BCS championship: Florida State vs. Auburn will play for title

For weeks it looked certain that the BCS would go out with a bang.
Undefeated teams from power conferences were piling up with space for only two in Pasadena on Jan. 6.
But a series of upsets, culminating with Michigan State’s win against Ohio State on Saturday night wrapped up the final BCS matchup nice and neat.
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Florida State, No. 1 in the final BCS standings, will play No. 2 Auburn, which began the season unranked and bull-rushed its way through the field one season after finishing 3-9 and 0-8 in the SEC.
It's a matchup that most didn't see when the season began. In fact, Sporting News ranked FSU No. 18 to start the season. As for Auburn, SN had the Tigers finishing fifth in the SEC West. "Guarded optimism has greeted the start of the Malzahn era on the Plains, but despite Auburn's rocket ride to glory in 2010, realistic fans know the Tigers' football fortunes won't be rebuilt in one season," SN wrote in its preseason analysis.
The Seminoles will be making their second consecutive BCS bowl appearance. Last season, they beat Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl.

Auburn QB Nick Marshall (AP Photo)

“I built our program like I thought we need to build it to win a championship,” said FSU coach Jimbo Fisher, who is a former QB coach at Auburn. “We don’t model ourselves after nobody. We’re Florida State, we do things the way we do them and the way I think you have to play to win a championship and the kind of team you have to have to win a championship. That’s the way I think we tried to build this team.”

The Seminoles (12-0) moved just ahead of Oregon into the No. 2 spot in Week 11. After the Ducks lost to Stanford, the discussion turned to which team — No. 2 FSU or No. 3 Ohio State — would play top-ranked Alabama for the BCS title.
Then Auburn stunned Alabama on the game’s final play last week and the debate became something different: Is a one-loss SEC team a better choice to play for the BCS title than an undefeated Big Ten champion in a down year for the Big Ten?
Auburn (12-1) beat Missouri in the SEC Championship Game and the Spartans beat the Buckeyes and the argument was no more.

Here’s the BCS bowl games:

BCS Championship (Jan. 6): Florida State vs. Auburn
Orange Bowl (Jan. 3): Clemson vs. Ohio State
Sugar Bowl (Jan. 2): Alabama vs. Oklahoma
Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 1): Baylor vs. UCF
Rose Bowl (Jan. 1): Michigan State vs. Stanford

Final BCS standings

1. Florida State: .9957
2. Auburn: .9638
3. Alabama: .9061
4. Michigan State: .8600
5. Stanford: .8191
6. Baylor: .7722
7. Ohio State: .7705
8. Missouri: .7256
9. South Carolina: .7152
10. Oregon: .5811
MORE: Bowl schedule, matchups
11. Oklahoma: .5756
12. Clemson: .5553
13. Oklahoma State: .5233
14. Arizona State: .4416
15. UCF: .4343
16. LSU: .4322
17. UCLA: .3703
18. Louisville: .3199
19. Wisconsin: .2365
20. Fresno State: .1675
21. Texas A&M: .1663
22. Georgia: .1594
23. Northern Illinois: .1572
24. Duke: .1134
25. USC: .0672