The college football season is getting to the craziest time of year and with conference championship games still to be played, the BCS bowl predictions and projections are already starting up and some of the top teams in contention for the top championship series games includes the Florida State Seminoles, Ohio State Buckeyes, Auburn Tigers, Missouri Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Baylor Bears, Clemson Tigers and Oklahoma State Cowboys.
FloridaState is 12-0 and ranked first in the BCS standings and even with the situation surrounding Jameis Winston taking over the team, they are looked at as the favorites in the national championship. Ohio State has not lost for a couple years now, but many in the media have written about their strength of schedule and Urban Meyer would love nothing more than to stick it to everyone by winning the national championship over FSU and he has the players to do it, as quarterback Braxton Miller and running back Carlos Hyde showed this season that they are two of the best players in college football. The BCS National Championship game is obviously after all the other bowl games, but it will be at the Rose Bowl this season and the matchup is set up to be a fantastic one, even with Alabama losing.
The Auburn Tigers have some beef at where they are in the rankings, but it's hard to argue for anyone that an undefeated team from one of the "big" conferences like Ohio State shouldn't be in the game over any one loss team, even one from the SEC. Having said that, Alabama and somebody should still be playing for this national championship, because they truly are the best team in the nation and the only way that would happen is if the Crimson Tide somehow were granted an Auburn-like Iron Bowl miracle. The Iron Bowl was a de facto playoff game for the SEC championship, as the SEC itself deserves to basically be a play-in for the national title, but that's for another day. The national title will be OSU and FSU if all holds and that leaves the other BCS bowls in the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl.
With Ohio State and Florida playing in the title game, that leaves an opening for Michigan State to get into a BCS bowl even if they lose the Big Ten title game, because the Spartans are far and away the second best in that conference anyway. The team could sneak into the Rose Bowl against Arizona State or Stanford, as that game likely will take the winner of the Pac-12 championship between the Cardinal and the Sun Devils. The Fiesta Bowl has the potential to be an interesting matchup and someone like Baylor or Oklahoma State should get into that game and possibly Northern Illinois. It would be a very interesting matchup to see the high powered offenses of Baylor and NIU against each other, especially with both quarterbacks in Bryce Petty and Jordan Lynch playing so well this season and putting up such great numbers.
