Every College Football season seems more amazing than ever every time it ends, but there’s no getting round the fact that the BCS Bowl games were really disappointing this year.

Not all of them – the Rose Bowl between Stanford and Wisconsin proved to be a very hard fought battle; trenches kind of football. Stanford won 20-14 thanks to some massive defending in the second half, keeping Wisconsin scoreless after the second quarter. It wasn’t the kind of open game we saw a year earlier between the Badgers and the Ducks, but as long as games are close, it’s great for everyone.

That wasn’t the case with the rest of the bowls. The National Championship game was over too quickly, and TV viewers left the game after the 28-0 lead Alabama had at half time. Some predicted that this was going to be the case, although I don’t think a lot of people thought it was going to be this easy for the Crimson Tide to come away with their third national title in four years, eventually beating the Fighting Irish 42-14.

The Fiesta Bowl was probably the big disappointment, with two teams that a couple of weeks before the end of the regular season were supposed to stay in the top two positions and play for the national title. Oregon were too good and too fast for the Kansas State defense, beating the Wildcats 35-17, as Oregon closed out the final two and a half quarters on a 20-7 run, in a game that wasn’t as close as the scoreline might suggest.

Orange Bowl? That was supposed to be the laugher of the bunch. Northern Illinois are a nice team and all, but it was hard giving the Huskies any kind of chance going into Florida against the Seminoles. The game was close for a short while, but the differences in size, speed and ability were too great to overcome, as FSU ran away with a 31-10 win.

Florida were stunned by Louisville in the Sugar Bowl; surprised are supposed to be good, but when you look at the whole game and not just the end result, it wasn’t as close as the 33-23 scoreline suggests. It did being with a huge hit on Teddy Bridgewater, but the quarterback was hardly disturbed the rest of the way.

So where was the best action while combining big school prestige? The second tier bowls. The Chick-Fil-A Bowl has long been one of the best shows worth watching during Bowl season, and didn’t disappoint once again. It had the upset everybody loves to watch, including a dramatic ending to the game, Tajh Boyd pulling off an amazing pass, setting up a field goal and a 25-24 win.

In the Outback Bowl between South Carolina and Michigan we got a Big Ten team making life very hard for a strong SEC team. The Wolverines had a one point lead going into the fourth quarter, dropped it thanks to a Ace Sanders touchdown with 8 minutes left, giving the Gamecocks a five point lead. Michigan came back with a Jeremy Gallon TD and 3:29 left on the clock, getting their one point lead back. Once again, South Carolina scored, this time with only 11 second left, to win the game 33-28.

It was a tad different in the Capital One Bowl between Georgia and Nebraska, another Big Ten vs SEC game. Both teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 31, but Georgia enjoyed a huge day from Aaron Murray, eventually throwing two touchdowns late in the game to give Georgia and the SEC the 45-31 win.

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