Sports in brief: BCS standings stay the same

College football: After a weekend when all the national championship contenders stayed undefeated, the BCS standings were unchanged.

Florida was first, Alabama second and Texas third Sunday.

The Gators will play the Crimson Tide in the Southeastern Conference championship Saturday for one spot in the BCS national title game. The Longhorns can earn the other spot with a victory against Nebraska in the Big 12 title game.

The BCS bids go out Sunday.

Hoping for a Texas loss are fourth-place TCU, which finished its regular-season 12-0, and fifth-place Cincinnati (12-0), which can boost its ranking by beating Pittsburgh for the Big East championship.

Sixth-place Boise State (12-0) will be rooting for Texas. The Broncos play New Mexico State and likely need the Longhorns to win to ensure themselves an at-large BCS berth.

Florida, Alabama and Texas are a victory away from a date at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 7 with the national championship on the line.

If Texas losses at Cowboys Stadium to Nebraska, expect a furious debate about who should play in the national title game against the SEC champion.

TCU (.8689) and Cincinnati (.8547) are virtually tied in the standings. The Horned Frogs are ahead of the Bearcats in the two polls, but Cincinnati has a stronger computer rating.

Beating Pittsburgh could push the Bearcats past TCU and put them in position to take advantage of a Texas loss.

That is, unless the loser of the SEC championship game doesn’t stay ahead of the pack and set up a rematch between Florida and Alabama in Pasadena, Calif.

There has never been a regular-season rematch in the BCS title game nor a matchup of teams in the same conference.

Complete standings in Scoreboard, B5

Associated Press

Cougars make NCAA field

Volleyball: Washington State’s volleyball team received an at-large bid to the NCAA volleyball championship.

The Cougars (18-12, 6-12 Pac-10) will face Northern Iowa (30-2) in the first round Friday at 2:30 p.m. in Lincoln, Nebraska.

This is the 10th trip to the NCAA Tournament for WSU and the first since 2002. It’s also the first tournament berth under second-year coach Andrew Palileo.

The Cougars are one of eight Pac-10 teams in the tournament. Stanford, Washington, UCLA, California, USC, Oregon and Arizona are the others.

If WSU beats Northern Iowa, it will face the winner between Nebraska (23-6) and Coastal Carolina (20-13) in the second round.