Bedlam football: Who to cheer for this weekend

I got an email from an OU fan Monday night. He had a theory. The Sooners remain in the national championship race.

He said if Notre Dame beats Stanford (not a crazy idea), Auburn beats Alabama (quite a longshot) and Virginia beats Virginia Tech (I think it might happen), then the Sooners are right back in it. Well, I don’t think so. I don’t know if Arkansas and Alabama would fall below OU in the BCS, so we’d be right back to where the Sooners need a Bedlam victory and help from the voters to vault back ahead.

Plus there are the issues of Boise State and Houston, which rank 7-8, ahead of OU. Boise State is ineligible for the BCS unless it wins the Mountain West Conference, but I assume that provision is trumped if the Broncos finish first or second. The Sooners probably would jump over Boise State, but I don’t think the Sooners would jump Houston.

So add another game to the list. If Notre Dame beats Stanford, Auburn beats Alabama, Virginia beats Virginia Tech AND Tulsa or the Conference USA East Division champ beats Houston, and the Sooners win Bedlam, then I suppose it would be at least interesting to check out the final BCS rankings. I’d still figure Alabama would make it.

But since we’re seeing living in dreamland, let’s just go this far. If Auburn beats Alabama, then the other games don’t matter for OSU. If Auburn beats Alabama, the Cowboys figure to be No. 2 in next week’s BCS. That’s a mighty big if, it’s not the litany of unlikely occurrences that the OU scenario has. It would be good for OSU if LSU went ahead and beat Arkansas. A Razorback win would probably put Arkansas into the top two, especially if Alabama loses. So let’s add that one. OSU needs LSU and Auburn to win.

I don’t know if Stanford beating Notre Dame and/or Virginia Tech beating Virginia would give those teams any kind of momentum to jump OSU. I doubt it. The pollsters already have OSU behind Stanford and VPI. It’s the computers who bolster OSU.

So there you have it. Crystal clear.

OSU fans, cheer for Auburn and LSU.

OU fans, cheer for Auburn, LSU, Notre Dame, Virginia and Tulsa. Heck, probably wouldn’t hurt to cheer for Oregon (vs. No. 10 Oregon State). And it wouldn’t hurt to cheer for the Sooners, too. They do need to beat Iowa State.