The BCS

The Bowl Championship Series will see its 10 year this upcoming January. In its short history it has provided a wealth of drama, controversial, and good old fun for those who watch. The worst controversy we saw came in 2002 with Nebraska jumping Colorado and Oregon to get destroyed by Miami in the National Championship (Also note Colorado's stampede over Nebraska earlier in the season 62-36). Other than that, I feel that the BCS has provided a fair system in a sport that has 119 teams anyway. I like the BCS. The bowl games are a fun tradition that have provided a very unique post season. But, onto this year.

The Rose Bowl
This year the Rose Bowl will be played in by the 11-1 Big 10 Champions Penn State Nittany Lions and the 11-1 Pac 10 Champions USC Trojans. This will be one of the more exciting BCS games because 1) I'm a PSU fan, and 2) PSU has been a just short of Cinderella Story on the heels of an ugly few years in which PSU fans have turned on their (relatively) stout leader, JoePa Paterno. Also, the Trojans are on the end of another fantastic season in which they have stayed comfortable in the top 10, and see, in my opinion, the best defense in the nation.
My prediction: PSU 14 - 10 USC

The FedEx Orange Bowl
This year the Orange Bowl will be played in by the 11-2 Big East Champions Cincinatti Bearcats and the 9-4 ACC Champions Virginia Tech Hokies. Every year there is one BCS bowl that is weaker than the rest, and this year, this is the bowl. (It usually happens to be between the Big East and ACC). Though I'll give credit to Cincinatti, while not being considerably formidable, they are about to take their show to the big stage for the first time in a long time. VaTech, on the other hand, has not had a strong showing this year (as none of the ACC teams have).
My prediction: VaTech 28 - 21 Cincinatti

The AllState Sugar Bowl
This year the Sugar Bowl will be played in by the 12-1 SEC West Champions Alabama Crimson Tide and the 12-0 Mountain West Campions Utah Utes. This game is Alabama's unfortunate consolation game. They were one win away from going the distance and doing what none of the NC contenders had done, win them all. Granted, Alabama had not had a terrifying schedule as the Big 12 Southies had, they were still able to stage off the upsets suffered by USC, Florida, and PSU. The Utes, on the other hand, come in as the highest ranking undefeated team. It takes a lot for a non-Notre Dame/non-BCS conference school to get into the big show, but Boise State and Utah have, in recent years, been the exception. You can look for a strong offensive game here as both Utah and 'Bama have formidable QBs.
My Prediction: Bama 42 - 31 Utah

The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
This year the Fiesta Bowl will be played in by the 11-1 Big 12 At-Large Texas Longhorns and the 10-2 Big 10 At-Large Ohio State Buckeyes. This game sees a Texas team that is as strong as ever behind QB Colt McCoy and a relatively struggling Buckeyes team led by Freshmen QB Terrelle Pryor. Its hard to keep OSU out of a BCS game it seems these days, and I think this time Tressel may not have wanted to come. Texas, having only suffered a heartbreaker against Texas Tech, is good enough to play in and win the NC, but is still only one of the many teams in the BCS who have the unsightly 1-loss stamp.
My prediction: Texas 45 - 24 OSU

The 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship
This year, the Big Game will be played in by the 12-1 Nationally Ranked #1 SEC Champions Florida Gators and the 12-1 Nationally Ranked #2 Big 12 Champions Oklahoma Sooners. This game is the proverbial clash of the titans of the titans. The SEC had not had as strong of a showing as before but provided for the most anticipated game of the season next to this game here with Bama vs UF. And the Big-12 South had seen a dominating performance in the Top 5 with Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State cycling through. However, after all was said and done, Oklahoma broke the tie-breaker and leaped over the small stepping stone that was the Big 12 Championship game.

This game will not disappoint. On January 9th, you will not hear shouts of "Shenanigans!" because you will see why each team deserved to be there. Oklahoma's offense beat up on everyone like you would expect a veteran gamer to beat up on D1-AA schools on Easy in NCAA 2009. They put up an average of 50 points a game. Yeah. Florida is no school to let down, either. They have a Heisman playmaker in Tim Tebow on offense, and shut down defense that is up to par with past SEC national title winners. Not to mention that Florida is THE hottest team heading into the bowl season this year.

My prediction: Oklahoma 38 - 35 Florida