The outrage has begun over the possibility of the Nebraska Cornhuskers playing for the national championship ahead of the only team to beat them.

Colorado might have been college football's No. 1 team when it mattered, but it might not get a chance to prove it.(AP)

Nebraska (11-1) didn't win its division in the Big 12 and didn't even play in the conference title game, but it's one upset away from playing in the Rose Bowl. Colorado, which beat Nebraska 62-36 10 days ago, has little or no chance. For the first time, Colorado coach Gary Barnett suggested Monday that shouldn't be the case.

"If I were sitting on the outside, as a voter and not involved, it would be hard for me to put a team that had 62 points (put) on it ahead of a team that scored the 62 points," Barnett said.

That's a direct reference to Colorado's 26-point victory over then-No.2 Nebraska on Nov. 23. That result clinched Colorado's first berth in the Big 12 title game. Colorado followed through, beating No. 3 Texas to win its first conference title in 10 years.

Despite the victory over Nebraska, the Buffaloes (10-2) still find themselves all but out of the Rose Bowl race.

"Our particular situation puts a lot of questions on our league playoff game," Barnett said. "If a team goes and plays for the national championship and didn't make it to our league playoff, what's that say about our league and the importance of that playoff game?"

Miami and Tennessee were 1-2 in the latest BCS ratings released Monday afternoon. Nebraska was a solid No. 3 and is almost a lock to move past the Vols if Tennessee loses the SEC title game to LSU on Saturday.

Colorado is fourth in the BCS and all but out of the title picture despite scoring the most points ever on Nebraska. The outrage is over the Big 12 champion being left out of the Rose Bowl, displaced by what is essentially the second-place team in the conference's North Division.

"I believe in the system," Barnett said. "I believe the system will work. There are some subjective aspects to the system. I'm just going to believe that if it comes down to that, everybody will do the right thing."

Nebraska athletic director Bill Byrne defended his program staying alive in the title race.

"The way I was feeling after that (Colorado) game, I was sick to my stomach," Byrne said. "That was something very much unanticipated by all of us here at Nebraska. Now that I've had a chance to watch the progression of games that followed it, I'm reminded that we won 11 games and are a very good football team. We were the best team in the country as voted by (media) for the majority of the season."

Colorado lost only to Fresno State (24-22) and Texas (41-7). It helps the Buffs' case they avenged the Texas loss with a 36-point turnaround Saturday.

There is a way to settle the controversy. The coaches poll automatically awards the winner of the BCS title game the national championship. The Associated Press publishes one final media poll after the bowls. Its voters could choose to elevate the winner an Oregon-Colorado Fiesta Bowl to No. 1 if Miami is beaten by Nebraska in the Rose Bowl.

Whether there is a current consensus among AP voters on that possibility is unclear. The AP poll already has Colorado (No. 4) ranked ahead of Nebraska (No. 5). The coaches have that order reversed. Oregon is third in both human polls but fifth in the BCS.

"I'm big on head-to-head results if records are comparable," said Lee Barfknecht, who covers the Big 12 for the Omaha World-Herald. "I voted Colorado ahead of Nebraska last week."

The outrage, though, isn't that widespread. It's highly doubtful voters in either human poll would "set up" a Colorado-Miami Rose Bowl if Tennessee loses this week. Voters not only have to vote Nebraska down but vote Colorado above Oregon without any of the three teams playing.

That isn't where the argument ends. If Maryland, Illinois and Oregon win their bowl games, you'd have three 11-1 conference champions possibly losing out to Nebraska. The winner in all this might be the Fiesta Bowl, which could be the unexpected site for a team that shares a national title.

As of Monday, Colorado and Oregon (10-1) were still expected to meet in the Fiesta.

Byrne was upset by comments made Saturday by ABC analyst Gary Danielson, who stated repeatedly that Nebraska didn't deserve to contend for the national championship.

"The reason we had the BCS set up -- and by the way the folks from ABC had a stake and say in what the BCS formula was going to be -- was what we're trying to do is take away some of the provincialism and some of the emotion of who deserves to be where," Byrne said.

"Once you have the BCS put together the way it is, you should just go with what the formula says."

Oddly enough, Byrne is a playoff proponent and Barnett favors the traditional bowl system.

"My concern is that all those bowls will be diminished or eliminated if you go to a playoff system," Barnett said.

"If put together properly, we could have a playoff system," Byrne said. "I've been a long-time playoff advocate."

The BCS went to great lengths to correct perceived injustices last season. Computers were changed to lessen the impact of margin of victory. Teams were awarded quality win points for victories over top 15 teams in the final BCS ratings.

All because Miami beat Florida State and didn't get to play for the national championship while the Seminoles did. There's a bigger mess this year. Colorado beat Nebraska and might be left out.

Don't forget Oregon, which lost only to Stanford. If they win, the Ducks would be 11-1 as the Pac-10 champion and still be behind Nebraska. So would Orange Bowl-bound Maryland (No. 10 BCS) and Sugar Bowl-bound Illinois (No. 8), two teams that would also be conference champions at 11-1.

Champions that could lose out to the second-place team in the Big 12 North Division.