National Title Game pays the same as the rest of the BCS Bowl Berths (I believe $17 million, but I'm not sure) and the conference champ gets an automatic berth and in the event of a 3 way tie a second berth is almost guaranteed. Since you're limited to 2 BCS berths and would receive 2 almost assuredly either way, than there is no monetary difference between the two. Most conferences split their bowl money, so it really doesn't matter to them who goes or to which game, as long as it's a BCS bowl.

Oh, no worries, I have no sympathy for that kid. I won't know the difference as a viewer of the game, another cheerleader will just wear the mascot uniform. But that idiot just aced himself out of a trip to the Rose Bowl and he's a senior. He's guaranteed to have a V-8 moment about that in the years to come.

I went to the UConn-Pitt game; what a disaster. I feel bad for Donald Brown, the rest of the offense is so bad, especially the passing game. The defense wasn't bad, besides a couple of big plays.

Gotta love those Gators!!! What a game! :-)

I kept texting my friend in Alabama about the game. I ticked him off. LOL :p

College football is my weakest sports as far as knowledge, so thought I'd throw this out there: does today's game do anything for Tebow as far as repeating for the Heisman? Or are Bradford and McCoy out too far ahead?

Tebow did an amazing job in tonight's game, so he is still a much talked about contender. If the Gators take the National title, then I definitely think he has a HUGE chance at a repeat. After the Gators lost to Ole Miss and his speech where he promised that the Gators would be the hardest playing team, and then they possibly come back and win the National title...that just shows what an amazing player Tebow is. They keep saying that he is quite possibly the best player in college football history. I say give him another Heisman.

The voting is before the national title game, though; it's in a couple of weeks, right, a few days before Christmas?

The Heisman is generally awarded around the 15th of December. So yes. Well before the Nat'l Championship game.

I think Tebow's got a good chance but you can't count out Bradford, McCoy and Harrell just yet.

You are right. The Heisman Dinner is December and the game is not until January.

Officially, the Heisman is based on regular season performance, and not what happens in post-season play. But, his performance tonight was pretty good. I won't be surprised if Bradford or McCoy pull it in, though, since Tebow's numbers aren't as good as they were last year.

The ballots are due on Wednesday, and the presentation is Saturday night. I wonder if OJ Simpson voted this year?

I will confirm that my gang (7 girls, 2 guys) almost got into a brawl with another group tonight at the bar over this game. We are awesome!

The Heisman ceremony is the 13th I think. Tebow deserves it IMO, but he made it too hard for himself last year. There was no way he was gonna repeat his numbers from last year, and despite the fact he was probably the most important player this year he couldn't repeat this year because he couldn't duplicate his huge numbers from last year.

I really don't see how Tebow can make an argument with his numbers being what they are -- especially compared to last year and especially considering the numbers they put up in the Big XII.

I think it's between Bradford and McCoy.

The argument against Bradford and McCoy is that everyone in the Big XII put up those kind of numbers, good teams or not. That suggests something other than great offensive years (namely a terrible defensive year for the conference as a whole). If I had to pick between the two I think McCoy has a much better argument than Bradford though, he's done more with less around him and his growth into somehow being a running QB this year was impressive. I think Tebow's leadership puts him into the running though, and carrying Florida without Harvin today against a significantly better D than anything in the Big XII (I think Texas is the best in the conference at 50 vs. Bama at 3) gave him a shot at it. If I had to vote I would say Tebow, McCoy, Bradford/Harrell (they are essentially interchangable IMO), but a lot of that does have to do with the appearance that no one in the Big XII plays a lick of defense this season. Essentially everyone in the conference is the same kind of system QB that was the argument against Harrell and Brennan last year.

Typical SECist argument really. The counter, of course, and I'm sure you've heard it, is that the SEC has completely awful offenses, so, of course, the defensive stats will be better.

The only head to head we have is UT v. Arkansas. If you'll recall, Arkansas was routed 52-10 (how's that for some SEC defensive football?). That terrible Arkansas team went on to play the rest of the weak SEC in a very competitive way, losing a lot of games, but every single one of them was close.

As for McCoy doing more with less, a great quarterback makes the players around him great by putting the ball where it needs to be. Bradford has done just that and he's the spark of the best offense in NCAA history (discounting the teams of the 19th century). Bradford also will set the record this season for being the most efficient passer of all time.

At any rate, the SEC is having a really bad down year. They have awful offensive play except for Florida. That does not make the defenses better (Auburn? Arkansas? LSU? Come on, they're all pretty bad).

The SEC hasn't done that much better in bowl games than any other conference... in fact, they don't have any reason to say they're any better than anyone this year.

You can't really say Bradford is a system QB. His performance vs. those before him is not even really comparable. Also, if it's a "system" that can produce ridiculous yards and scores, as OU does, why doesn't everyone run that system? Not enough Bradfords to go around I guess. Also, if you're wanting to talk about the head to head -- Bradford v. McCoy, Bradford actually had better numbers at OU-TX, tossing 5 TD's versus 2 interceptions (one coming on a hail mary at the end of the game).

The fact is that there is very little to go on re: SEC vs. Big XII. The SEC is not better than the Big XII, especially the Big XII South. Top to bottom, at least in 2008, I think the Big XII would dominate the SEC due to the horrendous quarterback play in the SEC.