College football: Kansas State, Oregon on course for BCS title game

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New York • Kansas State and Oregon are now on course to play for the BCS national championship.

After Alabama was upset by Texas A&M, the new BCS standings have the Wildcats (.9674) first and the Ducks (.9497) second.

Notre Dame (.9396) is third, not too far behind, but most likely in need of a loss by Oregon or Kansas State to reach the title game on Jan. 7 in Miami.

"These teams are in their order and the only way that order changes is if somebody gets beat," said Jerry Palm, of CBS Sports and collegebcs.com.

As for Alabama's run at three championships in four seasons, and the Southeastern Conference's string of six straight BCS titles, both are in peril.

Five SEC teams follow Alabama in the standings: Georgia, Florida, LSU, Texas A&M and South Carolina. But it will take a couple of upsets to give the SEC champion a shot to reach the BCS title game.

Kansas State is second in both BCS polls — the coaches' and Harris — and in the computer rankings. The Wildcats have two games left, at Baylor on Saturday and home against Texas on Dec. 1, the day of most of the conference championship games.

Oregon is first in the both polls and fourth in the computer ratings. The Ducks have two more regular-season games left, against Stanford on Saturday and Nov. 24 at Oregon State. —

BCS rankings

Rk Avg Pv

1. Kansas St. .9674 2

2. Oregon .9497 3

3. Notre Dame .9396 4

4. Alabama .8534 1

5. Georgia .8328 5

6. Florida .7955 6

7. LSU .7331 7

8. Texas A&M .6621 15

9. South Carolina .6349 8

10. Florida St. .6071 10

11. Clemson .5921 13

12. Oklahoma .5797 12

13. Stanford .5705 14

14. Nebraska .4679 16

15. Texas .4259 17

16. Oregon St. .4161 11

17. UCLA .2925 18

18. Southern Cal .2769 19

19. Louisville .2159 9

20. Louisiana Tech .1911 20

21. Michigan .1665 NR

22. Rutgers .1529 23

23. Texas Tech .1416 22

24. Oklahoma St. .1088 NR

25. Washington .0850 NR