Elite Eight For Oregon State

Oregon State 's 42-24 victory in Provo on Saturday was enough to jump up two spots in this week's AP Poll.

Losses by South Carolina and West Virginia opened up some space, although many were surprised the two-point Gamecock loss, one that was suffered on the road at the hands of the #9 team in the nation, dropped South Carolina down six spots. Oregon State 's 21-3 thrashing of the Cougars in the fourth quarter might have had something to do with it, making a close game appear to be a Beaver blowout.

It's Oregon State 's highest AP ranking since the final poll of the 2000 season.

None of this is as important, of course, as the BCS Standings, which will come out tonight at 5:30 PM Pacific time. Those will determine Oregon State 's standing in the race for a BCS Bowl. While the AP is not used in the complicated BCS formula, the Coaches' and Jeff Sagrarin's computer rankings are. The Beavers are ranked 11th and 8th, respectively, in those two polls.

UPDATE: Oregon St. is also ranked #8 in the first BCS Ranking.

Alabama remains atop all of the polls, with Oregon coming in second in the AP and Coaches, and seventh in the computers.

The Pac-12 grid shakes out like this, with the AP rank coming first, coaches second, and computers third:

Oregon: 2, 2, 7
Oregon State : 8, 11, 8
USC: 11, 9, 11
Stanford: 22, 23, 17
Arizona State : 26, 24, NR
Washington: 32, NR, NR
Arizona: 37, NR, NR
UCLA: NR, 40, NR

Oregon is in a situation where the only way they'll move up is with an Alabama loss, but they would certainly drop out of the Top 10 with a loss to Arizona State on Thursday night. That would mean the Sun Devils and first-year coach Todd Graham would have a 6-1 record, meaning at least a Top 20 ranking come next Sunday.

Boise State is the only other western team that is ranked. The Broncos held steady at #24 after holding off Fresno State for a 20-10 win.

Go Beavs!