St. Louis ? At least for now, at least at the summit, the Bowl Championship Series process is all tranquility and transparency.

If top-ranked Miami wins its last two games, it will play the only other undefeated team, second-ranked Ohio State, in the national title game Jan. 3 at the Fiesta Bowl.

So we turn for the moment to the true mystery and budding controversy in college football:

Who will win the Heisman Trophy as the best college football player of the season?

Spare and seemingly simple as that definition is, the lack of elaboration has engendered a variety of interpretations as to how the 1,000-plus voters for the award should carry out their duty.

Some have come to see career achievement as a viable criterion, which enables a case for steady-but-unspectacular Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey, who is a mere 14th in the nation in passing efficiency and has completed a career-worst 54.5 percent of his passes this year but has come through in crucibles.

Some voters operate on the theory of “the best player on the best team,” which makes the man Miami running back Willis McGahee, who is seventh in the nation in rushing, third in the nation in scoring and has been a catalyst at key junctures.

In addition to Dorsey and McGahee, compelling cases can be made right now for: Iowa quarterback Brad Banks, Penn State running back Larry Johnson, Southern California quarterback Carson Palmer, Washington State quarterback Jason Gesser, Colorado running back Chris Brown, Oklahoma running back Quentin Griffin and Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich.

Only a week or two ago, Texas Tech quarterback Kliff Kingsbury and Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace would have been part of the discussion, too.

The arguments for each include the obligatory gaudy stats and what they’ve meant to their teams. All are worthy, which also means no one player stands out.

But the image-making will escalate for the next two weeks before ballots are due and the winner is announced Dec. 14, and several factors – including some beyond the playing field – will influence the campaigns and result.

Spin, not only from schools but also from the pervasive, ever-chattering ESPN “Game Day” crew.

“Guys at ESPN have more control over who wins the Heisman than anybody else; they’re the ones who talk about it all the time,” Colorado coach Gary Barnett said. “I really believe there are more votes swung by what (they) say than anyone else in the country, so it depends on who they like, who they’re on, what they want.”

Banks, who had one bad half of football all season and probably will get our No. 1 vote because of his profound influence on Iowa’s turnaround, will be hurt by the fact that Iowa’s last regular-season game was Nov. 16. Banks also leads the nation in passing efficiency and has rushed for 387 yards.

With big games this weekend and in the Big 12 title game, Brown and particularly Griffin can gain ground in voter’s consciousness. If Miami loses and Griffin shines for an OU team that finds itself in the national title game, he could be a finalist.

So who’ll win it? From where we sit, it will come down to Banks, Dorsey, Johnson, McGahee, Palmer and Griffin.