Auburn Wins BCS National Championship

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Better late than never.

Football fans didn't get the 60 minutes of excitement they were promised, but they still saw a thrilling final five minutes as Auburn won the BCS National Championship game over Oregon, 22-19, in Glendale, Ariz., Monday night. Auburn's Wes Byrum made a 19-yard field goal as time expired to provide the winning margin.

Auburn appeared to have scored the game-winning touchdown on a scamper up the middle by freshman running back Michael Dyer in the late seconds. But officials reviewed the play and ruled him down inside the 1-yard line. The Tigers then ran one play to kill some clock before trotting out Byrum for his heroic kick that sent Toomer's Corner into toilet-paper mode back home in ice-covered Alabama.

Click to read more ...

Auburn-Oregon Preview: The Quarterbacks

Welcome to the first of 17 — yep, 17 — BCS National Championship Game preview pieces here on OGS. Each day until Jan. 10, we'll take a comparative look at Auburn and Oregon. Today's first topic is the quarterback position.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Auburn has the undisputed best player in the country. Cam Newton was a true dual-threat superstar throughout the season and there's no reason to think he won't dazzle once more in the BCS National Championship Game.

Click to read more ...

OGS Notebook: Dr. Gee, Cam Newton & LeBron

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

It's been more than 48 hours since I last posted here. You can thank the open Captain Morgan bar at Slainte Tuesday night, celebrating FreeDarko's book release.

Anyway, let's get caught up:

+ Good for Dr. Gordon Gee to issue an apology for his arrogant and straight-up inaccurate comments last week. The Ohio State president said Boise State and TCU and teams from their conferences don't play the heavyweight type of schedules that his Buckeyes and other teams from BCS leagues play. Turns out Boise's strength of schedule is ranked ahead of Ohio State's and Wisconsin's, and TCU's isn't too far behind. "What I should do is go over to the surgical suites and get my foot extricated from my mouth," Gee told ESPN.com.

Click to read more ...

Oregon Is Better Than Ohio State Right Now

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Oregon will be my No. 2-ranked team in the country when this week's OGS poll comes out Monday, and I want to tell you exactly why right here.

A handful of times in the Jim Tressel era at Ohio State — currently ranked No. 2 — the Buckeyes have gone into a game against a team with a high-flying offense that experts have incorrectly predicted would run all over the supposedly slower scarlet and gray.

Two notable examples are the 2002 championship game against Miami, and last year's

Click to read more ...