With Auburn and Oregon winning easily Saturday and setting up little drama for the final USA TODAY Coaches Poll and Bowl Championship Series standings, the focus switched to the Big Ten Conference for the final regular-season ballots.

Because of a three-way tie for first, the Big Ten determined its BCS representative by the final BCS standings. The coaches poll is one-third of the formula that determines the rankings, so how the Big Ten teams finished in the poll was important to how they finished in the standings.

And the coaches of all three teams — Wisconsin's Bret Bielema, Ohio State's Jim Tressel and Michigan State's Mark Dantonio— are voters. All voted TCU third.

•Poll order: No. 4 Wisconsin, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Michigan State.

•BCS order: No. 5 Wisconsin, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 9 Michigan State.

How they voted:

•Bielema — No. 4 Wisconsin, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 6 Michigan State (to which his team lost), No. 7 Stanford.

•Tressel — No. 4 Wisconsin (to which his team lost), No. 5 Ohio State, No. 6 Stanford, No. 7 Michigan State (OSU and MSU did not play).

•Dantonio — No. 4 Michigan State, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 7 Stanford.

Stanford: The other drama involved Stanford. The Cardinal needed to finish fourth in the BCS to earn an automatic bid. Coach Jim Harbaugh voted his team third, putting his one-loss Cardinal ahead of undefeated TCU. He also voted Oregon, from his Pacific-10 Conference, No. 1.

No Pac-10 coach had Stanford lower than No. 5. Two — Washington's Steve Sarkisian and Washington State's Paul Wulff — joined Harbaugh in putting Stanford at No. 3

Oregon State's Mike Riley had them at No. 5 — he also was the only Pac-10 voter to have Wisconsin as high as No. 4; all the others had Wisconsin No. 5 or lower. Sarkisian had Wisconsin No. 6, behind Ohio State.

No Big Ten coach had Stanford higher than sixth. All had Big Ten teams at Nos. 4 and 5. Three voters had Stanford No. 6; three had Stanford No. 7. Illinois' Ron Zook, in addition to having Stanford No. 7, had TCU at No. 6.

Stanford maintained its No. 4 BCS position from the previous week and became an automatic.

TCU: The only first-place vote for TCU came from Idaho's Robb Akey. All four voting coaches in the Mountain West, where TCU will be a member for one more season before moving to the Big East, voted the Horned Frogs No. 2 or No. 3.

This could set up an interesting situation for Akey when the final coaches poll is taken Jan. 10 after the BCS title game. The American Football Coaches Association recognizes the winner of that game as its No. 1 team. Coaches basically are voting Nos. 2 through 25. So if TCU defeats Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, Akey might have to drop the Horned Frogs in his ballot or go against the AFCA (which has been done before, most prominently by Utah coach Kyle Whittingham after the 2008 season when his team went 13-0).

Nevada: The Wolf Pack finished 15th but had votes ranging from No. 8 (Mike MacIntyre of San Jose State) to as low as No. 19. Harbaugh and Boise State's Chris Petersen put Nevada at No. 9.

Those less impressed were Dan Enos of Central Michigan, Jeff Quinn of Buffalo, Sarkisian, Howard Schnellenberger of Florida Atlantic, Mike Sherman of Texas A&M and Steve Spurrier of South Carolina, all with Nevada No. 17.

Jimbo Fisher of Florida State, Gary Pinkel of Missouri, Larry Porter of Memphis, Nick Saban of Alabama, Jim Grobe of Wake Forest, Tressel, Wulff and Bo Pelini of Nebraska had Nevada at No. 18.

Tom O'Brien of North Carolina State, Dan Mullen of Mississippi State, Mark Richt of Georgia, Rick Stockstill of Middle Tennessee, Bob Toledo of Tulane: No. 19.

Briefly: Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, now at Texas Tech, voted Auburn No. 1. ... Arizona's Mike Stoops voted Oklahoma, coached by brother Bob, No. 8, which is not the Sooners' highest vote. They had a No. 5 vote from Harbaugh. ... This is the sixth year USA TODAY has run the final ballots. ... Boise State's Petersen, whose only loss was to Nevada and who opened the season by beating Atlantic Coast Conference champ Virginia Tech, voted Nevada ninth, his team 10th and Tech 11th.