Eli Manning threw for 259 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score, leading No. 16 Mississippi to a 31-28 victory over No. 21 Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl on Friday.
Ole Miss had since played in January only twice, both in the Gator Bowl, losing to Auburn in Archie Manning's final game in 1971 and to Michigan in 1991.
PHOTO: AP
Manning's 1-yard keeper in the fourth quarter capped a 97-yard drive, and ended a streak of 24 straight points by Ole Miss (10-3), which finished with its first 10-win season since 1971.
PHOTO: AP
Rashaun Woods set Cotton Bowl records with 11 catches for 223 yards for the Cowboys (9-4), including a 17-yard touchdown.
Oklahoma State's Josh Fields set a Cotton Bowl record with 307 yards on 21-of-33 passing. The junior's touchdown gave him 55 in his career, breaking the school record set by offensive coordinator Mike Gundy (1986-89).
PHOTO: AP
Peach Bowl
Clemson 27, No. 6 Tennessee 14
In Atlanta, Chad Jasmin ran for a career-high 130 yards and a touchdown, helping Clemson upset Tennessee.
Kyle Browning and Duane Coleman added touchdown runs, leading the Tigers (9-4) to their fourth straight victory.
The Volunteers (10-3) lost the Peach Bowl for the second straight season, although the score was a bit closer than the 30-3 rout by Maryland a year ago. In this one, they committed 10 penalties, including two for pass interference, two for unsportsmanlike conduct and two for roughing quarterback Charlie Whitehurst.
Aaron Hunt kicked two field goals for Clemson, which gave the Atlantic Coast Conference its third straight Peach Bowl victory.
Casey Clausen, a four-year starter playing in his final game for the Volunteers, threw for 384 yards and two touchdowns. But Tennessee got little from its running game, finishing with 38 yards on 26 carries.
Fiesta Bowl
No. 7 Ohio State 35,
No. 8 Kansas State 28
In Tempe, Arizona, Craig Krenzel left college football with another Fiesta Bowl triumph and another Most Valuable Player award as No. 7 Ohio State held off No. 8 Kansas State.
Ell Roberson's comeback, meanwhile, fell one touchdown short in a game many thought he would not play.
Krenzel, who finished his Ohio State career 24-3 as a starter, matched his career high with four touchdown passes -- two each to Michael Jenkins and Santonio Holmes.
Roberson got the start despite a sexual-assault accusation by a woman early Wednesday, an incident that tarnished Kansas State's first Bowl Championship Series trip. He brought the Wildcats back from deficits of 21-0 and 35-14.
After a 3-for-13 start, Roberson completed 20 of 52 passes for 294 yards and one interception. He ran for 32 yards.
Sugar bowl
Oklahoma vs. Louisiana State
In the fairy-tale world of college football, in which apples and oranges are compared, voters who watched Southern California abuse Michigan on Thursday in the Rose Bowl have concluded that the Trojans are Kings of the Hill.
Before Oklahoma and Louisiana State even play a down in the Sugar Bowl here Sunday night, the University of Southern California is being hailed as the People's Champion.
I inadvertently fed into this feeling a couple of weeks ago, when the computers cheated USC out of its rightful place in Bowl Championship Series title game. But my criticism of the BCS was hardly intended to make USC the People's Champion.
First of all, there is no way a private college in Southern California can be the People's Champion. This defies logic, but so does the broken BCS system.
Bob Stoops, the Oklahoma coach, was asked about the movement to make USC the People's Champion. He made an observation that came close to trash talking.
"Everybody claimed that the Dallas Cowboys were America's Team and it didn't bother Pittsburgh a whole lot," he said. "So I don't think it'll bother LSU or Oklahoma, whoever is crowned champions of the BCS and the Sugar Bowl."
Many of the voters in the AP poll will probably crown USC on the basis of what it did against Michigan, a team that was flawed -- from its inability to play on the road to its lack of explosiveness on offense. USC would have had a difficult time contending with Oklahoma in the Big 12 or with LSU in the Southeastern Conference. But let me stop: this is precisely the sort of speculation the BCS svengalis like. They like controversy. They think the news media like controversy.
I would rather write about the finite: about playoffs that end with a clear-cut champion. The people who will favor voting USC as No. 1 have this much correct: Oklahoma and LSU are virtually in a no-win situation. If the Sooners win, critics will say they were supposed to win. If Oklahoma loses, the defeat would confirm recent popular sentiment that it wasn't that good to begin with. And LSU, bless its heart ... there's no way the Tigers can win unless they beat the daylights out of Oklahoma.
With that in mind, here's my scenario: I would like LSU to rout Oklahoma, 49-0, just to throw the voting into complete chaos. A rout of that magnitude would pay back Oklahoma for running up the score in its 77-0 victory over Texas A&M. And it would throw a well-deserved wrench in the BCS system and restore faith in the underdog.
"We're going to learn a lot from this system," Nick Saban, the understated LSU coach, said Friday. "Even though this hasn't been an especially good experience for all of us, because we all couldn't be picked to play in this game, it's something that can make us better in the future."
Saban has become a compelling figure the last few weeks. His name has been mentioned as a possible candidate to be an NFL coach. His serious demeanor has created the veneer of an intense, no-nonsense - no-fun - competitor. However, he put some of that to rest Friday when someone asked if he were happy to be miserable.
"I am happy," Saban said. "I wish I naturally smiled, but it's important for me to be who I am. I believe in honesty, integrity, loyalty. I try to be truthful and tell you what I believe and think. It's serious to me."
Saban will be extremely happy if LSU wins. His contract calls for him to become the highest-paid coach in college football if LSU wins the national championship. Stoops is currently the highest-paid college football coach at $2.2 million plus incentives.
This is what gets me about the moralizing of college presidents. They have no problem paying coaches more than their faculty, then they cry "protect the student-athlete" when critics propose aligning Division I-A football with every other college sport by having playoffs.
The reality is that bowl repre-sentatives are an impressive lobby and make persuasive arguments for their preservation. In a letter a few weeks ago, Keith Tribble, the chairman of the Football Bowl Association and chief executive of the Orange Bowl Committee, argued that a proposed playoff format "would not fit the goals and expectations of the college football community."
He wrote: "College football has the best, most closely followed regular season of all sports because the BCS has helped to create a structure wherein every game is important."
Tribble argues that playoffs would diminish the regular season. "Millions closely follow college football games and the BCS polls every week, not just during the postseason. Instead of increasing excitement around college football, a playoff system would diminish the importance of regular-season games."
Tribble also refers to preserving the passion of the regular season.
What college presidents want to preserve is the money they receive from the 28 bowl games. Tribble says the bowls will pay out more than US$2.1 billion over the next 10 years.
All I know is that in this world of Chamber of Commerce college football, in which the unbridled passion of youth funds 28 individual fiefs, the adults always win.
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