Yesterday’s Bowl Championship Standings release saw LSU move into the coveted second position behind no. 1 Ohio State, but this topsy-turvy college football season is far from decided.

For the moment, LSU’s win at Alabama in the Nick Saban Bowl has propelled the Tigers into the second spot vacated by Boston College, which was beaten at home by Florida State Saturday night.

Oregon, which offered one of the weekend’s most impressive victories by handling previously unbeaten Arizona State at home in a rare national-TV game, sits just behind LSU in third. Kansas, the only other undefeated team from a BCS conference, sits fourth, while Oklahoma rounds out the top five. No. 1 Ohio State, winners of 28 consecutive regular-season games, will surely play for the BCS title on January 7 should they win their final two games against Illinois and at Michigan. But there is much to be determined during the season’s final four Saturdays. Can Oregon catch LSU? What about Kansas? Can any of the other one-loss teams play their way back into position to reach the January 7 national-title game in New Orleans? The temptation is to assume that LSU will qualify for the championship game should it win its remaining contests, but it’s not that simple. Because the Tigers’ remaining schedule — Louisiana Tech, at Ole Miss, Arkansas, and the SEC Championship Game — is relatively weak, LSU won’t get a strength-of-schedule boost from the computers that account for one-third of the BCS formula. Still, the Tigers will play at least twice more, and possibly three times, in nationally televised games on CBS, which never hurts with the human voters — provided LSU looks impressive.

Like LSU, Oregon has already faced the heart of its schedule. The Ducks have games remaining at Arizona and UCLA and home against Oregon State, but they will be hurt by the fact that the Pac-10 does not play a conference title game.

Perhaps even more damaging to the Ducks’ chances is the Pac-10’s overall lack of exposure. While the likes of Ohio State and LSU play on CBS, ABC, or ESPN virtually every week, the Ducks have been seen nationwide on one of those networks just twice — although two or three of their final four games will be shown on either ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2.

The reason national exposure matters is because of the importance of the human polls. They make up two-thirds of the BCS formula and the reality is that many of the voters see few games other than those shown nationally.

Comparing Oregon and LSU can be an exercise in futility. Each team has a single loss: Oregon at home to Cal and LSU on the road at Kentucky.

Oregon’s loss came by seven points to a team that was ranked sixth at the time, and the Ducks fumbled the ball through the Cal end zone for a touchback in the game’s final minute, squandering a chance to send the contest to overtime. It was in triple overtime that LSU fell to then-no. 17 Kentucky when the Tigers failed to convert on a fourth down. Since their big wins, both Cal and Kentucky have fallen from the rankings.

Both play in top conferences. The best of the Pac-10, with Oregon, surprising Arizona State, and talented but inconsistent USC, may be better than the best of the SEC — which features LSU, then a pretty significant drop-off to the likes of Auburn, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee. Whatever the SEC lacks at the top end, it makes up for in depth. There is no conference with as many teams that could beat anyone else in the league as the SEC.

Oregon has beaten three teams that were ranked at the time they played, and all three were in the top 10: Cal, USC, and now Arizona State. LSU has six wins over ranked foes, including two from the top 10. The current state of affairs is kinder to Oregon. Cal has dropped from the rankings, but Oregon’s 39–7 road stomping of then-unranked Michigan looks more impressive now that the Wolverines have won eight straight games to move to no. 12 in the BCS.

For LSU, wins over then-ranked South Carolina and Alabama are less noteworthy now that those teams have combined for seven defeats. Florida, another victim of LSU’s, has also lost three times overall.

Still, while the debate over Oregon and LSU rages, it could be another team that has the best opportunity to swoop in and reach the title game: fourth-ranked Kansas. The Jayhawks began the season on nobody’s radar but have raced to a 9-0 start that includes Saturday’s 76–39 thumping of Nebraska. The Cornhuskers may be awful, but that’s the kind of score that gets noticed. Plus, Kansas has the best remaining schedule, as it includes two potential games against top-10 teams: the regular-season finale against Missouri, presumably for the Big 12 North title, and then the Big 12 championship game, likely against Oklahoma. Win both those games in impressive fashion, and the Jayhawks could stun everyone by getting to no. 2 in the BCS.

“I believe that if [Kansas] actually gets to 13-0, it will move up to at least no. 2 in the polls,” BCS expert Jerry Palm posted on his Web site yesterday. “The Jayhawks might even be a strong no. 2.

“So, I feel that if anyone controls its own destiny for the title game, it would be Kansas,” wrote Palm, before adding that the human voters still need to lift the Jayhawks above those teams in front of them because of the importance of the polls.

Could long-time doormat Kansas actually play for a national title? In a season with more twists and turns than a Six Flags ride, it might even be an appropriate outcome.

Mr. Levine is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.