Skip to content

Auburn wins the 2011 BCS National Championship

The college football season in the USA officially came to an end this week when the Pac-10 champion Oregon Ducks played the SEC champs, the Auburn Tigers.
GN201110110119909AR.jpg

The college football season in the USA officially came to an end this week when the Pac-10 champion Oregon Ducks played the SEC champs, the Auburn Tigers.

These games are like the seventh game of the MLB playoffs or the Stanley Cup finals-the best of the best going head to head.

It also comes at the best time of year, Christmas and New Years. There are game every day of the week, sometimes a couple, leading up to Monday's final.

The best part of the four month US-college season came to an end Monday night in the Tostitos BCS National Championship held at the University of Phoenix Stadium. The Heisman Trophy winner, quarterback Cameron Newton of the Auburn Tigers put his perfect season on the line; both teams brought perfect records into the game. When combined, both teams' records put together would have been 26-0.

Somebody had to lose this game, and as it turned out, Newton remained perfect.

His start in the game was anything but perfect.

Allthough this game wasn't nearly the high scoring affair that most of us thought it should have been, sports writers who predicted that this year's national title game could be decided in the fourth quarter, were right about that.

Both teams had the lead several times throughout the biggest game of the nation that night. There were close to 80, 00 people in attendance at the University stadium, minus the father of Newton but that was a whole different story.

The crowd that night was pretty much split down the middle in terms of cheering sections for both teams.

These teams throughout the season have been used to piling on the points each week. This game was a low scoring affair by anyone's standards. The Auburn Tigers kicked a winning field goal with three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter on a fourth down play.

They had a third down and goal from inside Oregon's one yard line but purposely did not try for the touchdown; a fumble or an interception would have sent the 2011 BCS title game into overtime for like the third time in history.

The Tigers ended up winning 22-19.

The game had capped off a season that had begun in late August. The game's top players raised their draft stock for April's NFL entry draft.

The Oregon/Auburn showdown also capped the end of 35 college games that make up bowl season in the US, similar to CFL or NFL playoffs in a winner-take-all scenario. There are so many teams involved in the college system, it's hard to keep track of them all.

The season ended with an Auburn chip shot field goal.

If there's anything you'd like to see covered by Game 7, please forward your suggestions to the Yorkton This Week sportsdesk by phone (306) 782-2465, fax (306) 786-1898 or email.