Mulling over some BCS possibilities

After another exciting Saturday of college football, we're getting closer to figuring out the BCS matchups, although there are still numerous possibilities out there.

Thanks to Oregon State's devastating loss to Oregon Saturday night, Utah's chances for a repeat appearance in the Fiesta Bowl have gone up considerably. But not to the point where you can start making plans for Arizona on Jan. 5.

If the Beavers had won, they would have been Rose Bowl-bound to play Penn State with USC almost certainly headed to the Fiesta Bowl to play a Big 12 team, most likely Texas. However, now USC has the inside track for the Rose Bowl if it can defeat lowly UCLA this week, which shouldn't be too difficult.

So the Fiesta Bowl choices will come down to Utah, Ohio State, Cincinnati or Boise State.

First let's eliminate Cincinnati, which just clinched its first Big East title. The Bearcats are only ranked 13th and have less football tradition than the others. They should be headed to the Orange Bowl to play the Virginia Tech-Boston College winner in what looks to be one of the bowl season's biggest stinkers.

Boise State won't be picked ahead of Utah if it ends up ranked behind Utah in the final BCS standings, which shouldn't change much from yesterday's standings, which put Utah No. 6 and Boise State No. 9.

That leaves Ohio State, which was blown out in the National Championship games by SEC schools the past two years. For that reason alone, you wonder why a bowl would take a chance on the Buckeyes, who also have two losses this year.

However, Ohio State has done very well in the Fiesta Bowl, winning in 2006, 2004 and in 2003, which gave them the national title with its upset win over Miami.

But wait. There's another intriguing possibility.

How about the Utes and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl?

Fiesta Bowl President John Junker was quoted in the New York Post last week as "mulling" the possibility of the matchup of the two undefeated non-BCS teams. This was even before USC was taken away as a possible Fiesta Bowl participant.

The Fiesta Bowl has an agreement with the Big 12 Conference, but with Oklahoma likely headed to the Championship game, the Fiesta Bowl would be able to take two at-large teams.

Why would the Fiesta Bowl even consider such a matchup as Utah and Boise State?

• It would match two of the four unbeaten teams in the country and what could be three unbeatens if Alabama loses in the SEC title game.

• It would match two of the past four Fiesta Bowl winners.

• The fan bases are both in relative close proximity and would surely fill all of the seats.