The Tennessee Volunteers keep winning on the field, but their lead in the

Bowl Championship Series rankings becomes more precarious with each passing

week.

The Vols (11-0, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) held on to the No. 1 spot in

the newest BCS poll, released Monday, by the narrowest of margins over No.

2 UCLA.

Tennessee’s 4.99 point total was good enough, barely, to preserve its lead

over the 10-0 Bruins, who scored 5.03 points.

Kansas State, the No. 1 team in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll,

remained in the third spot with 6.31 points.

The top two teams in the final BCS rankings, to be released on Sunday after

the completion of the regular season, will play for the national

championship on Jan. 4 in the Fiesta Bowl.

Florida State is still in remote contention for the Fiesta Bowl, but will

need a couple of teams ahead of them to falter on Saturday. The No. 4

Seminoles clocked in with 8.20 points.

There is a big drop after the top four teams. Ohio State, with 12.33

points, moved into fifth place after Texas A&M’s loss at Texas on

Friday.

Rounding out the top 10 were Arizona, Florida, Texas A&M, Wisconsin and

Tulane.

With the top three teams in action this weekend, the national title race is

still up in the air. However, the picture should come into focus by late

Saturday night.

First, UCLA travels to Miami, Fla., to take on a Hurricanes team that was

destroyed by Syracuse last weekend. This game was rescheduled to Dec. 5

after Hurricane Georges forced a postponement in September.

Then, Kansas State faces Texas A&M in St. Louis in the Big 12 Championship

game. The 10-2 Aggies certainly won’t hurt the Wildcats’ quartile ranking,

which currently separates them from Tennessee and UCLA.

No. 1 Tennessee faces Mississippi State (8-3) on Saturday (8 p.m., ABC) in

the SEC Championship game in Atlanta. A win there would virtually assure

the Vols of playing in Tempe because they will likely pass UCLA in the

Sagarin rankings after the Bruins play 7-3 Miami, 53-point losers to

Syracuse on Saturday.

That result certainly helps the Vols, who beat the Orangemen 34-33 in their

season opener, and may have been the deciding factor in this week’s

poll.