Winston leads No. 1 Florida State past No. 20 Duke in ACC title game
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Jameis Winston threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score, and No. 1 Florida State stormed into the BCS national championship game with a 45-7 victory against 20th-ranked Duke on Saturday night in the ACC championship game.
The Heisman Trophy favorite was 19 of 32 for 330 yards and set FBS freshman records for TD passes and yards passing in a season two days after prosecutors decided not to press charges against him in a sexual assault case.
Winston threw two touchdown passes to 6-foot-5, 234-pound receiver Kelvin Benjamin and ran for a 17-yard score to overcome two interceptions.
Florida State's defense was dominant, holding Duke to 239 yards and forcing three turnovers to help the Seminoles win their second consecutive ACC title.
It was Florida State's 12th win by at least 27 points. The Seminoles (13-0) entered outscoring its opponents by an average of 43 points.
No. 10 Mich. State scores final 17 points to beat No. 2 Ohio State for Big Ten title
INDIANAPOLIS -- Michigan State shook up the BCS title chase again Saturday night.
The No. 10 Spartans regained the lead on Connor Cook's 9-yard touchdown pass to Josiah Price with 11:41 left and upset No. 2 Ohio State 34-24 to take the Big Ten title and put Auburn back in the national title hunt.
Ohio State (12-1) had the nation's longest active winning streak end at 24 as coach Urban Meyer suffered his first loss since taking over in Columbus.
It was a game that almost defied logic.
The Spartans (12-1) led 17-0 after 21 minutes, then gave up the next 24 points before scoring the final 17.
Michigan State sealed the victory, and its probable trip to the Rose Bowl, with Jeremy Langford's late 26-yard TD run. The Spartans haven't played in Pasadena since 1988.
Mason, No. 3 Auburn beat No. 5 Missouri for SEC championship
ATLANTA -- Tre Mason rushed for 304 yards and four touchdowns, leading No. 3 Auburn to a wild 59-42 victory against No. 5 Missouri in the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday.
Auburn (12-1) kept alive its hopes of playing for the BCS title, though the Tigers will likely need either top-ranked Florida State or No. 2 Ohio State to lose in their respective conference championship games, which began about the time Auburn was wrapping up the offensive shootout at the Georgia Dome.
Auburn set an SEC championship game record with 677 yards, including 545 on the ground. Mason had scoring runs of 7, 3 and 1 yards before bursting up middle on 13-yard TD to seal the victory with 4:22 remaining.
After both defenses got lit up like a video game, Auburn finally stopped Missouri (11-2) on fourth-and-1 deep in its own territory to set up Mason's last TD.
Bell's late TD pass lifts No. 18 Oklahoma past No. 6 Oklahoma
STILLWATER, Okla. -- Blake Bell threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Saunders with 19 seconds remaining to help No. 18 Oklahoma spoil rival Oklahoma State's Big 12 championship and BCS bowl game hopes with a 33-24 win.
Bell, playing in place of an injured Trevor Knight, led the Sooners (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) on the game-winning 66-yard drive — going 5-of-8 for 57 yards on the drive.
Eric Striker ended the game by recovering a fumble for a touchdown for Oklahoma, which has now won at least 10 games in four consecutive seasons.
Sooners coach Bob Stoops is now 8-1 in his career against Cowboys coach Mike Gundy.
Desmond Roland led No. 6 Oklahoma State (10-2, 7-2) with 144 yards rushing and accounted for three touchdowns.
No. 7 Stanford beats No. 11 Arizona State to win Pac-12 title
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Tyler Gaffney ran for 133 yards and scored three touchdowns in a dominating first half, leading No. 7 Stanford back to the Rose Bowl with a 38-14 victory against No. 11 Arizona State in the Pac-12 title game Saturday night.
Stanford (11-2) raced out to a big lead in its first game with Arizona State this season and had its way with the Sun Devils again early in the rematch, building a 28-7 lead early in the second quarter. Gaffney did most of the damage, scoring on a 69-yard run on the Cardinal's second play and a pair of 1-yard runs.
Stanford consistently gouged Arizona State for big plays, racking up 517 yards to earn a shot at repeating as Rose Bowl champion.
Arizona State (10-3) stumbled early for the second straight game against the Cardinal and never really recovered to spoil its Rose Bowl hopes.
D.J. Foster accounted for 142 total yards and two touchdowns for the Sun Devils, who will likely play in the Holiday or Alamo Bowl instead of making their first trip to Pasadena since 1997.
Kevin Hogan threw for 277 yards and a touchdown, Ty Montgomery scored two touchdowns and Stanford held Arizona State to 311 total yards to earn a spot in a BCS bowl for the fourth straight season.
No. 9 Baylor beats No. 23 Texas, wins Big 12 title
WACO, Texas -- Bryce Petty threw touchdown passes on the first two drives of the second half for No. 9 Baylor and the Bears won their first Big 12 title and a Fiesta Bowl berth with a 30-10 victory against No. 23 Texas on Saturday.
The final game in Baylor's old stadium became a de facto Big 12 championship game after No. 6 Oklahoma State's lost just before they kicked off.
Baylor (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) had never even had a winning record in the Big 12 before coach Art Briles arrived six years ago. Now the Bears have their first 11-win season and their first outright title in any league since the 1980 Southwest Conference title when Mike Singletary called Floyd Casey Stadium home.
Petty threw for 287 yards, with TDs to Antwan Goodley and Levi Norwood after a 3-3 halftime tie.
Malcolm Brown ran for 131 yards for Texas (8-4, 7-2).
No. 15 UCF claims outright AAC championship
DALLAS -- Blake Bortles threw for 242 yards and ran for two touchdowns as No. 15 UCF celebrated a BCS bid already in hand by rallying to beat SMU 17-13 Saturday in front of just a few hundred fans who braved a brutal ice storm.
With the school's first BCS berth secured by Louisville's win at Cincinnati Thursday, the Knights were sluggish before recovering for a school-record eighth straight win and the outright title in the first year of the American Athletic Conference.
UCF (11-1, 8-0 AAC) has both of the 34-year-old program's 11-win seasons in the past four years. The Knights went 11-3 in 2010 and beat Georgia in the Liberty Bowl.
SMU (5-7, 4-4) saw its record bowl streak end at four seasons in the coldest home game in school history -- 24 degrees at kickoff. It matched the 1983 Sun Bowl in El Paso as SMU's coldest game. It was UCF's coldest game by far.
SMU quarterback Neal Burcham had 222 yards passing and a touchdown to Keenan Holman, who had 91 yards on six catches.
SMU twice failed on fourth down in UCF territory in the fourth quarter. Redshirt freshman Neal Burcham, making his second straight start for injured senior Garrett Gilbert, was stuffed and injured on fourth-and-1 with 8:22 remaining.
Garrett Krstich replaced him and threw incomplete deep on his first play. Two snaps later, Clayton Geathers made a diving interception, but Central Florida's Shawn Moffitt hit the upright on a 24-yard field that would have put the Knights up by a touchdown.
Krstich still couldn't move the Mustangs. He was forced to scramble on fourth-and-14 and came up well short with 59 seconds left. The Mustangs finished with their first losing record under coach June Jones since he went 1-11 after taking over the moribund program in 2008.
Bowling Green dominates No. 16 Northern Illinois for MAC championship
DETROIT -- Matt Johnson threw four of his career-high five touchdown passes in the first half to help Bowling Green rout No. 16 Northern Illinois 47-27 to win the MAC championship and knock the Huskies out of a spot in a marquee bowl.
Johnson was 21 of 27 for a career-high 393 yards, connected with five teammates for scores and didn't throw an interception. He broke a MAC championship record with the five TD passes.
The Northern Illinois (12-1) loss improves the chances of Baylor or Oregon getting an at-large bid to a BCS bowl game.
Lynch ran for 126 yards and two TDs to break his own single-season record for yards rushing by a quarterback in major college football, but didn't take advantage of an opportunity to impress Heisman Trophy voters.
He was 21 of 40 for 219 yards with a TD and two interceptions, including one in the fourth quarter that set up Johnson's fifth TD that put Bowling Green up 40-20.
The Falcons (10-3) won the MAC title for the first time since 1992 - months after Johnson was born - and just three years after a 2-10 record put coach Dave Clawson's job in jeopardy.
No. 19 Louisville rallies to beat rival Cincinnati in OT
CINCINNATI -- Teddy Bridgewater rallied No. 19 Louisville in the fourth quarter, and Dominique Brown ran 2 yards for a touchdown in the first overtime Thursday night for a 31-24 victory against Cincinnati in the Cardinals' farewell to the American Athletic Conference.
The comeback clinched the first AAC title for UCF, which had a one-game lead over Cincinnati (9-3, 6-2) heading into the final weekend. Louisville will play in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, Fla.
For the second year in a row, the Ohio River rivals went to overtime to decide who gets the Keg of Nails, this time for the foreseeable future with Louisville (11-1, 7-1) leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.
The Cardinals won 34-31 in overtime in the rain in Louisville last season. This one went to overtime on a wet, raw night when Cincinnati's Tony Miliano kicked a 26-yard field goal with 7 seconds left.
An interference penalty in the end zone set up Brown's 2-yard run to open overtime.
The Bearcats got the ball and wound up with a fourth-and-14 at the 29, and Kay's pass went off the hands of Anthony McClung at the 6, ending Cincinnati's first overtime game at Nippert Stadium since 2003. The Bearcats could be headed to the Belk Bowl.
Bridgewater was 23 of 37 for 255 yards with three touchdowns, two of them in the fourth quarter. He eluded three tacklers for a 14-yard run on fourth-and-12 to keep one touchdown drive going, and finished it by scrambling away from defenders and throwing an off-balance pass for a 22-yard score.
No. 24 Fresno State beats Utah State for Mountain West title
FRESNO, Calif. -- Derek Carr threw for 403 yards and three touchdowns, and Fresno State's defense bounced back from a rough performance to help the Bulldogs beat Utah State in the inaugural Mountain West conference title game.
Carr was far from his best against the stingy defense from Utah State (8-5), matching his career worst with two interceptions. But it was the much-maligned defense that stepped up for a change, giving the Bulldogs (11-1) their first outright conference title since winning the Big West in 1989.
One week after being completely overmatched in a 62-52 loss at at San Jose State that dashed any hopes of a BCS bid, Fresno State's defense responded with one of its best performances of the season.
