Texas survives; BCS supporters rejoice

Not only was it a great night all around for college football fans, it was an even bigger relief for BCS supporters. Alabama is a lock for the BCS title game, after soundly beating Florida in the SEC title game. But the night nearly took a gut-wrenching turn when Nebraska booted a field goal with less than two minutes left, taking a 12-10 lead over No. 3 Texas in the Big XII title game. Magic would ensue for the Longhorns, as Colt McCoy, helped by a few Cornhuskers' miscues and a fortunate throw-away pass, led his team to a field goal attempt with one second left. The kick was good, and the Longhorns will face Alabama in the BCS Championship Game.

I like Texas (the team, not the state); I hope they crush Alabama in the BCS title game. But as Nebraska went up 12-10, it was becoming much more difficult to root against the Cornhuskers.

This is good for college football. I don't like to BCS, but I'm beginning to tire of the monotonous debate over the system's legitimacy. It's about the money, ratings and the big business of college football. Yet, this season, the BCS lucked out big-time, and will look like it "got it right" once again.

But did this Texas team really look like one that could even sniff a win over the Crimson Tide? The Longhorns barely broke 200 total yards against Nebraska. Granted, the Cornhuskers' defense played the best defensive game I've seen in years. But Texas should not have struggled so mightily in tonight's game. Nebraska couldn't move the ball to save its life (although, you could say they in fact did on that last go-ahead drive). Texas' offense had no excuse for such a pathetic performance. Right down to the last drive, Texas had to rely on a Nebraska fuck-up to win the game -- actually, two of them. The Cornhuskers gave Texas great field position on an out-of-bounds kickoff, then a horse-collar penalty on Jordan Shipley which pushed the Longhorns into field goal range.

Meanwhile, Alabama looked like the most impressive BCS Championship Game participant since 2005. Mark Ingram is probably going to win the Heisman Trophy, while Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy played like crap. Toby Gerhart and CJ Spiller aren't on high-profile enough teams to win (I think either aren't getting enough respect). And Ndamukong Suh is a defensive player, so he's not going to win the award, even if he's "the most outstanding player in college football" in 2009 (I think he is).

So there you have it. The college football regular season, save for the Army-Navy game next weekend, is over. 2009 is in the books, and you can't really say it wasn't a successful season. At least, you can't say it wasn't enjoyable to follow. There was no start-to-finish No. 1 team, or No. 2 or No. 3 for that matter.

Tomorrow's final BCS standings shouldn't offer much surprise, and I couldn't be happier. I'll have some stuff about that tomorrow, including my weekly top 25. But for now, on to the bowl season!