Final Word for College Football for the Regular Season

by Slate Quicksilver

Painful week for some (yours truly included), elation for others.

(2) Alabama showed up for a football game in the SEC championship game while (1) Florida showed up for Georgia Tech's basketball game about 5 miles north. As a result, Alabama's offense went bananas. Florida's offense wasn't terrible, but a backbreaker of an interception sealed the deal. Down 18, Tim Tebow tried throwing the ball through Javier Arenas rather than slightly over his head to a wide open Aaron Hernandez in the endzone. Sadly for Tebow and luckily for Alabama, Arenas' body is made of what physicists know as "solid matter" of a denser material than a pigskin football. That left the game at 18 points and Alabama owned the clock for the rest of the game. It can't be said enough how bad that INT was. UF forced a 3 and out immediately after that INT and then drove down to the redzone in 90 seconds. They lost it on 4th and short, but consider that UF was 20 yards from being down 5 with 7 minutes left.

But that is an irrational fan's view. Though several other sources have pointed out the same plausible scenario, there is no proof that their defense could have stopped Mark Ingram in the last minutes in a close game seeing as hwo they couldn't do it even in garbage time.

Alabama goes to the national championship game and Florida likely goes to the Sugar Bowl. Florida has no reason to cry (a 22 game winning streak with a national championship is nothing to be uncontent with) and Alabama has a great deal to be proud of (great game plan with excellent execution).

(3) Texas dodged an assassin's bullet marked "(22) Nebraska." A last second field goal after an official's review of the time was the difference. However this may be a Pyrrhic victory as Nebraska quite literally drew up the recipe on how to shut down Texas. Alabama needs just to watch the tapes, pay minimal attention and repeat what they saw. Colt McCoy was confused all night by a shifting defense, so we'll have to see what Alabama's thunderous defense does to repeat Nebraska's tune.

In what turned out to be a great game, (5) Cincinnati needed a last minute touchdown to defeat an upset hungry Wannstache-led (15) Pittsburgh team. Pitt had a go-ahead TD with about 90 seconds left but MISSED THE EXTRA POINT. Ouchies. Cincy, likely, will play in the Orange Bowl against Georgia Tech.

(6) Boise State is undefeated, again, after destroying New Mexico State. If anyone will be getting screwed this year, it would be Boise State. Fiesta Bowl or Poinsettia Bowl... tough fall if its not the Fiesta Bowl.

(7) Oregon won the Pac10 after beating Oregon State in the Civil War. It was an excellent game, but Oregon's offense was amazing in the second half. They went TD, TD, FG and run out the clock in order to kill off Oregon State. Most impressive.

The Rest of the Top 25:

(10) Georgia Tech beat The Clemson CJ Spillers 39-34 in Tampa in the ACC championship game. CJ Spiller went bonkers with 4 TDs, but GT's offense was one step ahead of the Spillers and will probably play Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl.

Arizona went to the Coliseum and beat (18) USC... LOLZORZ! USC is now no longer ranked. This season, for the Men of Troy, will probably be forgotten and stripped from the history books and blamed on poor QB play from their frosh QB Matt Barkley. Yet, stats and logic point to the pathetic defense. Either way, they fall to 6th in Pac10 while Arizona is tied for 2nd with 3 other teams. Well done, chaps.

Washington smashed (19) California. Washington was perplexing this year. They beat USC early, but lost to a few bad teams. However, no one can disagree that they aren't going in the right direction and kudos to Steve Sarkisian for doing it so quickly.

East Carolina nipped (22) Houston despite Case Keenum hitting the multi-ball jackpot ramp 3 times to get 500+ passing yards. If you look at Keenum's numbers this year, make sure you are wearing protective lens as your eyes may pop out of your head. 43 TDs/9 INTs and 5449 yards passing with a bowl game to come. East Carolina was touch of a disappointment, but still went 9-4 with a bowl game to come. A subtle and quiet 9-4, but Skip Holtz to Notre Dame... anyone? Just a thought.

(23) West Virginia outlasted Rutgers in a mostly pointless game. West Virginia and Rutgers are two teams that could jump to Big East prominence if Brian Kelly does leave Cincy and that program goes back to meh-ness.

The Rest of What Matters:
The MAC Championship was on Friday (did you know that?) and Central Michigan won and they are now ranked... good for them. Montana, yes the D2 school, obliterated SF Austin 51-0, yes the D2 school, to continue their dominance this season (no seriously go look at their schedule/results) and upped their case for joining the Mountain West or WAC. In the only Sun Belt coverage you'll get all year, FAU beat FIU in the Shula Bowl. A late FG gave UConn a win over USF in the cold. And finally, WisCANsin smashed Hawai'i in the warm climes of Honolulu.

Be ready for our bowl picks and final final word for the season in a few weeks. Good Night, America!