BCS dreams live at U.

We're less than a month into the college football season, but already BCS Bowl talk is buzzing in Salt Lake City, just as it did in New Orleans in 1998, Huntington, W.Va., in 1999, Fresno and Provo in 2001 and in Fort Worth in 2000 and last year.

That's what three convincing victories and a seemingly soft remaining schedule will do to the expectations of long-suffering Ute football fans.

While a BCS bowl is still a long shot and a long way off, the Utes are sitting in better shape than Tulane in 1998, Marshall in 1999, BYU in 2001, TCU in 2000 and 2003 and all but one non-BCS team at this point of the season. Only Fresno State in 2001 had a higher ranking at this point of the season, but the Bulldogs faded with back-to-back midseason losses and finished the season out of the rankings.

This week the Utes are ranked No. 14 in both major polls, which is not only the best of any non-BCS team this year, it's more significant than ever this year.

That's because the Bowl Championship Series changed its method of ranking the top collegiate teams earlier this year, placing more emphasis on polls and none on strength of schedule in an effort to avoid last year's fiasco when college football finished with two No. 1 teams.

That's only good news for Utah and other non-BCS schools such as Boise State, Fresno State and Louisville, which are already in the Top 25 and don't play any big-name opponents the rest of the year.

The requirements for a non-BCS team (teams outside of the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, PAC-10 and SEC) to get into one of the four major bowls remains the same. A top-6 finish in the BCS standings will guarantee a spot in one of the four major bowls (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta), while a top-12 finish, gives a non-BCS team the opportunity to be chosen for one of two at-large berths.

Last spring, the BCS tweaked its convoluted system of determining its bowl participants, which included poll average, computer ranking average, schedule strength, loss record and quality wins.

The new criteria puts two-thirds of the determination on humans, the AP and ESPN/USA Today (coaches) polls, with the other third based on an average of six selected computer rankings.

"I think the BCS system is flawed, but I do believe if someone is deserving, there's a better chance than there's ever been of someone making (a BCS bowl game)," said Utah coach Urban Meyer earlier this week.