BCS National Championship Betting – Who Is The Projected Matchup After Week 7

After week seven of the 2010 season, college football seems headed toward an increasingly messy conclusion.

Ohio State was the No. 1 team in America until Wisconsin greatly reshaped national expectations for the Buckeyes, who must take a backseat to other unbeaten teams.

Nebraska was a popular national-title contender with a Heisman candidate (Taylor Martinez), but the weekend’s loss to Texas ruined the Huskers’ plans.

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With the exceptions of Oregon and Boise State – two teams that have boldly and impressively won all their games – the nation’s remaining undefeated teams have noticeable limitations in their resumes.

Auburn – which should be no lower than No. 3 in anyone’s set of rankings and has legitimately accomplished a lot in 2010 – hasn’t played one upper-tier opponent away from home.

Auburn has left the South only three times in the last 12 years to play a non-conference game. Make no mistake: Auburn has shown more toughness than any team not named Oregon. Yet, it’s easier to prevail when you’re playing at home.

The LSU team Auburn will face in the week eight spotlight game has, of course, received a great deal of luck. What wild scenario will unfold when Auburn and LSU lock horns?

Oklahoma’s profile looks better in light of what Texas did at Nebraska, but the Sooners’ portfolio took multiple hits over the past two weeks when one of their opponents, Utah State, got clubbed by Louisiana Tech.

Another Sooner opponent, Florida State, barely got by Boston College at home, and OU foe Air Force lost in an upset at San Diego State. The Sooners deserve to be in every voter’s top five this week, and they lead the BCS standings, but football experts still know very little about them.

Given Nebraska’s still-woeful offense, it’s quite possible that OU could run the table without meeting a big-league challenge.

Is much known yet about the Missouri team that will oppose Oklahoma in week eight’s second-best matchup? No, not really. Mizzou barely skated past Illinois and was very fortunate to beat San Diego State at home. Thumping Texas A&M isn’t cause for respect, either.

Michigan State is taking care of business this year. MSU must win at Iowa, though, before cranking up the national-title talk in East Lansing.

TCU might be playing great defense, but the Horned Frogs’ offense has been distinctly underwhelming throughout 2010. The Frogs should be an underdog when they get to Utah on November 6; a Ute win in that game looks less like an upset and more like an expected conquest with each passing day.

Utah, should it beat TCU, will have won a premium contest, but with Pittsburgh descending into mediocrity, did the Utes’ non-conference schedule give people any indication that this team can compete with good opponents in leagues not called the Big East?

Utah could go 12-0 and not be a tested, proven team… just like the Hawaii squad that marched through 2007 unbeaten and then got crushed by Georgia in that season’s Sugar Bowl.

Ultimately, Oregon has the inside track to the second spot in the title game (which it owns in the BCS rankings), but LSU and Auburn – who must play each other – are both still undefeated, so the winner of that week-eight game would get first dibs for Glendale by running the table.

However, that means beating Alabama, which will be a tough task.

Again, LSU or Auburn will have a very difficult time pulling off a 13-0 mark, so if one is to assume that the SEC won’t have an unbeaten champion, an unbeaten Oregon team would then be first in line for the title game.

Oklahoma – as the leading unbeaten team from the Big 12 – would be next in line, and after those power-conference teams, Boise State would be next, followed by TCU and then Utah.

The full order, then: LSU/Auburn winner first, Oregon second, Oklahoma third (it could be really close between Oregon and Oklahoma, but then again, both teams have to win out for that comparison to matter), Boise fourth, and TCU/Utah fifth.

Teams that got eliminated from the title-game chase this past Saturday:

Lots of teams got hurt, but frankly, with this season feeling more like 2007 –when every BCS conference team but Ohio State lost two games before the bowls –it’s getting actually more risky to say that teams have been eliminated from the title chase.