How's that prediction going for you Santa

FSU won it, but I would hardly call that a "crushing". Closely contested, quite dramatic going down to the end, and a great game overall.

How's that crow taste eden?

And I'll have you all know. FSU won because the coach modeled the team on the SEC

ESPN said so

What crow, dumbass? Auburn didn't get crushed at all

Also, I think it's dubious to claim that the SEC "isn't that good"...
FSU just broke a 7-year SEC national championship streak, and the SEC has won 8 of the last 11 national championships.

Oh, someone's mad. Somehow I think you meant something different at 5:04 my time.

@Santa, you're an idiot. Both of your claims are wrong:
1) The SEC is clearly a decent conference. They have dominated the national championships in the past decade, and its teams are consistently highly ranked.
2) The game was far from being a crushing defeat for Auburn. It really could have gone either way. The outcome only goes to show that two of the best college football teams met and played a closely contested game/

Woah woah woah.

I never said the sec wasn't a decent conference. In fact I think they are the best conference. But, I believe this season showed that they are hardly as dominant as breathless newscasters and sec fans like to think

Now, I know you southerners are butthurt that other southerners (I'm counting Oklahoma as the south since no one wants them) were mockingly chanting SEC! But don't take that out on me.

2) no the team wasn't crushing defeat. I was a bit haughty in that prediction. On the other hand, can we please stop talking about sec dominance (which was just me mentioned by the espn announcers as I write this.

You flat out were wrong and your response is "lol ur buthurt hicks!!" Tells anyone all they need to know about your ability to discuss the sport in a level-headed, reasonable fashion

Please...

SEC!
SEC!
SEC!

That game could have easily ended with an Auburn win. The end of a football game is all about timing. If Auburn's last drive had ate up more clock (or alternatively, if they had scored sooner), then we'd be talking about an Auburn victory right now.

Also, that last pass interference call was complete bullshit. That was clean pass defense.

Yes and iffy did we'd be hearing more about the overwhelming superiority of the sec brand.

Now (next fearless prediction) we'll be hearing whining about the B1G officiating crew from Dixie

Oh, speaking of which, I didn't completely read gunfighter's post...

Auburn had an amazing season and deserved to be in that final game. And FSU deserved the win. It was a great game, and now I'm just sad there will be no college football for 8 months.

Roll Tide.

If you'd told me that special teams miscues and fourth-quarter heroics would have decided the game, in favor of the team which played a worse game by both statistics and the eyeball test, I'd have been certain Auburn would win. Oh well.

To fellow SEC fans: the West is going to be tufffff next season. It depends on who leaves early, of course, but: Auburn should be better, I doubt Alabama will be worse and will probably be better, LSU should be better on defense, and the lower half of the division (the Mississippis and Arkansas) should be better. Only TAMU might take a step back, but it's possible their defensive improvement will outweigh the loss of Johnny.

That was pass interference gunfighter.
They missed the horsecaller, but got the pass interference correct. That was a hell of a game though! and I'm glad I watched it. Does anybody know how good FSU will be next year? I'm too lazy to look up how many people are leaving, but I know they'll have their QB.

That was definitely pass interference. It wasn't even close. It was egregious.

They are getting some good recruits, but nothing crazy good. Either Alabama or Ohio State will be the best team next year, hands down. Dalvin Cook is a name headed to Florida State (committed, at least) that you'll want to know a few years down the road though.

Hopefully Ohio State will redeem themselves. A good thing about next year, a team just needs to finish in the top 4 to prove themselves. That will make it so weird but I hope better

Y'all are full of shit. That was clean defense!

1) The defender has an equal right to attempt to go for the football
2) The defender can make physical contact with the receiver, as long as the defender does not alter the receiver's path of travel
3) The defender can do whatever he wants after the ball is touched by anyone

Horrible refereeing, especially at the end of a tight game like that. Let them play! Let defensive backs play defense!

There's a misconception among football fans that DBs cannot touch receivers and cannot go for the ball in the same way that a receiver can.

Great then even if you are correct, it made up for the missed horse collapse earlier in the drive...

So how will that work next year? I know it's a bracketed play off, but what will happen to the Rose Bowl, et.al. with no BCS. Will they still play them like exhibitions? Will they be where the various brackets are played out?

The defender did *not* go for the football. The defender quite literally wrapped his arms around the intended receiver and *stopped* his forward momentum. It was a horrible case of pass interference properly called but should have been a moot point as the horse collar (that is what it is *actually* called) should have given them 15 more yards.

He had his hand on the receiver's back (not illegal) and swatted the ball (also not illegal)

Gunfighter's a pissed off Auburn fan, let him be.

I assume that the NCAA won't drop the other bowl games. There's way too much revenue in those.

The refs were lame, but they didn't favor either side. If anything they favored Auburn given the crucial misses on a horse collar and facemask... It was a lot like LSU-Iowa actually, referee crew was somewhat incompetent but didn't favor anyone much.

As for next year, there are now six marquee games. Two of them are the semifinal playoff games, one of them is a Big Ten vs Pac-12 matchup (like the Rose Bowl), one of them is a Big XII vs SEC matchup (think combo Sugar+Fiesta Bowl), and one of them pairs an ACC team against a Big Ten or SEC team, or Notre Dame (think Orange Bowl). The last one takes a selected team from the "Group of 5" minor conferences (American Athletic, Conference-USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, Sun Belt) and pairs it against an at-large team from the "Big 5" conferences.

The games rotate depending on which bowls host the playoff games. The championship is played separate from all of those at a selected site, similar to the Super Bowl.

And then everything after that (all the other bowls) will presumably still be played like previously

So for example, this year would hypothetically feature:

Fiesta Bowl: #1 Florida State (13-0) vs #4 Alabama (11-1)
Chick-Fil-A Bowl: #2 Auburn (12-1) vs #3 Michigan State (12-1)
Rose Bowl: #5 Stanford (11-2) vs #7 Ohio State (12-1)
Sugar Bowl: #8 South Carolina (10-2) vs #6 Baylor (11-1)
Orange Bowl: #12 Clemson (10-2) vs #9 Missouri (11-2)
Cotton Bowl: #15 Central Florida (11-1) vs #10 Oregon (10-2)