Could Kent State crash the Orange Bowl?

There were no surprises atop the BCS rankings released on Sunday. Notre Dame is safely entrenched at No. 1, and will play the winner of this weekend’s game between No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia for the national title. But further down the BCS rankings there lies a far more interesting story — the possibility of Kent State in the Orange Bowl. Yes, Kent State. Not bad for a team that started the year off by doing this. The Golden Flashes check in at No. 17 in this week’s rankings with next weekend’s MAC Championship Game against fellow 11-1 Northern Illinois to go. This is significant because if any team from a non-automatic qualifying conference finishes the season in the Top 16 and is ranked ahead of the winner of an automatic qualifier, it receives a BCS bid. With no team in the Big East even ranked in the Top 25 — and the league somehow still receiving an AQ berth — Kent State would find itself Orange Bowl-bound if it can move up one more spot in the rankings next week. It could...