Sooners’ Victory OK for All Except Miami

Oklahoma defeated Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game Saturday night, 27-24, setting off car-horn celebrations in Norman, Tempe, Corvallis, Walnut Creek and South Bend, while inducing a collective “Mourn over Miami.”

Who says the Bowl Championship Series is not all-inclusive?

What happened at Arrowhead Stadium, before a crowd of 79,655, affected college towns, reputations, bowl chairmen, conference commissioners and coaches in the Pacific, Mountain and Eastern time zones.

The fallout:

Top-ranked Oklahoma’s victory clinched a berth in the BCS title game against Florida State in the Jan. 3 Orange Bowl, although that won’t become official until the final BCS standings are released today.

“We have a whole month to worry about that,” Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops said of his inevitable matchup against Florida State. “I can’t wait. We have a great history with the Orange Bowl and I hope that excellent history continues.”

Oklahoma rode a gritty performance in 27-degree temperatures by senior quarterback Josh Heupel to beat Kansas State and go to 12-0 for the first time in school history.

“There’s a certain chemistry on this football team,” Heupel said. “We just find a way to win, do enough to win. And that’s something special.”

Heupel, who may end up losing the Heisman Trophy to Florida State’s Chris Weinke, appeared to be playing with a “dead” arm. A lot of his passes fluttered and wobbled. But he found a way to win.

“The guy has a touch to him, and you can’t deny it,” Stoops said.

Heupel completed 24 of 44 passes for 220 yards. He had two touchdown passes, ran for another touchdown and had three passes intercepted.

Yet, it was a Heupel option pitch, a la J.C. Watts, that proved to be the game’s most important toss.

With the game tied, 17-17, early in the fourth quarter, Heupel pitched to running back Quentin Griffin on fourth-and-one at the Kansas State 39. Griffin raced 22 yards for a first down, setting up Heupel’s 17-yard touchdown pass to Andre Woolfolk to put Oklahoma up, 24-17.

“That was just some Oklahoma football of old,” Stoops said. “We haven’t totally forgotten about the option.”

Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder said the play caught his team by surprise.

“A great call on their part,” Snyder said. “We were trying to stop the sneak. You can’t stop that and the option both. It was a chess match.”

Tim Duncan’s 46-yard field goal with 1:25 left gave Oklahoma a 27-17 and clinched the victory, prompting Sooner fans to pelt the field with oranges.

Oklahoma will be playing in its seventh national title game and first since 1987, when the Sooners lost the national title to Miami in the 1988 Orange Bowl.

Instead of playing Miami again, Oklahoma knocked Miami out of the Orange Bowl.

Despite the fact Miami ranks No. 2 in both the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll, and defeated Florida State, 27-24, on Oct. 7 in Miami, Florida State holds a virtually insurmountable .61 lead over Miami for the all-important second spot in the BCS.

Miami’s national title hopes, however, are not over.

The Hurricanes might still win the AP crown if they convincingly win their BCS bowl game, likely against Florida in the Sugar Bowl, and Florida State struggles to defeat Oklahoma in the Orange.

The coaches are contractually bound to award the BCS trophy to the Orange Bowl winner, but the AP poll can independently crown Miami as its champion.

Saturday’s news wasn’t good in Coral Gables, but it produced ear-to-ear grins elsewhere.

Oklahoma’s win all but clinched a BCS bowl berth for 10-1 Oregon State, which is expected to play 9-2 Notre Dame in the Fiesta.

How Oklahoma’s win played in other BCS ports:

Tempe? The Sooners’ victory spared Fiesta Bowl executive director John Junker one of the most difficult decisions of his tenure. Had Kansas State prevailed, the Fiesta would have had to take the Wildcats as the automatic qualifier from the Big 12, leaving Junker and the committee to decide between Notre Dame or Oregon State for the Fiesta Bowl’s at-large spot.

While Oregon State has a better record and higher BCS ranking, Notre Dame is king of kings, college football’s most recognizable brand name and a guaranteed ratings winner for ABC.

Now we’ll never know whether Junker, on today’s selection show, would have had the nerve to utter “The Fiesta Bowl has selected (gulp) Oregon State to play Kansas State,” igniting outrage in South Bend.

Or, Junker might have said, “The Fiesta Bowl has selected Notre Dame to play Kansas State,” which would have detonated time bombs in the Pac-10, which had threatened to pull out of the BCS in 2006 if Oregon State did not get a Fiesta Bowl bid.

Corvallis? On the day Coach Dennis Erickson put to end the rumors and signed a seven-year contract extension, Oklahoma’s win likely lands the Beavers in Tempe and earns Pac-10 schools proceeds from a $13.5 million BCS payout.

Walnut Creek? At Pac-10 headquarters, Commissioner Tom Hansen can raise a toast. Oklahoma’s win effectively ends his successful campaign on behalf of Oregon State. Given the Beavers’ top-drawer credentials and the climate Hansen created with his statements earlier this week, the Fiesta Bowl will be relieved to match Oregon State vs. Notre Dame, even though Notre Dame vs. Miami might have been the more intriguing matchup.

South Bend? Believe it or not, had Kansas State won, there was speculation that the Fiesta Bowl might have taken Oregon State over Notre Dame.

How might you think that news might have played under the Golden Dome?

Everything turned out OK because of Oklahoma.

“It feels good to put Oklahoma back where it used to be,” linebacker Torrance Marshall said.

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FLORIDA 28, AUBURN 6

Rex Grossman threw four touchdown passes to lead the Gators to the SEC title. D11