NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops chuckled over the joyous celebration that broke out after third-ranked Oklahoma routed No. 1 Nebraska 31-14 Saturday.

"I've seen a lot of people running around with their fingers up in the air," Stoops said. "The proper finger too."

We're No. 1: The Sooner Nation raucously declared it Saturday afternoon. The two major polls almost certainly will confirm it Sunday, as will the Bowl Championship Series on Monday.

It's a heady time for a once-dominant program that went 5-6 as recently as two years ago. But as exhilarating and resounding as Oklahoma's victory was, it will not prove decisive in the race for the Orange Bowl, site of the national title game.

All it did was bump the Sooners to the top of the heap in the wildest autumn in recent memory. OU is poised to become the third school to sit atop the polls this season, following Nebraska and Florida State.

"I told [the players] on Tuesday that if we won this game, it's not the end of the world," Stoops said.

It may seem that way back in Lincoln, Neb., where they're trying to come to grips with Nebraska's worst pummeling since 1996.

But the Cornhuskers can earn a berth in the Big 12 championship--and a rematch with the Sooners--by defeating Kansas State in two weeks. The Big 12 playoff is Dec. 2 in Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium. A victory there might propel the Huskers into one of the top two slots in the BCS standings, which determine the Orange Bowl pairing.

"No one's out of anything yet," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. "It's still a season that has to play out."

But Saturday's loss left the Cornhuskers no wiggle room. Last year they lost a late October game at Texas and couldn't crack the Top 2 when Florida State and Virginia Tech went unbeaten. This year might be different, given the real possibility that no major-conference team will go unblemished in the regular season. With Nebraska and Clemson falling Saturday, Virginia Tech--which plays No. 4 Miami next weekend--and Oklahoma are the only remaining major-conference unbeatens. But only OU has the right to raise its index finger . . . for now, at least.