BCS Bowl Predictions: State Of The 2010 Conference Races

Here’s how the six major conference races are shaking out heading into Week 14 of the college football season, and what that might mean for the various 2010 bowl selections:
ACC: Florida State and Virginia Tech face off tonight in Charlotte for the conference title. At stake is an Orange Bowl invitation for the winner and a likely fall to the Chick-fil-A Bowl for the loser.
Big 12: Also in late Saturday action will be Oklahoma and Nebraska, vying for the last Big 12 crown in the conference’s current form. The winner gets a free pass to the Fiesta Bowl; the loser could land as highly as the Alamo Bowl or as lowly as the Insight.
Big East: Still a hot mess, surprising absolutely no one. Stay with us here: If UConn beats USF, the Huskies win the conference. If UConn loses and West Virginia beats Rutgers, the ‘Eers will likely snag an Orange Bowl bid. If both teams lose but Pitt beats Cincinnati, the Panthers are in. If all three lose, the tiebreaker reverts to UConn. All this for what will likely be the most horrid major bowl matchup of 2010.Big Ten: BCS standings serve as the tiebreaker for the three one-loss teams atop the conference, but regular-season play is through for all of them. Look for Wisconsin and Ohio State to end up in the Rose and Sugar Bowls, respectively, barring upsets of Auburn and Oregon this afternoon.
Pac-10: Oregon will finish as the conference champ regardless of today’s Civil War outcome, and are a virtual lock for the national title game if they handle Oregon State well. The fourth-ranked Stanford would likely receive a Fiesta Bowl invitation in this scenario, with the Rose Bowl selecting TCU.
SEC: Auburn is heavily favored in this afternoon’s conference championship game against South Carolina, A win would as good as hand them a national title slot.