Ask Brian Barnhart about his BCS lineup in his Thursday chat

Bob's bowl forecast

The BCS pairings will be announced in December. Each Thursday between now and then, News-Gazette college football writer Bob Asmussen will speculate about the pairings. His guesses:

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP

Florida vs. Boise State

This happens only if Tim Tebow returns to the field in a hurry, maybe even in time for next week's game against LSU. Without Tebow, the Gators are very good. But he puts the team over the top, not only with his talents, but with his leadership. He's got spunk. Boise State can thank last year's Utah team for giving it a shot at the title. The Utes should have been playing Florida, so the voters won't mess it up again.

ROSE BOWL

California vs. Ohio State

Just a hunch that last week's meltdown at Oregon was more of a blip for the Bears than a trend. Here's a guess that Cal knocks off Southern Cal on Saturday night and wins the rest of its Pac-10 games. The Buckeyes want to get back into the national title hunt, but won't jump undefeated teams. Still, a winnable game in Pasadena isn't a bad consolation prize for Ohio State. The fans will still boo Jim Tressel.

SUGAR BOWL

Alabama vs. Iowa

Poor, poor Nick Saban. Once again, his team will have a perfect regular season. And once again, it will get knocked out of the BCS title game by Florida. And this, of course, will lead Saban to start looking around for another job. Maybe back to the NFL. Or Notre Dame. The Hawkeyes finish the regular season 11-1, but the loss at Ohio State in November will keep them out of both the BCS title game and the Rose Bowl.

FIESTA BOWL

Oklahoma vs. Cincinnati

Sam Bradford will be back in time to lead the Sooners to a win against Texas. And Oklahoma will bounce whoever represents the North in the Big 12 title game. But the early loss to BYU, which since suffered a home blowout loss to Florida State, makes it almost impossible for the Sooners to climb back to the top. The Bearcats are on their way to a second consecutive BCS game. To avoid an Orange Bowl rematch, they will go west. With smiles on their faces.

ORANGE BOWL

Virginia Tech vs. Texas

You have to give the Hokies a lot of credit for not panicking after the opening loss to Alabama. Give all the credit to Frank Beamer, maybe the most underrated coach in college football. Mack Brown was hoping for a national title, but he'll have to settle for another BCS game. With Colt McCoy finally in his last season, it will be interesting to see how good the Longhorns are in 2010. A guess: very.