Final Regular Season Top 25

The regular season is over, and we now have over a month to wait for Notre Dame to meet then entire SEC in the national title game.  We have a team that thinks it is an entire conference and an entire conference that thinks it is one team fighting for the national title.  Irony?  Fitting?  By the way, that headline is a lie.  It's only 15 this week.

Final Regular Season
1. Notre Dame	Here we go.  The last time Notre Dame played for a national title, nobody cared that Jose Canseco was on the juice.  For the first time, they are also in the BCS because they actually deserve it.  For the next month, we are going to hear about how the SEC is going to destroy Notre Dame.  Maybe that will happen, but Notre Dame's defense is too good for me to predict it.
2. SEC	The Tide escaped in what was probably the game of the year.  They asserted their dominance in the running game and made just enough plays on defense (literally) to earn a trip to Miami.  This will be an interesting matchup, as it pits two great defenses against each other.  Notre Dame has made a living stopping the run, which means A.J. McCarron better be ready to step up an make a few plays again.
3. SEC	The dogs move up a spot after their narrow loss in the SEC title game.  Their supposed NFL defensive line was manhandled, as Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon ran wild on them.  Aaron Murray, however, really stepped up in a big game and played about as well as could be expected.  You can't ask for much more than to come within a play of the national title game.  Mark Richt, on the other hand, fell short yet again, and his poor decision not to spike the ball may have cost them a chance at a title.
4. Oregon	Oregon has to feel like this season was a disappointment.  Even though they sit at number four on their way to the Fiesta Bowl, they can't even claim the Pac-12 North title.  That said, it should be a really entertaining matchup against Collin Klein in the desert.
5. SEC	The Gayta get to finish the season with an undeserving Sugar Bowl bid.  We could have had a national title rematch against Oklahoma, but BCS rules have prevented that.  Instead, the Gayta will probably roll over Louisville, and Northern Illinois gets to go to the Orange Bowl.
6. SEC	I'm pretty sure Lester made up that whole Arkansas story just to get a raise.
7. SEC	A&M gets to go right back to its Big12 days when it matches up with Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.  This is another interesting matchup that should turn into a high scoring game.  Bigger news could come this weekend, however, as Johnny Football goes into the Heisman ceremony considered the favorite.
8. Collin Klein	Collin Klein comes away with a berth in the Fiesta Bowl, but what looked like a guaranteed Heisman and BCS title game appearance may be all gone.  Klein hasn't been the same since he suffered a concusion against Oklahoma State.  Despite the big win over Texas on the scoreboard, Klein may not have had the dominating game he needed to reclaim the Heisman.
9. Stanford	Stanford has definitely found their successor to Andrew Luck in Kevin Hogan.  Hogan has been the spark that has carried Stanford to the Rose Bowl, where they will get a rematch of their last Rose Bowl appearance against Wisconsin.  Wisconsin is making their third straight trip to Pasadena, except this time it's at 8-5 after finishing third in their division.  Putting up 70 points against Nebraska helps make up for it though.
10. SEC	Nothing interesting to say about the Gamecocks.
11. Oklahoma	Good news is that Big Game Bob won't lose a BCS game this year, so maybe Northern Illinois was a blessing in disguise.  Besides, let's be honest, except for the BCS label, the Cotton Bowl is way more interesting than half the BCS games this year.
12. Florida State	The Noles hung on late against Georgia Tech to win the ACC.  As has been discussed ad nauseum here, they are rewarded with a trip to play Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl.  This has to be the worst BCS matchup ever.  At least Hawaii was undefeated…and, you know, from Hawaii.
13. Clemson	Let's see, what can we say that's interesting about Clemson.  Nothing.  Must be something about the state of South Carolina, which, outside of Charleston, is completely uninteresting.
14. Oregon State	Stanford wasn't the only Pac-12 team to win this weekend.  Oregon State finally won their opener against Nicholls State by putting 77 points on the board.  With that many points, it's no wonder it took three months to finish the game.
15. UCLA	Because nobody else is any good, and UCLA came within a field goal of forcing overtime against Stanford, they move up to #15 despite the loss.  Jim Mora has really done a remarkable job turning around UCLA in his first season.  Of course, this is the same Mora who was supposedly a miracle worker with the Falcons too, so stay tuned.  And UCLA played in the Pac-12 title game last year too, so how much of a turnaround was it really?