All the Houston Cougars had to do was beat the Southern Miss. Golden Eagles in the Conference USA championship game to earn their first ever BCS bowl bid. However, Southern Miss was able to defeat Houston 49-28 which caused Houston to lose the automatic bid from the non-automatic qualifying leagues by failing to win their conference.
Houston is still eligible to be taken as an at-large spot since their projected BCS ranking is No. 14, but the chances of Houston being selected as an at-large team is unlikely to happen. This loss not only drops Houston from a possible Sugar Bowl bid, but they likely will fall all the way down to the Ticket City Bowl to face a mid-level Big 10 team.
Projected Week 15 BCS Standings:
1. LSU
2. Oklahoma State
3. Alabama
4. Stanford
5. Oregon
6. Boise State
7. Arkansas
8. Kansas State
9. South Carolina
10. Wisconsin
11. Baylor
12. Virginia Tech
13. Michigan
14. Houston
15. Oklahoma
16. Michigan State
17. Clemson
18. TCU
19. Georgia
20. Nebraska