Would a Cougar victory this weekend be enough to overtake the Utes in the final BCS standings? That will be determined by the human polls and the computer polls. BYU's strength of schedule, which has been a liability in the computer polls, would be enhanced with a road win over Utah. But would the computers rank the Cougars ahead of the Utes, who boast victories over nationally ranked Oregon State and TCU?

Meanwhile, a Cougar win could send Utah to the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. Larry Baber, president of the Holiday Bowl committee, which oversees the game, told the Deseret News last weekend such a scenario is possible because he believes the Las Vegas Bowl would take BYU with the first pick it has of MWC teams. The Poinsettia Bowl has the second selection.

"Then we would get Utah," Baber said. "We'd be fine with that. How could we argue with an 11-1 team?"

The opponent could be a Western Athletic Conference team because the Pac-10 probably won't have enough bowl-eligible teams to meet its contractual obligation to the Poinsettia Bowl.

If BYU somehow breaks into the BCS, expect Utah to go to the Las Vegas Bowl.

Now, what if both the Cougars and Utes qualify for a BCS bid? Would the BCS take two non-BCS schools? The chances of that happening are improbable.

For two non-BCS schools to crash the BCS, both the Pac-10 and Big Ten would have to become one-bid conferences, along with the Big East and the ACC. That would mean losses by Oregon State and Ohio State and Michigan State.

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Contributing: Mike Sorensen and Dirk Facer

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com