Reggie Bush had two long touchdown runs, Ryan Killeen kicked five field goals and No. 1 USC held off UCLA 29-24 on Saturday to virtually lock up a trip to the Orange Bowl for the Bowl Championship Series title game.
The final BCS standings and bowl pairings will be announced Sunday. The Trojans (12-0, 8-0 Pac-10) have been ranked No. 1 all season in both The Associated Press Top 25 and coaches polls and, most importantly, the BCS standings.
PHOTO: AP
USC was the odd team out last winter, when it finished atop both polls after the regular season but third in the final BCS standings. The Trojans won the AP national championship and LSU beat Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl to win the BCS title.
PHOTO: AP
The Trojans completed the fifth perfect regular season in school history with their 21st straight victory.
Bush gained a career-high 204 yards on 15 carries -- most on a 65-yard touchdown run on the game's second play and an 81-yard dash midway through the second quarter.
Matt Leinart completed his first 10 passes for 64 yards, but the Heisman contender didn't throw a TD pass for the first time in 25 career starts. He wound up going 24-of-34 for 242 yards with one interception.
Drew Olson completed 20 of 34 passes for 278 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions for UCLA (6-5, 4-4), which will play in the Insight Bowl or the Las Vegas Bowl.
No. 2 Oklahoma 42, Colorado 3
In Kansas City, Missouri, Jason White threw for three touchdowns and Adrian Peterson ran for three more to pace the Sooners in the Big 12 title game.
Barring a sudden change in the BCS, Oklahoma (12-0) will play No. 1 Southern Cal for its eighth national title Jan. 4 in the Orange Bowl.
White finished with 254 yards and threw all his touchdowns during the first 15:07. Two went to Mark Clayton, who made a sweet, reaching, fingertip catch on the second for a 21-0 lead. Clayton finished with eight catches for 108 yards.
Peterson surpassed the century mark in the second quarter for his 11th 100-yard rushing game, an NCAA record for a freshman. He finished with 172 yards and saved the best for last -- breaking six tackles for a darting, spinning 32-yard score and a 42-3 lead.
Colorado (7-5) didn't get a first down without the aid of a penalty until the 9:35 mark of the third quarter.
No. 3 Auburn 38,
No. 15 Tennessee 28
In Atlanta, Jason Campbell threw for three touchdowns and accounted for more than 400 yards, leading the Tigers to a 38-28 victory in the SEC championship game.
Campbell did all he could to get the Tigers to the Orange Bowl, but Auburn will probably have to settle for the Sugar Bowl. He completed 27-of-35 for 374 yards -- the first 300-yard passing game of his career. He also rushed for 57 yards, setting an SEC championship game record with 431 yards total offense.
Tennessee (9-3) rallied to tie the game at 21 on Gerald Riggs Jr.'s 80-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Then, Tennessee pulled to 31-28 with just over 10 minutes remaining when Riggs rumbled for a 9-yard TD.
Campbell would not be denied. He finished off the Volunteers with his final touchdown, a 43-yard pass to Ben Obomanu with 6:56 remaining.
Riggs gained 182 yards on just 11 carries for Tennessee, the first runner in 17 games to surpass 100 yards against the fearsome Auburn defense.
No. 4 California 26,
Southern Miss. 16
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, J.J. Arrington ran for 261 yards, Aaron Rodgers threw two touchdown passes and the Golden Bears scored on a bizarre special-teams play in their win over Southern Mississippi.
Arrington, the nation's fourth-leading rusher, surpassed the 100-yard mark for the school-record 11th straight game for California (10-1), which learns Sunday if the closer-than-expected victory will result in its first Rose Bowl bid since 1959.
Rodgers was 15-for-28 for 223 yards for Cal, which had 546 total yards and finished with 10 regular-season wins for the first time since 1949.
Southern Miss, a 24-point underdog, pulled to 17-16 on Dustin Almond's 1-yard touchdown run with 5:56 to play.
But Darren McCaleb's potential game-tying extra-point attempt was blocked by Thomas DeCoud. Wendell Hunter returned it 85 yards for two points, giving Cal a 19-16 lead.
Almond threw for a career-high 304 yards on 17-of-37 passing for Southern Miss (6-5), which plays North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 14.
No. 10 Virginia Tech 16,
No. 9 Miami 10
In Miami, Virginia Tech capped its inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference season with a championship, getting two touchdown passes from Bryan Randall and holding Miami's high-powered offense to 190 yards.
Eddie Royal caught a 39-yard touchdown pass from Randall with 11:29 remaining, putting No. 10 Virginia Tech (10-2, 7-1) ahead to stay.
Virginia Tech will learn Sunday to which Bowl Championship Series bowl it's headed; the probable choice is the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 3. Miami (8-3, 5-3) -- which was the only team to play in the BCS each of the past four seasons, and would have extended that streak with a win Saturday -- will play Florida in the Peach Bowl on New Year's Eve.
Navy 42, Army 13
In Philadelphia, Aaron Polanco threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score as Navy routed Army in the 105th meeting between the US military colleges.
President George W. Bush attended the game for the first time since 2001 at Veterans Stadium, taking part in the coin toss by flipping a commemorative coin sent from the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
Bowl-bound Navy (9-2) hadn't won nine games since Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach quarterbacked the Midshipmen to a 9-1 record in 1963. Navy has won five of the last six meetings to tie the overall series at 49-49-7. The Midshipmen have outscored Army 134-31 in the last three games.
No. 7 Louisville 55, Tulane 7
In New Orleans, Stefan LeFors, who played high school football in nearby Baton Rouge, threw for one touchdown and ran for another to lead Louisville to its fifth straight game of at least 55 points.
The nation's top-rated passer completed 19 of 27 for 247 yards before leaving the game late in the third quarter.
The Cardinals (10-1, 8-0 Conference USA), ranked first nationally in scoring, were averaging nearly 50 points a game.
No. 19 Pittsburgh 43,
South Florida 14
In Tampa, Florida, Tyler Palko threw for a career-high 411 yards and five touchdowns and the Panthers virtually assured themselves the Big East's spot in the Bowl Championship Series.
Greg Lee scored on receptions of 18, 6 and 7 yards for Pitt (8-3), while Malcolm Postell returned one of his two interceptions 15 yards for a TD that gave his team a 13-0 lead less than five minutes into the game.
Palko completed 19 of 28 passes and finished his afternoon in the third quarter by throwing for two scores in the last 1:27 of the third quarter.
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