Wisconsin comes back, earns a Rose Bowl spot

Wisconsin comes back, earns a Rose Bowl spot

Michigan State blew their final chance by roughing Wisconsin's punter with a couple of minutes still on the clock, thus turning their own first down into a Wisconsin first down. (They had used up their time outs.)

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Round-up:

It's pretty obvious that Virginia Tech and Houston were not really the #5 and #6 teams in the country. But then again, we really already knew that.

I'm assuming that LSU and Alabama will finish 1-2 in the polls and will have a rematch for the national championship.

That leaves eight other teams to compete in the BCS series:

It appears that these seven will be in automatically:

Clemson (ACC champ)
Wisconsin (Big 10 champ)
Oregon (Pac 12 champ)
Oklahoma State (Big 12 champ)
West Virginia (Big East champ)
TCU (Presumably. They are the top conference champ of the "other group." They will need to rise to #16 or higher and finish higher than West Virginia. It appears that they will.)
Stanford (Presumably. It is automatic if they are #4 and LSU-Alabama finish 1-2.)

There will be one at-large team. Who will that be? That depends on the final rankings, because it must be one of the top 14 (and must NOT be from the SEC). It is difficult to say precisely which teams will be in the top 14 pool, because of the Saturday results. Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, Houston, Michigan State and Georgia lost, but will they fall enough to leave the top 14? Baylor, TCU, West Virginia, Southern Miss and Clemson all won, but will they rise enough to make the top and push other teams out? We don't know for sure. This is a difficult situation even for teams which were idle, like #16 Michigan, which really has no idea whether it will finish in the top 14.

The probable match-ups:

LSU vs Alabama
Wisconsin vs Oregon
Clemson vs West Virginia or at large
Oklahoma State vs Stanford
TCU vs West Virginia or at-large

NOTES

Presumed #4 Stanford will an automatic bid if Alabama is #2, and Oklahoma State is #3, but will not get an autobid if the #2 and #3 teams finish the other way around. The way it works is that the #3 gets an automatic bid if it needs one, but if it already qualifies in some other way, then the automatic bid goes to #4. If Alabama is #3, it would need the bid, since it is not a conference champion. On the other hand, if Oklahoma State is #3 it would not need a bid (the Big 12 champ gets in automatically), and the autobid automatically passes to #4, presumably Stanford.

That point is just academic. Stanford is just about certain to get an at-large bid if they don't get the automatic one. They are the #4 team in the nation and have a strong Heisman candidate, which makes them a good ticket-seller.