UNDATED - The BCS match-ups are set and Georgia will be playing Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. The Dawgs finished the regular season 10-2 and had hoped to earn a slot in the national title game. Those hopes were dashed just before 8:30 Sunday night when it was announced that UGA would be playing January 1st in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
LSU, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech leap-frogged over Georgia in the final BSC rankings. Georgia finished fifth; the Bulldogs were fourth last week. Ohio State moved into the top spot after Missouri, number one a week ago, lost to Oklahoma Saturday in the Big 12 Conference championship game.
Western Athletic Conference champs Hawaii finished a 12-0 season with a come-from-behind win against Washington late Saturday night.
Georgia Tech will play Fresno State in the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho.
The Yellow Jackets will be playing in their 11th straight bowl game, but without a permanent head coach. They fired Chan Gailey after the season and have not hired his replacement.
It will be the second meeting of the two teams in five years. Fresno State beat Georgia Tech 30-21 in the 2002 Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, California.
The Yellow Jackets will make their second bowl appearance in Boise. In 2004, Georgia Tech beat Tulsa 52-10.
In other BCS games:
Big Ten champion Ohio State and Southeastern Conference champion LSU will meet January 7th in New Orleans for the national college football championship.
The latest chapter in this crazy, unpredictable season was written when LSU won college football's version of the lottery and was picked to play Ohio State for the championship. That left about a half-dozen other candidates with plenty to complain about.
The 11-2 Tigers, ranked second in the latest Associated Press poll, will be the first team to play in the BCS title game with two losses. Top-ranked Ohio State is 11-1.
The Rose Bowl features USC and Illinois. Southern California is going to the Rose Bowl for the 32nd time. The Trojans will play 9-3 Illinois, which is going to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 23 years.
Big 12 champion Oklahoma is being rewarded with a trip to the Fiesta Bowl where the Sooners will play West Virginia, which fell seven places to ninth in the final BCS standings.
The Orange Bowl matches ACC champion Virginia Tech against 11-1 Kansas. This is the first Orange Bowl trip for the Jayhawks in nearly four decades.
The complete final BCS standings:
1 Ohio State
2 LSU
3 Virginia Tech
4 Oklahoma
5 Georgia
6 Missouri
7 USC
8 Kansas
9 West Virginia
10 Hawaii
11 Arizona State
12 Florida
13 Illinois
14 Boston College
15 Clemson
16 Tennessee
17 BYU
18 Wisconsin
19 Texas
20 Virginia
21 South Florida
22 Cincinnati
23 Auburn
24 Boise State
25 UConn
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Thursday
October 24th, 2024
2:27PM
