ATLANTA -- Colorado still had hope Sunday morning of playing in the Rose Bowl.

Nebraska seemed to be the obvious benefactor of LSU's upset of Tennessee in the SEC title game Saturday night. Nebraska is expected to ascend to the No. 2 spot when the final Bowl Championship Series ratings are released Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Nebraska, No. 3 in the BCS, had been projected to move into the spot if Tennessee lost.

The Huskers sat at No. 4 in both the AP poll and coaches poll released Sunday, with Colorado at No. 3 in both polls. But that probably isn't enough to put Colorado in the Rose Bowl. The Buffaloes were 1.65 points behind Nebraska before Saturday in the BCS.

"The voters would have to put Nebraska further down and Colorado further up," ratings expert Jerry Palm said.

And as of late Sunday morning (before the AP poll was released), Palm had projected Nebraska to be safely in as the No. 2 team in the BCS. Palm estimated the final numbers of the eight computers and two human polls and projected that Nebraska would finish 1.05 points ahead of No. 3 Colorado.

That's actually a much wider margin than last year when Miami missed out by .32 of a point of playing in the Orange Bowl. The difference, of course, is that Nebraska didn't win its conference.

Meanwhile, Nebraska is still left to make its case for playing in the Rose Bowl despite not winning its conference.

"With the outcome, it should project us into the No. 2 spot in the BCS Poll, which would mean a Rose Bowl bid," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said early Sunday morning. "Taking the whole season into account, there is no question that our football team is deserving a place in the national championship game. That is based on what I believe of the outcome of the BCS Poll will be."

The Huskers (11-1) haven't played in 15 days since the Colorado blowout, which left Nebraska for dead in terms of a BCS bowl, never mind a national championship shot. Since then Texas and Tennessee have lost conference championship games. Nebraska, meanwhile, has been picking coins out from between the sofa cushions while watching it all play out.

The Vols are the latest victim of the BCS' short-sightedness.(AP)

"If you put them in the same conference as the Pac-10 or something like that they're co-champions at worst," said BCS co-creator Roy Kramer in defending Nebraska's position. "The fact that conference has a championship game, you've got to put it in perspective. If they were in the same identical situation in the Pac-10, Big Ten, ACC they'd be at least co-champions."

If Nebraska goes to Pasadena, the Fiesta Bowl might get to play a role in the national championship. If Nebraska beats Miami in the Rose, then the winner of the Fiesta Bowl between Colorado and Oregon could be declared the national champion in the AP poll.

Either way, the Fiesta can't lose. It will either get Nebraska-Oregon or Colorado-Oregon.

"We'll either get the Heisman Trophy winner (Eric Crouch)," Fiesta executive director John Junker said Saturday night, "or the AP national champion."

The other BCS bowls seem set. LSU and Illinois will meet in the Sugar and Maryland and Florida will play in the Orange.