Illini must wait for wild BCS picture to unfold
Though it will have been 15 days since its last game, Illinois' battle for a Bowl Championship Series berth could go down to the season's final snap.
Sometime around 2 a.m. Sunday in a game broadcast on ESPN2 to a keenly interested mainland, Washington and Hawaii will wrap up the 2007 regular season in Honolulu.
Until the Huskies and the Warriors finish their business, the Illini and a handful of other borderline BCS teams can't figure out their postseason fate.
But that's just one of eight games with a potential effect on the final BCS pairings that will be unveiled at 7 p.m. Sunday.
Illinois, which shows up at No. 15 in the updated BCS standings, needs to jump at least one spot in order to have a chance.
It's not too difficult to imagine the Illini playing in the Rose Bowl -- and it's not too difficult to project them out of the BCS altogether and "settling" for an invitation from the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Fla.
Here's what it would take for Illinois to have a legitimate chance to go to Pasadena:
Step 1: Either Oklahoma beats No. 1 Missouri or Pittsburgh shocks No. 2 West Virginia, which enables No. 3 Ohio State to move into the BCS title game.
Step 2: Either Washington upsets No. 12 Hawaii, Arizona upsets No. 13 Arizona State or No. 7 LSU beats No. 14 Tennessee.
If the favorites win every game Saturday -- oddsmakers installed Oklahoma as a 3-point favorite and LSU as a 7½-point favorite -- here's how the BCS pairings could look.
Title game: No. 1 West Virginia vs. No. 2 Ohio State
Orange Bowl: ACC champ Virginia Tech vs. at-large Missouri
Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 champ Oklahoma vs. at-large Georgia
Rose Bowl: Pac-10 champ USC vs. at-large Illinois
Sugar Bowl: SEC champ LSU vs. at-large Hawaii
This scenario presumes the Rose Bowl, which would have the first pick of the at-large teams, chooses to uphold its 60-year relationship with the Big Ten over a higher-ranked at-large possibility such as No. 4 Georgia.
It also presumes a 9-3 Illinois team would be more attractive than a 10-2 Arizona State team, and that Boston College doesn't upset Virginia Tech with the Hokies staying high enough in the BCS standings to warrant the ACC getting two spots.
Got all that?
Now clear your brain and focus for a moment on all of the teams still alive for the BCS title game.
We won't go through all of the scenarios, but if both Missouri and West Virginia go down Saturday, there are at least four teams (Georgia, Virginia Tech, LSU, USC) that remain mathematically alive in the fight to face Ohio State for the national championship.
Crazy, huh?
Regardless of what happens Saturday, this will be the first time since 2003 there won't be at least one unbeaten team in the title game.
lwillhite@dailyherald.com