The Bowl Championship Series

College Football’s National Championship

2012 Bowl Championship Series

Winners in RED

	Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. January 2, 2012 5 p.m. EST
	Wisconsin Badgers 38
vs.
	Oregon Ducks 45
	Oregon Tops Wisconsin in A Rose Bowl Battle of Offenses, 45-38 Comment: The champions of the Big Ten and Pac-12, coming off victories in each conference’s first-ever conference championship game, will face off in the single BCS bowl with the most history. And the Oregon-Wisconsin meeting might just have the most intrigue and interest among the five BCS bowls, too. Offense runs both teams’ attacks with weapons like Oregon stable of athletes (Darron Thomas, LaMichael James, De’Anthony Thomas among many others) and the Badgers’ two-headed monster in Monte Ball and Russell Wilson.
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	Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona January 2, 2012 8:30 p.m. EST
	Oklahoma State Cowboys 41
vs.
	Stanford Cardinal 38
	Oklahoma State Captures Thrilling 41-38 Victory Over Stanford in Fiesta Bowl Comment: Just missing out on the BCS title game leaves Oklahoma State to take the Big 12′s rightful place in the Fiesta Bowl, where the Cowboys will be faced with Stanford and Heisman candidate Andrew Luck in the desert. The Cowboys have a strong duo at the top of their offensive attack as well, as quarterback Brandon Weeden and wide receiver Justin Blackmon are among the best in the nation at their positions. Expect nothing less than a shootout.
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	Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, La. January 3, 2012 8:30 p.m. EST
	Michigan Wolverines 23
vs.
	Virginia Tech Hokies 20
	Michigan Gets By Virginia Tech at SEC-less Sugar Bowl in OT, 23-20 Comment: Somewhat surprise bids for both Michigan and Virginia Tech will give this Sugar Bowl a distinctively un-Sugar Bowl like feel, as no SEC team was available for the bowl to take to replace a lost team to the title game as they have in years past. Of course, the player in this game that everyone knows is Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson, but Virginia Tech comes ready with a strong offensive attack and of course a Frank Beamer coached defense and special teams. Should be a good one in the bayou as they ready for the title game a week later.
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	Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla. January 4, 2012 8:30 p.m. EST
	Clemson Tigers 33
vs.
	West Virginia Mountaineers 70
	West Virginia Blows By Clemson 70-33 in Orange Bowl Laugher Comment: The champions of the Big East and ACC meet in the Orange Bowl yet again, this time pitting West Virginia against a revitalized Clemson squad. West Virginia was the beneficiary of a three-way tiebreaker in the Big East. The Mountaineers shared the regular season crown with Louisville and Cincinnati, but by finishing highest in the final BCS standings, the Mountaineers were assured of the conference’s automatic BCS bid. Clemson topped Virginia Tech in the ACC title game, somewhat of a surprise, and got an automatic bid to the Orange Bowl in the process.
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	BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans, La. January 9, 2012 8:30 p.m. EST
	LSU Tigers 0
vs.
	Alabama Crimson Tide 21
	Alabama Captures BCS National Title, Shuts LSU Out from Perfect Season in Rematch, 21-0Comment: The matchup everyone wanted to see has turned into the rematch that most of the country clamored for. A 9-6 victory for LSU over Alabama earlier this season was obviously not enough for many of the voters, and we’ll get another chance to see the best two teams in the country go at it again. Both have world-class defenses and feature some great offensive weapons, such as Alabama running back Trent Richardson and LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson. Could we be in for another low scoring affair? Or will the offenses break out this time?

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Explanation of the BCS Bowls

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is a collective of five bowl games held in January. The Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl continue long traditions of holding important college football match ups, and a fifth BCS National Championship Game is held between the two teams the BCS rankings elect as top in the country.

Every year the championship game rotates between four traditional bowl sites in a “double hosting” format — one of the sites hosting its traditional bowl and the National Championship Game. The sites are; the Orange Bowl, held in Florida; the Rose Bowl, held in Pasadena, California; the Fiesta Bowl, held in Glendale, Arizona, and the Sugar Bowl, normally held in New Orleans.

During the 2011-12 season, the Superdome in New Orleans will hold both the traditional Sugar Bowl and the 2011 BCS National Championship Game.

2012 Bowl Championship Series Schedule

January 2 — Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
January 3 — Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, La.
January 4 — Orange Bowl in Miami, Fl.
January 5 — Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.
January 9 — BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans, La.

With five BCS bowl games scheduled, ten spots are available for teams wishing to compete in BCS bowls. As in prior years, the champions of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC shall receive automatic bids to one BCS bowl.

The four original BCS bowls hold contracts with certain BCS conferences to choose that conference’s champion. If those contracts cannot be honored, and the bowl loses its first pick to the National Championship Game, that bowl may receive first choice when picking from among the other BCS bowl eligible teams. The contracts are as follows:

Orange Bowl- Atlantic Coast Conference

Rose Bowl- Big Ten vs. Pac-12

Fiesta Bowl- Big 12

Sugar Bowl- Southeastern Conference

Six teams receive automatic bids as conference champions, leaving four “at-large” bids for the BCS bowls to fill. Teams will be eligible for selection if they finish the season ranked in the top 14 in the final BCS standings and have at least nine victories.

One champion from the mid-major conferences (not of the original six BCS automatically qualifying conferences) will automatically be selected as an at-large if they are ranked in the top 12 in the final BCS standings, released in early December, or if a champion from a mid-major conference is ranked higher than any BCS conference champion ranked among the top 16.

The mid major conferences are: Conference USA (C-USA), the Mountain West Conference (MWC), the Sun Belt Conference, the Mid-American Conference (MAC), and the Western Athletic Conferences (WAC).

Though ten spots are opened for BCS bowls, no conference will send more than two teams to any of the five BCS bowl games.

Notre Dame, an independent team not associated with any conference shall receive an automatic BCS bowl bid if they are to finish in the top eight in the final BCS standings.

A team which is ranked third in the final BCS standings, but did not win its own conference will automatically receive one of the remaining at-large bids. If the third place team is a conference champion, the fourth place team will be rewarded with a bid if they are not a conference champion.

The order of selection for the BCS Bowls after host contracts are filled are as follows:

January 2012 games: Fiesta, Sugar, Orange
January 2013 games: Fiesta, Sugar, Orange
January 2014 games: Orange, Sugar, Fiesta

Tags: BCS, bowl, championship, fiesta bowl, game, national, national championship, orange bowl, rose bowl, sugar bowl