The college football bowl games are set, the day after conference championship Saturday. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Championship Game will be #1 Florida State, the only remaining undefeated team, against #2 Auburn (all rankings are updated) in Pasadena, CA on January 6th. Florida State is the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champion, after routing #24 Duke 45-7. Auburn punched their ticket to the title game by beating #8 Missouri 59-42 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship game.
Auburn received the help they needed to move up in the standings, when #5 Michigan State handed #8 Ohio State their first loss of the season 34-24. In fact, this Big 10 championship game ended the nation’s longest winning streak at 24 games, which goes back to the beginning of last season. With the win, Michigan State is headed for the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, CA against #5 Stanford, who routed #14 Arizona State in the Pac 12 championship game 38-14.
The Fiesta Bowl will have #6 Baylor, who won the Big 12, by easily beating Texas 30-10, against #15 Central Florida, who won the American Athletic Conference (AAC) with an unimpressive 17-13 victory over Southern Methodist, which ended their season with a 5-7 record. Central Florida qualifies as the highest-rated non-BCS conference champion. This game will be played on January 1st in Glendale, AZ after the Rose Bowl finishes. Baylor started the day knowing they were playing for a share of the Big 12 championship, but after #11 Oklahoma beat #13 Oklahoma State 33-24 earlier in the day, then Baylor’s win gave them sole possession of the conference title.
Oklahoma earned a spot in the Sugar Bowl with that win over Oklahoma State, and will face #3 Alabama, the winner of the last 2 BCS Championships. The Sugar Bowl will take place on January 2nd in New Orleans, LA. Neither of these teams won their conference title, but earned their entry in this BCS game as an at-large bid. Both schools also have a huge following across the nation.
The Orange Bowl will feature #7 Ohio State vs. #12 Clemson on January 3rd in Miami Gardens, FL. Both of these teams are the 2nd-highest rated teams in their respective conferences. Ohio State finished behind Michigan State in the Big 10, and Clemson came in next behind Florida State in the ACC.
I’m not going to list all 35 of the bowl games, just the 5 BCS games, in their last year of existence. Now I will give you my picks for the winners of each of these games, chronologically, ending with the BCS Championship Game.
In the first BCS game of 2014, I’m going with the Stanford Cardinal over the Michigan State Spartans in a close game. Michigan State has a great defense, but Stanford is no slouch on defense either, and has a better offense. Later on New Year’s night in the Fiesta Bowl, unfortunately, I think will be a blowout win for the Baylor Bears, with their explosive offense, over the Central Florida Knights. This could be a 30-point win or more for Baylor.
On January 2nd, the Crimson Tide of Alabama takes on the Oklahoma Sooners in the Sugar Bowl. This should be a fairly easy win for Alabama, but not by 30 points. I think Alabama will shut down the Oklahoma offense pretty easily. The Orange Bowl should be a good game, and high scoring. I’m going with the Ohio State Buckeyes to win a close game against the Clemson Tigers. Ohio State will want to get revenge after losing their shot at the national championship game.
Finally, the BCS Championship Game pits the Florida State Seminoles against the Auburn Tigers. Both of these teams have dominating offenses. Auburn does almost all of their damage on the ground, while Florida State is balanced through the air and on the ground. I think the difference in this game will be on defense. Florida State has the better defense. Auburn will also have trouble containing Heisman Trophy front runner, quarterback Jameis Winston. So the 7-year streak of the SEC winning the national championship will end in the last BCS championship game (a 4-team playoff starts in January 2015) with Florida State beating Auburn.
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