The Tide’s Up Next on the List

NEW YORK — Alabama, by virtue of Miami’s upset of Virginia Tech, is now on deck.

The unbeaten Crimson Tide moved into third place -- slightly ahead of the Hurricanes -- in the bowl championship series standings Monday, putting the Southeastern Conference team in position to play for a national title if No. 1 USC or No. 2 Texas stumbles.

But if the Trojans and Longhorns don’t lose, they would meet in college football’s championship Jan. 4 at the Rose Bowl.

USC raised its BCS average to .9802 this week and kept its lead on Texas (.9765). So, for the first time in the BCS’ eight-year history, the same teams have had the top two spots through the first four standings. USC has been in first for three weeks and Texas one. Both are well ahead of Alabama, which had a BCS average of .8814, leaving it barely ahead of Miami (.8805).

The Hurricanes (7-1) defeated previously unbeaten Virginia Tech, 27-7, Saturday to make it possible for both them and the Tide to move up two spots this week. The Hokies had been in third place in the BCS standings.

UCLA, which had been No. 5 last week, dropped to No. 15 after its 52-14 loss to Arizona last weekend.

Penn State is fifth, followed by Virginia Tech, Louisiana State, Ohio State, Georgia and Oregon. Like Miami, each of those teams has at least one loss. No team with one loss has been ranked lower than fourth at this point in the season and played in the BCS title game.

Notre Dame (6-2) moved up three spots to 11th, meaning the Fighting Irish are in place to become BCS-eligible by winning their final three games. Notre Dame needs at least nine regular-season wins and a final BCS ranking in the top 12 to be eligible for selection by one of college football’s four big-dollar bowl games.

Alabama is facing a difficult stretch run. The Tide plays host to LSU this Saturday and travels to Auburn on Nov. 19. If Alabama wins those, it would play in the SEC title game, probably against Georgia or Florida. But, even winning the rest of their games, the Tide would be a longshot to catch USC or Texas if those two remain undefeated.

“Any time you go undefeated in the SEC and then have to play the SEC championship game on top of that, you’d kind of like to think that’s enough,” Tide quarterback Brodie Croyle said. “All we can do is handle our own business.”