2010 College Football Bowl Game Selections: Auburn, Oregon To Meet In Title Game; Undefeated TCU Accepts Rose Bowl Bid

Five teams left out of the final regular-season BCS standings have legitimate shots at attaining national rankings following their bowl games.One of them is headed to the Fiesta Bowl as one of the most overmatched opponents in BCS history. One won their conference and can’t even crack the top 25.

Where They’re At: 8-4, 5-2 in the Big East. No. 25 in the AP Poll; first unranked team in the Coaches’ Poll. Conference “champions” after Saturday’s win over South Florida. As such, have accepted a bid to play Oklahoma in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. Suffered a 30-16 loss in Week 3 to Temple, a team that also went 8-4 and was shut out of the bowl bids entirely.

What Went Wrong: UConn doesn’t appear to be a Bad Team, exactly, but they haven’t beaten a ranked opponent all season and their four losses are not pretty ones: Michigan, Temple, Rutgers, and a 26-0 shutout by Louisville.

What’s Next: A month of wags wondering loudly whether this is the worst BCS matchup of all time, followed by a gruesome loss in Arizona. Any sort of respectable play should net them some numerical love from the human voters, at least, if only for appearances’ sake.

Either the Boise State Broncos or LSU Tigers got screwed out of a BCS bowl appearance by the Connecticut Huskies’ automatic qualification, but what about the Temple Owls? Temple won’t be going to a bowl at all, despite a winning record and a two-touchdown win over the Fiesta Bowl-bound Huskies. The Owls were in line for their second-straight bowl appearance, which had never been done before in school history.

UConn went 8-4 against the nation’s 54th-best schedule, while Temple went 8-4 against the 73rd-best schedule. Is that what the difference between a seat at the head table and a seat in the back yard should look like? Complicated conference tie-ins lock certain teams into bowls, whether they deserve them or not. What other sport guarantees postseason positioning based on conference, not merit?

If you’ve been traveling the far reaches of space or drinking yourself into a stupor since Saturday’s games, you may have missed the BCS bowl selection show, and are spiritually poorer for it. We’re here to help. Below are the official lineups and dates for the five BCS bowl games of the 2010 season. (They all take place in 2011. Do not be alarmed.)

ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: No. 3 TCU vs. No. 5 Wisconsin

5 p.m. EST, January 1, 2011

Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA

TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: No. 7 Oklahoma vs. unranked UConn

8:30 p.m. EST, January 1, 2011

University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ

DISCOVER ORANGE BOWL: No. 4 Stanford vs. No. 13 Virginia Tech

8:30 p.m. EST, January 3, 2011

Sun Life Stadium, Miami, FL

ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL: No. 6 Ohio State vs. No. 8 Arkansas

8:30 p.m. EST, January 4, 2011

Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA

TOSTITOS BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 2 Oregon

8:30 p.m. EST, January 10, 2011

University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ

For more information, browse our bowl selection StoryStream and our complete 2010 college football postseason schedule.

In what’s sure to be the quickest Independence Bowl in history, two option run teams, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Air Force Falcons, are set to meet in Shreveport. Ranked first and second in the nation in rushing yardage, these teams have a history of racking up ground gains against each other. In 1978 Jackets running back Eddie Lee Ivery set the NCAA single-game rushing record with 356 against Air Force.

6-6 Tech may be without three-year starting quarterback Joshua Nesbitt, who’s still recovering from a broken arm. Air Force is led by QB Tim Jefferson, whose 1,342 passing yards and 769 on the ground helped the Falcons to an 8-4 record and near-takedowns of the Oklahoma Sooners and Utah Utes.

The Hawaii Bowl might feature some fireworks this year.

Tulsa will travel to the islands and meet Hawaii on December 24 at 8 p.m. Eastern for the traditional Christmas Eve game in Honolulu. This one may light up living rooms more than most Christmas trees.

The MAACO Las Vegas Bowl isn’t where BCS No. 19 Utah or BCS No. 11 Boise State had hoped to end their 2010 seasons, but such is the life of mid-major teams with the temerity to actually lose a game or two in the regular season. Both the Broncos and the Utes had legitimate-seeming national title aspirations at the end of August, but that’s why they play the games. Somebody’s got to lose.

The Utes came into this season highly touted, but after eight straight wins out of the gate took two highly public stumbles in a row, getting beaten badly by Notre Dame and utterly annihilated by TCU. They won out with victories over San Diego State and BYU, but are frankly lucky to be ranked given how voters feel about non-AQ teams.

The Broncos, of course, were gunning for yet another undefeated season themselves and harbored legitimate national title aspirations, but fell in double overtime to conference foe Nevada over Thanksgiving weekend. It’ll be a short trip for both teams to Sam Boyd Stadium on December 22.

Connect with Boise State and Utah fans at SB Nation’s OBNUG and Block U. For more information, browse through our complete college football 2010 postseason schedule.

For a bowl named after a chain restaurant, the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl might actually be a good game.

Louisville and Southern Mississippi will link up in St. Petersburg on December 21 at 8 p.m. Eastern to carry on a matchup of Big East and Conference USA teams virtually no one cares about. But these are actually not terrible teams!

The Huskies and Cornhuskers square-off for the second time this season in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 30.

Bowl selections will continue to roll in all night, and we’ll be following them all right here. Stay tuned to this StoryStream through the selection show, browse our complete college football 2010 postseason schedule. Connect with Washington fans at SB Nation’s UW Dawg Pound and Nebraska fans at Corn Nation.

Want a non-BCS bowl that might actually be a really good game? Try the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

Neither Nevada nor Boston College occupies all that rarefied air in the final BCS rankings, but the Wolf Pack own a signature win, having taken down Boise State. So Nevada will likely be the favorite in this game.

This year’s Capital One Bowl pits two of the better non-BCS schools of 2010.

Michigan State and Alabama, both top 20 teams in the final BCS rankings, get to go to Orlando for a New Year’s Day showdown that pits an 11-1 team against last year’s national champion. It’s also one of those always-popular SEC-Big Ten clashes.

This year’s Cotton Bowl features two teams that are no strangers to running the ball.

LSU and Texas A&M both fell just short of BCS bowl games, but get a decent consolation prize in the form of Cotton Bowl berths. Both teams are ranked in the top 20 of the final BCS rankings, so this will be no matchup of patsies.

Could the 2011 Fiesta Bowl be the biggest mismatch in BCS history?

Oklahoma is ranked seventh in the final BCS rankings. The Sooners have beaten Oklahoma State, Nebraska, and Florida State. And their Fiesta Bowl opponent, Connecticut, isn’t even in the top 25 in the final BCS standings.

This year’s Rose Bowl will mix a bit of old tradition with a bit of new tradition.

Wisconsin and TCU, both ranked in the top five of the final BCS rankings, will meet on January 1 at 5 p.m. in Pasadena to decide who wins the 2010 Rose Bowl.

The Champs Sports Bowl is getting one of college football’s most loyal fanbases.

West Virginia has accepted a bid to the bowl, which takes place on December 28 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern in Orlando.

It would be a better basketball game this year, but there’s reason to be excited for North Carolina and Tennessee linking up at the Music City Bowl on December 30 at 6:40 p.m. Eastern.

The Volunteers will be playing in their home state, although Nashville and Knoxville aren’t exactly close, and that probably means a highly partisan crowd will favor Tennessee. The Tar Heels, chock full of talented defensive players hoping for lofty NFL Draft selections, will likely be raring to go against an SEC team.

The Humanitarian Bowl is one of the first ones to be played this bowl season, and may also be one of the first to be rendered almost completely worthless as a predictor of future performance.

Northern Illinois and Fresno State will link up to play in the Humanitarian Bowl on December 18 at 5:30 p.m. Eastern at Boise State’s Bronco Stadium in Boise, but the chances that Jerry Kill will be the Huskies’ coach in the game dwindle with every passing hour.

The Columbia Tribune is reporting that the Insight Bowl will match up Missouri and Iowa.

That’s a nice little matchup for a mid-tier bowl: the Tigers surprised this year, going 10-2 and upsetting Oklahoma, and the Hawkeyes started strong and walloped Michigan State at home before fading fast. Missouri and Iowa will play this year’s Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona on December 28 at 10 p.m. Eastern.

One of the more starkly named bowls of the 2010 bowl season has its official matchup: the Military Bowl will bring Maryland and East Carolina to Washington.

And, if you were curious about some of the financial considerations that go into selecting teams for bowls, the Washington Post has you covered:

Central Florida had already accepted its big to the Liberty Bowl, and was only waiting for an SEC opponent. That opponent will be Georgia. The Bulldogs will head to the Memphis-based bowl to take on the Knights on New Year’s Eve.

UCF doesn’t have much of a record against SEC teams, but it should be noted that the Knights once upset Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Georgia’s sensational freshman quarterback, Aaron Murray, will look to avoid a similar fate for the Bulldogs at the Liberty Bowl.

It will be a battle of championship game losers, but that doesn’t mean the Chick-Fil-A Bowl will be an also-ran in this season’s bowl schedule.

The Chick-Fil-A Bowl is bringing South Carolina and Florida State to Atlanta for its traditional 7:30 p.m. Eastern start on New Year’s Eve, and giving Stephen Garcia and Christian Ponder chances to finish down years on high notes.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl annually pits two of the lesser teams from two of the lesser BCS conferences. 2010 will be no different.

The Tampa Tribune reports that South Florida and Clemson will hook up for the Meineke Car Care Bowl on New Year’s Eve in Charlotte.

Michigan and Mississippi State have very different approaches to the spread offense. Now, it seems, we’ll get to see both of them on one field in the Gator Bowl.

The Florida Times-Union is reporting that both teams will end up in Jacksonville for the January 1 game, and, if true, it makes for a very interesting contrast in styles.