Time for this week’s edition of the BCS Watch.  The sixth BCS standings come out Sunday night and the BCS watch continues.  Each week TheClemsonInsider.com will take a look at the battle for the Bowl Championship Series.

With the top two teams in the country going down Saturday, the BCS standings got turned upside down once again.

The Tigers were ranked No. 11 in last week’s BCS rankings as they continued to improve in the computer rankings.  With Stanford’s win over Oregon they could jump the Tigers in this week’s rankings.

Now that Florida State has won the Atlantic Division the Tigers will be playing for an at-large bid if they can defeat South Carolina Saturday night in Death Valley.

At-large Battle

Last week Clemson looked to be positioned perfectly to win out and head to the Sugar Bowl.  With Saturday’s upsets the  path to the Sugar Bowl got more complicated.

Notre Dame is now positioned to play for a national championship.  If the Irish defeat Southern California they will be the No. 1 team and head to Miami.  If they lose to Southern Cal they will take one of the at-large bids.

With Louisiana Tech falling in overtime Saturday to Utah State they are now eliminated from BCS contention and the BCS will be filled with Notre Dame and teams from the AQ conferences.

The SEC is now positioned to be back in the BCS Championship Game. Alabama and Georgia will likely move into the top three in today’s BCS standings and the winner of the SEC Championship will now be headed to Miami to play for a national championship.  If it is an SEC verse Notre Dame in the BCS Championship game the Sugar Bowl will get the first pick to replace the SEC winner.  If Alabama loses the BCS Championship Game the Sugar would likely pick the Tide.  If Alabama plays for the national championship the Sugar Bowl would likely pick Texas A&M.

With Oregon’s loss to Stanford they will now be fighting just to make it to the PAC 12 Championship game.  Oregon will need a win over Oregon State next week and a loss by Stanford to UCLA to make the PAC 12 Championship.  If they defeat Oregon State but don’t make it to the PAC 12 Championship game then Oregon will be in line for one of the at-large BCS bids.

The Rose Bowl is now falling into place.  The Big Ten champion will face either UCLA, Stanford or Oregon.

Kansas State’s loss to Baylor now knocks them out of the BCS Championship and will put them as the host team in the Fiesta Bowl.  The Fiesta Bowl would not likely want a rematch of a Big 12 teams so Oklahoma is likely eliminated from consideration for the Fiesta Bowl.  The Fiesta would pick Notre Dame or Oregon if they are available as an at-large team.  If neither is available as an at-large team the Fiesta Bowl would either pick Clemson or another PAC 12 team.

That will leave the Sugar Bowl to pick the final at-large team.   If Oregon and Notre Dame are both at-large teams one will go to the Fiesta and one to the Sugar.  That would leave Clemson heading to the Chick-Fil-A bowl.  If only one of them is available they would go to the Fiesta and the Sugar Bowl would be left selecting from Clemson, Oklahoma or a second place PAC 12 team.  Clemson would be the likely selection for the Sugar Bowl in that scenario.

One thing to remember is that only two teams from any AQ conference can make the BCS.

Should the SEC somehow get two teams back in the BCS Championship game then that would almost assure the Tigers would be headed to the Sugar Bowl if they defeat South Carolina.

With Ohio State and Penn State being ineligible for the BCS we can already predict that the Big Ten will only have one BCS team this year.

Go to this link to see the BCS selection procedures.

TCI breaks down the BCS contenders and long shots from each conference:

SEC

Serious Contenders

Alabama 10-1 (SEC Championship Game)

Florida 10-1 (Nov. 24 at Florida State)

Texas A&M 9-2

LSU 9-2

Georgia 10-1 (Nov. 24 hosts Georgia Tech, SEC Championship Game)

Big 12

Serious Contenders

Kansas State 9-1 (Dec. 1 hosts Texas)

Oklahoma 7-2 (Nov. 24 hosts Oklahoma State, Dec. 1 at TCU)

Pac-12

Serious Contenders

Oregon 10-1 (Nov. 17 vs. Stanford, Nov. 24 at Oregon State)

Stanford 9-2 (Nov. 24 at UCLA)

UCLA 9-2 (Nov. 24 hosts Stanford)

Oregon State 8-2 (Nov. 24 at Oregon)

Independents

Serious Contenders

Notre Dame 11-0 (Nov. 24 at USC)

Big Ten

No Serious Contenders for at-large bids.