Comment: No. 1 Ohio State will meet No. 2 LSU for the BCS National Championship. Ohio State was No. 3 in the polls heading into Saturday night, but with losses to Missouri and West Virginia, it jumped into the No. 1 slot. As for LSU, it came into Saturday at No. 5 in the Harris poll and No. 7 in the BCS computers, but jumped up to No. 2 with its victory over Tennessee in the SEC Championship. This will be the second consecutive season the Buckeyes will play in the BCS title game. Both teams have won national titles in the decade with Ohio State winning in 2002 and LSU winning in 2003.
The champions of selected conferences are contractually committed to certain bowls, unless they are No. 1 or No. 2. (ACC: Orange; Big Ten: Rose; Big 12: Fiesta; Pac-10: Rose; SEC: Sugar).
If a Bowl loses a host team to the title game, then the bowl gets first choice at a replacement team. The rest of the selection order is as follows: Orange, Fiesta, Sugar.
Notre Dame earns an automatic berth if it is in the top eight of the final BCS Standings, while non-BCS schools can earn bids if ranked in the top 12 of the final BCS Standings or ranked ahead of a BCS conference champ.
In Non-BCS games, the pick is not the order the team finished in the conference, but a selection order by the bowls. (Example: ACC No. 4 doesn't mean the fourth-place team, it means the Champs Sports Bowl gets the fourth selection out of the ACC.)
Comment: With Virginia Tech's victory over Boston College in the ACC Championship game, the Hokies will be headed to the Orange Bowl. The Orange Bowl got first selection after the replacement picks and selected Kansas, which has just one loss.
Comment: By beating Missouri in the Big 12 Championship, the Sooners will be headed back to the Fiesta Bowl. With the Fiesta Bowl's other selection, it passed on Hawaii and took Big East champion West Virginia.
Comment: Despite having two conference losses, Southern California clinched the Pac-10 with a victory over UCLA and the automatic Rose Bowl bid. With the Rose Bowl's other selection, it replaced Ohio State with Illinois to give the Rose Bowl its traditional Big Ten vs. Pac-10 matchup.
Comment: By losing LSU to the BCS national title, the Sugar Bowl selected Georgia as its replacement team. With its last pick, the Sugar Bowl took Hawaii, which is undefeated and ranked high enough in the BCS Standings.
