It's been fun, Cam Newton, but ...

Two years ago, a trio of undefeated teams sat atop the Week 10 BCS standings: the Texas Longhorns were No. 1, the Alabama Crimson Tide were No. 2 and the Penn State Nittany Lions were No. 3. The two teams that ultimately played for the BCS title that year were sitting at No. 4 (Oklahoma Sooners) and No. 9 (Florida Gators) as November began.

No college football fan needs a lecture on how quickly things can change from one week to the next. The fact that "every week counts" in college football is a big part of what makes the sport so popular, and any one game can send the nation's top teams flipping through the BCS' automatic card shuffler.

But it is important to remember that as enamored as we might be with a team like the Auburn Tigers (not that we're picking on the Tigers already; there will be plenty of time for that later), it's not until the end of the season when we'll have a true sense of which teams were the best in college football that season.

The Eliminator can give us a decent guess, however, showing us how well this year's contenders match up with the statistical profiles of BCS and conference champions of the past six seasons. (For a more in-depth explanation of our methods, check out our first two posts here and here).

We go conference by conference, and the BCS race is near the bottom of this entry. Get down there, though: You'll learn that only three teams are meeting all six requirements for a national champion, while five other teams have only one category holding them back.

For the full breakdown, you need to be an ESPN Insider.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Email
• Subscribe