FanHouse Fiesta Bowl

The crystal football is here through at least January of 2015. Its not exactly the most shocking news around, but certainly a burr in the side of college football playoff advocates as the Rose, Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls will remain with the BCS through 2014. This effectively shelves any possibility for a playoff until the 2014-2015 college football season at the earliest.

The agreement provides for at least one more BCS Championship Game at each of the four venues once the old agreement runs out after the 2009-10 season. This news, paired with the crossover from Fox Sports' woeful BCS coverage to ESPN/ABC after next season should perk up the BCS after a rough few years.

The thing that stinks about the BCS Selection Show is that, while it's always fun to see mysterious computer rankings unveiled to the public on national television, it's not like March Madness' seeding process, because we more or less already know who's going to end up where. To wit: most of what FOX had to offer in the way of entertainment involved fast-paced graphics, a little screaming, and ultimately the exact matchups we all thought we would see.

BCS National Championship -- Oklahoma Sooners vs. Florida Gators

The Sooners and Gators were named as the pair of teams that will compete for the BCS championship and nearly unalienable right to almost absolutely proclaim themselves the best team in the nation. But, all skepticism aside, it's worth noting that this will be a pretty spectacular game to watch, provided you enjoy seeing lots of offense.

Allstate Sugar Bowl -- Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Utah Utes

Talk about disappointing -- Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide went undefeated all season long until they finally lost a game to the Florida Gators ... in the pre-postseason SEC championship game. And, as a result of all their hard work, the Tide get to play Utah, who, as a non-BCS conference team, is back in the BCS mix again. This time they're without Urban Meyer, and pardon me for being a jerkstore, but an upset Alabama team (with only one loss and somehow unable to play for the championship) is going to throttle-job them.

Win or lose, this is probably the best half of football West Virginia has played all year if you consider the competition. By far, this is the most dynamic the Mountaineer offense has been all year. Even though they have had to settle for field goals mostly, the passing over the middle and runs that went between the tackles have already surpassed anything the team did during the regular season.

More importantly, this is also the best the defense has looked all year. I think it's pretty safe to say that interim head coach Bill Stewart has given this team new focus and allowed them to play. Too many times this year, the Mountaineers looked tight and unsure of themselves. Like if someone was standing over them screaming and complaining about every miscue. Yes, I'm looking at you Rich Rodriguez. But tonight, the team is loose and is executing the way we all expected them to this year.

I got the feeling when #19 Vaughn Rivers was running his mouth during the coin toss (something I never thought I would see) that the Mountaineers might not be able to back it up. But nothing could be further from the truth.

With Steve Slaton most likely out for the rest of the game you might think that the Mountaineers would be in trouble. But West Virginia has seen this movie before in last years Gator Bowl. Pat White and company haven't missed a beat with Noel Devine and Owen Schmitt taking over for Slaton. The only question is if they can keep it up through the second half.

Halftime stats worth noting:

Rushing: WVU 159, OU 10
Passing: WVU 96, OU 90
Kick Return Yards: WVU 2/41 yards, OU 5/167

This ... just makes me laugh.

An intrepid Canadian college football fan has made a great video spoofing the "OMG screen went black!" series finale to The Sopranos. We all know what happened in last year's wild Fiesta Bowl, but somehow this video leaves you hanging just the same. Brilliant and funny at the same time.

Take special notice of the agonizing parallel parking efforts, played back suspiciously at about 3/4 speed.