Did you know that Oregon State is a half game behind the USC Trojans in the Pac 10?  Probably not, since the Pac 10 is (probably correctly) viewed as USC and the Little Nine this year.  Well, not only are the Beavers a half game back, but they control their own destiny in the Pac 10.  Due to their upset of the Trojans this year in Corvallis, Oregon State holds the tiebreaker over USC and would lay claim to "Pac 10 Champs" and a BCS bid if they win out.

Oregon State probably isn't viewed as legitimate BCS worthy team right now and for good reason.  The Beavers opened up with an embarrassing 36-28 loss to Stanford.  Worse yet, the loss could end up costing them the Pac 10 championship.  The next week didn't get any better for the Beavers.  They traveled across the nation to Happy Valley and got destroyed by the Fightin' Joe Pa's on national television.  Oregon State regained some respectability the next week by demoralizing Hawai'i to a tune of a 45-7 victory.  After that, the Beavers pulled off their upset magic and defeated the visiting Trojans.  The next week, Oregon State lost to fellow potential BCS buster, Utah, by a field goal.

Since the Utah loss, Oregon State has taken off winning 4 consecutive games.  The Beavers have averaged over 40 point per game in this stretch, which now has them in control of their BCS destiny.  However, the next three games will not be any gimmes.  The Beavers host #21 California this week, who fought step for step with USC this past weekend.  If the Beavers survive, their next test will be traveling to face the Arizona Wildcats, who are also 6-3.  Arizona has been good enough to beat Cal this year and stay within a touchdown of USC, but also bad enough to lose to New Mexico.  More than likely, that game will be decided by which Wildcat team decides to show up.  If Oregon State makes it through those two tests, they will face bitter rival Oregon with a chance to clinch the Pac 10.  Oregon is sitting at 7-3 (5-2), so they are more than capable of beating the Beavers and will certainly have the motivation to do so if the Pac 10 title is on the line for Oregon State.

So what are the odds that Oregon State ends up winning the Pac 10?  To me, they are not very good, but there's still a chance of it.  Oregon State is still only a 6-3 team, but they've been impressive the past few weeks.  Of course, two of those games were against Washington and Washington State, so maybe they aren't games worth reading into.  My guess is that Oregon State defeats Cal and Arizona but loses to Oregon to blow the Pac 10 title.  That would mean that the season opening loss to a Stanford team that will likely finish the season at 5-7 will have cost the Oregon State Beavers the opportunity to crash into the BCS party.  Maybe next year, Pac 10 teams will learn not to look past that Stanford bunch.