BCS Capsules: Sloppy, choppy game leaves Florida as BCS champion

MIAMI - The game defied expectations. Tim Tebow fulfilled them.

He rescued No. 1 Florida, running through and throwing over No. 2 Oklahoma for a 24-14 victory Thursday night that gave the Gators their second BCS championship in three years.

It was hardly a high-wattage matchup of Heisman winners - more a sloppy, choppy affair that the rough-and-tumble Tebow took over at the end.

The style won't satisfy fans of Utah, Southern California and Texas, who all want to claim the top spot.

No matter to the Gators. They finished far ahead of the Utes in the final Associated Press poll Friday, receiving 48 of 65 first-place votes.

"I'll tell you, we're going to enjoy a big win, we're going to enjoy the national championship," coach Urban Meyer said. "Let someone else worry about that. Gators are No. 1."

The Associated Press will release its final poll early Friday morning.

Beaten out for the Heisman this season by Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, Tebow outplayed him and was picked the game's most outstanding player.

"I wanted to do whatever I could to help my team win this game, and if I was trying to run and run some people over, to get the crowd into it, to get the momentum, then that was what I was going to try to do," Tebow said.

"They were doing a good job of getting to me and trying to get some licks, but I felt my body was able to withstand it," he said.

Percy Harvin ran wild and Florida made two goal line stands against the highest-scoring team in modern history.

"Tebow, just call him Superman," Harvin said.

National chomps, indeed!

Tebow shook off a career-high two interceptions and drove the Gators (13-1) to the clinching score. He took two hard steps toward the line, jumped and zipped a 4-yard touchdown pass to David Nelson with 3:07 left to make it 24-14.

Tebow carried the ball on the Gators' final six plays, smashing into the line five times. He also drew an unsportsmanlike penalty for woofing at the Sooners and doing the Gator chomp.

"I was already motivated for a national championship game. But you know, there was some trash talking going on, and it just gets me going during the game," said Tebow, who ran for 109 yards.

His passing wasn't so precise - 18-for-30 - yet it was his sheer will that kept the Gators going.

Tebow finished third in this year's Heisman voting behind Bradford and Texas' Colt McCoy, and kept that in mind.

"I try to use everything as motivation," he said.

Tebow added to the title he helped the Gators win in 2006 with a rout of Ohio State and, one season after winning the Heisman, brought home another trophy. He figures to soon decide whether he'll come back for his senior season or enter the NFL draft.

Harvin returned from an ankle injury and dashed for 122 yards on only nine carries for the Gators. His 52-yard gallop set up Jonathan Phillips' 27-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter for a 17-14 lead.

It was Florida's third national title overall, and the third straight for a team from the Southeastern Conference, and it was the Sooners' fifth straight loss in a BCS game. Oklahoma (12-2) set a modern record for scoring with 702 points this season and put up at least 60 points in its last five games, yet never found its rhythm.

"In the end, I'll be glad to try again next year," Sooners coach Bob Stoops said. "If that's the biggest burden I have to bear in my life, I'm a pretty lucky guy."

Bradford was a disappointing 26-for-41 with two interceptions. Like Tebow, he's going to explore his potential for the NFL draft - not exactly off the performance he wanted.

"Obviously, they're a great defense. I think just a couple times we got ourselves in trouble," Bradford said.

These teams totaled an average of 99 points per game, but wound up with a scoreless first quarter. In the second quarter, Florida's defense made a pair of goal line stands that left it 7-all at halftime.

By then, college football fans around the country were certainly wondering whether these were indeed the two best teams. And it surely gave steam to the suggestion by President-elect Barack Obama and others that a playoff system is needed.

Cheered on by a flock of rooters who made the five-hour drive from The Swamp in Gainesville, the Gators became the second team in the 11-year history of the BCS to win two titles.

Nicknamed "Big Game Bob" for his early success, Stoops lost for the third time with a national championship on the line. This was the first time Florida and Oklahoma played - Stoops was the Gators' defensive coordinator when Steve Spurrier led them to the 1996 title.

Tebow struggled throughout the first half, his lone highlight a 20-yard touchdown pass to Louis Murphy for a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter. Bradford came right back with a swift 65-yard drive, capped by his 6-yard TD toss to Jermaine Gresham.

Florida's defense, rather than Tebow, Harvin and its speedsters on the other side of the ball, kept the Gators close.

Poised to break the tie midway through the second quarter, Oklahoma owned a first-and-goal at the 9. Chris Brown carried four straight times and the Gators stood up the 1,100-yard rusher, twice stuffing him from the 1.

Rarely turned back in the red zone this season, the Sooners let it happen to them again in the final minute before halftime.

There were 10 seconds left and Oklahoma was out of timeouts when Bradford dropped back from the 6. He tried to hit Manuel Johnson at the goal line, but the pass deflected off him and the Gators ran a perfect tip drill, with three defenders touching the ball before Major Wright had the interception.

Tebow, meanwhile, kept stopping the Gators.

The interceptions were bad picks, too - Tebow telegraphed a long, cross-field throw that Nic Harris easily grabbed and later made a short flip over the middle right to Gerald McCoy.

Were the Gators out of whack? Hard to tell, though offensive coordinator Dan Mullen certainly had a lot to think about. Hired recently by Mississippi State, he becomes the Bulldogs' full-time head coach Friday.

Both teams seemed to have trouble with the game officials. The crew kept interrupting play for various reasons, and the result was a sloppy, scoreless first quarter.

Stoops and Meyer took turns hollering at ACC referee Ron Cherry, as if to tell him "Let 'em play!"

Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was equally vocal. A few days after calling Big 12 defenses "a joke," he got into a couple of early shouting and shoving skirmishes with the Sooners. It was even a bit edgy before the game - warming up in the end zone, an Oklahoma kicker rolled his eyes when two Gators leaned against the goal post right behind him.

Tebow, naturally, came out charged up.

He got off the team bus, walked over to a clutch of Florida fans, waved his arms and then ripped off his tie and threw it into a bunch of tailgaters - tail-Gators, in this case.

By the time Tebow trotted out for warmups, most of the Gators were already kneeling along the goal line to stretch. Tebow walked up and down the line, slapping hands and backsides of all 90-some players.<

Notes: The BCS title game next year will be played at the Rose Bowl. ... Oklahoma opens the 2009 season against BYU in the Dallas Cowboys' new $1 billion-plus stadium. Florida starts off at home vs. Charleston Southern.

Healthy Harvin gives Gators boost in title game

MIAMI - Percy Harvin stepped off the stage with grass stains on his uniform, confetti on his shoulder pads and another national championship hat on his head.

He sang the fight song with teammates, posed for some pictures and then waved to fans screaming his name as he exited the field.

It might have been goodbye.

If so, Harvin will go out on top. Florida's do-it-all receiver totaled 171 yards in his return from an ankle injury and helped the top-ranked Gators win their second national title in three years Thursday night.

Harvin, who missed the Southeastern Conference championship game because of a severe ankle sprain, ran nine times for 122 yards and a touchdown, caught five passes for 49 yards and proved again to be the fastest - maybe even the most talented - player on the field in Florida's 24-14 victory over No. 2 Oklahoma.

"The brighter the lights, the bigger he plays," coach Urban Meyer said. "He's a big-time game performer."

Harvin's night might have been overshadowed by former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and Florida's defense, but Meyer made his feelings clear. He embraced Harvin near midfield after the game, kissed him on the cheek and offered up two congratulatory words.

"Unbelievable performance," Meyer said.

Enough said. Harvin had runs of 45 and 52 yards, getting the Gators out of a huge hole with the first one and then setting up the go-ahead field goal in the fourth quarter with the second.

"There's no feeling like being a champion," said Harvin, a junior who is considering turning pro. "I love it. There's nothing like it."

Harvin lined up at running back, quarterback and receiver against the Sooners. He darted through holes, broke tackles, outran defenders and burned cornerbacks.

And he wasn't even 100 percent.

"That was one of the guttiest performances I've ever been around," Meyer said.

Meyer said Percy was still slightly hobbled by his injury. He severely sprained his right ankle against Florida State on Nov. 29. He worked the next week in hopes of playing against Alabama, but he wasn't able to go - and said sitting on the sideline felt like being at a "funeral."

There was little doubt he would be back on the field against Oklahoma. Harvin even stayed in Gainesville during a short break for Christmas to get treatment.

"I never doubted him," linebacker Brandon Spikes said. "He worked and worked and worked to get back on the field after the injury against FSU, and it all paid off. He gave us a big lift. Percy is a dynamic player, and he is the ultimate weapon for an offense."

Harvin gave the Gators a big boost in the second quarter when he slipped through a hole at the Florida 3-yard line and went 45 yards before getting tackled. Instead of facing poor field position and the possibility of a punt from their own end zone, the Gators were at midfield.

Florida ended up punting, but the run flipped the field. He was even better in the fourth, ripping off runs of 52 and 12 yards on consecutive plays to get the Gators in field-goal range. He hurt his leg on the tackle, but after a few moments on the ground, he jumped to his feet and ran off the field.

He returned the next drive and was healthy enough to carry a few more times and run around celebrating with teammates when it was over.

"Just to see him out there to do what he did," receiver David Nelson said. "We know he's been hurt. We know he's been injured. To see him come out here and battle through the injuries, that just gives the team a tremendous lift."

Now, he might do the same for an NFL team.

His durability will be questioned. His ability won't, especially not after what he did against the Sooners. And he wasn't even 100 percent.

"He was spectacular," Nelson said. "He carried us for most of the game. His speed and quickness, even not at 100 percent, he was the fastest player on the field."

-- Mark Long

Bradford comes up short in Heisman winners matchup

MIAMI - Sam Bradford walked slowly off the field, still confused at what had happened. He bent over next to Josh Heupel, his quarterbacks coach and childhood icon, and then took a look up at the play that brought an unhappy ending to Oklahoma's season.

Bradford didn't have many disappointing moments in a record-setting season that won him the Heisman Trophy. To see top-ranked Florida literally rip a national championship away was tough to take.

After Florida's Ahmad Black snatched the ball out of receiver Juaquin Iglesias' hands for Bradford's second interception, all the Heisman winner could do was watch idly as Tim Tebow led the Gators downfield for the clinching touchdown in a 24-14 victory in the BCS championship game.

"You're in competitive games with other good teams, you're going to have those tough plays," Sooners coach Bob Stoops said. "And they didn't go our way."

Bradford finished with 256 yards on 26-for-41 passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions at critical moments. His other pick, only his eighth of the season, came from the 6-yard line with the Sooners trying to take the lead in the closing moments of the first half.

It was the second straight drive for No. 2 Oklahoma that came up short from inside the 10-yard line.

"In the first half we squandered some opportunities to score points; that really hurt," Bradford said. "But in the second half when we needed to make plays, we just couldn't do it."

Bradford continued a trend of subpar performances by Sooners quarterbacks in BCS bowl games. During a five-game BCS losing streak, Oklahoma's quarterbacks have thrown 11 interceptions against eight touchdown passes.

Bradford's numbers were respectable for just about any other quarterback, but well short of expectations following a season in which he threw for 4,464 yards and 48 touchdowns with six interceptions. He joins former Oklahoma quarterback Jason White among the Heisman winners who have struggled with the national title on the line.

"Obviously it's very disappointing to end your season on a loss, especially in a game that we felt like we had a chance to win," Bradford said after being held to fewer than 300 yards passing and throwing multiple interceptions both for only the third time this season.

The result was an Oklahoma offense that hardly looked like it led the nation with a 54-point average and was the first in more than nine decades to score 60 points or more in five straight games. Before the championship game, the least the Sooners had scored was 35 points in a loss to Texas.

"We're not going to place the blame on the offense," safety Nic Harris said. "That's something we're not going to do."

What's next for Bradford is still uncertain. He has a week to decide whether he'll leave for the NFL draft after his sophomore season, or come back and try to win a national title.

"I think he's a great quarterback, either way he goes," Iglesias said.

Bradford simply hadn't faced a defense of Florida's caliber all season long in the scoring-happy Big 12.

After getting sacked only 11 times in Oklahoma's first 13 games, Bradford was harassed by the Gators' speedy defense and forced to work on the move. He was sacked on a rollout pass to snuff out the Sooners' first drive, and even a string of 12 straight completions in the first half produced only one score on a 6-yard toss to tight end Jermaine Gresham.

"As far as being just on a whole different level from the defenses we saw in the Big 12, I wouldn't go that far," Bradford said. "But I would say that they are a very good defense."

Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson tried to shoulder some of the blame, suggesting that he tried to go for too many deep balls instead of higher percentage throws.

"Sometimes you can skew those numbers and look at percentages, but those stats," Wilson said, "are for assistant coaches and losers."

-- Jeff Latzke

Gators contain high-scoring Sooners for BCS crown

MIAMI - Major Wright's sure hands kept the Oklahoma Sooners from grabbing the lead.

With the score tied, Wright snatched an interception near the goal line after three teammates deflected the ball. It was a big defensive play on a night full of them for the Florida Gators, who beat Oklahoma 24-14 in the BCS national championship game Thursday.

Twice the Gators stopped Oklahoma inside the 10, including on Wright's juggling interception. It came when cornerback Joe Haden tipped a Sam Bradford pass. Ryan Stamper and Ahmad Black also got a hand on the ball before Wright hauled it in.

"That play took forever," Wright said. "Joe Haden made a great play. He knocked down the ball. Stamper ended up hitting up the ball. Somebody else touched the ball, and I was like, 'Whoa, I have to do something. Let me grab it.'"

The Sooners scored an NCAA-record 702 points during the regular season, averaging 54 a game. When reaching the opposing 20-yard line, they had scored 76 of 80 times, including 69 touchdowns. But they were stopped twice in the first half by Florida, and later had a field-goal attempt blocked.

"That basically won the game for us," Stamper said. "We bent but we didn't break."

Coach Urban Meyer's Gators, who ranked eighth nationally in yards allowed, kept Heisman Trophy winner Bradford guessing with lots of blitzes. The pace of the Sooners' no-huddle attack gave Florida little trouble.

"We had a whole month to prepare," defensive end Carlos Dunlap said. "Coach Meyer constantly had the scout team running the ball and the whole defense running no-huddle the whole practice, running faster than Oklahoma actually ran it."

With Florida able to keep up, the Sooners failed for the first time this season to score at least 35 points. Bradford went 26-for-41 for 256 yards and was sacked twice. The Sooners were 6-for-15 on third- and fourth-down conversions.

"Our defense was really jacked up to play this game, knowing this was the No. 1 offense in the country and playing against the Heisman Trophy winner," Stamper said. "They have dynamic players, but we have dynamic players on our defense, too."

Oklahoma made 25 first downs but totaled a season-low 363 yards, well below its average of 562. The Sooners led the nation with only nine turnovers during the regular season, but Black and Wright intercepted Bradford.

The Gators were at their best when backed up. With the score 7-7, an interception gave the Sooners possession at the Florida 26. Oklahoma picked up a first down at the 9, and two carries by Chris Brown advanced the ball to the 1.

But on third down he was halted for no gain by 298-pound tackle Torrey Davis, and on fourth down, Davis again stopped Brown for a 2-yard loss.

"Those were big factors in the game - being down in the red zone in those two occasions or three occasions and ending up with nothing," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. "We've been so efficient the entire year in the red zone."

The Sooners' knack for big plays was throttled, too. Their longest gain was 25 yards, even though Bradford tried to throw deep.

He nearly connected in the fourth quarter going long to Juaquin Iglesias. But Black snatched the ball out of Iglesias' hands for an interception at the Gators 24, preserving a 17-14 Florida lead.

"The play of the game," Meyer said. "That's a potential go-ahead touchdown."

"It was just him and me, mano a mano," Black said. "I read it and I was on top of him. As soon as the ball hit his hands, I grabbed it."

Another missed chance for the Sooners came in the third quarter. On third-and-1 at the Florida 28, Brown was stopped for a 4-yard loss by Stamper, and Dunlap blocked Jimmy Stevens' 49-yard field goal attempt.

"We had several opportunities that we could have capitalized on and didn't," Bradford said. "The red zone is a place where we've been very good this year, and to come out and play the way we did tonight and not capitalize when we had the opportunities is pretty frustrating."

-- Steven Wine

Florida tops final AP poll

MIAMI - Florida is No. 1 in the AP Top 25. Utah is perfect at No. 2, though not perfectly happy.

Texas and Southern California also claimed to be the best - but media voters didn't think so.

The Gators received 48 first-place votes and 1,606 points in the poll released early Friday, after they beat Oklahoma 24-14 in the BCS national title game.

Utah, the only team in major college football to go undefeated this season, got 16 first-place votes and 1,519 points.

"I thought we had an outside chance," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said in a telephone interview with the AP. "There was enough national sentiment, I thought we might get the No. 1 slot. It wasn't to be."

Florida won its third AP national championship and second in the last three seasons. Steve Spurrier and Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel led the Gators to the 1996 title.

No. 3 USC received one first-place vote. Texas was No. 4 and will have to settle for finishing ahead of fifth-ranked Oklahoma.

The Longhorns beat the Sooners in the regular season and thought they deserved OU's spot in both the Big 12 and national championship games.

The Utes from the Mountain West Conference swept through their regular season, while Florida and Alabama from the SEC, Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 and Southern California from the Pac-10 jockeyed for position in the national title chase.

The Mountain West does not have an automatic bid to the BCS - it's not considered a strong enough league to deserve one - but the Utes earned their way in.

Utah was seventh in the final regular-season poll, but that perfect record looked much more impressive after the Utes beat Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl last week.

"All you can do is go out and beat the people on the schedule, which was exactly what our guys did," Whittingham said.

Whittingham proclaimed his team No. 1. USC's Pete Carroll had already done that after the Trojans' 38-24 victory in the Rose Bowl against Penn State. Texas coach Mack Brown followed suit, proudly touting his Longhorns as the nation's best after a 24-21 victory over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl this week.

Whittingham said he would vote his team No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, even though the American Football Coaches Association has agreed to have all its voters place the winner of the BCS national championship game first on their ballots.

Utah did receive one first-place vote in the coaches' poll and finished fourth.

Whittingham isn't worried about losing his vote.

"That's their call," he said. "I have to look out for my players."

Brown said he would vote for his team, too, but Texas was not listed first on any ballots. The Longhorns ended up ranked No. 3 in the coaches' poll, right behind USC.

Carroll has never had a vote in the coaches' poll, always skeptical of the way major college football crowns a champion.

Florida's Urban Meyer became the 17th coach to win multiple AP national championships.

"I'll tell you, we're going to enjoy a big win, we're going to enjoy the national championship," he said, brushing off questions about other coaches claiming their team is best. "Let someone else worry about that. Gators are No. 1"

Alabama's loss to Utah dropped the Crimson Tide to No. 6 in the final poll.

TCU, Utah's Mountain West rival, finished seventh, followed by Penn State, Ohio State and Oregon.

Boise State led off the second 10, followed by Texas Tech, Georgia, Mississippi and Virginia Tech.

Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, Oregon State, Missouri and Iowa rounded out the top 20.

Florida State, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Michigan State and BYU were the final five.

-- Ralph D. Russo

Borrrring! Game should have been on C-Span

MIAMI - The national championship has never seemed more mythical.

College football has been played in this land for 140 years, and for long stretches of Thursday night's tractor pull between Florida and Oklahoma, it looked as if these two teams were trying to set the game back by at least half that. The first three quarters were so boring, they should have been moved from FOX to C-SPAN.

The Gators' 24-14 win over the Sooners did nothing to dispel competing claims from Southern California, Utah and Texas about who belonged in the top spot. Earlier in the week, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he was looking into whether the BCS violated antitrust laws by barring the 13-0 Utes - the only unbeaten team in college football's top division - from the national title game.

If he actually mounts a legal challenge, the videotape of this could be entered into evidence as "Exhibit A."

Afterward, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops actually said, "I thought it was a heckuva game."

Right. Games like this moved political commentator George Will to say a while back, "Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society: violence punctuated by committee meetings."

And man, were there ever a lot of meetings.

Oklahoma employed a no-huddle offense all season long to ramp up the numbers of plays it could run en route to averaging 54 points a game. The Sooners averaged 80 plays during the regular season, but got off only 70 in this one because of a dozen penalties called on the two teams, a few reviews by the refs and some mysterious stoppages.

"I thought they had clock issues, they waved off a flag, whatever," Stoops said, though he hardly helped matters by calling a time-out at one point coming out of a time-out. "Anyway, it interrupted play quite a bit."

Yet even running 70 plays seemed nothing short of incredible, considering quarterback Sam Bradford did not take a single snap without first checking the sideline, where running backs coach Cale Gundy, quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel and offensive line coach James Patton - wearing identical black polo shirts - all passed along signals by wildly gyrating their arms before each play. The scene looked like something borrowed from an episode of the "Three Stooges."

Besides those three, Stoops has another half-dozen assistants, plus a support staff that numbers 26 and includes a director of sports enhancement, a director of football operations and an administrative coordinator. For those who wondered why the Sooners bring a covered wagon to every game, apparently it's to get the whole bunch of them home.

But Florida, which surrounds coach Urban Meyer with 10 assistants and his own support staff of 34, didn't get much more bang for its buck. The Gators came in averaging 45 points a game, but looked like someone left the gearshift to that thrumming offensive machine back in Gainesville. They collected the lion's share of penalties - eight - and couldn't put any distance between themselves and the stumbling, bumbling Sooners until quarterback Tim Tebow took matters into his own hands. He called his own number and went pin-balling through the Oklahoma defense on every one of the six plays in Florida's final drive.

That wrapped up the Gators' second national championship in three years, giving them the same number of titles as LSU's Tigers and USC's Trojans since 2000. But anybody who thinks they're in contention for the even more mythical title of "Best Team This Decade" had better think twice. Meyer didn't concede this championship to Utah, the school where he established his chops, even though the Utes gave him a run, polling 16 first-place votes in the Associated Press poll to the Gators' 48.

But he came awfully close to giving USC the nod as the program every other school is still chasing.

"I think USC was kind of the point school for a while, and you admired the way they reloaded their team, and I made a comment to our administration, if we can find a way to put a really good recruiting class together, it's getting close," he said.

In a comical bid to lure away recruits who might be thinking about USC, as well as any of Florida's other rivals, Meyer added laughing, "You're out of your freaking mind if you don't play for the Gators."

Maybe.

If anything, this game proved what most coaches and players, as well as nine out of 10 fans, including President-elect Barack Obama want: a playoff.

It's high time to kick the BCS computers to the curb and then shut off the internet connections of the poll voters after they pick eight teams at the end of the regular season and simply get it on.

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeap.org

Tebow and Gators too tough for Sooners

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - As thousands of students took to the streets in Gainesville to celebrate the Gators' second BCS football championship in three years, student Kyle Easterling said the game put an end to the arguments about which team was No. 1.

"We proved who was the best team in the country," said Easterling, 24, a social studies major from St. Augustine.

When the victory was sealed, fans poured onto University Boulevard for a massive street party that spilled out of nearby bars. About 11,000 had watched the game in the O'Connell Center on four large screens.

A police helicopter flew overhead, shining its light on the crowds. Fireworks went off sporadically, but police showed restraint, often agreeing to pose for pictures with revelers.

Students said they were pleased with the win and the second national championship under Coach Urban Meyer.

"We want to squeeze in another championship before we graduate," said Devin Kleinfield, a 19-year-old student from Princeton, N.J.

The party - at the school ranked the nation's No. 1 party school by the Princeton Review in 2008 - did not seem as boisterous as years past.

Gainesville Police Capt. Paul Osey said police had a few minor problems with some people who climbed light poles and scuffled with officers, but there were no serious injuries.

Behind the crowd, two students were being attended to by paramedics who rode up on bicycles. One of the students was passed out and the other couldn't stand without help from police.

Summer Hallett, a police department spokeswoman, said dozens of officers were ready for the crowd.

Police were working to prevent another tragedy like two years ago, when an officer was struck and killed by a pickup truck after the Gators won a basketball championship. The driver of the truck was a student at the University of North Florida visiting Gainesville to celebrate.

Large trucks were parked several blocks away from the crowd to serve as roadblocks.

Although the Gators are returning home Friday, they will not make any public appearances. A celebration will be held Sunday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

University of Florida President Bernie Machen had urged students to remain in Gainesville instead of traveling to the game in Miami, saying students will not be cut any slack if they miss classes because of the game.

"I feel better about our kids being here than any place else," Machen said.

The Gators' 2007 football championship game in Arizona, when they beat Ohio State 42-14, coincided with the first day of spring classes.

Machen sent out a university-wide memo urging faculty to help students make up missed work. This year, the game is being played on the fourth day of classes and Machen said students are expected in class Friday.

-- Ron Word

Heisman winners agree: BCS system needs tweaking

MIAMI - The BCS honored 10 Heisman Trophy winners Thursday night, about a half an hour after the former stars agreed the system is broken.

Before Oklahoma and Florida took the field to determine a national champion, eight of the Heisman winners met the media and said the current system was unfair and needs to be tweaked.

"Being from the Mountain West Conference, we don't have a chance," former BYU quarterback Ty Detmer said.

The BCS title game between the top-ranked Gators (12-1) and No. 2 Sooners (12-1) has come under scrutiny all week, with threats of lawsuits and legislation. Earlier Thursday, Texas congressman Joe Barton proposed legislation to replace the BCS with a playoff system, a change even President-elect Barack Obama said he wants.

Several schools - including Barton's home-state Texas Longhorns (12-1) - believe they are the rightful champions. Fifth-ranked Southern California (12-1) and undefeated Utah (13-0) also have argued they're the best.

"I just feel like everybody should be given an opportunity," Pittsburgh's 1976 Heisman winner Tony Dorsett said. "Now I don't know how that's going to work out or how they're going to do it, but they have a lot of brilliant people at these universities who should be able to figure it out."

The BCS has also been scrutinized on another front.

On Tuesday, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced he was investigating the BCS for a possible violation of federal antitrust laws. He argued the BCS unfairly puts schools such as Utah, a member of a conference without an automatic bid to the big-money bowls, at a competitive and financial disadvantage.

The Heisman winners who gathered below Dolphin Stadium also agreed that Utah, like every other school in major college football, should get a chance to show its the best.

"Go ask the players how they want it settled," former Miami quarterback Gino Torretta said. "You think they want it settled with a poll or votes? They want the distinguish right to get together and play it out."

EARLY BIRDS

The five F-22s that performed the flyover, which was supposed to cap the pregame show, arrived about one minute early - seconds into Gospel recording artist Yolanda Adams' stirring rendition of the national anthem.

While the noise from the planes' jet engines momentarily drowned out some of the first chorus, Adams maintained her composure and the crowd roared at the end.

POSTSEASON PAYDAY

Florida coach Urban Meyer already has raked in bonus money this postseason. He had $100,000 more on the line in the title game Thursday night.

If the Gators beat Oklahoma, Meyer will get an additional $100,000. He earned $75,000 for winning the Southeastern Conference championship and $150,000 for reaching the Bowl Championship Series title game.

He also is guaranteed another $50,000 for finishing in the top 10 of either The Associated Press college football poll or the USA Today college football coaches poll.

In all, Meyer could pick up $375,000 in postseason bonuses.

When Florida offensive linemen Mike and Maurkice Pouncey heard about Meyer's potential compensation at media day this week, they called over athletic director Jeremy Foley, pointed out that the payout for each team was $17.5 million and Meyer was in line for his money, then jokingly asked, "So why can't we get a movie in our hotel room?"

Apparently, the Gators were banned from renting pay-per-view movies at their hotel.

"I'll look into it," Foley said with a laugh.

There was also bonus money on the line for Sooners coach Bob Stoops.

He would get a $250,000 bonus for an Oklahoma victory, and $150,000 for a loss on top of his salary of $2.775 million and bonuses of $3 million for reaching his 10th year at Oklahoma, $80,000 for winning the Big 12 title and $30,000 for being named the conference's coach of the year.

He's also essentially a lock to get a $75,000 bonus for a top-10 finish in the BCS.

FINDING NIMMO

Perhaps no one took more of a pounding this week than Oklahoma walk-on John Nimmo.

The Sooners' scout-team quarterback has been playing the part of Tim Tebow in practice, only he doesn't quite have the same frame as Florida's quarterback to withstand big hits. Nimmo said the worst part of his day is getting hit 10 times by linebacker Travis Lewis.

"Tell him I appreciate that," Lewis said. "I'm just trying to prepare for this game because we're going to have to hit No. 15 (Tebow) a whole lot. I guarantee you, I'm going to bring that hammer. I mean, what happens when an immovable force meets an unstoppable object?"

Nimmo's 6-foot-2, 207-pound body was scraped and bruised from practice. But Sooners players admitted that Tebow, who outweighs Nimmo by more than 30 pounds, will be much tougher to bring down. Still, they weren't going to back down from a challenge.

"I don't start playing until I get hit," Lewis said. "So hopefully (Tebow) can be the first one to do that, and it will be a collision, I guarantee you that. I haven't lost a battle yet."

HIGH SCHOOL CONNECTION

The BCS title game wasn't the first championship game at Dolphin Stadium for many Florida players.

Eight Gators played at the stadium in one of the most memorable Florida high school football game ever, a 45-42 double overtime victory for Lakeland over Fort Lauderdale's St. Thomas Aquinas in the 2006 state Class 5A championship game between the national powerhouses.

Returning to Dolphin Stadium was perhaps most painful for safety Major Wright and offensive lineman Marcus Gilbert, who each lost two state finals with St. Thomas Aquinas.

They said that even this week their six Gators teammates from Lakeland will never let them forget.

"Oh my God. It never ends," Wright said. "Those guys are still on my back."

St. Thomas Aquinas got a bit of redemption, winning its fifth state championship in December by blowing out Lakeland 56-7. The Raiders lost to Lakeland in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 title games. Lakeland has six state titles.

BETTING BIG

Governors and senators from Florida and Oklahoma raised the stakes for the on the BCS championship game with the usual friendly bets.

If the Gators beat the Sooners, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will be receiving a shipment of Oklahoma steaks, courtesy of Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry. If the Sooners beat the Gators, Crist will send Henry a box of Florida oranges.

Some senators decided to make things a bit more interesting.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson will have to sing "Oklahoma!" from the eponymous Broadway musical if the Sooners win. But if the Gators prevail, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn will have to belt out Elton John's "Rocket Man."

The losing senator will have to serenade residents from the winning state at the next constituent coffee, a weekly morning meeting that politicians hold for people from their home states.

-- Antonio Gonzalez

Locals ‘anxious' as Sooners play in title game

NORMAN, Okla. - If he couldn't be in Miami, being within sight of Oklahoma's football stadium was the next best place for Jarin Abner on Thursday night.

The Oklahoma City man, wearing a replica No. 14 jersey - the same number worn by Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford - joined about 300 other Sooner fans to watch the BCS championship game at O'Connell's, an Irish-themed pub near the campus that Sooner fans traditionally flock to when Oklahoma plays at home.

"This is great," Abner said. "I can go outside and look at the stadium where they did most of the work."

No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 1 Florida were tied 7-7 at halftime, and even though the Sooners blew two scoring chances inside the Florida 10-yard line in the second quarter - the second time on a last-minute interception - the atmosphere at O'Connell's remained mostly upbeat.

"I didn't like that turnover at the end, but we're looking better than they are," Abner said.

Those gathered at O'Connell's followed certain Sooner traditions, such as shouting "Sooners" - instead of "brave" - at the end of the final line of the national anthem and doing the "Boomer! Sooner!" chant whenever the Sooners made a big play, such as Jermaine Gresham's second-quarter touchdown catch that tied the game.

In the hours before the game, fans like Matthew Palmer of Norman made sure they were properly attired. Palmer spent almost $70 on Oklahoma shirts, one of which he planned to wear during the game.

"I've been thinking about it all day," he said. "I've really been thinking about it for several days. Yesterday, I had to tell myself it was Wednesday and that the game would be on Thursday."

In Norman, a college town about 17 miles south of downtown Oklahoma City, life revolves around the university, especially on a day that the Sooners were trying to win what would be their eighth national football title.

"Everyone coming in today has been excited, anxious," said Jerry Hatter, who owns Balfour of Norman, a popular store near campus that sells primarily Sooner-themed merchandise.

Hatter has more reason than most to root for an Oklahoma win. Should the Sooners prevail, he planned to reopen the store after the game and sell national-championship T-shirts and caps. Hatter said the store would stay open "until people stop coming in."

That also was the plan at USA Screen Printing and Embroidery in Oklahoma City. President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Johnson did the same in January 2001, when the Sooners won the 2000 title by beating Florida State.

"We will be open all night if that's what it takes," Johnson said. "We're going to have 60 (employees) out here tonight. I will be, and there will be some managers who stay all night. Last time, I ran 24 hours straight.

"The fans love it, celebrating and getting that first championship T-shirt," Johnson said.

Johnson and Hatter both said an Oklahoma win would mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.

"It assume it will be like adding another half of the football season" as far as sales, Hatter said. "If they lose, it will be dead here for the next two months."

Johnson said his company would probably lose $30,000 to $40,000 in setup costs and preparation time if Oklahoma loses to the Gators, but that wasn't why he wanted the Sooners to win.

"It means a lot not just to my company, but pride for the state," he said.

The Norman Police Department was "fully staffed" on Thursday night, although Lt. Kyle Harris declined to reveal how many officers were on duty.

"We're aware that things ... can happen and we're prepared for it," he said, adding that he hoped for a quiet night because Oklahoma fans should know how to properly celebrate a championship.

"We've been there and done that before," he said.

-- Murray Evans

Texas lawmaker wants college football playoffs

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama and Texas congressman Joe Barton don't have much in common, but they do agree on one thing: the Bowl Championship Series must go.

Just hours before the national title game between top-ranked Florida (12-1) and No. 2 Oklahoma (12-1) in Miami, Barton proposed legislation to replace the BCS with a playoff system.

After all, several schools - including Barton's home-state Texas Longhorns (12-1) - believe their teams are the rightful champions.

"There's no way you can say that whoever wins tonight's game is demonstrably better than USC, Texas or Utah," Barton said in a telephone interview a few hours before Thursday's kickoff.

Barton, a graduate and fan of Texas A&M and the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, argued that billing the game a national championship is "patently deceptive." His legislation would prevent the NCAA from doing so unless the game culminates from a playoff system.

"A national championship in the most lucrative sport that the NCAA hosts should be determined on the playing fields, and not through arbitrary computer rankings that nobody understands," Barton said.

The BCS features a championship game between the two top teams in the BCS standings, based on two human polls and six computer ratings.

BCS administrator Bill Hancock declined to comment on the bill.

Barton said that when Obama made a courtesy call to him a few weeks ago, the congressman told him, "OK, Mr. President-elect, let's work together on this playoff system, because you said you're for a playoff, and I'm for a playoff."

According to Barton, Obama laughed and said, "Sure, let's do it."

Obama's transition office declined to comment.

Last November, Obama told "60 Minutes" he would prefer an eight-team playoff system.

"I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this," he said. "So I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit."

The BCS is also under attack on another front. On Tuesday, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced he was investigating for a possible violation of federal antitrust laws. He argued the BCS unfairly puts schools such as Utah, a member of a conference without an automatic BCS bowl bid, at a competitive and financial disadvantage. Utah defeated No. 4 Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl last week, capping an undefeated season.

Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner and BCS coordinator John Swofford said Thursday the BCS has carefully considered the legality of its format.

"We've attempted to make every effort to make certain that any structure of the BCS is within the antitrust laws. Our legal people are comfortable that the BCS structure is," Swofford said during a Football Writers of American Association meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Barton denied that his bill amounted to congressional meddling.

"NCAA sports are under the jurisdiction of the Congress," he said.

The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Bobby Rush, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the committee's commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee, and Texas Republican Michael McCaul.

According to the most recent federal disclosure reports, the BCS spent $40,000 lobbying Congress in the first nine months of last year.

-- Frederic J. Frommer

Before football, Meyer made minor try at baseball

MIAMI - Ask Urban Meyer about his days in baseball and his eyes narrow, any trace of a smile disappears.

No warm, way-back-when yarns of playing infield with future stars Ron Gant and Mark Lemke. No tender, coming-of-age tales about riding a rickety bus, making do with $5 in meal money at McDonald's.

Drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 1982 ahead of Jose Canseco and Bret Saberhagen, the Florida football coach spent two seasons in the low minors.

His stats tell part of the story: a .182 batting average, 17 errors in only 44 games. Meyer fills in the rest, and it's easy to hear a teenager's torment.

"I was completely overwhelmed," Meyer said this week, before his No. 1 Gators faced No. 2 Oklahoma for the BCS championship Thursday night. "I came from a small town where they threw the lob ball to you and they gave you a big aluminum bat. Then they give you a wooden bat and you see an 88 mph slider."

"I didn't draw much from that experience other than I was very unhappy. I wanted to quit and I had great advice from home not to quit, in a very direct manner," he said.

In fact, Meyer's dad put it this way: Go ahead and walk away if you want, but you won't be welcome in this house ever again.

"It can be a torturous game," Lemke said last week.

Overmatched, Meyer did his best. Slowed by a shoulder injury, he got cut in his second season of pro ball. He then went to college, became a defensive back at the University of Cincinnati and later started his rise through the coaching ranks.

At Florida, he won the 2006 national title. And every year, he tells incoming freshmen what he learned on the diamond.

"The only thing that I got out of that experience that I share with my players now is when they come to some big situation like Florida, and they feel like they're overwhelmed, I can share with them what I went through, because I was them," he said.

Lemke, a second baseman who helped Atlanta reach the World Series four times, remains close with Meyer. He plays in the coach's annual golf tournament and has stood on the sidelines for a Gators game.

Gant is still a pal, too, and the coach is friendly with former slugger Fred McGriff and Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon. When the Rays clinched the AL East, Meyer sent Maddon a bottle of wine.

Lemke clearly remembers the first time he met Meyer.

"Any time a guy walks into the clubhouse with the first name of Urban, it wasn't a name you'll forget," he said.

"He was very talented, probably a lot more so than he gives himself credit for," Lemke said. "We all struggled. It was a tough time for everybody. Most of us went straight from high school, many of us were away from home for the first time."

To Lemke, Meyer was perhaps the best player on the 1982 Gulf Coast League Braves. The best pingpong player, that is.

"There was this rec room at Pirate City in Bradenton, and we spent a lot of time at the table," Lemke said. "I couldn't beat him. I used to tell him all the time: ‘If you could take this game to the field, you're a no-brainer for the major leagues."'

A prep star in Ashtabula, Ohio, Meyer was picked by the Braves in the 13th round of the 1982 draft - Canseco was chosen in the 15th round, Saberhagen in the 19th and pitcher Kenny Rogers in the 39th.

At 17, Meyer headed to Florida to become a ballplayer. He went 9-for-53 (.170) as a shortstop, mostly backing up future big leaguer Andres Thomas and even catching a few innings. The big stick in the rookie GCL then was McGriff.

In 1983, Meyer played third base, shortstop and second base in the GCL. He also spent time that summer at advanced rookie Pulaski (Va.), and it was there in the Appalachian League where he hit the lone home run of his pro career.

"Paintsville. Paintsville, Ky. Against the Brewers. I had two strikes on me. Put a nice swing on it and got hold of it," he said.

Released later that year, Meyer finished with this lifetime batting line: 20-for-110, two doubles, two triples, one homer, 19 runs scored, 11 RBIs, two stolen bases, 24 strikeouts and 22 walks.

Meyer recalled those days Monday at Dolphin Stadium, site of the matchup against Oklahoma. The stadium also houses the Florida Marlins, and he spoke at a podium set up near the spot for home plate.

Wide receiver Riley Cooper played right field for the Gators last season and was well aware of Meyer's baseball background.

"He came to a workout and stepped into the batting cage and hit off the curveball machine. He had a good stroke. He could hit," Cooper said.

"What did he hit in the minors - .300, .270?" Cooper asked. Told it was .182, he grinned.

"Oh, Coach is going to hear about that," he said.

-- Ben Walker

ACC commish says BCS complies with law

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Bowl Championship Series officials believe they're prepared to fend off any legal challenges.

With the Utah attorney general investigating the bowl system for a possible antitrust violation, Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner and BCS coordinator John Swofford said the BCS has carefully considered the legality of its format.

"We've attempted to make every effort to make certain that any structure of the BCS is within the antitrust laws. Our legal people are comfortable that the BCS structure is," Swofford said during a Football Writers of American Association meeting. "Obviously if there are any aspects of it that we should be doing differently, we would adjust that."

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced his investigation Tuesday. Utah (13-0) was the only unbeaten school in major college football yet was left out of Thursday night's BCS title game between Florida and Oklahoma, each with one loss.

"We're not out there trying to test the antitrust laws of the United States of America," Swofford said.

Swofford reiterated that the majority of university presidents and athletic directors oppose an expansive NFL-style playoff for major college football.

Last summer, the BCS considered a proposal by Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive to change to a four-team playoff called the plus-one model. The format would match the top four teams at the end of the regular season in two of the major bowls and the winners would play in the national title game.

That proposal was shot down. Swofford said it's unlikely the plus-one model will be considered again any time soon.

Utah finished its perfect season last week with a 28-17 victory against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. While the Utes still have a slim chance of being voted No. 1 in the final AP Top 25, the BCS national championship trophy and No. 1 spot in the final USA Today coaches' poll goes to the winner of Thursday night's game in Miami.

"The BCS provided a platform for Utah to show the nation what a terrific football they had this year." Swofford said. "Preceding the BCS, I don't know if that platform would have been there."

The BCS expanded to five games three seasons ago and changed its qualification standards to allow better access to teams from the five conferences without automatic bids, such as Utah, which plays in the Mountain West Conference.

"The non-AQ conferences have greater access to the top-level bowls than ever in history because of the BCS," Swofford said.

The BCS recently signed a four-year, $125 million deal with ESPN to televise the BCS national championship game, and the Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls, starting January 2011 and running through the 2014 bowls.

The current deal with Fox runs out after next season. The Rose Bowl has its own separate TV deal with ABC that runs through January 2014.

ESPN purchased the rights to the current BCS format.

While the network would not stand in the way of a format change, Burke Magnus, ESPN senior vice president for college sports programming, said it had no intention of pushing the BCS toward the mini-playoff system, known as the plus-one model.

"We don't think it's our role to influence the format," said Magnus, who also spoke to FWAA.

The six conferences with an automatic bid to the BCS are the Southeastern Conferences, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Big East, the Pac-10 and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The BCS has just completed the first year of a four-year cycle, in which it evaluates the conferences to determine which will receive automatic bids. The formula used by the BCS takes into account the ranking of the best team in the conference, the number of top 25 teams and the rankings of all the teams in the conference.

Swofford said it is possible the BCS could expand the number of conferences with automatic bids in 2012.

The BCS also is about to begin negotiations with its bowl partners and there's no indication that there will be a change in a lineup that now includes the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls.

Swofford said the bowl partners prefer to continue the double-hosting format in which the championship game rotates between the sites, so that once every four years a bowl hosts two games played about a week apart.

-- Ralph D. Russo

Will Tebow take his superhero act to the NFL?

MIAMI - College football's latest super hero is a square-jawed, brush-cut, almost-too-good-to-be-true 21-year-old named Tim Tebow, who can dazzle a full college stadium by day and still make time to preach the gospel in front of a packed prison auditorium by night.

But NFL scouts will tick off a laundry list of his flaws at the drop of a helmet.

Tebow isn't tall enough to play quarterback at the next level. He throws left-handed, and side-armed, besides. He runs too often, gets hit too much, rarely calls his own plays and has taken every snap from the shotgun formation for a Florida program that's cranked out plenty of great college passers but not even one journeyman-caliber pro.

Just wait until those same scouts find out that Tebow doesn't always clean up his room and can't hold a tune or tell a decent joke to save his life, either.

"I'll hear something about Tim's throwing motion or the NFL is looking for - sometimes I get confused," coach Urban Meyer said the day before his Florida Gators played Oklahoma for the BCS national title. "Do they want a guy that's going to lead a team to win games? I don't know if there's any better than Tim.

"You have to be a leader, you have to show toughness, and you have to have the ability to raise the level of play of people around you. Our quarterback," Meyer added, "I can't imagine there's a better one in America doing that."

If there is, it just might be the guy on the other sideline Thursday night, Sooners QB Sam Bradford. Unless it's Matt Stafford from Georgia, Mark Sanchez from USC or maybe even Nate Davis from Ball State.

Though Tebow is the first Heisman Trophy-winning sophomore, the college game's first-ever "20-20" man (at least 20 touchdown passes and 20 TDs rushing), and practically carried the Gators to the national title game for the second time in three years, most scouts rate him as only the fifth- or sixth-best QB prospect in the draft. That's assuming Tebow and the underclassmen above all decide to turn pro. Yet not even one mock NFL draft projects Tebow being selected in the first round.

Still, he's requested an evaluation from the pro league's draft advisory committee and has given no hints about which way he's leaning on a decision has to be made by next Thursday.

"I'm too excited about this game to worry about that right now," he said earlier this week.

If nothing else, Tebow's uncertain pro prospects suggest how stocked the college game is at the moment. Good quarterbacks are everywhere, and the best signal-callers on campus don't necessarily make it on Sundays.

In the last few years, two of Tebow's can't-miss predecessors - USC's Matt Leinart and Texas' Vince Young - appear to have done just that - miss. Meanwhile, two other QBs who made only small splashes at this level - Boston College's Matt Ryan and Delaware's Joe Flacco - became stars immediately after being thrown into NFL waters.

Those outcomes also say a lot about the conservative nature of NFL offenses compared with their wide-open college counterparts. When Young was drafted in 2005, Michael Vick was still in the league and considered the prototype for a new generation of mobile quarterbacks. But just as quickly as Vick's departure for the federal pen on dogfighting charges, most NFL general managers went back to scouring the college ranks for tall, strong-armed, stand-in-the-pocket types cast in the Tom Brady-Peyton and Eli Manning mold.

That explains some of the talk about the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Tebow being converted to a fullback, tight end or linebacker. It's a notion that his father, Bob, a Christian missionary who home-schooled all five of his children and made them do community service at home in Jacksonville and abroad in the Philippines and elsewhere, refuses to consider - and one that the son sounds none too thrilled about.

"Maybe if I changed the way I played a little bit, they would look at me a little differently," Tebow said. "Maybe if I just threw the ball and didn't run and didn't hit people and didn't get excited, they would look at me a little differently. I just use that as motivation."

But it's not like he needs much more of that.

Tebow is a notorious self-starter, often rising at 5 a.m. for workouts, then squeezing tutoring sessions into the afternoon, before heading out at night to speak about his faith. Just as revealing: In the final game of his prep career at Nease High, with a state title on the line, Tebow set up the go-ahead touchdown in the closing minutes and then, without telling his coaches, snuck back into the game as a defensive lineman and helped make a key stop to preserve the win.

And if playing for a second national title isn't motivation enough, well, there's always Tebow's duel with Oklahoma's Bradford. The redshirt sophomore not only helped the Sooners put up the gaudiest numbers any college offense ever has, but Bradford also beat Tebow in this season's Heisman Trophy race.

But as one writer said, taking note of Tebow's good deeds and even better looks, at least there was this consolation: While Bradford ended up holding the trophy, it was Tebow who actually "looks like the Heisman."

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Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org