Missouri climbs to No. 1 in BCS standings

NEW YORK -- Missouri and West Virginia have one more step to take before bumping into each other in New Orleans.

The Tigers and Mountaineers hold the top two spots in the Bowl Championship Series standings released Sunday with a week left in a topsy-turvy regular season.

The Tigers play Oklahoma (10-2) in the Big 12 championship game at San Antonio on Saturday and the Mountaineers face rival Pittsburgh (4-7) at home. If both win, it'll be Missouri-West Virginia in a most unlikely BCS championship game Jan. 7.

If either Missouri (11-1) or West Virginia (10-1) trip up this week, third-place Ohio State (11-1) is poised to take advantage and play in its second straight title game.

If the Tigers and Mountaineers both lose, the national title picture gets murky.

Georgia was in fourth place in the standings and Kansas (11-1) was fifth. Neither will play in their conference title games, but both still have a shot to play for a national championship.

The Bulldogs (10-2) could become the first team with two losses to play for a national title and several other two-loss teams could make a claim to be in the championship game if the top two lose for a second consecutive week.

Sixth-place Virginia Tech (10-2), seventh-place LSU (10-2), eighth-place Southern California (9-2) and ninth-place Oklahoma all have one last opportunity to surge up the BCS standings Saturday.

The Buckeyes season ended Nov. 17 with a victory over Michigan that made them the Big Ten champions. The week before, Ohio State was No. 1 in the country when it lost to Illinois.

at home and seemingly fell out of the title race.