It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Thirty bowl games in just 22 days feature teams and matchups between schools that might never get the chance to play anytime during the season.

Thirty non-BCS bowls will feature teams from across the country. Teams that just missed out on BCS bowls, including Oklahoma, Clemson, Georgia and LSU, are among the teams participating in some of the season’s highlight games.

And with matchups like Georgia vs. Nebraska, South Carolina vs. Michigan and Oregon State vs. Texas, how could you go wrong with any of these?

All of the games are of interest, so mark your calendars and get ready for a

More to come, certainly.

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Harris Interactive College Football Poll – December 2

More to come.

Here are the rankings of the six BCS computers:

Six BCS Computer Standings – BCS Week Eight (December 2)

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And the aggregate BCS computer rankings:

BCS Computer Rankings Aggregate – BCS Week Eight (December 2)

The drama had seemingly been sucked out of the final weekend of the college football season until we figured out that a borderline non-AQ BCS buster was still possible. Still many were wary.

But then things started falling Northern Illinois’s way. After the Huskies grabbed the MAC championship from Kent State’s clutches in overtime, they sat at home and watched UCLA and Texas lose. Then they saw the thing that proved most key — Nebraska get crushed by Wisconsin.

Those things, combined with the requisite boost the Huskies got for beating previously No. 17 Kent State put the Huskies at No. 15 this week. And as we learned these last few days, that was the threshold. Finishing ahead of the Big East’s BCS representative, No. 21 Louisville, Northern Illinois is Orange Bowl bound, where the Huskies will take on Florida State.

Elsewhere the tension was somewhat minimal. As expected, undefeated Notre Dame is on its way to the BCS title game, where the Fighting Irish will find SEC champion Alabama waiting.

Conference champions Wisconsin, Stanford and Kansas State found themselves in their anchor bowls, joined by at-large Florida — the beneficiary an automatic rule including the top-ranked AQ non-champion — and at-large Oregon.

All part of the BCS’s now teenage plan to combine bowl affiliations and numbers to rank and distribute games during bowl season’s final week. Worked out pretty interestingly this year. We’ve got one more of these ahead of us. It’s been fun, now let’s enjoy bowl season.

Here are the final BCS rankings of 2012:

Final BCS Standings — December 2nd

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Some thoughts:

• BCS Know How’s Projected BCS vs. Actual BCS Rankings
  • The glaring oversight is of course at No. 16, where NIU lands a key one spot above where they needed to be.
  • Many shared that omission, but shout out to Yesh Ginsberg, who stood out and correctly predicted that NIU would have a simple time qualifying for the BCS, which they did.

The 2013 slate of BCS bowl is official, and we’ve got some intriguing matchups in store.

The BCS slate begins on New Year’s Day with the traditional Rose Bowl, followed by the Orange Bowl that night.

We’ll get the Sugar and Fiesta bowls in successive nights on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3 before we take a few days break before the Alabama-Notre Dame showdown we’ve all been anticipating finally happens.

The 10 BCS teams include six AQ conference champions, one non-AQ conference champion and two teams that did not play in their conference title games.

2013 BCS Schedule

	Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. January 1, 2013 5 p.m. EST
	Wisconsin Badgers
vs.
	Stanford Cardinal
	Comment: The Badgers will be making a third straight appearance in the Rose Bowl, but they’ve lost their last two attempts in Pasadena. Stanford is also working on a three-peat — a third trip to the BCS. But this is their first Rose Bowl in that stretch. Can Stanford win in Pasadena again?
	–
	Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla. January 1, 2013 8:30 p.m. EST
	Florida State Seminoles
vs.
	Northern Illinois Huskies
	Comment: They weren’t supposed to make it. They weren’t supposed to be able to bust the BCS this year. But Northern Illinois did just that. And they did it spectacularly, blasting six spots in one week to clinch a BCS bowl. They’ll get their reward against ACC champion Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
	–
	Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, La. January 2, 2013 8:30 p.m. EST
	Florida Gators
vs.
	Louisville Cardinals
	Comment: Florida returns to the BCS picture by finishing as the highest-ranked, AQ-conference member to not win its own division in the top four. Louisville, the Big East’s BCS representative after coming out ahead on all of the conference’s tiebreakers, is back in the BCS for just the second time. What could be in store for a Big East-SEC meeting between two schools full of talent?
	–
	Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona January 3, 2013 8:30 p.m. EST
	Kansas State Wildcats
vs.
	Oregon Ducks
	Comment: Oregon and Kansas State were set to face off in the BCS title game not too long ago. But shocking losses in short order doomed any shot the Ducks or Wildcats had at the title game. Instead we’ll get what looks like one of the best Fiesta Bowls in recent memory as the Pac-12′s longtime powerhouse Oregon takes on the Big 12 champ Kansas State.
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	BCS National Championship Game in Miami, Fla. January 7, 2013 8:30 p.m. EST
	Notre Dame Fighting Irish
vs.
	Alabama Crimson Tide
	Comment: It’s what we’ve been waiting for. Alabama, the SEC champ, gets to take on undefeated and heralded Notre Dame in a BCS title game that will definitely have the attention of the nation. Alabama will try to do the as-of-yet impossible, repeat as BCS champions. Notre Dame, appearing in its first BCS title game, will try to ruin the SEC’s six-year iron grip on the BCS title.

The tension is building.

Northern Illinois lands at No. 16 in the final regular season Coaches’ Poll, while key members of the BCS pack, UCLA (No. 19), Nebraska (No. 21) and Boise State (No. 15) pile around them.

Will it be enough? Stay tuned.

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USA Today Coaches’ Poll – December 2

After 14 heart-stopping weeks, the 2012 college football season is over, but now comes the fun part. Today, 70 spots in 35 bowl spots from the New Mexico Bowl to the BCS title game will officially be filled and finalized. And while some slots are already assured or all but guaranteed, others are still to be determined.

We’ll be here all day to answer any questions and will provide updates throughout the day here and on Twitter at @BCSKnowHow.

Chat live with us here, answer some general questions about the BCS bowl system, the BCS formula and other important information to get you through the day:

Leave questions here and on Twitter all day, or feel free to strike up a conversation with other readers. We’ll update  a Storify throughout the day with all the key developments.

]]> http://www.bcsknowhow.com/2012-bcs-selection-sunday-weekend-hub-and-live-chat/feed 2 http://www.bcsknowhow.com/projected-bcs-standings-quiet-across-the-land-as-notre-dame-and-alabama-lead-the-final-bcs-rankings-of-2012 http://www.bcsknowhow.com/projected-bcs-standings-quiet-across-the-land-as-notre-dame-and-alabama-lead-the-final-bcs-rankings-of-2012#comments Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:25:01 +0000 Asher Feldman http://www.bcsknowhow.com/?p=4945

The opportunity for chaos always stirs college football fans. And it looked like we were in store for some this year.

Six top-flight SEC teams emerged early. Oregon, Kansas State, Notre Dame, Louisville and Florida State looked every bit the flag bearer for their conferences. Chaos was certainly coming.

Then it arrived in November in the form of unbeaten Alabama, Oregon and Kansas State suffering surprising first losses. But then all was quiet.

And when all was said and done in the 2012 college football season, it was pretty clear. Notre Dame, on the strength on an undefeated season, and Alabama, winners of the battle-testing SEC, will finish 1-2 in the final BCS standings and meet for the BCS title at the end of the expansive bowl season.

Championship weekend served as a clarifying moment for many of the thing college football fans thought we knew, but couldn’t guarantee. Alabama, Florida State, Stanford, Louisville, Wisconsin and Kansas State secured BCS bids in traditional fashion.

Florida, tomorrow’s No. 3 team will claim a bid as the top-ranked member of a AQ conference to not actually win that conference. Oregon, set to land at No. 5 with one overtime loss to Rose Bowl-bound Stanford, will almost certainly be snatched up by a BCS bowl right away. That’s nine.

Then that 10th and final bid.

Coming into the weekend it was all about the non-AQ and the chance at a BCS buster. But the hope will stop here. Not enough happened for the MAC champion Northern Illinois or MWC champion Boise State to make a BCS bowl bid. And so, for a second straight year, we will forgo the non-AQ storyline taker and have a set of BCS bowls with 10 AQ conference members.

The best shot the non-AQs had at a BCS bowl was Northern Illinois. And the Huskies will just miss out at No. 17. That’s the long and short of it.

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We’ll be here to take you through the entire process tomorrow — human polls, computer rankings, bowl pairings and BCS rankings  Follow along @BCSKnowHow and right here to stay up to the second with projections, mathematical breakdowns of the computers, human polls and everything in between. We’ll put up a chat room for questions and general discussion, too.

Got all that? Hope so.

Here’s what the final BCS standings will likely look like when they are released tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN:

Projected BCS Standings – BCS Week Eight (December 2nd)

Once again we’ve come to the end of the college football season with questions to be answered about the BCS.

While Saturday was incredibly clarifying when it came to many of the BCS spots, as it always is, there is drama to be played out in the polls, the computer and the selection committees on Sunday.

The non-AQ debate rages. Will Northern Illinois or Boise State crack the set of BCS bowls?

Either way, it’s been as fun as it always is. Let’s get ready for bowl season.

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BCS National Championship Game: Notre Dame Fighting Irish (BCS No. 1) vs. Alabama Crimson Tide (BCS No. 2)

Comment: It played out just right this year for Notre Dame and Alabama to meet in what could be the biggest name pairing in the history of the BCS title game. Two programs, each with big accomplishments in 2012 — Notre Dame’s undefeated season, Alabama’s SEC title — will meet for the BCS crown at the end of another expansive bowl season. The Crimson Tide just did enough against Georgia in the SEC title game to claim this spot and set up every BCS executive’s dream matchup.

Rose Bowl: Stanford Cardinal (Pac-12 champion) vs. Wisconsin Badgers (Big Ten champion)

Comment: Stanford did what it needed to do — beat UCLA twice in six days, including in the Pac-12 Championship Game — to make their way to the Rose Bowl as the Pac-12′s champion. Nebraska, on the other hand, did not do what it needed against Wisconsin, instead slipping to the Badgers when it mattered most, and giving Wisconsin a third straight bid to the Rose Bowl. Wisconsin’s Big Ten title comes in a year where they also recorded five losses, the most a BCS bowl bound team has ever had.

Sugar Bowl: Florida Gators (At-large selection) vs. Oklahoma Sooners (At-large selection)

Comment: Florida automatically qualifies for the BCS with its No. 3 final ranking, which they receive by just passing Georgia, who saw a chance at a national title shot slip away. Oklahoma, while unable to claim the Big 12′s BCS bid outright, instead makes their way to a BCS bowl on the strength of a season that came up just short of the top of the BCS. Losses to Kansas State and Notre Dame kept Oklahoma at bay, while a lone loss to Georgia kept Florida out of the SEC title game. But both find some sanctuary in the BCS anyways.

Orange Bowl: Florida State Seminoles (ACC champion) vs. Louisville Cardinals (Big East champion)

Comment: One played in a de facto conference championship game, the other in a real one. But when it mattered the most, Florida State and Louisville stepped up against Georgia Tech and Rutgers, respectively, and will meet in the Orange Bowl as representatives of their respective conferences. For Florida State, a team that was once a perennial BCS contender, the Orange Bowl is its first since 2006, while Louisville heads to the BCS for just the second time in school history.

Fiesta Bowl: Oregon Ducks (At-large selection) vs. Kansas State Wildcats (Big 12 champion)

Comment: Both must wonder what could have been. Two teams seemingly destined for the BCS title game fell one November night within minutes of each other. And with too little time to climb back into the title race, Oregon and Kansas State are relegated to the Fiesta Bowl for what should be an incredibly interesting matchup. Oregon was left at home watching Stanford and UCLA battle for a Rose Bowl bid, but will land softly at the Fiesta Bowl, while Kansas State’s Big 12 regular season title locked them into this bowl.

Johnny Manziel

Johnny Manziel’s redshirt freshman season was something of revelation for a conference that had already seen the likes of dual-threat quarterbacks Cam Newton and Tim Tebow dominate the nation and the conference in Heisman-winning years. But as Manziel rose to national prominence and broke the record for all-purpose yards first set by Tebow and then broken by Newton, his ability and Heisman potential was undeniable.

The 19-year-old they call Johnny Football finished with 3,419 passing yards, 1,181 rushing yards and 43 combined touchdowns — a stat line that would knock people out from a senior, but one that came from a redshirt freshman. There is little wonder so many believe Manziel is on track to become the first freshman winner in the trophy’s history.

Manti Te’o

Manti Te’o became a household name and the most visible defensive player in the country in 2012, and it wasn’t because of his nation-leading seven interceptions for a linebacker. It wasn’t his 1.5 sacks or 103 tackles, the second and third best performances in those categories in his four-year career.

No, instead, Te’o became the vocal leader of a Notre Dame team that surprised everyone by making their way from a fringe preseason top-25 to the nearly undisputed No. 1 team in the country and earning a berth in the national title. That alone — being the best and most visible player on the nation’s No. 1 team — means a lot in the Heisman race, and Te’o took advantage.

Marqise Lee

Few, if any, pegged Marqise Lee as USC’s leading Heisman hope headed into the 2012 season. But when quarterback Matt Barkley faded toward the middle of the season, Lee’s named slowly but surely crept up into the national radar. Despite his quarterback’s relatively lackluster production, Lee showed an uncanny ability to put up mind bending numbers. Capped by a 469-total-yard, two-touchdown day against Arizona,

Lee accounted for 1,680 yards receiving and 14 touchdowns — both career highs for the sophomore.

Collin Klein

Collin Klein’s season was a lot of things, but it certainly was not boring. Up and down, Klein provided the spark behind a Kansas State team that made its way to the top of the BCS rankings, but suffered such a crushing loss on national television in primetime that neither their BCS impact nor Klein’s Heisman hopes could be revived.

Still, Kansas State is on its way to a BCS bowl, and that’s thanks in large part to Klein, who was the trophy’s front-runner until a kid named Johnny Football showed up and stole the dual-threat quarterback attention of the country. Klein finished the year with 37 combined touchdowns on the ground and through the air, a season that will certainly get some Heisman attention, but will likely fall short in the end.

Braxton Miller

Braxton Miller had an unusual sophomore campaign at the helm of Ohio State. Leading a team ineligible for postseason play in a down year for the Big Ten conference, Miller was spectacular, passing for 2,039 yards and rushing for 1,271 more to go with 28 combined touchdowns. Most importantly, Miller led the Buckeyes, with little to play for but each other and their coaches, on an undefeated run through their regular season.

Sure, many discounted the Buckeyes’ 12-0 finish to the year because of their relatively weak schedule, but Miller’s dominance was undeniable at times. Though the sophomore will likely not get the trophy this year, he will certainly have a lot to say about the 2013 Heisman race.