As said before, the Oregon Ducks are going to have a hard time getting back to the national championship game. Even if they do see LSU and/or Oklahoma State go down to open up a spot for a one-loss squad, the Ducks are going to have to fight with Oklahoma, Alabama, or Arkansas for the rights to get into this game. The chaos is too difficult to predict, too absurd to control, and almost all scenarios are titled against Oregon getting another shot to claim the crystal football.
Oregon could be considered a victim of their desire to schedule an early matchup with the Tigers and give their opponents months to prepare for how to stop the Ducks. The plan worked fairly successfully, and LSU took advantage of Oregon turnovers to take control of the proceedings this week. Even if the loss helps Oregon's overall strength of schedule (and would've put them at the top spot if they won), it makes voters wary of giving the Ducks another crack at the Tigers in the title game given that almost the same situation (a month for LSU to prepare for an Oregon team they dominated on the field).
Indeed, if one or both LSU and Oklahoma State drop from the ranks of the unbeaten, it's starting to look like a year when the Plus-One model would be really, really useful.
Alabama and Oregon are really arguing semantics. The fact is they each have only one loss to the top team in the country. Both of them deserve another shot at proving they're national champions, particularly if one or two of the remaining undefeateds stumble once and leave us with no no-loss teams. Oregon would deserve as much of a shot at the kahuna as anyone else.
Say there was a plus-one model where the top four teams in the BCS rankings were placed against each other.
1) LSU would get in by winning out.
2) Alabama would probably get in as well by winning out. If Arkansas beat LSU, it should open the door for Alabama to get into the SEC title game as well.
3) Arkansas would almost certainly get in if they upset LSU and somehow made the SEC title game. Not likely though.
4) The winner of the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game gets in. It's likely the loser is left out.
5) At least one spot would be left, and it should go to Oregon.
Oregon winning out would almost certainly guarantee the Ducks get included in a plus-one format (they might need some help from Stanford too in this situation). They will be at four at the lowest the rest of the way, unless Oklahoma and Oklahoma State play a game for the ages, the Sooners score the upset, and somehow force Oregon down a spot. But we can all agree that a plus-one does allow teams with the greatest disputes at being the best in the land a fair shot at whether they deserve to be in the conversation of best team in the country.
All Larry Scott and the Pac-12 want is a chance to prove year-by-year that they have the best teams in the country and deserve an equal chance to prove that they deserve the title. Stanford would have been ready to go in a plus-one last season to join with Oregon as one of the top four teams in the country. This year Oregon deserves its turn, and a chance at redemption for opening night. Oregon has not missed much of a beat since their LSU loss, and while it's debatable whether the Ducks can do enough to be one of the top two teams in the conference, they certainly have a great shot at being in the top four.