By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The significance of what the Texas Christian football team is poised to accomplish - especially in light of recent moves to open the Bowl Championship Series to include other leagues - is not lost on TCU coach Gary Patterson.

"Every once in a while you get a chance in your life to be part of history," Patterson said, "when you have a chance to maybe change some things. This is one of those times when we've got a possibility of being able to do something like that."

And the University of Cincinnati (5-4, 2-3 Conference USA) has a chance to stop them. The Bearcats beat the Horned Frogs 36-29 last year in overtime at Nippert Stadium and shared the C-USA title with them.

"We had a great ball game last year," Patterson said. "They're always going to be physically tough, always going to be very talented. They also have one of the two best defenses in the conference."

This is as close as college football gets to college basketball's March Madness, where upstart schools rub elbows with - and sometimes knock off - established powers.

In this case, TCU is poised to play the underdog and crash the elitist party known as the BCS, established by the nation's football powers to crown the national champion and deliver millions of dollars to the participating universities.

The Horned Frogs (9-0, 6-0) play in a conference regarded as a mid-major, but they're one of only two unbeaten teams in the country, along with top-ranked Oklahoma. They are ranked 10th nationally by the Associated Press and No. 6 in the BCS standings.

If they can hold onto that No. 6 ranking, they are guaranteed to become the first school from a non-BCS conference to play in one of the four major BCS bowl games.

TCU hasn't exactly steamrolled its opponents. The Horned Frogs have won five games by three points.

"We've had to earn everything we've been able to get," Patterson said. "You might say you're lucky if you win two or three 3-point games, but to win five I think is a tribute to the kids of how they've been able to fight and rally to hold on to what they believe is their's."

The next seven days will be crucial to TCU's quest. Five days after they face UC on Saturday, the Horned Frogs travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., to play Southern Miss, (6-3, 5-0) in what could be the conference championship showdown.

They finish their season Nov. 29 at winless SMU. If they finish unbeaten and their BCS ranking holds up, they will play in either the Orange, Fiesta or Rose Bowl, even though critics say they have played a soft schedule.

"Everybody likes controversy," Patterson said. "Everybody's going to have an opinion whether we are or aren't (deserving). We're not going to know that unless we win three ballgames and get a chance to get one of those bids."

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com