Oklahoma Wraps Up Orange Bowl Berth

NORMAN, Okla. -- No. 2 Oklahoma (12-0) is headed to the BCS National Championship Game at the Orange Bowl to play No. 1 USC (12-0) for all the marbles.

The Sooners routed Colorado, 42-3, on Saturday night in Kansas City to earn the Big 12 Conference title.

OU will play in the National Championship Game for the third time in five seasons on January 4, 2005.

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As expected, a perfect regular season was not good enough for Auburn. Unlike California, the Tigers have a lucrative bowl game awaiting them.

Final 2004 BCS Standings | 2005 FedEx Orange Bowl

Southern California and Oklahoma finished 1-2 in the final Bowl Championship Series poll released Sunday, meaning the Trojans and Sooners will meet for the national championship at the Orange Bowl in Miami on January 4.

Auburn (12-0) started the season 17th in the media poll and 18th in the coaches' poll, and despite becoming the first team in six years to go unbeaten in the rugged Southeastern Conference, the Tigers never were able to completely catch up to the Trojans and Sooners, who began the campaign 1-2 in both polls and finished there in the poll that matters most.

USC (12-0), which edged UCLA on Saturday, 29-24, earned an average of .9770 and Oklahoma .9681, while Auburn was at .9331. The Sooners (12-0) thrashed Colorado in the Big 12 Championship, 42-3, while the Tigers beat Tennessee, 38-28, in the SEC Championship.

But as the SEC champions, the Tigers still will earn a substantial payoff for playing in the Sugar Bowl, where they will meet Atlantic Coast Conference champion Virginia Tech.

"We are thrilled to be playing in the Sugar Bowl for the first time in more than 15 years," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "We are excited to be representing the Southeastern Conference as its champion. We are looking forward to celebrating a great season with our fans in an outstanding bowl environment in New Orleans."

Cal (10-1) remained fourth in both human polls but lost ground to Texas (10-1) after only beating Southern Mississippi by 26-16 on Saturday in a hurricane-postponed contest.

As a result, the Longhorns (.8476) leapfrogged the Golden Bears (.8347) for fourth place in the BCS poll. Last week, Cal was at .8431 and Texas .8418.

Cal was hoping to play in the Rose Bowl for the first time in 46 years but instead will see Texas meet Big Ten winner Michigan (9-2) in Pasadena on January 1. The Bears will play in the Holiday Bowl against a Big 12 team on December 30 - a payout of more than $10 million less than they would have received against the Wolverines.

Texas, which will be in a BCS bowl for the first time, is going to its first Rose Bowl and is meeting Michigan for the first time.

"As happy as we are today, we really feel sorry for Cal," said Texas coach MackBrown, whose team was sixth in the final BCS poll in 2003. "Last year we were in their position."

"Something needs to be done somewhere," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "Every year something comes up like this."

As expected, Utah (11-0) became the first team from outside the six BCS conferences to earn a spot in one of the four lucrative bowls. The Utes are to face Big East Conference champion Pittsburgh (8-3) - which is just 21st in the BCS poll - in the Fiesta Bowl.

A team from one of the five "Coalition" conferences merely had to finish in the top six to earn a spot in a BCS bowl. Utah finished sixth at .8181 - well ahead of seventh-place Georgia (.6966).

Because Utah earned an at-large BCS bowl berth, either Cal or Texas had to get left out, and the Bears' relatively unimpressive performance against Southern Miss cost them dearly.

"We're obviously very disappointed," Tedford said. "If you have to go in and blow people out, I don't know if that serves the integrity of the game."

In an interesting twist, Utah coach Urban Meyer is leaving to take over the same position at Florida, but he refused to discuss the matter on ABC's BCS selection show. "Obviously, today is about the University of Utah," he said.

At the end of last season, USC was ranked first in both the media and coaches' polls but sat third in the BCS standings behind Louisiana State and Oklahoma, which went on to play in the Sugar Bowl.

LSU beat the Sooners while USC beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl, leading to a split national championship and an overhaul of the BCS formula.

This year, the formula consists of three evenly weighed elements: a team's percentage of points in both the media poll and coaches' polls and an average of four computer ratings. The formula no longer has a strength-of-schedule component - though the computers do account for it - nor are teams penalized a point for each loss or rewarded for a quality win.

The teams' poll percentages consist of their number of voting points divided by the maximum amount available in each poll, 1,625 in the media poll and 1,525 in the coaches' poll. These numbers better reflect how writers and coaches view relative differences between the teams than a straight average of the two polls.

Six computer rankings are used this season: Anderson & Hester, Jeff Sagarin, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey and Peter Wolfe. The best and worst rating for each team is ignored, with the remaining four totals added together and divided by 100 to produce a ratings percentage.

BCS members include the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern Conferences as well as Notre Dame. The format calls for the championship game to be rotated among the Orange, Rose, Sugar and Fiesta Bowls.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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