BCS Top 50: Honorable mentions
When we started asking around for submissions for our BCS Top 50, there were dozens and dozens of excellent submissions. The hardest part of the whole exercise was culling the list down, leaving us with the following list of games, moments, players and storylines that were the toughest exclusions. You could sub any of these into spots 50-40 and we wouldn’t argue with you.
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Golden Tate scores to the game-winning touchdown against Michigan State in 2009, then jumps into the Spartan marching band.
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The 2000 Independence Bowl between Mississippi State and Texas A&M, an overtime classic played in a Shreveport blizzard.
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Kansas and Missouri’s Border War in 2007, when the two teams came in ranked second and third in the country. Missouri won and leapt to No. 1 in the nation, but lost the Big 12 title game to Oklahoma the following week. Despite losing the head-to-head battle, 11-1 Kansas went to the BCS ahead of 11-2 Missouri (who had two losses to Oklahoma, a team the Jayhawks didn’t play) and won the Orange Bowl over Virginia Tech.
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The ultimate Clemsonsing, when West Virginia hung 70 on the Tigers in the 2012 Orange Bowl.
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Navy ends their 43-year losing streak to Notre Dame in triple overtime with a little help from Ram Vela’s ridiculous sack.
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Marshawn Lynch’s celebratory ride:
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Cincinnati’s unbelievable comeback at Pittsburgh to win the 2009 Big East title and clinch a perfect regular season.
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Colorado’s pair of incredible upsets in 2001, where they downed No. 2 Nebraska and No. 3 Texas in consecutive weeks to win the Big 12 Championship.
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Washington quarterback Marques Tuisasopo throws for 302 yards and runs for 207 more against Stanford in 1999, becoming the first player to ever hit the 300/200 mark.
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The 2004 Capital One Bowl, where a late fumble allowed Purdue to force overtime against Georgia, but the Dawgs held it together for the 34-27 win. Or for a more classic vintage of the same result, the 2000 Outback Bowl, where where this time Georgia rallied against Drew Brees and the Boilers, and prevailed 28-25 in overtime
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Rey Maualuga’s crushing hit on Patrick Cowan during UCLA’s 2006 upset of USC.
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Denard Robinson’s magic against Notre Dame, leading Michigan to go-ahead touchdowns in the final minute in both the 2010 and 2011 editions of the rivalry.
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Michael Vick’s flipping touchdown against James Madison in 1999.
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West Virginia upsets Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl, using a fake punt to seal the game.
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Dennis Dixon’s fake Statue of Liberty against Michigan in 2007:''
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The 2012 New Mexico Bowl, where Nevada led Arizona 48-35 with less than two minutes remaining and lost.
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The capacity crowd at the 2007 ACC Championship Game.
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Cal misses a chance to become the top team in the country with a 31-28 loss to Oregon State after a rough mistake by quarterback Kevin Riley.
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Ray Rice and Rutgers knock off undefeated No. 3 Louisville on a late field goal in 2006 after the Cardinals go offsides on the first (missed) attempt.
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LSU eschews a field goal, throws it deep and somehow comes up with the miracle win against Auburn in 2007.
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The horrific officiating at the end of the 2006 Oklahoma/Oregon game.
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This juke move by Trent Richardson:
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In a battle of top five teams, Vince Young and the Longhorns knock off Ohio State in the Horseshoe to start their journey to the national title.
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Kansas State’s bonkers upset of defending champ Texas in 2006.
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No. 3 Oklahoma State survives Andrew Luck and No. 4 Stanford in the 2012 Fiesta Bowl due to some field goal misses.
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Okay, now that you’ve seen the Top 50 and you’ve seen the honorable mentions…what did we miss? What are your favorite games, players and moments from the BCS Era? Leave them in the comments and we’ll do another post where we apologize profusely for leaving a whole list of items we foolishly neglected.
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