BCS National Championship Game 2007

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Florida Gators

(12-1)

Head coach: Urban Meyer
AP Rank: 2
Coaches Rank: 2
BCS Rank: 2
BCS National Championship Game 2007
Bowl Game
Florida Gators at Ohio State Buckeyes		 Ohio State Buckeyes

(12-0)

Head coach: Jim Tressel
AP Rank: 1
Coaches Rank: 1
BCS Rank: 1
1 2 3 4 Total
Florida
Ohio State
January 8, 2007 - University of Phoenix Stadium


2007 BCS National Championship Game
Image:BCS.png
Date January 8, 2007
Stadium University of Phoenix Stadium
City Glendale, Arizona
MVP
Favorite Ohio State -7.5
National anthem
Halftime show
Attendance
United States TV Coverage
Network FOX
Announcers Thom Brennaman, Barry Alvarez, and Charles Davis


The Tostitos BCS National Championship Game or BCS Title Game for the 2006 season will be played on January 8, 2007 at the University of Phoenix Stadium. The BCS #1 Ohio State Buckeyes will play the BCS #2 Florida Gators. The Ohio State Buckeyes secured a spot by finishing the regular season undefeated and ranked #1 in the BCS. The 12-1 Florida Gators earned a spot after defeating Arkansas in the SEC title game and jumping from #4 to #2 in the final BCS ranking, passing Michigan and USC.

FOX will telecast the game beginning at 8 PM EST/5 PM PST.

Contents

[edit] Pre-game buildup

The Ohio State Buckeyes have been the #1 ranked team all year, anchored by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Troy Smith. The Buckeyes are 12-0 with several wins over ranked opponents. The Buckeyes defeated the defending national champions, then #2 Texas Longhorns, then #24 Penn State Nittany Lions, then #13 Iowa, and their then undefeated Big Ten rival, then #2 Michigan. The win over Michigan to finish the season essentially guaranteed the Buckeyes a spot in the National Championship game. Who they would play remained a highly-debated question. Despite the loss to Ohio State, Michigan remained #2 in the polls, followed by #3 USC, #4 Florida, and #5 Notre Dame.

The next week, with both #1 Ohio State and #2 Michigan's regular season being complete, #3 USC defeated then #5 Notre Dame. #4 Florida defeated unranked in-state rival Florida State. With the victory over Notre Dame, USC passed Michigan in the polls, taking over the #2 spot. Michigan fell to #3 with Florida remaining #4 and Notre Dame falling to #10.

The last week of the regular season football was very dramatic for the national championship race. #3 Michigan was idle. #4 Florida faced #9 Arkansas in the SEC Championship while #2 USC faced unranked, in-city rival UCLA. Both Florida and Michigan cheered as #2 USC fell to UCLA 13-9. #4 Florida defeated #8 Arkansas to claim the SEC championship. USC's loss knocked them out of contention, leaving #3 Michigan and #4 Florida as the most likely teams to face Ohio State for the BCS National Championship. The final BCS poll had Florida passing over Michigan to take the #2 spot while Michigan remained unchanged at #3. A mere .0101 points separated #2 Florida from #3 Michigan. This small difference was a result of the human polls (USA Today's Coaches' Poll and Harris Interactive Poll) ranking Florida above Michigan while the computer polls had the two teams tied for second.

[edit] Controversy over #2: Rematch or new opponent?

There were many theories how Florida jumped Michigan in the final poll. Some conclude that it was not a matter of which was the better team, claiming Florida had an advantage in the polls because they had played the last two weeks while Michigan had not, or that voters were swayed due to Florida coach Urban Meyer's campaign to get Florida into the BCS National Championship Game.[1][2][3] The fact that the difference in the final BCS Poll was due to human voters, not computer rankings, gives some credence to these theories. Other theories suggest that since Michigan did not win their conference title, they did not deserve to play for the BCS National Championship, or that a rematch between Michigan and Ohio State was not favored by the poll voters.[4]

[edit] See Also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Forde, Pat (December 4, 2006). Whining, politics, voting reversals part of BCS system (English) (HTML). ESPN.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
  2. ^ Wojciechowski, Gene (December 4, 2006). Florida's fine, but how is Michigan left out? (English) (HTML). ESPN.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
  3. ^ Albom, Mitch (December 4, 2006). U-M wronged by BCS voters (English) (HTML). Detroit Free Press. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
  4. ^ Coulter, Jay (December 4, 2006). Ohio State-Florida Was The Right Choice (English) (HTML). AOLSports.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.


2006-07 Division I-A College football Bowl Game season
Poinsettia (Dec. 19) • Las Vegas (Dec. 21) • New Orleans (Dec. 22) • PapaJohns.com (Dec. 23) • New Mexico (Dec. 23) • Armed Forces (Dec. 23) • Hawai'i (Dec. 24) • Motor City (Dec. 26) • Independence (Dec. 27) • Emerald (Dec. 27) • Holiday (Dec. 28) • Texas (Dec. 28) • Music City (Dec. 29) • Sun (Dec. 29) • Liberty (Dec. 29) • Insight (Dec. 29) • Champs Sports (Dec. 29) • Meineke Car Care (Dec. 30) • Alamo (Dec. 30) • Chick-fil-A (Dec. 30) • MPC Computers (Dec. 31) • Outback (Jan. 1) • Cotton (Jan. 1) • Gator (Jan. 1) • Capital One (Jan. 1) • International (Jan. 6) • GMAC (Jan. 7)
Bowl Championship Series games:
Rose Bowl (Jan. 1) Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 1) Orange Bowl (Jan. 2) Sugar Bowl (Jan. 3) BCS National Championship (Jan. 8)
All-Star Games: North-South All-Star Classic (Jan. 13) • Hula Bowl (Jan. 14) • Las Vegas All-American Classic (Jan. 15) • East-West Shrine Game (Jan. 20) • Senior Bowl (Jan. 27) • Texas vs. The Nation Game (Feb. 2)
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