1. <span class="bold">Kansas State</span></p><p>Cats fans, how does that look and feel?</p><p>The BCS standings released Sunday find the Wildcats on top of the college football list that matters the most, the one that determines who plays in the national championship game.</p><p>In this case, three second places added up to a first.</p><p>Kansas State is behind Oregon in the Harris and USA Today coaches polls that make up the BCS. The Wildcats are second to Notre Dame in the computer poll average. All of that means the Wildcats, for the first time, top the BCS standings.</p><p>The jump was inevitable after the stunning loss of top-ranked Alabama to Texas A&M on Saturday at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Of the three remaining undefeated teams, Kansas State picked up the best victory because of the quality of opponent, TCU. The BCS order had each team marching one step ahead, Oregon into second and Notre Dame to third.</p><p>Those three teams will compete for space on the two sidelines at Sun Life Stadium in Miami on Jan. 7, 2013.</p><p>BCS experts project an Oregon-Kansas State final if they win out, and that would agree with the majority of opinions based on the voting. There&#x92;s no way Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly would have believed he could find his Irish team in the same predicament as his 2009 Cincinnati squad &#x97; undefeated in the regular season but not in the national championship game. That can happen to a Big East team, but not Notre Dame.</p><p>But that could be reality, and it&#x92;s why many think the four-team playoff, set to replace the current structure for the 2014 regular season, can&#x92;t arrive fast enough.</p><p>The SEC also feels that way.</p><p>The game&#x92;s best conference is once again strong in the BCS standings, with six teams in the top nine. But with none in the top three, the SEC &#x97; the conference that has dominated college football by winning six straight national championships and had two teams in last year&#x92;s final &#x97; is on the outside looking in.</p><p>What&#x92;s happened in the SEC is what has been feared for some time, that the conference is so powerful only a lucky few have gotten through unblemished. Tide coach Nick Saban reminded everybody Saturday night that two of his three national title teams, including one at LSU, owned a loss. Same was true for both of Florida&#x92;s title teams.</p><p>It&#x92;s why Saban was dead on when he said his team lacked no incentive to win out. Beat Auburn in two weeks, then take down Georgia in the SEC title game, and who knows what may be available? Heck, in 2007, LSU jumped from No. 7 in the BCS to No. 2 in the final week to land in the championship game.</p><p>For that to happen, two of the three undefeated teams have to lose. The Ducks have the most difficult path, with a finishing stretch of Stanford at home, at Oregon State and the Pac-12 championship game in Eugene.</p><p>Kansas State visits Baylor on Saturday and takes a week off before finishing at home against Texas.</p><p>Notre Dame will be done in two weeks after a home game against Wake Forest and a trip to Southern California.</p><p>From where the teams stand today and the remaining tasks, get used to the idea of the championship game that was once on each other&#x92;s schedule: Oregon vs. Kansas State.