2014 BCS National Championship: Florida State is officially back

Auburn quadrupled its 3-9 win total from a year ago and won the SEC after going winless in conference. And if that sounds incredibly rare, that’s because it is. Had the Tigers held on against Florida State in the BCS Championship, they would have owned the greatest worst-to-first run by a national champion in a long, long time -- maybe ever, considering the context.

No matter how disappointed Mason felt after falling short, Auburn’s run was still historic.

Winston will also likely have four of his five starting offensive linemen, including left tackle Cameron Erving, who won some All-America honors this season.

And the best thing about winning 13 of 14 games by two or more scores in 2013? All those backups who’ll be taking over starting roles got a lot of experience in the second halves of games this season.

Both Florida State and Auburn received enthusiastic welcomes home from fans after the 2014 BCS National Championship. The Seminoles rallied late for a dramatic 34-31 victory over the Tigers on Monday night, capping a perfect 14-0 season.

The Seminoles are planning to hold a championship celebration at some point later in the month.

Our story begins with this, a screen cap of the setup of Auburn’s final play of the BCS Championship against Florida State, when the Tigers were hoping for one more last-second miracle.

Looks pretty good, huh? After Auburn ran a hook-and-lateral, then lateraled it back, then threw across the field -- we can call this some sort of hook-and-lateral/Music City Miracle combination -- Heisman finalist running back Tre Mason had a lot of green in front of him and a lot of large men in white in front of him.

The TV ratings for Monday’s exciting BCS National Championship Game between Florida State and Auburn are in, and they appear to be in line with previous years. The game recorded a 15.3 rating on ESPN, tied for ninth-most in title game history, and just barely beat last year’s blowout between Alabama and Notre Dame, via Jon Solomon of Al.com.

When counting the additional channels the network utilized this year in their Megacast coverage, the rating bumps up to 15.7, still barely better than last year’s 15.1. Solomon reports ESPN was hoping for a number “in the 17.0 to 17.5 range,” which would make this a let-down for the corporation.

With only seconds left on the clock, Florida State was facing first-and-goal down by four against Auburn in the BCS National Championship Game. Rashad Greene (nine catches for 147 yards) may have been Jameis Winston’s favorite target on Monday night, but it was obvious where the Heisman Trophy winner would go with the football.

Benjamin has two years of eligibility left, but his latest performance is another in a sophomore season that has featured plenty of them. The big-bodied wide receiver has shown his NFL skill set often in 2013. His hands have been an issue, but on Monday when Florida State needed him most, he was able to come through. He was one of a handful of players who helped themselves in the eyes of NFL evaluators in the title game.

Florida State and Auburn treated us to one of the best national title games in recent memory across any sport, with the Seminoles emerging on top after a hard-fought 34-31 victory. The game’s full highlight package:

Here are the dramatic last five minutes of the game, handily condensed into a one-minute burst.

To get to the end of the BCS, and to the title game and the end of the 2014 football season, college football had to first squeeze its surly, disorganized self through the eye of the Rose Bowl.

To do this, it had to get through the stadium’s tunnels, guarded by men and women holding placards reading THIS TUNNEL IS FULL PLEASE WAIT. There is a “please” there: you should know how polite the Rose Bowl is. You should know exactly how many security guards and other newly deputized warm bodies moving in the name of public order there are. Your parking pass is checked five separate times on the way into the stadium. Your bags are checked twice, and thoroughly, by people who do respectable rummaging.

Florida State defeated Auburn in a wild finish in the BCS National Championship Game, ending the BCS era with a dramatic victory. Let’s take a look at the most clever headlines from the local newspapers.

Unsurprisingly, a higher percentage of Alabama papers had front pages that dealt primarily with the game. Because Florida is a much larger state, entire areas have no vested interest in the Seminoles (with allegiances instead to Florida or Miami or perhaps no college team at all), and plenty of newspapers in the area did not even have a cover story on the game. In Newseum’s great newspaper database, where we found all of these covers, every single Alabama paper had a large cover about the game.

Remaining BCS bowls. Spencer Hall already wrote the definitive take on the official death of the BCS, but I’ll just add this: it made things better. It really did.

Before college football’s powers-that-be created the Bowl Championship Series, we had exactly what we have now: a change-resistant oligarchy run by athletic officials, bowl committee members in awful suits, and a (smaller) pool of money. Except we had no guarantee for a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup.

The final rankings of the college football season have been released, and to no one’s surprise Florida State is the unanimous top team in both the AP and Coaches Polls. The Seminoles finished the season as the only undefeated program in the country, defeating Auburn in a wild BCS Championship Game to finish the year at 14-0.

The Tigers finished second in both polls, with Michigan State third after Alabama’s loss to Oklahoma. The Tide fell in both, allowing South Carolina, Missouri and Oklahoma to move above them in both polls (and Clemson as well in the Coaches’ Poll).

The BCS ended in awesome fashion, with a thrilling come-from-behind FSU win in the BCS National Championship Game. However, now that the BCS is dead -- DEAD DEAD DEAD -- we look forward to the College Football Playoff. And ESPN got us hype with this ad:

AHHHHH THEY’RE ACTUALLY GOING TO PLAY A COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF AHHHHHH

Winston finished the night with 20 completed passes in 35 attempts for 237 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also carried the ball 11 times for 26 yards.

Here’s the all-time, final list of BCS Championship Game MVPs:

The final BCS National Championship Game may have been the best one yet. In what was an incredible 60 minutes of football, a last-minute touchdown drive from Florida State and Heisman winner Jameis Winston gave the Seminoles a stunning 34-31 victory over Auburn.

Auburn got the football back with a couple of seconds left, but they weren’t able to do much of anything as the clock struck zero. The Seminoles rushed onto the field as confetti filled the Pasadena sky.

Florida State capped an undefeated season by beating Auburn in the BCS Championship Game, 34-31, on Monday night, and now we have a long offseason to ponder this Seminole group’s place among college football’s all-time great teams.

There are fair criticisms to be made about FSU’s schedule (and we’ll get to them), which might disqualify FSU for some, but there is also something to be said for the dominant way in which the Seminoles dispensed with all of that schedule -- until the final game, at least.

The thing Florida State did wrong on their first potential game-winning touchdown in Monday’s national title game? They didn’t let Jameis Winston work his magic.

The Heisman winner struggled all game until it mattered most, driving the Seminoles 80 yards down the field in a breathtaking 66 seconds with a 6-for-7 passing performance, culminating with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin to take the 34-31 lead. That turned out to be the final score.

Florida State has furthered its claim as one of the greatest offenses ever to play college football, as the Seminoles have broken the all-time FBS record for scoring in a single season. The record was broken in Florida State’s 14th game of the season -- the BCS National Championship Game against Auburn.

Coming into the game, Florida State had scored 689 points (already surpassing 2005 Texas’s 13-game record of 652), and needed just 28 to pass the mark of 716, held by the 2008 Oklahoma team. The Noles reached 723 in the final seconds, forever marking their place in the record books.

If Florida State ends up losing the BCS National Championship to Auburn, the Seminoles will have to look back on a foolish (and controversial) taunting penalty late in the fourth quarter.

Here is some video of the taunting penalty, which does make it look like Freeman was shooting.

After Auburn delivered its second-quarter body blow, Florida State’s defense tightened up, allowing just 35 total yards on 12 plays in the third quarter. This gave Jameis Winston and company an opportunity to chip into the Tigers’ lead, but the Seminoles weren’t able to do very much with the opportunity. FSU gained only 91 yards on 18 plays, shortening the deficit to 21-13.

Florida State’s 67-yard field goal drive was its longest scoring drive of the night, but the Seminoles will need to conjure up much more production than that if they are to avoid being upset.

After one quarter, a BCS National Championship Game that was expected to be defined by explosive offensive performances by both teams has featured more punts than scoring drives. The Tigers and Seminoles combined for just 144 total yards and 10-point underdog Auburn leads, 7-3.

This gave Auburn the 7-3 lead and FSU’s first deficit since late September.

Gus Malzahn often wears a sweatervest, but the one he donned for the national championship game tonight was a tad... well... familiar-looking:

Of course:

“You are looking LIVE at A FREAKY FRIDAY SCENARIO INVOLVING YOUR ANNOUNCERS FOR THE EVENING. WHERE DO I END AND WHERE DOES KIRK BEGIN? WHO EVEN KNOWS? STAY TUNED FOR ZANY HIJINKS AND LIFE LESSONS ABOUT AGE, LOVE AND RESPONSIBILITY.”

“Uh, Brent, you okay?”

The last-ever BCS Championship kicks off at (after) 8:30 p.m. ET on six different ESPN channels, but everyone will be watching the one with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit. That one is ESPN.

We’ve prepared the following bingo card for your game-watching experience, based on our carefully honed knowledge of Musburger, Herbstreit, Florida State, and Auburn.

Before we could usher out the BCS in favor of the new College Football Playoff, there remained one more Championship Game to be played. Florida State and Auburn played a national championship game for the ages, but it was the Seminoles who came away with an incredible 34-31 comeback victory. Here’s a list of every winner of the BCS era.

Let’s go ahead and break down what we can learn from this list, beginning with the most obvious fact of all: