College football championship Saturday: Alabama to Miami, Oklahoma likely to BCS

What happened in the final moment of the SEC Championship will forever be among the reigning mysteries of the 2012 college football season, especially considering the national stakes. Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo is talking about the play now, and he’s said two very interesting things. First, via the Macon Telegraph’s Seth Emerson:

Based on that description and Emerson’s review of the game, the play Bobo was saving might’ve been something like this (5:45 mark, in case my HTML isn’t working):

Dan and Ty discuss Championship Week in college football, the BCS standings, bowl projects, coaching rumors and more.

At this point, it seems there will be only three serious candidates that will be headed to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City. It remains to be seen who else will join them.

Both Manziel and Te’o did not play this week, as their teams concluded regular season play last week.

Notre Dame claims 11 national championships; Alabama claims anywhere from 14 to untold thousands. One of them will get to count even higher very soon. The Irish will play Alabama for the national title, and with Stanford, Wisconsin, Florida State, Kansas State and Louisville winning AQ spots, we know how just about the entire BCS will shake out.

The big question: can No. 20 Boise State or No. 21 Northern Illinois rise to that No. 16 spot in Sunday night’s BCS rankings, which would guarantee one of them a cut and likely squeeze out Oklahoma? After losses by No. 16 UCLA, No. 17 Kent State, and No. 18 Texas plus a humiliating loss by No. 12 Nebraska, it’s going to be very close. Very close.

Wisconsin ran its way to the Rose Bowl, dominating Nebraska for 539 yards rushing and eight touchdowns on the ground in the Big Ten Championship Game Saturday. The final score was 70-31, and it was probably not that close.

The Badgers led by two touchdowns a little more than two minutes into the game, and went into the half up 42-10. They did not let up in the second half.

With the win, Kansas State will share the Big 12 Championship with No. 11 Oklahoma, who beat TCU earlier in the day. The Wildcats will get the automatic bid to the Fiesta Bowl, which will be played on Jan. 3 in Glendale, Ariz.

There is a chance the Longhorns could still earn a spot in the Cotton Bowl, despite the 8-4, 5-4 season.

Rankings Ramifications: Florida State was ranked 13th in the BCS standings before the game, but clinched the ACC’s automatic berth with the win. Georgia Tech was not ranked.

But Did They Cover? The Seminoles were 15.5-point favorites, so they did not cover the spread.

I know what you’re expecting. Hey, look, Martin is here to write lots of funnies and not so funnies about FSU choking again. But here’s the honest truth: I didn’t even consider this. I never thought one time today Georgia Tech would beat Florida State in the ACC Championship.

Shame on me.

Bret Bielema is a simple man. He likes destroying things. Usually, “So-and-so is a simple man,” is followed by, “He likes [normal thing], [normal thing], and [horrifying thing],” but not with Bielema. He really does just like destroying things. That’s the only thing he likes.

Hey, Nebraska’s a thing. Destroy it. Destroy that thing that is Nebraska. Halfback pass while up by 25 points? Yes. Sounds like destruction. So yes. Do it. Card says so.

Hey look at that, Wisconsin is torching Nebraska. Aside from seeing Bo Pelini’s face turn 50 shades of red, watching a scoring barrage in a Big Ten game is well worth the price of admission.

It’s like Wisconsin took all the frustration of the entire B1G season, bottled it up and converted it to rocket fuel, which Montee Ball promptly consumed, putting the Badgers up 35-10 on the Cornhuskers.

Nick Saban, you just won the SEC Championship! This is a big moment for your team, all the hard work you guys did, the sweat, the long nights, the time away from your family, the yelling and screaming and bonding. It’s all finally paid off. You’re headed to the BCS Championship game for the second year in a row, with a chance to defend your title in front of Notre Dame, one of the most storied programs in history. You must be thrilled! Right?

Right?

A 22-year-old male fell from a fourth-floor ramp at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Saturday night and is at the hospital with life-threatening injuries, the Charlotte Observer reports. According to the Observer, the fan has been transported to the trauma unit of Carolina’s Medical Center with serious injuries after receiving at least some on-site treatment.

The fan fell somewhere between an estimated 40 and 60 feet from the northwest side of the stadium. The fall took place around 8:30 p.m. ET, which is just about kickoff time, according to when medics first responded to the call.

Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez had hundreds of thousands of people screaming his name early in the Big Ten Championship against Wisconsin. I should probably explain further, because you never know which way we’re going with Martinez. In this case, it was very good Martinez.

He ran approximately 49 miles all told, and that’s one of the most amazing plays I’ve ever seen. Wisconsin’s lead is trimmed to 14-7, and we might have nothing but good conference championship games this year. (Except for the ACC thing. Apologies.) This might be the one to watch, though. Three-quarters Gus Johnson alert.

In the first half Eddie Lacy didn’t get enough carries. He made the most of the ones he had, including a 41-yard touchdown, but it was clear Alabama was relying too much on A.J. McCarron and not enough on running the ball behind an elite offensive line.

Late in the third quarter against Georgia, the Crimson Tide finally followed the script.

Box Score Hero: Kelce. Can it be anyone other than the tight end who caught two touchdown passes and also threw a touchdown pass?

Rankings Ramifications: Cincinnati, ranked No. 21 entering the game, will likely get a small bump in the rankings with the win.

Alabama has been so dominant at times over the last two seasons, when the Crimson Tide start making mistakes, it seems like a glitch in the Matrix. But today, they’re just being flat outplayed by the Georgia Bulldogs in all phases of the game.

The boys up front are getting a push, the defensive pressure is clearly getting to A.J. McCarron, and Nick Saban seems rattled strategically. And Georgia’s special teams have stepped up, converting a fake punt and making a play that might send the Dawgs to the National Title game -- thanks in part to a pass interference no-call on a pass that was ruled to be tipped, but might not have been.

SEC Championship score updates and discussion

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Box Score Hero: Despite Austin’s brilliance both running and catching the ball, the senior Smith gets the nod here. He finished the regular season completing better than 70 percent of his passes, with 40 touchdowns and just six interceptions.

Rankings Ramifications: Neither team entered the game ranked, and despite the modest two-game winning streak to end the regular season, the Mountaineers likely will not be ranked entering bowl season.

The Oregon State Beavers ended their regular season with a dominant, 77-3 victory over Nicholls State in Corvallis on Saturday. The Beavers were as efficient as possible, scoring touchdowns on 11 straight drives. Oregon State moved to 9-3 with the win and now will wait to find out its bowl destination.

Mannion got the start and led the Beavers to touchdowns on their first three drives. Vaz entered the game in the second quarter, and finished the half off with another two touchdowns on his two possessions.

Through a quarter and a half of play, Alabama hadn’t picked up a third down. Georgia’s defense had been all over the field, forcing A.J. McCarron into tough throws and shutting down 1,000-yard rusher Eddie Lacy for the most part.

On a critical third down, McCarron was hit hard, ducking his head, as Georgia was called for a helmet-to-helmet penalty.

Nick Saban was already a little perturbed when his fake punt didn’t work because the Crimson Tide were called for a delay of game on the play. Now imagine how upset Saban was when Georgia coach Mark Richt rubbed salt in the wound with a fake punt that did work.

Uh-oh.

Alabama isn’t known for inventive play calls, risk taking or any of that new fangled ‘spread offense’ stuff. Nick Saban prefers to ‘run the derned footbawl pawllllll.’

So, wouldn’t you know it -- the time Bama actually gets crafty and runs a fake punt, it’s called for a delay of game. It was the perfect play call, and it worked. But it was a split second too late. And naturally, Saban is a little bit upset.

The win moves the Bears to 7-5 overall, 4-5 in the Big 12 and the Cowboys drop to 7-5, 5-4 in conference.

Box Score Hero: Quarterbacks always get the love, so this is going to Bears running back Lache Seastrunk, who finished with 179 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. His 76-yard touchdown run was the icing on the cake of an inspired performance by the Bears.

The C-USA is a magical place where dreams come true and football goes to die. It’s the social experiment of if MACtion™ and #goacc had a child and then that child grew up in a locked room then was somehow expected to be an adult when it turned 18.

Sure, it’s good for some laughs and enjoyable moments every now and then, but it’s always one second away from completely snapping and also it is sad.

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