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BCS standings: LSU, Alabama on collision course for rematch in title game

By Chris Dufresne
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LSU and Alabama are No. 1 and No. 2 in Sunday’s next-to-last release of the Bowl Championship Series standings, meaning we’re one week away from the formal unveiling of a rematch.

LSU defeated Alabama, 9-6, in overtime on Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa.

Yet, if the BCS standings hold into next weekend the schools will reunite in New Orleans on Jan. 9 for the BCS national title game.

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LSU, for a second straight week, registered a perfect 1.000 score in the standings. The Tigers are No. 1 in both polls and first in all six BCS computers.

Alabama is a solid second at .9551 with Oklahoma State moving up to No. 3 at .8712.

Stanford moved up two positions to No. 4 at .8559, with Virginia Tech in fifth at .7811.

Rounding out the top 10 is Houston, Boise State, Arkansas, Oregon and Oklahoma.

It might not even matter if LSU loses to Georgia in the SEC title game Saturday in Atlanta. LSU, the only undefeated team in title contention, might still finish first or second in the final standings.

A similar scenario unfolded in 2003, when Oklahoma lost the Big 12 title game to Kansas State but finished No. 1 in the final standings.

The best hope of a non-SEC team reaching the title game rests with Oklahoma State, which hosts Oklahoma on Saturday in Stillwater.

A convincing win over Oklahoma might convince voters to push for Oklahoma State to play LSU.

Alabama would have not have won its division of the SEC. The Crimson Tide has only three victories against teams within winning records this year.

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If Oklahoma State wins next week, it will have six wins over teams with winning records and will have faced nine bowl-bound opponents.

Oklahoma State’s only loss was in double overtime at Iowa State on Nov. 18.

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--Chris Dufresne

Sports Now
Chris Dufresne

Chris Dufresne was the Los Angeles Times’ national college football/basketball columnist from 1995 to 2015. He also covered skiing at the Winter Olympics and wrote extensively on most sports. He is a multiple national award winner and was named 2011 California Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Assn. A Los Angeles native, he started at The Times in 1976 as a truck loader and literally worked his way up (two floors to be exact).

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