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Conference championship upsets that altered national title race
As it stands now, the road to the College Football Playoff is pretty cut and dry. If Alabama and Clemson win their respective conference championships, they'd be in. The winner of the Big Ten title game would be in. Oklahoma appears to be in.
However, the alternate is chaos. One of those aforementioned events not transpiring would throw a monkey wrench into the perceived final four. This is often what the fans want. Here, we celebrate those rare occasions when a team that could have had a chance to play for a national championship had those hopes dashed in a conference championship game. Obviously, the landscape has changed. Now four teams make a playoff, whereas in previous seasons -- under the now-defunct Bowl Alliance and Bowl Championship Series -- there were only two final combatants.
Final score: Texas 37, Nebraska 27
Key players: Texas -- RBs Ricky Williams and Priest Holmes, DB Bryant Westbrook, K Phil Dawson. Nebraska -- QB Scott Frost, RB Ahman Green, C/G Russ Hochstein, DE Grant Wistrom, DBs Mike Brown and Mike Minter, K Kris Brown.
Nebraska entered the inaugural Big 12 title game as a two-time defending national champion, but was upset by unranked Texas. With a win, Nebraska would have played against Florida State in the Sugar Bowl for the title. Instead, Florida State played a rematch against Florida, which won the game, 52-20, and the national title.
Final score: Texas A&M 36, Kansas State 33
Key players: Texas A&M -- RB Dante Hall, TE Dan Campbell, LB Dat Nguyen, DB Jason Webster, P Shane Lechler. Kansas State -- DE Darren Howard, LBs Monty Beisel and Mark Simoneau, DBs Jerametrius Butler and Jon McGraw, K Martin Gramatica
After UCLA had lost earlier in the same day, undefeated K-State only needed a win to secure a place in the national championship game. The No. 2-ranked Wildcats were defeated by No. 10-rated Texas A&M in a dramatic, double-overtime thriller. Sirr Parker's 32-yard touchdown reception in a third-and-17 situation provided the thrilling winning score. The loss demoted Kansas State to the Alamo Bowl, where it lost to Drew Brees-led (and unranked) Purdue.
Final score: LSU 31, Tennessee 20
Key players: LSU -- WR Josh Reed, DE Jarvis Green, LB Bradie James, DB Ryan Clark. Tennessee -- WR Donte' Stallworth, TE Jason Witten, DTs Albert Haynesworth and John Henderson.
This loss kept the Volunteers from a second national title game appearance in four seasons. Tennessee won its spot in the SEC Championship Game and a No. 2 ranking after defeating Florida, but No. 21-ranked LSU dashed its hopes of reaching the Rose Bowl to play top-rated Miami. Instead, Nebraska got that tough assignment and was routed, 37-14.
Final score: Kansas State 35, Oklahoma 7
Key players: Kansas State -- RB Darren Sproles. Oklahoma -- OT Jammal Brown, DT Tommie Harris, LB Teddy Lehman.
This was a shocking upset. Oklahoma entered the game as the consensus No. 1 in all of the polls, while Kansas State -- which had its own national title hopes dashed in the Big 12 title game five years earlier -- was a No. 13-ranked team. Despite the loss, Oklahoma still got to play for the national championship, where it lost to LSU, 21-14, in the Sugar Bowl. This was highly controversial at the time, because USC also claimed the national title that season.
Final score: Oklahoma 38, Missouri 17
Key players: Oklahoma -- QB Sam Bradford, TE Jermaine Gresham, OT Phil Loadholt, DT Gerald McCoy, LB Curtis Lofton. Missouri -- QB Chase Daniel, WR Jeremy Maclin, DT Ziggy Hood, LB Sean Weatherspoon, DB William Moore.
On the surface, Oklahoma beating Missouri in a game of football wouldn't seem at all like an upset, but something to be expected. But, in 2007, things got weird (remember, this was the year Appalachian State upset Michigan in "The Big House"). Missouri entered this game as the top-rated team in all the land. No. 13-ranked Oklahoma sprung the upset thanks in part to quarterback Sam Bradford's two touchdown passes (the next year he would win the Heisman Trophy).
Final score: Florida 31, Alabama 20
Key players: Florida -- QB Tim Tebow, WRs Riley Cooper, Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy, C/Gs Maurkice Pouncey and Mike Pouncey, DE Carlos Dunlap, LB Brandon Spikes, CB Joe Haden. Alabama -- RB Mark Ingram, WR Julio Jones, OT Andre Smith, DTs Terrence Cody and Marcell Dareus, LB Rolando McClain, DBs Javier Arenas and Kareem Jackson.
This was a showdown of the top two ranked teams in the AP Top 25. Alabama was No. 1 and Florida was No. 2, and the SEC Championship was considered a "play-in" game for the BCS National Championship. A year removed from winning the Heisman Trophy, Tim Tebow led Florida to the win. A month later, Tebow led Florida to its second national championship in three seasons in a win over Oklahoma in the BCS title game.
Final score: Alabama 32, Florida 13
Key players: Florida -- QB Tim Tebow, WR Riley Cooper, C/Gs Maurkice Pouncey and Mike Pouncey, DE Carlos Dunlap, LB Brandon Spikes, CB Joe Haden. Alabama -- RBs Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson, WR Julio Jones, OT James Carpenter, DTs Terrence Cody and Marcell Dareus, LB Rolando McClain, DBs Javier Arenas and Kareem Jackson.
In an SEC Championship rematch from the previous season, the roles were reversed. Top-rated Florida was knocked off by No. 2-rated Alabama, which went on to play in the national championship game against Texas at the Rose Bowl, which the Crimson Tide won for the first of three national championships in a four-year span.
Final score: Michigan State 34, Ohio State 24
Key players: Michigan State -- QB Connor Cook, RB Jeremy Langford, DE Shilique Calhoun, DBs Darqueze Dennard and Trae Waynes. Ohio State -- QB Braxton Miller, RB Carlos Hyde, WR Devin Smith, OT Jack Mewhort, C Corey Linsley, DE Joey Bosa, LB Ryan Shazier, DB Bradley Roby.
While No. 2-rated Ohio State was ineligible to play in any bowl game or to be ranked in the BCS poll due to sanctions, the Buckeyes were still eligible for the AP national championship. The No. 10-ranked Spartans made that complication a moot point. Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook -- then a sophomore -- directed the upset, throwing three touchdown passes. Michigan State went on to the Rose Bowl, in which it defeated Stanford, 24-20.
