They're No. 2.

Even that's a claim West Virginia football never before could proffer, not until these highest of Mountaineers times.

Granted, the Mountaineers yesterday ascended to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, yet another apex in the program's suddenly overnight success of a 116-year history, but the ranking that matters most is the Bowl Championships Series standings, which spat out West Virginia as second only to Missouri in the national championship hunt.

With one weekend left in hunting season.

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Backyard Brawl

• Game: Pitt vs. West Virginia
• When: 7:45 P.M. Saturday
• Where: Mountaineer Field
• TV/Radio: ESPN

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In short, if West Virginia defeats rival Pitt in the 100th rendition of the Backyard Brawl at 7:45 p.m. Saturday at Mountaineer Field, then that same BCS is expected to print out an invitation Sunday for the Mountaineers to play in the Jan. 7 title game at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

Missouri also would advance with a victory against Oklahoma in the Big 12 Conference championship game Saturday. The Tigers (11-1) yesterday moved to the BCS top spot after defeating border rival and No. 2 Kansas late Saturday night. They scored a 0.0068 lead over West Virginia in the standings, .9781 to .9713, based on various strength-of-schedule components plus the coaches' and Harris polls. Ohio State is in third, at .9192, with Georgia a distant fourth at .8274.

Yet a possible opponent was of no consequence yesterday to coach Rich Rodriguez, who maintained that his Mountaineers (10-1, 5-1 Big East) stay affixed on the final, potentially critical date on their schedule: Pitt (4-7, 2-4) Saturday.

"To me, this is a semifinal game," Rodriguez said. "We always talk about [the schedule] being a 12-round playoff. You don't get to the finals without winning the semis."

The Mountaineers started out No. 9 in the Oct. 14 BCS debut poll seven weeks ago and kept on winning while nine teams ahead of them lost and dropped off -- including two No. 1 teams and four separate No. 2s.

It all came to an unprecedented head yesterday. They were ranked No. 2 by The Associated Press, in which they garnered 20 of 65 first-place votes but fell only 30 votes behind Missouri. They were perched at the top by the coaches, who gave them 37 of 60 first-place votes but only 13 total tallies ahead of Missouri.

Rodriguez reiterated his long-held stance that polls mean little until the final rankings, so he normally declines to comment on them. But because it's so close to that end ...

"Well, I think it's a nice compliment to the program, and it probably gets the fans excited," he said of the highest rankings for the Mountaineers, who had spent a total of six weeks -- in 116 years, remember -- no higher than No. 3. Until now. "But the most important polls are the ones that are after the regular season's over, and it isn't over. That's something we shouldn't worry about right now.

"If we're still [No.] 1 or 2 after this weekend, that would be a good thing."

So who's smarter, the coaches who made them No. 1 or the media who made them No. 2?

"That's probably a matter of opinion," Rodriguez, a coaches-poll voter who refuses to divulge his in-season ballot, said with a knowing chuckle. "I haven't really studied them that closely, but they're usually pretty close. Maybe all these minds think alike. That's a scary thought in itself."

These record-setting Mountaineers, winners of 32 of 36 games the past three seasons, were the first in program history to own a No. 3 ranking in-season, if only for the first two weeks of the 2007 AP polls. When West Virginia previously played for an outright national championship chance, losing to Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl after the 1988 season, it didn't rise to No. 3 until the three polls after it finished the regular-season schedule. Same went for the 1993 undefeated team, which moved into No. 3 in the final poll before losing to Florida in the Sugar Bowl.

"It's pretty exciting. You got to catch yourself not thinking too far ahead, because obviously that's when something comes up and bites you," Rodriguez said yesterday in his day-after conference call, this time reflecting on a 66-21 thumping Saturday of then-No. 20 Connecticut. "We have a great opportunity. I told the team that before the game [Saturday]: 'Let's not be all tight and tense about it. Let's play for a championship.' "

And, he added after reviewing films of the game in which his Mountaineers clinched their fourth Big East Conference title in five years and a chance at the big ring, "our execution at times was not at a championship level."

NOTES -- Often in the same backfield with Steve Slaton, freshman Noel Devine had 118 yards Saturday -- his first triple-digit performance in eight games and second this year. "When he was making some of his best runs, Steve was making some of his best blocks," Rodriguez said. ... The Mountaineers clinched their third consecutive season of double-digit victories, a program first. ... Of his name arising in conjunction with coaching vacancies, such as Michigan, Rodriguez said: "I think most schools are pretty respectful of the situation we're in. If they call, 'We're very flattered that you have an interest in me or my coaches, but we're thinking about Pitt.' [But] nobody's calling."