As undefeateds fall, blemished teams get a chance.(College Football)

The national championship picture has not been this clear this early since the BCS began in 1998. Every other year, there have been at least six undefeated BCS teams at this point. This season, there are just three--Oklahoma, Miami and Virginia Tech--each of which controls its own Sugar Bowl destiny. Waiting in the wings, however, are 17 major-conference schools with one loss, all hoping for a chance in the event a spot in the title game opens up for one of them.

Because of their poll rankings, the three one-loss teams in the best position for such an opportunity are Georgia, USC and Washington State. But Florida State and Ohio State, though they lost Saturday, cannot be written off because they have the strongest schedules of the major-conference one-loss contenders; also, FSU and OSU fell only to No. 7 and No. 8, respectively, in the major polls.

Poll position is key because every one-spot move in a poll is worth a half of a BCS point. By comparison, a one-spot move in a computer ranking is worth just 0.16 points. Now, as we saw in 2000 and '01, poll position can be overruled by the computers, but it isn't easy. The more one-loss teams there are at the end of the year, the more likely that ...