to reclaim national prominence, but lost heartbreakingly to Michigan on their final drive. It may now be said that Michigan will be the one to reclaim their lost prominence, and that although Ohio State faltered this weekend, a weekend filled with victories was an up weekend for the Big 10.

There is still some major football to be played before the first BCS standings of the season, but we shall see where the season takes us before we contemplate about what they might look like this early in the season.

You can find a projected top eight BCS at BCS Know How!

-BCSKnowHow.com