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1. Kudos to Clemson for its first title of any sort since 1991, so long ago that Bobby Bowden finished the season with “only” 216 victories. It is a mark of the Tigers’ improvement that Virginia held Heisman candidate C.J. Spiller to 114 all-purpose yards and the Clemson still won easily, 34-21. Spiller’s candidacy may have lost some momentum but I bet he’s delighted with the result.

2. I am not surprised that Charlie Weis didn’t flinch when someone brought up his 2005 quote that finishing 6-5 isn’t good enough. Weis, the coach of a 6-5 team, agreed. But I am surprised that Weis said he wouldn’t resign. I figured he would fall on his sword as a matter of honor not to resign. Weis’s comments Sunday indicate that he considers it a matter of honor to stay on the job. On the other hand, a resignation may affect his buyout. Money ahead of honor? Naaaah.

3. If we had a playoff, which teams would be entering the postseason with momentum? My toothpicks would be on Georgia Tech, Alabama and Texas (I’d say Ohio State, too, but the Buckeyes are No. 10 and the Yellow Jackets are No. 7. Can’t both win but it would a helluva show). On the other hand, which teams look like first-round losers based on their play down the stretch? Cincinnati, Iowa and LSU.

Style points might be hurting Iowa in the human polls, but not where it matters most.

The Hawkeyes remained ahead of Penn State in the latest BCS standings, moving up two spots to No. 11 after Saturday's victory against Minnesota. Penn State moved up only one spot to No. 13 after its dominating win against Michigan State, but Oklahoma State is now sandwiched between the two Big Ten squads at No. 12.

It's a safe bet that at least one of those three teams will earn a BCS at-large berth, and possibly two (Oklahoma State and a Big Ten squad). Iowa and Penn State both have completed the regular season, so you'd expect things to stay more or less the same the rest of the way.

Penn State is ranked ahead of Iowa in the AP, Coaches and Harris polls, but the Hawkeyes are well ahead in computer average (10 vs. 18).

Even though Iowa is ahead of Penn State in the BCS standings, the bowls can select any team in the top 14, so Penn State remains in good shape as well. I'll break down the BCS at-large case for each time on Monday.

Ohio State remained at No. 10 in the BCS standings, as the Buckeyes' computer average (11) hurts them. Wisconsin fell out of the standings after its loss to Northwestern.

• B.J. Daniels, QB, South Florida: The redshirt freshman accounted for 445 yards of total offense and became the first player in Big East history to run for more than 100 yards (he had 141) and pass for more than 300 (he had 305) in the same game. He also scored three times in the Bulls' 34-22 win over Louisville.
• Jordan Todman, RB, Connecticut: Todman ran for 130 yards and a score on 26 carries and also returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown in the Huskies' 33-30 double-overtime win at Notre Dame.
• Andre Dixon, RB, Connecticut: Todman's backfield mate added 114 yards on the ground, plus all 25 yards on the winning drive of the second overtime.
• Doug Hogue, LB, Syracuse: Hogue broke a school record with 6.5 tackles for loss, including 3.5 sacks, in the Orange's 31-13 upset of Rutgers.
• Syracuse's offensive line: The Orange offensive front allowed the team to rush for 213 yards and have 40:01 minutes of possession in the win.

Barring a bizarre chain of events these last two weeks, the SEC can just about lock in two BCS berths.

The SEC championship game winner between Alabama and Florida is ticketed for the BCS National Championship Game, and the loser will play in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Ole Miss has made up the most ground on the bowl front in the past few weeks. The Rebels’ 25-23 win over LSU likely puts them in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando. The Rebels last played in a Florida bowl in 1991 when they lost to Michigan in the Gator Bowl.

Now, if Ole Miss should lose this Saturday to Mississippi State, it may be a more difficult decision for the Capital One, which gets the top choice out of the SEC after the BCS selections are made.

Arkansas is the other hot team in the SEC and has one of the SEC’s hotter players in quarterback Ryan Mallett. The winner of the Arkansas-LSU game this weekend is likely headed to the Cotton Bowl.

Watch Kentucky, too. The Wildcats have a chance to get to 8-4 if they can beat Tennessee, which would almost certainly send the Big Blue to the Outback Bowl.

The Vols could also end up in the Outback Bowl, but could fall to the Autozone Liberty Bowl if they lose to the Wildcats and wind up 6-6.

The bottom line is that nothing that can be written in pen except for Vanderbilt and Mississippi State being eliminated from bowl contention. The other 10 teams are all bowl eligible.

Can you imagine a final weekend of the regular season that included Mississippi State beating Ole Miss, South Carolina beating Clemson, Kentucky beating Tennessee, Georgia beating Georgia Tech and either Alabama or Florida losing?

Stay tuned, because it never ends up like you think it will.

Here’s the way I see the bowl lineup shaking out heading into the final weekend of the regular season:

• BCS National Championship Game: Alabama vs. BCS team
• Allstate Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. BCS team
• Capital One Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Big Ten team
• Outback Bowl: Tennessee vs. Big Ten team
• AT&T Cotton Bowl: LSU vs. Big 12 team
• Chick-fil-A Bowl: Kentucky vs. ACC team
• Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl: Auburn vs. ACC team
• Autozone Liberty Bowl: Arkansas vs. Conference USA team
• Advocare Independence Bowl: South Carolina vs. Big 12 team
• Papajohns.com Bowl: Georgia vs. Big East team

The Big 12’s bowl picture still is wide open with one week left in the regular season.

The biggest question remains whether Oklahoma State will soar into the Bowl Championship Series as an at-large team. Not only would it provide the conference with an infusion of about $4.5 million by having a second team, but it would also push the selection process up by one.

Such a scenario might result in a situation where the conference perhaps would be unable to fill all of its eight contracted slots with its bowl partners. But it’s not as if the conference would mind that much with the extra BCS money coming.

Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, three Big 12 teams have been eliminated from bowl consideration.

Kansas State’s "boom or bust" game against Nebraska resulted in a 17-3 loss, eliminating the Wildcats from bowl consideration despite their 6-6 record. The Wildcats were able to count only one of their two victories over FCS opponents Tennessee Tech and Massachusetts for bowl purposes, leaving them one victory short.

Baylor’s loss at Texas A&M eliminated the Bears from the bowl picture for the 15th consecutive season. The Bears haven’t played in a bowl since the 1994 Alamo Bowl.

They join Colorado, which was eliminated from bowl consideration last week.

The only team with its bowl prospects still to be determined is Kansas. The 5-6 Jayhawks must beat Missouri Saturday in Kansas City to qualify for an unprecedented third straight bowl trip. If the Jayhawks lose, they will remain at home for the holidays.

Texas appears to be a lock for the BCS title game -- if the Longhorns can beat Texas A&M on Thursday night in College Station and then Nebraska in the Dec. 5 Big 12 title game in Arlington, Texas.

If the Cornhuskers stun Texas in the title game, they would earn the conference’s automatic BCS berth to the Fiesta Bowl. Texas likely would qualify as an at-large team if they earlier beat Texas A&M heading into the championship game.

The Aggies qualified for their first bowl appearance since 2007 after beating Baylor on Saturday.

And there appears to be little doubt that all of the conference’s 6-6 teams with the exception of KSU will be accommodated in a bowl slot.

Here are my projections for the bowls heading into the week’s games.

• Citi BCS National Championship Game, Jan. 7, 8 p.m. ET, FOX Sports, Pasadena, Calif. -- Texas vs. BCS team
• Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Jan. 4, 7 p.m., FOX Sports, Glendale, Ariz. -- Oklahoma State vs. BCS team
• AT&T Cotton Bowl, Jan. 2, 2 p.m., FOX Sports, Arlington, Texas -- Nebraska vs. SEC team
• Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, Dec. 30, 8 p.m., ESPN, San Diego -- Texas Tech vs. Pac-10 team
• Valero Alamo Bowl, Jan. 2, 9 p.m., ESPN, San Antonio -- Missouri vs. Big Ten team
• Brut Sun Bowl, Dec. 31, noon, CBS, El Paso, Texas -- Oklahoma vs. Pac-10 team
• Insight Bowl, Dec. 31, 5:30 p.m., NFL Network, Tempe, Ariz. -- Iowa State vs. Big Ten team
• Texas Bowl, Dec. 30, 8 p.m., NFL Network, Houston -- Texas A&M vs. Navy
• Independence Bowl, Dec. 28, 5 p.m., ESPN, Shreveport, La. -- No Big 12 team available.

For a look at our complete bowl schedule, follow this link.

And for a look at how our bowl gurus Mark Schlabach and Bruce Feldman are projecting bowls this week, go to this link.

We’re down to this: One more week of football remaining to determine if Alabama and Florida will meet in the SEC championship game as unbeaten teams.

The Crimson Tide and Gators are coming off “scrimmages” and should be rested for their big rivalry games this weekend.

Ole Miss seems to be getting hot at just the right time for the second straight season. They’re just plain hot in Georgia after the Bulldogs’ 34-27 home loss to Kentucky, and who knows what they’re thinking on the Bayou after one of the worst mismanagements of a late-game clock situation by LSU in recent SEC history?

Here’s a look at what we learned in the SEC in Week 12:

1. Running backs galore: It’s been a while since the SEC had this many good running backs putting up these kind of numbers in the same season. Picking the top two for first-team All-SEC honors is going to be a chore. Five guys can stake a claim. Alabama’s Mark Ingram has 1,399 rushing yards, averages 6.8 yards per carry and has 15 touchdowns. Mississippi State’s Anthony Dixon has 1,258 rushing yards, averages 5.5 yards per carry and has 11 touchdowns. Auburn’s Ben Tate has 1,209 rushing yards, averages 5.4 yards per carry and has eight touchdowns. Tennessee’s Montario Hardesty has 1,127 rushing yards, averages 5 yards per carry and has 10 touchdowns. Ole Miss’ Dexter McCluster has 903 rushing yards, averages 6.9 yards per carry and has nine touchdowns. McCluster also has 412 receiving yards. How do you pick just two?

2. It’s a Big Blue world: If Kentucky does this coming Saturday what it’s failed to do every year since 1984 – and that’s beat Tennessee – the SEC Coach of the Year award this season should take its rightful place in Lexington, Ky. The more you watch this team play, the more respect you gain for what Rich Brooks has done. The Wildcats proved yet again in their 34-27 win over Georgia how resourceful they are, how resilient they are and how they simply don’t give up -- sort of like how Brooks never gave up on this program several years ago when everybody else had given up on him. A win over the Vols at home this coming weekend would give the Wildcats their first eight-win regular season since 1984, quite an accomplishment when you consider all the injuries this team has endured this season.

3. Chaotic clock management: You could watch football for a long time (at any level) and not see a worse butchering of an end-of-game situation than what you saw from LSU on Saturday in its 25-23 loss to Ole Miss. And let’s face it: Les Miles has played with fire before in these situations. Remember the touchdown pass to Demetrius Byrd with one second left against Auburn in 2007? He got away with that one, but not this time. There was zero direction on the LSU sideline in that final minute against Ole Miss. Sure, Jordan Jefferson should have never taken that sack on second down, but he never should have been throwing the ball in the first place. Jefferson’s comments afterward were telling. He said confusion reigned and admitted that he “didn’t know what to do.” There were so many mistakes by the LSU offensive staff that the hardest part is trying to figure out where to start. The Tigers wasted 17 seconds before calling a timeout after the third-down play. They inexplicably didn’t try to run the ball after getting to the Ole Miss 32 with 1:04 to play. They didn’t have a plan in place for the final play. And even in the postgame press conference after all the chaos had ended, Miles seemed as lost in trying to explain it all as he did when it was all melting down around him on the sideline. The truth is there isn’t any explaining this one.

4. From bad to worse for Georgia: There was already a black cloud hovering over Georgia’s football program. This season hadn’t been what anybody wanted, but then the Bulldogs went out and lost to Kentucky … at home. Not only did they lose, but they dominated the statistics and still managed to lose. But that’s what happens when you turn the ball over four times in the second half and have 75 penalty yards for the game. The Bulldogs (6-5, 4-4) are staring squarely into the face of their first non-winning regular season since Jim Donnan’s first season in Athens in 1996. The Bulldogs might not be one of the top two most talented teams in the SEC, but they’re certainly one of the top three or four. Talent is not Georgia’s problem. It’s focus. It’s execution. It’s player development and it’s discipline. When you commit as many penalties as the Bulldogs have the past two seasons and turn the ball over as many times as they have this season (26), it’s obvious that there’s a decay in the program somewhere that has to be addressed. Mark Richt has been as classy as they come and as consistent as they come. But if he doesn’t address this decay with more than just cosmetic changes, then it’s going to be addressed for him.

5. Brantley looks the part: It was only for part of the second half and the Gators were up by something like 22 touchdowns, but this just in: Backup quarterback John Brantley can throw it. He’s a better pure passer than Tim Tebow and will add a dimension to the Gators’ passing game next season that they simply don’t have right now. Again, it was mop-up duty, but you talk to enough people in and around the Florida program, and there’s a quiet confidence about some of the things they’re going to be able to do next season with Brantley at the helm. Of course, you give up Tebow’s third-down prowess and his ability to make all the clutch plays with his legs and arm, and you also give up his incredible will to win and the impact that he's had on the rest of his teammates. But Brantley’s polished enough throwing the football that the Gators aren’t going to go quietly into the night next season when Tebow departs. In fact, Brantley might be the third or fourth best quarterback in the SEC right now.

The Gator Bowl is back, which is good news for the Big East.

All the league needs is for Stanford to beat Notre Dame this week to guarantee that a conference team goes to Jacksonville. That makes things work out pretty nicely, with some potentially interesting matchups. How about, say, Pitt vs. Miami in the Gator? Or West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech in the Meineke Car Care Bowl? That might sell a few tickets.

I'm now projecting the Gator back in the Big East corner and for UConn to join the bowl lineup, though the Huskies need one more win. I think South Florida is the biggest beneficiary of the Notre Dame loss, because now the Bulls could move up to the Papajohns.com Bowl. Rutgers, which suffered an awful loss at Syracuse on Saturday, now moves down the pecking order (or up, as in north to Canada).

Here are my latest projections:

• Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. BCS
• Gator Bowl: Pitt vs. ACC
• Meineke Car Care Bowl: West Virginia vs. ACC
• Papajohns.com Bowl: South Florida vs. SEC
• International Bowl: Rutgers vs. MAC
• St. Petersburg Bowl: Connecticut vs. C-USA

Here's a complete bowl schedule, and here are complete postseason projections from Mark Schlabach and Bruce Feldman.

The Rose Bowl picture has cleared. Most other things are muddy.

And the end result might not make some folks happy.

When I pencil out the rest of the season -- for what that is worth in this sometimes nutty conference -- I project four teams will finish with 6-3 conference records: USC, California, Oregon State and Stanford.

In that scenario, no way the Holiday Bowl passes up USC. The Trojans will sell tickets. They will boost TV ratings. And, at 9-3, USC probably will be back in the top-half of the national rankings.

The Sun Bowl then likely would take Cal, even though it lost to Oregon State. The Bears will have a better overall record -- 9-3 vs. 8-4 -- and, most of all, the Beavers played in the Sun Bowl last year.

The Emerald Bowl then would grab Stanford, hoping that the local connection will boost local coverage and ticket sales. Not to mention that Heisman Trophy candidate Toby Gerhart would be a good guy to put on the game posters.

So Oregon State heads to the Las Vegas Bowl. Arizona then goes to the Poinsettia Bowl.

As for UCLA, the Bruins are now the Pac-10's seventh bowl-eligible team. But the Pac-10 only has six bowl contract, so the Bruins will need to find an at-large berth with a bowl that has a vacancy. I just said Humanitarian because that's what Mark Schlabach said last week, and rumor has it Schlabach owns a crystal ball.

Here's a handy bowl schedule. And other bowl projections.

• Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi: Oregon vs. Big Ten
• Pacific Life Holiday: USC vs. Big 12
• Brut Sun: California vs. Big 12/Big East/Notre Dame (a rematch with the Trojans?)
• Emerald: Stanford vs. ACC
• MAACO Las Vegas: Oregon State vs. Mountain West
• San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia: Arizona vs. Mountain West
• Roady's Humanitarian: UCLA vs. WAC

There is one week left, so the bowl predictions are getting interesting, especially in some conferences where extra teams will be available. UAB is the only team in Conference USA that can still gain bowl eligibility, though that looks unlikely since the Blazers will face a really tough Central Florida team.

Bowling Green became bowl eligible in the MAC, but I think it’s going to need to win its final game to earn a bowl berth with four MAC teams already with seven or more wins.

There’s something interesting going on in the Sun Belt Conference. There’s been talk about the MAC and Sun Belt champions meeting in the GMAC Bowl this year because the ACC probably won’t fill its spot. However, that was provided that the Sun Belt had a third seven-win team. Right now, Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette both have six wins and tough games to end the regular season.

The WAC also is interesting because Nevada is playing great right now and could give Boise State a run for its money this Friday. I moved Nevada to the Humanitarian Bowl because there potentially is a better matchup there with an at-large than Idaho. However, Boise State could end up in the H-Bowl if it loses and then Nevada could be going to Hawaii to play SMU, another good matchup for the Wolf Pack.

NATIONAL

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: TCU vs. BCS

FedEx Orange Bowl: Boise State vs. BCS

CONFERENCE USA

Liberty Bowl: Houston vs. SEC

Hawaii Bowl: SMU vs. WAC

Armed Forces Bowl: Marshall vs. MWC

New Orleans Bowl: Central Florida vs. Sun Belt

St. Petersburg Bowl: Southern Miss vs. Big East (Sun Belt)

EagleBank Bowl: East Carolina vs. At-Large

INDEPENDENTS

Texas Bowl: Navy vs. Big 12

MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Big Ten

GMAC Bowl: Central Michigan vs. ACC

International Bowl: Temple vs. Big East

EagleBank Bowl: Ohio vs. C-USA

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE

MAACO Bowl Las Vegas: Utah vs. Pac-10

Poinsettia Bowl: BYU vs. Pac-10

Armed Forces Bowl: Air Force vs. C-USA

New Mexico Bowl: Wyoming vs. WAC

SUN BELT CONFERENCE

New Orleans Bowl: Troy vs. C-USA

St. Petersburg Bowl: Middle Tennessee vs. C-USA

WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

Humanitarian Bowl: Nevada vs. At-Large

New Mexico Bowl: Fresno State vs. MWC

Hawaii Bowl: Idaho vs. C-USA

Here are some trends we learned about the Big 12 in Week 12:

Revenge was sweet for the Red Raiders: Texas Tech had been waiting for its chance to “Jump Around” on Oklahoma for a year. The Red Raiders were still miffed after having that House of Pain song ring through their ears during a demoralizing whipping last season in Norman. They returned the favor with a 41-13 beatdown against the Sooners -- tied for the second-worst defeat for a Bob Stoops team in a Big 12 conference game. The Red Raiders, ranked 117th rushing in the nation before the game, punished the Sooners by gashing them for 161 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Oklahoma can salvage some of its season by ruining Oklahoma State’s BCS at-large hopes with a victory. If not, there’s the very real possibility that Stoops’ team could finish the season with a losing season record after losses to the Cowboys and in a bowl game. Few could have ever imagined those possibilities this season -- even after potential All-Americans like Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham were lost with season-ending injuries.

Kansas State was bitten by its weak nonconference schedule: No team in the Big 12 could have used the extra bowl practice as much as Kansas State, which will end up being denied a bowl trip largely because of the transition from Ron Prince to Bill Snyder. The Wildcats ended up with six wins but couldn’t make a bowl trip because two of the triumphs came over nonFBS programs and could count only one for bowl purposes. The change in leadership left the new coaching staff and the KSU program scrambling for a late addition to its schedule. The result was a victory over late addition Tennessee Tech that doesn’t count for bowl eligibility and will keep the Wildcats out of those needed December practices. In the future, look for Snyder to put aside his previous appetite for gooey scheduling treats for a more determined challenge. Too much early sugar isn’t good for a developing program.

Colt McCoy hopes his memorable "Senior Night" isn't the end: McCoy beat Big Bertha and shot off the mammoth Texas cannon after leading Texas to its first Big 12 title game appearance since 2005. But it’s still undetermined if he can produce a Heisman Trophy as his ultimate reward for this season. If McCoy becomes the first Texas quarterback in history to receive the Heisman, voters are going to have to be sold on a “career achievement” kind of spin. He started it by claiming his record-setting 43rd career victory Saturday night. Big performances against Texas A&M Thursday night and against Nebraska in the Big 12 title game will be important as McCoy tries to make a late Heisman charge. It's not out of reach, but he absolutely, positively has to produce two huge performances in his remaining games in order to win it.

"The Bear's" soft side might have emerged too late to save his job: We saw the lovable side of Mark Mangino Saturday night in Austin, not the angry one that some of his players have decried over the last week in a series of troubling revelations that have surfaced around his Kansas program. Mangino, known as "The Bear" by his coaching friends, hugged his players and even told a referee he was “a good man” during an exchange that was picked up by a sideline microphone. It has taken a determined, forceful leader like Mangino to pull the Kansas program out of the abyss that he inherited in order to get them to a BCS bowl game. It's a shame that Mangino didn’t show his compassion more often during the building process.

Unsettled Texas A&M needs more stability in the future: I can’t remember a more up-and-down team in Big 12 history than the Aggies. Their 6-5 season has qualified them for a bowl trip with one more game to play despite an amazing run of emotions this season. The Aggies won games by 35, 37, 22, 25 and 35 points -- including their 38-3 whipping of Baylor Saturday that earned them the bowl trip. Earlier this season, the Aggies lost games by 28, 48 and 55 points. The Aggies are going to a bowl game, but Mike Sherman’s biggest job over the offseason will be to build consistency so that his team won’t have the week-to-week volatility that has marked his team in 2009.