BCS National Championship Betting – Auburn Versus Oregon Still Intact

And now, the 2010 college football betting season is truly thinning out the ranks of teams who can claim to have a shot at the BCS National Championship Game. Week 10 witnessed a number of teams bow out of the race for Glendale, Arizona, on January 10, 2011.

The defending national champions, the Alabama Crimson Tide, will not repeat this season. The Tide got rolled by LSU, 24-21, this past Saturday, dropping their second game of the season. Alabama will not win its own division, let alone the SEC itself, so coach Nick Saban’s team is done.

[Off topic: by the way, do you want to get a 55% bonus on your first deposit here at BetOnline? Find out more exciting details HERE.]

A number of other one-loss teams who were hoping to remain in contention for the national title saw their dreams get shattered on Saturday. One-loss teams from power conferences have often backdoored into the title game when unbeaten teams have lost late in the season. There were several such teams – Alabama being just one of them – who suffered a second defeat and bowed out of the competition for the big game on January 10.

Oklahoma lost at Texas A&M in a very discouraging 33-19 loss. The Sooners got stopped at the 1-yard line on consecutive possessions in the final minutes of regulation, and the OU offensive line was terrorized by A&M pass-rusher Von Miller. OU quarterback Landry Jones was once again ineffective, as the Sooners tumbled out of the title chase.

Missouri is another team that had a chance to advance to the Big 12 Championship Game with one loss, beat the Big 12 South champion, and possibly throw its hat into the national-title ring. However, the Tigers blew an early 14-3 lead at Texas Tech and lost to the Red Raiders, 24-17.

The third one-loss team to lose a second game – and drop out of the running for Glendale as a result – was Arizona. Granted, the Wildcats’ chances were never strong, but since Oregon was still on their schedule, Arizona did have a chance to run the table, finish 11-1, and make a strong case for the title by beating Stanford this past weekend. Instead, Arizona got shredded by a 42-17 score. Stanford is actually still in the hunt, but since the Cardinal have already lost to Oregon, their chances of winning the Pac-10 title are slim to none. Stanford needs Oregon to lose twice, and that’s not very likely.

Shifting away from teams that entered the weekend with one loss and then fell a second time, another victim in the title chase was previously-unbeaten Utah. The Utes walked into Saturday’s game with TCU owning an unblemished record. After TCU’s 47-7 demolition of coach Kyle Whittingham’s club, the Utes are not only out of the running for the national title; they’re out of the running for a BCS bowl and the Mountain West Conference championship (provided that TCU wins just one of its two remaining games against a soft schedule).

We’re now down to four unbeaten teams: Auburn and Oregon own the pole positions, while TCU currently sits third and Boise State fourth.

Among the one-loss teams that have a shot at Glendale, the Big Ten champion – especially if it’s Ohio State or Wisconsin – could bust through to the big game if three of the top four teams lose. Michigan State probably doesn’t have a strong-enough national profile to make the title game with an 11-1 record. Nebraska would have a shot, but the Huskers didn’t play anyone outside their conference. They do have the brand name that will earn them votes from pollsters.

Stanford and LSU will be rated highly, but neither team is in position to win its conference, a big no-no in the chase for the national title. LSU needs Auburn to lose its remaining two games and get losses from Oregon and Boise State as well. Then, coach Les Miles could amazingly find his team in the title game; don’t laugh – his LSU team lost twice in 2007 and still made the main event (and won it).