BCS really goes high Tech

Graham Harrell found Michael Crabtree on a 28-yard touchdown pass with one second left -- “I dreamed it!” Crabtree screamed afterward.

No. 6 Texas Tech upset No. 1 Texas, 39-33, and “that’ll be the day” in Lubbock became Saturday. All of a sudden:

-- Alabama could become No. 1, at least for a week . . . or will Texas Tech rise above all?

-- Penn State Coach Joe Paterno got a little more hop in his hip.

-- Oklahoma, USC, Florida and Oklahoma State all got their one-loss national title hopes raised.

And one-loss Texas is still in it too!

Mark it down, Nov. 1, the day when the 2008 season got cranked up.

A Texas win would have probably settled one of two Bowl Championship Series spots if you believed the Longhorns, after beating four top-11 teams in as many weeks, would have not lost again against a schedule in which they would have been favorites in every game.

But now, as for those national title cards, Texas doesn’t hold ‘em.

Alabama and Penn State could play for the national title for the first time since the schools met in an epic 1979 Sugar Bowl, the famous “Goal Line Stand” victory won by Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide.

The chances of Penn State punching a ticket seem better than Alabama’s.

Saturday was a happy, Happy Valley day.

Texas’ loss lessened the likelihood Penn State could finish 12-0 and get left out of the title game.

Texas Tech at 13-0 could still box the Nittany Lions out, but the Red Raiders’ remaining schedule -- Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and the Big 12 Conference title game -- suggests that it will be difficult.

Penn State’s path to undefeated -- at Iowa, Indiana, Michigan State -- is a relative breeze.

Alabama has more work left than it would like, starting Saturday at Louisiana State. The Crimson Tide also has to play rival Auburn, which has won six games in a row in the series, and probably Florida in the Southeastern Conference title game.

A loss each now from Alabama and Texas Tech gets everyone else involved.

Texas, even with Saturday’s defeat, might not drop out of the top five of today’s BCS standings.

The other contenders, knowing this is no time to make nice, all brought out their heavy-duty helmets.

BCS No. 2 Alabama beat Arkansas State, 35-0, No.4 Oklahoma took Nebraska to the corn shed, 62-28, No. 5 USC pitched a 56-0 shutout against Washington, No. 8 Florida crushed No. 6 Georgia, 49-10, and No. 9 Oklahoma State defeated Iowa State, 59-10.

We’ve said this before: Margin of victory was taken out of the BCS computer formula, but it was not taken out of the eyeballs of USA Today coaches and Harris poll voters, who can take measure of a blowout and assign it a subjective value.

Alabama ran its record to 16-1 against the Sun Belt Conference -- as well Alabama should have.

The Tide, incredibly, keeps rising, buoyed by an 11-point poll jump, to No. 13, after a season-opening win against Clemson . . . Clemson?

Like a great SEC tailback, Alabama cut left through the polls, then right. It went upwardly Mobile by playing a fantastic first half in Athens against Georgia, which was thoroughly exposed Saturday with a 39-point loss to Florida.

Alabama didn’t score an offensive touchdown against Tulane, defeated Kentucky and Mississippi, in Tuscaloosa, by a total of seven points, but the Tide is on an uptick.

Oklahoma beat Nebraska so badly you might not have known these schools were once rivals. The Sooners know all opponents since the Texas loss have to be treated with the same respect as road kill.

USC leveled Washington, but what did it mean? Will it be deemed by voters to be cruel and unusual punishment? The Trojans have defeated Washington and Washington Light (State) by the cumulative score of 125-0, but that might not actually be good news in terms of USC’s computer numbers.

With North Texas picking up its first win Saturday (against Western Kentucky), Washington (0-8) became the remaining winless team on the major-college level.

Two of USC’s nonconference opponents -- Virginia and Notre Dame -- also lost, which didn’t help the Trojans’ composite cause.

Florida’s dismantling of Georgia in what became the World’s Largest Outdoor Tail-Kick Party, could move the Gators off their No. 8 spot in the BCS into the top five.

Will Florida jump USC?

Florida waited 12 months for payback after Georgia’s 2007 storming of the field after scoring the first touchdown.

Georgia didn’t celebrate its first touchdown Saturday because it came with 3:09 left and the Bulldogs trailing, 49-3.

The entire Georgia team did, however, race in the same direction on Saturday -- to the bus.

Oklahoma State sent notice it was still in the chase with its T. Boone drilling of Iowa State, the fifth time this year the Cowboys have scored 50 points or more.

And the best news is Oklahoma State gets the chance to knock the smile off the face of 9-0 Texas Tech on Saturday in Lubbock.

Even BCS No. 11 Boise State, in a battle with No. 10 Utah for one major bowl spot for the non-BCS schools, got in some early voting with a 49-0 win over New Mexico State.

That showed much better than Utah’s 13-10 win over New Mexico.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com