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The chaos that could result in Boise State making a BCS bowl (yes, still)

By Kevan Lee
Otto Kitsinger III

Boise State's BCS hopes were dashed with a home loss to San Diego State three weeks ago. Or were they, skeptical question mark?

The Broncos returned to the BCS standings this week at No. 22 and are only six spots away (plus some Big Ten/Big East tanking) from qualifying automatically for a BCS bowl. Is it deserved? Probably not. Is it possibly? Kinda sorta. Must there be chaos? Oh, you bet.

Here is one possible scenario, courtesy of reader Kris Carney. Root accordingly.

This weekend

  • No. 10 Florida State gets destroyed by No. 4 Florida
  • No. 11 Clemson loses to No. 12 South Carolina
  • No. 14 Nebraska loses to Iowa
  • No. 15 Oregon State loses to No. 5 Oregon
  • No. 16 Texas loses to TCU
  • No. 17 UCLA loses to No. 8 Stanford
  • No. 18 Rutgers loses to Pitt
  • No. 19 Michigan loses to Ohio State
  • No. 20 Louisville loses to Connecticut
  • No. 21 Oklahoma State loses to No. 13 Oklahoma

Next weekend

  • Louisville beats Rutgers
  • Kansas State beats Texas
  • Oklahoma loses to TCU
  • Oklahoma State loses to Baylor
  • Boise State destroys Nevada
  • Stanford beats UCLA the week before, then UCLA turns around and beats Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game
  • Georgia loses to Georgia Tech the week before, then beats Alabama in the SEC championship game
  • Georgia Tech beats Florida State in the ACC championship game
  • Wisconsin loses to Penn State then beats Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game
  • Kent St loses to Ohio then beats Northern Illinois in the MAC championship game
  • UCF beats Tulsa in the CUSA championship game

How low could Boise State go?

Results like these would make things very interesting. Of the teams ahead and behind the Broncos in the BCS standings, the following win-loss drama would have occurred:

  • No. 14 Nebraska + two losses
  • No. 15 Oregon State + one loss
  • No. 16 Texas + two losses
  • No. 17 UCLA + one loss, one win (a Pac-12 championship win at that)
  • No. 18 Rutgers + two losses
  • No. 19 Michigan + one loss
  • No. 20 Louisville + one loss, one win
  • No. 21 Oklahoma State + two losses
  • No. 22 Boise State + one big win over Nevada
  • No. 23 Kent State + one loss, one win

And if Boise State does not climb high enough for a BCS bowl due to pollster politics or computer agendas, then at least we would have the grossest BCS matchups in perhaps the history of the BCS. What a way to go out, with automatic qualifiers Georgia Tech (five losses), Wisconsin (five losses), UCLA (fourth highest-ranked Pac-12 team), and Louisville (possibly unranked).