Stars
Tre Mason, Auburn, rushed for 304 yards and four touchdowns in leading No. 3 Auburn to a wild 59-42 victory over No. 5 Missouri in the Southeastern Conference championship game.
Jameis Winston, Florida State, threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score, and the top-ranked Seminoles stormed into the title game with a 45-7 victory over 20th-ranked Duke in the ACC championship game.
Tyler Gaffney, Stanford, ran for 133 yards and scored three touchdowns in a dominating first half, leading the No. 7 Cardinal back to the Rose Bowl with a 38-14 victory over No. 11 Arizona State in the Pac-12 title game.
Casey Cochran, Connecticut, threw for a school-record 461 yards and four touchdowns in leading the Huskies to a 45-10 win over Memphis.
Desmond Roland, Oklahoma State, ran for 144 yards and accounted for three touchdowns in the sixth-ranked Cowboys’ 33-24 loss to rival Oklahoma.
Bryce Petty, Baylor, threw for 287 yards and had touchdown passes on the first two drives of the second half to help the No. 9 Bears win their first Big 12 title and a Fiesta Bowl berth with a 30-10 victory over No. 23 Texas.
Dray Joseph, Southern, threw for 337 yards passing and three touchdowns in a 34-27 double overtime victory over Jackson State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship.
Numbers
Minus-5: Temperature at kickoff in Missoula, where Montana hosted Coastal Carolina in the FCS playoffs. Coastal Carolina won 42-35.
15: Consecutive wins by No. 15 Central Florida, which won the first AAC title.
56: Years since Rice had won a conference title before winning the Conference USA championship game.
677: Total yards, including 545 on the ground, by No. 3 Auburn against Missouri to set an SEC championship game record.
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No. 1 Florida State romped, and No. 2 Ohio State stumbled, and now the SEC has chance to win its eighth consecutive BCS championship.
Florida State will play No. 3 Auburn in the BCS title game Jan. 6 in Pasadena, Calif., after the Tigers capped their remarkable turnaround season with a wild victory over Missouri in the Southeastern Conference title game, and then the Buckeyes were upset by Michigan State in the Big Ten on Saturday night.
For Florida State, it was business as usual against No. 20 Duke. Jameis Winston passed for 330 yards and accounted for four touchdowns, just another huge game for the Heisman Trophy favorite, and the Seminoles’ defense smothered the Blue Devils 45-7 in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship in Charlotte.
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Bryce Petty and ninth-ranked Baylor closed out their old stadium with quite a fiesta.
In what became a de facto Big 12 championship game after Oklahoma State lost, Petty threw for 287 yards with touchdown passes on the first drives after halftime, and the Bears won the their first title in the league with a 30-10 victory over No. 23 Texas.
The Bears, who never even had a winning record in the Big 12 before coach Art Briles arrived six years ago, have the first 11-win season in school history and are headed to the Fiesta Bowl.
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Oklahoma players say they were unaware of an earthquake that happened during the second quarter of the No. 18 Sooners’ 33-24 victory over Oklahoma State.
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 4.5-magnitude earthquake in central Oklahoma at 12:10 p.m. Saturday near Arcadia, about 7 miles east of Edmond and about 14 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.
It occurred about the time Sooners’ kicker Michael Hunnicutt kicked a 21-yard field goal in the second quarter of the win over the No. 6 Cowboys.
Hunnicutt said he didn’t know about the earthquake and didn’t feel it, while Oklahoma (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) wide receiver Sterling Shepard said if he felt anything, he likely thought it was the result of the 58,520 in attendance in Boone Pickens Stadium.
Associated Press
