As the College Football season winds down, the discussion becomes who will play in the BCS bowl games, and this year specifically with 3 non-BCS team being undefeated, which of those will "bust" the BCS.

The popular pick this year is Utah to be a BCS buster given they have been the highest rated team of the 3 non-BCS teams (Boise State and Ball State the other two). My computer has actually had Boise State rated higher all year with Boise State #12 and Utah #13 coming into this weekends games. Ball State is #16. So it would seem that perhaps it shouldn't be just a given that Utah is the choice, but as I sit here watching the games, perhaps more than 1 can be chosen!

I say that because Oregon State is currently losing to Oregon. Why does that matter? Follow me here and it will all make sense

There are 5 BCS games (10 teams) with the 6 conference champions from the major conferences, the Pac-10, Big-12, Big-11 (a story for another blog post, how can an 11 team conference be called "10"), ACC, SEC, and Big-East, all guaranteed a spot. That leaves 4 at-large berths which have typically been filled with the 2nd place teams from the BCS conferences and Notre Dame. Note that a conference cannot have more than 2 teams in the BCS. Both Utah and Boise State have been able to "bust" the BCS in past years, but not in the same year.

So with Notre Dame stinking it up this year (about to go to 6-6) and 3 undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences and potentially none from BCS conferences (I predict Florida will beat Alabama next weekend) this could be the year. So let's take a look at the likely scenarios:

• Pac-10 - Assuming they win out (just need to finish Notre Dame tonight and then a weak UCLA next week) USC are in the BCS, but might not win the Pac-10 if Oregon State beats Oregon tonight in which case Oregon State would also be in, so 2 of the 10. But if Oregon wins tonight, Oregon State would not make it and the Pac-10 only gets 1 team and this is when it gets interesting (see below).
• Big-12 - They will get 2 teams, we just don't know which 2. Could be any of Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Missouri.
• Big-11 - Penn State, and that should be it but Ohio State has an outside shot (see below).
• ACC - Arguably they shouldn't have any this year! But rules are rules and they'll get 1 from their championship game next week.
• SEC - They will get 2 teams, Florida and Alabama, we just don't know which goes to the BCS championship game yet but that will be decided next weekend.
• Big-East - See ACC.
• Utah - Everyone already concedes they will get in with their season finished and BCS ranking high enough.

So you count that up, and you get 10 so it is all done right? Well, Oregon is beating Oregon State, so we'd only add up to 9 then and we have to find another at-large team. The usual pick would be to go find another team from a BCS conference and the first in this list would be Ohio State (can't take 3 Big-12 teams, see rule above), but I would argue a 2-loss Ohio State that didn't really play anyone other than Penn State and USC (their two losses) should not be going which opens the door for Boise State!

Will it happen, I certainly hope so, but doubt it. But wouldn't it be fun to have two undefeated teams (Utah and Boise State) playing each other? The logical place for this to happen would be the Fiesta bowl, but the Fiesta would have to pass up (potentially) a Texas or Oklahoma and all the fans that would follow.

Of course, by the time you read this Oregon State could come back and make this all moot. But I wanted to be the first (?) to get this blogged about so happy reading and speculating!