Coaches Poll: After Notre Dame, Alabama, the real drama

• Notre Dame kept its No. 1 ranking with 56 of 59 first-place votes
• The real drama is sorting out who will fill out the BCS bowl games
• Wisconsin is the first 5-loss team since 1991 to finish in the final regular-season poll

Once the clock wound down on the thrilling Southeastern Conference championship game, there wasn't much suspense left in the BCS national championship picture. The real drama in the final regular-season rankings will come further down the poll as winners of conferences without automatic qualification into the big-money bowls learn whether they earned a high-enough ranking in the human polls and computer formulas to gain admittance.

The final BCS standings — as well as matchups for all five BCS games — are scheduled to be released Sunday night.

Notre Dame, in the clubhouse at 12-0, easily retained the No. 1 ranking with 56 of 59 first-place votes in the USA TODAY Sports coaches poll, a component of the BCS formula. Alabama, which staved off Georgia 32-28 for the SEC title, is No. 2 in the poll and will take on the Fighting Irish on Jan. 7 in the title game. Georgia slid two places to No. 5 behind No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 Florida. The Ducks and Gators are all but assured of receiving at-large invitations to BCS bowls.

There was more minor shifting in the second five. No. 6 Kansas State, which wrapped up the Big 12 title and Fiesta Bowl berth with a victory against Texas, edged ahead of No. 7 LSU, and Pac-12 champion and Rose Bowl-bound Stanford nudged into the No. 8 spot ahead of idle Texas A&M. But with South Carolina holding steady at No. 10, the SEC maintained six of the top-10 positions.

Boise State checks in at No. 15, one spot ahead of Mid-American Conference champion Northern Illinois. If one of those two finishes in the top 16 of the final overall BCS standings, the higher-rated one would be assured of a place in one of the BCS bowls.

No MAC team has been in a BCS game.

Wisconsin joins the poll at No. 23 after demolishing Nebraska in the Big Ten final for a date with Stanford in the Rose Bowl. The Badgers become the first five-loss team to be ranked in the final regular-season survey since USA TODAY began administering the coaches poll. Nebraska stayed in the rankings at No. 21.

No. 24 San Jose State also heads into the bowl season with a number, its first ranking of any kind since the final coaches poll of 1990. Kent State, which lost the MAC finale in overtime to NIU, and Rutgers, which came up a field goal short Thursday night against No. 18 Louisville with the Big East crown on the line, were the week's dropouts.