Texas' BCS title game hopes are still rather remote, given the number of things that must happen which Texas has no control over. Louisville must lose. Florida can't run the table. And so on.
Texas doesn't have a Tesla machine to help it attain its goals.
Because of that, at least one writer has wondered aloud whether Texas has a better shot at a share of a split national title, via the Associated Press, than a BCS title. It's not a likely scenario, certainly, but neither is playing in the BCS Title Game right now.
What separates the two remote possibilities is that Texas might control its destiny in the AP scenario more than the BCS one. Imagine, for example, that Texas runs roughshod over Kansas State, Texas A&M, and Nebraska (Big 12 title game) to close out its season. Meanwhile, a one-loss Florida team earns a trip to Glendale to face a suddenly shaky - but undefeated - Ohio State team. The Gators win an ugly BCS snoozer 9-7, while Texas trounces Auburn in the Fiesta Bowl by 30 points.
Who do the writers vote #1 in their end-of-year ballots? Some might choose Texas. Maybe even a majority! Suddenly your Texas Longhorns have pulled a USC and...
Okay, let's all calm down. That's not any more likely to happen than a BCS Title Game berth is. In fact, the more you think it through, the above scenario is significantly less likely to unfold. Whereas Texas could slip into the BCS Title Game under a number of scenarios (some quite plausible, some remote), an Associated Press split national title would require things to unfold just so. Among them:
*Ohio State or Michigan limping into the title game.
*Boise State not earning a Fiesta Bowl berth
*Louisville losing
*Louisville's replacement not impressing human voters sufficiently
*A total goose egg of a title game
That's a lot of things that gotta happen, in tandem, for the 'Horns to even be considered as AP national champs. Best to root for Louisville to drop one and some chaos in the SEC.
--PB--