5 best bowl games of the BCS era
It’s been almost one year since we buried the BCS.
Now that the inaugural College Football Playoff is weeks away, isn’t it time we visit the graveyard and remember all the good times the plucky ol’ BCS gave us?
The four-team playoff is great (unless you’re the Big 12), and few would argue it’s an improvement, as measured by fairness as well as growing interest in the game. But the BCS bowl system gave us some thrilling, entertaining football. Now seems like an appropriate time to remember the five best bowl games in BCS history.
5. 2000 Orange Bowl: Michigan 35, Alabama 34 (OT)
The Crimson Tide have lost some heartbreakers due to the kicking game, including “Punt, Bama, Punt,” “Kick Six” and this game, “Pflugner’s Folly.”
Future NFL MVP Shaun Alexander, operating behind future All-Pro left tackle, gashed the Wolverines for 161 yards and three touchdowns as the newly-minted SEC champions played like the decided favorites on offense.
But upstart QB Tom Brady, another future NFL MVP, found Orange Bowl MVP David Terrell for three touchdown passes, helping Michigan keep pace. The Tide blocked a field goal at the end of regulation. Both teams scored quickly in overtime, but placekicker Ryan Pflugner missed the extra point wide right.
It took Alabama a full decade to win another SEC championship. Mike DuBose went 3-8 the next season after lying about an affair with a married staffer, precipitating several coaching changes and NCAA sanctions in one of the ugliest periods of Crimson Tide football history.
That Brady guy went on to win several important NFL games in similar dramatic fashion.
4. 2014 BCS Championship: Florida State 34, Auburn 31
The system gave us one last thrill before it croaked. The Rose Bowl (Michigan State 24, Stanford 20), Fiesta Bowl (UCF 52, Baylor 42) and Orange Bowl (Clemson 40, Ohio State 35) provided top-line entertainment. Then Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston completed the most dominant season ever by a freshman with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds left to win the final BCS title game.
Auburn entered the game carrying a “team of destiny” label as SEC champions, beating Georgia on an improbable Hail Mary and Alabama by returning a missed field goal from the back of the end zone for a touchdown with no time remaining. First-year Tigers coach Gus Malzahn, QB Nick Marshall and RB Tre Mason built and then squandered a 21-3 advantage, then reclaimed the lead with 1:19 left.
Auburn fans watched in horror as Winston, already embroiled in off-field controversy, ripped out their hearts as FSU finished one of the best seasons of the BCS era a perfect 14-0.
3. 2003 Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State 31, Miami 24 (2OT)
This game had it all, which one would expect with 18 — HEY, MR. OR MISS READER, PAY ATTENTION HERE — 18(!) future first-round picks on the field.
Miami hadn’t lost in 34 games — that’s longer than Florida State’s current streak — and featured Andre Johnson, Willis McGahee, Kellen Winslow II and Roscoe Parrish. The heavy favorites then lost McGahee to one of the most gruesome college football knee injuries ever shown on live TV. Ohio State’s defense also forced five turnovers.
Maurice Clarett ran for two touchdowns and forced a fumble after a Sean Taylor interception.
The Hurricanes drilled a 40-yard field goal to send the game to the most memorable overtime in BCS history. Miami scored on the first possession and Ohio State faced fourth-and-3 from the 5-yard line, needing a first down or a score to continue the game.
Craig Krenzel threw an incomplete pass to end the game, but the officials called a pass interference on Glenn Sharpe, covering Chris Gamble.
The Buckeyes took advantage, scoring consecutive touchdowns and then stunning Miami with a goal-line stand after first-and-goal from the 2.
2. 2007 Fiesta Bowl: Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42 (OT)
The Broncos shouldered a huge burden entering this game, representing all the non-traditional powers that wanted a shot at the big boys.
Not only did Boise State prove it belonged, it proved an equal to the Sooners, then had the guts to go for the jugular.
The Bob Stoops-coached team, led by Adrian Peterson, rallied from a 28-10 deficit.
The teams combined for 22 points in the final 1:26 of regulation. The Sooners needed to convert a game-tying two-point try over and over and over, thanks to two penalties, but finally knotted the score. Then an Oklahoma pick-six gave the Sooners a late lead. But an incredible hook-and-ladder on fourth-and-18 gave the Broncos a game-tying touchdown with 18 seconds left.
Peterson got OU an overtime lead, but Boise State answered with a halfback pass for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal. Ian Johnson took a Statue of Liberty handoff on the two-point conversion, pulling off one of the most significant upsets in college football history.
Johnson then proposed to his girlfriend, a Boise State cheerleader. Hey, why not?
1. 2006 Rose Bowl: Texas 41, USC 38
The top three on this list are difficult to separate, but the outsized anticipation for this game — perhaps the most-anticipated matchup of the BCS era — still couldn’t match what happened on the field.
The Trojans, defending national champions at the height of their powers under Pete Carroll, entered the game with two Heisman Trophy winners (Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart) in addition to several other stars, like LenDale White and Dwayne Jarrett. All four played outstanding in the Rose Bowl, but their combined efforts failed against one man-child who owned the game: Vince Young.
Angry about losing the Heisman to Bush, Young came to play in the grandaddy of all grandaddies. Young threw for 267 yards and ran for 200. After USC built a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter, VY accounted for every single yard on consecutive touchdown drives either throwing or running.
Facing a fourth-and-5 with 26 seconds left, still trailing, Young dropped back to pass, scanned the field, then tucked and ran for a 9-yard touchdown and a victory.
No matter what happened in the pros, this will always go down as one of the best single-game championship performances in football history.