ATS Sports Blog

With the regular college football season basically over, week 14’s games spotlighted several conference title games that not only determined this year’s champion, but shaped the final BCS standings as well as which teams would play for a national championship.

The premier match-up of the week and probably the year pitted Florida against Alabama for the SEC Title and a trip to the national title game. Even though the Gators were a five point favorite, the Crimson Tide took control from the first snap and never looked back coming away with a dominating 32-13 victory to finish as the top ranked team in the nation heading into bowl season.

In a nail biter that came down to the final second of the game, 15 point favorite Texas earned a spot in the national title game with a 13-12 come from behind victory over a very tough Nebraska team in the Big 12 Championship. This game ended in a bit of controversy as time appeared to run out before the Longhorns were able to stop the clock to attempt the game winning field goal. After an extensive review it was decided that there was one second left to play which allowed Hunter Lawrence the opportunity to kick the 46 yarder to win the game for Texas.

Cincinnati rallied from a 21 point deficit in the 4th quarter to beat Pittsburgh 45-44 in a wild one to earn their second straight Big East Title. The win was good enough to help them jump over #4 TCU in the rankings, but not enough to land a spot in the national title game as they finished ranked 3rd in the BCS. Boise State, who already won the Western Athletic Conference, finished a perfect 13-0 with a 42-7 win over New Mexico State which left them ranked #6 behind Florida. #9 Georgia Tech came from behind to beat Clemson 39-34 to win the ACC Title. The Yellow Jackets scored the game winning touchdown with just a little over a minute to play.

Last Thursday night in a game billed as the Civil War, the #7 Oregon Ducks won the PAC 10 Title with a 37-33 over in state rival, Oregon State securing their first trip to the Rose Bowl since 1994.

With the final BCS rankings, all top ten teams made it into one of the five BCS series bowl games. #1 Alabama will face # 2 Texas in the Citi BCS National Championship game on Thursday, January 7th. #3 Cincinnati plays #5 Florida on January 1st in the All State Sugar Bowl. #4 TCU plays #6 Boise State in another battle of unbeaten teams on January 4th in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. #7 Oregon takes on #8 Ohio State on New Year’s Day in the Rose Bowl.

In the final BCS bowl game #9 Georgia Tech plays #10 Iowa in the Fed Ex Orange Bowl on January 5th. Some of the other big match-ups in this year’s bowl season include #11 Virginia Tech playing Tennessee in the Chick-Fil –A Bowl on December 31st, #12 LSU going against #13 Penn State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year’s Day. #14 BYU takes on PAC 10 runner up #18 Oregon State in the Macco Las Vegas Bowl on Tuesday, December 22nd.

#15 Miami (Fla.) plays #25 Wisconsin on December 29th in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. #16 West Virginia plays Florida State in the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl on January 1st in what will be Bobby Bowden’s final game as the Seminole’s head coach. #17 Pittsburgh will face North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl on December 26th. #19 Oklahoma State will play Ole Miss in the AT&T Cotton Bowl on January 2nd.

#20 Arizona who beat USC in their final game of the season, faces #22 Nebraska in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl on December 30th. #21 Stanford plays Oklahoma in the Brut Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve. #23 Utah plays Cal in the San Diego County Poinsettia Bowl on December 23rd. Finally to round out the Top 25, #24 USC will face Boston College in the Emerald Bowl on December 26th.

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