While the clear dominance of Alabama in every possible college football ranking system, the big change in the second edition of the BCS Standings in the 2013 season is Oregon leapfrogging Florida State to the number two spot thanks to a win the computers loved over UCLA, while three new teams – Michigan, Notre Dame and Wisconsin make it into the top 25.

Right now, the national title case seems to be Alabama and who else. Right now, without any losses, it looks like Oregon will have the edge over Florida State and Ohio State, who need a loss for both teams ahead of them in order to find themselves in the top 2. Stanford, who are facing Oregon next, moved up one spot to number 5, and are the highest ranked one-loss team at the moment.

The other interesting factor to watch are the non-AQ teams of Northern Illinois (moving up a spot to 17th) and Fresno State (moving up a spot to 16th). If an AQ-conference champion is 16th or lower, one of these teams will be guaranteed a BCS spot as long as they’re in the top 16. If one of them ends up being in the top 12, and remaining undefeated until the end of the season just might do the trick, they’ll be guaranteed a spot anyway. This will hurt the chances of teams like Clemson and Notre Dame finding themselves in a BCS game thanks to an at-large spot.

Florida State do have Miami (7th) and Florida left to play, but if both they and the Ducks remain undefeated until the end of the season, it’s hard seeing the Seminoles making it above the third spot. Their schedule is slightly easier in the eyes of the computers, and the pollsters have shown more than once they simply prefer Oregon in the championship game playing Alabama than anyone else, despite some thinking the Seminoles might be a better match.

The chances of Alabama and Oregon not making it? The last time that the no.1 and no.2 teams in the second edition of the BCS standings didn’t make the national champions game was in 2008. Four times, however, teams ranked no.1 and no.2 at this stage have gone on to face each other in the BCS championship game: USC vs Oklahoma in 2004, USC vs Texas in 2005 and LSU vs Alabama in 2011.

As for Alabama’s dominance? They’ve now been ranked No. 4 or higher for 18 consecutive weeks. For Baylor, Fresno State and Central Florida, these are the highest rankings ever.

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