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Ohio State remains 3rd in BCS standings, now with room to breathe

Ohio State's 3rd in the BCS standings once again, with their attentions now turned to That Team Up North.

Trevor Ruszkowksi-USA TODAY Spor

Ohio State fans felt the strain of the narrative du jour over the last several weeks. Whether it was a Stanford team .03 behind with many speculating that despite their one loss they should be ranked higher than the Buckeyes, or an upstart Baylor team with the kind of offense that made pundits nationwide take their case, OSU fan persecution complexes weren't exactly few and far between. That appears over.

In the wake of Baylor's disastrous road trip to Stillwater, the Buckeyes are in cruise control to at least finish in the 2013 BCS standings' Top 3, where they find themselves in the third spot once again for a third straight week. The margin between Ohio State and the next closest team, #4 Auburn, is .096. Though they'll still need either #1 Alabama or #2 Florida State to go down in order for them to play in the national championship, for the first time in a number of weeks, the Buckeyes don't have to worry about the teams behind them.

Even if Auburn or a team like Missouri wins big over Alabama and Ohio State has close calls against arch rival Michigan and two weeks from now's Big Ten Championship Game against Michigan State, BCS experts like CBS' Jerry Palm and ESPN's Brad Edwards believe Ohio State's stature with the computers and standing with the humans alike, even including some of the more cynical around the country, should be more than enough for the Buckeyes. Now we just wait and see how the next two weeks play out.

Here are the Week 13 BCS standings as a whole:

BCS Harris Poll USA Today Computer Rankings
RK TEAM AVG PVS RK PTS % RK PTS % AVG A&H RB CM KM JS PW %
1 Alabama .9881 1 1 2595 .9981 1 1544 .9961 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 .970
2 Florida State .9697 2 2 2494 .9592 2 1488 .9600 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 .990
3 Ohio State .9200 3 3 2389 .9188 3 1428 .9213 3 3 3 3 3 4 3 .920
4 Auburn .8236 6 5 2139 .8227 5 1268 .8181 4 5 7 4 5 8 4 .830
5 Missouri .8077 8 6 2109 .8112 6 1243 .8019 5 4 10 5 7 6 5 .810
6 Clemson .7726 7 4 2148 .8262 4 1289 .8316 10 12 4 9 10 14 7 .660
7 Oklahoma State .7615 10 7 2013 .7742 7 1225 .7903 8 7 5 10 14 5 10 .720
8 Stanford .6665 9 8 1759 .6765 10 981 .6329 9 8 8 7 8 11 12 .690
9 Baylor .6456 4 9 1679 .6458 8 1009 .6510 11 9 6 12 13 10 9 .640
10 South Carolina .6101 11 10 1620 .6231 9 1003 .6471 12 13 11 11 16 7 13 .560
11 Michigan State .5780 13 11 1595 .6135 11 962 .6206 14 14 15 13 9 13 14 .500
12 Arizona State .5052 17 16 976 .3754 18 574 .3703 6 6 13 6 4 9 6 .770
13 Oregon .4950 5 12 1284 .4938 12 777 .5013 15 11 12 15 12 17 16 .490
14 Northern Illinois .4620 16 17 936 .3600 20 459 .2961 7 10 9 8 6 3 8 .730
15 Wisconsin .4448 19 15 1035 .3981 14 661 .4265 13 17 14 16 11 12 11 .510
16 Fresno State .4124 15 13 1206 .4638 13 687 .4432 17 21 20 14 NR 15 15 .330
17 LSU .3737 22 14 1155 .4442 15 646 .4168 19 22 19 24 18 19 18 .260
18 Oklahoma .3380 20 19 856 .3292 17 581 .3748 18 15 17 18 21 18 20 .310
19 UCF .3364 18 20 855 .3288 19 512 .3303 16 19 16 17 23 16 17 .350
20 Louisville .2522 21 18 930 .3577 16 603 .3890 27 NR 18 25 NR NR NR .010
21 Texas A&M .2243 12 21 698 .2685 21 410 .2645 23 23 23 23 20 23 21 .140
22 UCLA .1921 14 22 391 .1504 22 257 .1658 19 18 21 21 15 20 19 .260
23 USC .1779 23 23 385 .1481 23 210 .1355 21 16 22 19 17 21 22 .250
24 Duke .0885 NR 24 298 .1146 24 203 .1310 26 24 NR 22 NR NR NR .020
25 Notre Dame .0674 NR 25 55 .0212 NR 17 .0110 22 20 NR 20 19 24 23 .170