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

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: