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The retail market for licensed collegiate apparel is, quite simply, a behemoth of a business that brings in about $4.3 billion annually.

Seemingly everyone wants a piece of it, which is why so many people at so many major events hawk items of all shapes, types and sizes -- whether the items are legitimately made and licensed or counterfeit.

Vendors selling counterfeit goods mixed right in with legitimate vendors at the SEC Championship game in December in Atlanta. They did it at the Rose Bowl, too. And they’ll do it again Monday night at the 2012 Allstate BCS National Championship Game.

Last year, more than 60,000 pieces of counterfeit merchandise valued at more than $1 million overall were seized by Collegiate Licensing Company. While CLC represents nearly 200 colleges, universities, bowl games, athletic conferences, the Heisman Trophy and the NCAA, it’s not the only licensing agency around; Learfield Sports, Licensing Resource Group, and Silver Star Merchandising represent collegiate properties in their licensing efforts as well.

At the 2011 SEC championship Game, CLC took possession of 1,012 pieces of unlicensed product with an estimated retail value of more than $15,000. That’s up from 2010, when 541 pieces of unlicensed produced were seized or voluntarily surrendered by vendors. More than twice that many products were seized last January at the Rose Bowl by CLC.

CLC officials said that on average, nearly 5,000 counterfeit items, from T-shirts to hats to bracelets, are seized outside the host stadium of the BCS title game each year.

Some of the items are obvious: In December in Atlanta, a roaming vendor on Mangum Street south of the Georgia Dome peddled T-shirts, gold letters emblazoned on purple reading: “BATON [expletive] ROUGE.” The back of the shirt warned: “IF YOU DON’T BLEED PURPLE AND GOLD TAKE YOUR [double expletive] HOME!”

Most people wouldn’t consider such a shirt an officially licensed product of Louisiana State University because of the vulgar language. But another vendor sold shirts proclaiming a “2011 SEC Championship Showdown” and featured the trademarked logos for LSU and Georgia. Few buyers would be able to determine the shirts were counterfeit.

CLC investigators team with local police at major events and seize such material, give citations to the vendors or arrest them. Companies like CLC conduct such enforcement activities because federal law requires trademark owners to “police” their mark. Trademark law is largely enforced through private lawsuits, although there are also criminal penalties for counterfeiting goods. Failure to police a mark by attempting to prevent infringing uses can result in a loss of protection for a trademark.

The most clear-cut violations by vendors are those involving the use of trademarks that are registered at the state or federal level. Trademarks include more than just the university, conference or BCS logo. For example, University of Georgia lists the following trademarks: “Georgia,” “University of Georgia,” “Georgia Bulldogs,” “Bulldogs,” “Dawgs,” “UGA,” “University of Georgia Athletic Association,” “Between The Hedges,” “How Bout Them Dogs,” “Go You Silver Britches,” “Hairy Dawg,” the oval “G” mark and many others.

In addition to registered trademarks at the state or federal level, universities can also claim common law rights to marks or wording typically associated with the university.

In 2008, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a Louisiana federal district court against Smack Apparel for intentional trademark infringement based on its use of school colors in combination with other designs and words that made it apparent the references were designed to associate with a particular school. For example, one shirt featured the following: “Got Seven?” “We do! 7 Time National Champs.” The shirt included a depiction of the state of Ohio and a marker noting Columbus, Ohio, on the back. The court decided the shirt referred to the seven college football national titles claimed by Ohio State University.

The court ruled that the schools involved in the suit owned trademark rights in their color schemes and that combined with other indicia on the various shirts, such as the reference to Ohio State’s location in Columbus and national titles in the example above, trademark infringement had occurred, even without use of the school name or logo.

So, who are these vendors?

One of them cited in Atlanta was the man selling the shirts with the expletives. He said he planned to keep $8 of the $20 shirt cost, with $12 going to his boss. He expected to make $1,500 to $2,000 that day before he was stopped by CLC investigators and Atlanta police for vending without a permit.

The man said he was based out of Cleveland but traveled nearly every weekend for major sporting events. He said he worked for a company named Street Talk Tees, which is registered as a business in Ohio for “novelty tees and apparel.” The vendor said his company employs about 30 people who travel to events -- two others also worked the SEC game.

Requests for comment from Street Talk were not answered.

CLC says buyers have a few ways to determine the authenticity of their purchases:

•  Look for an “Officially Licensed Collegiate Products” hologram on the product or hangtag.

•  Consider taste of the product, as distasteful designs are not approved by trademark holders.

•  A torn or missing tag usually is evidence of a second-hand garment.

•  The name of the manufacturer will be on the product somewhere, either in the form of a hangtag, a neck label, or screen-printed directly.

•  All merchandise should have appropriate trademark designations next to a specific name or design.

Why be so conscientious when you buy collegiate merchandise? Each year, universities depend on millions of dollars in royalties to fund athletic programs and other university initiatives. For example, the University of Florida showed more than $6 million in licensing revenue on its audited financial statement for 2010-11, with just $40,000 of that going to CLC in marketing fees.

Ohio State budgeted for $3.5 million in licensing revenue for 2011-12 and projects $1.58 million of that will move from the athletic department to the university, to be used for academic programming and scholarships.

The 2011-12 bowl season hasn’t been a gem in terms of attendance, even with four games yet to play. Nearly 3 percent fewer people -- 42,959 -- have attended games this season than last year.

Yet college football profits topped $1 billion last year, attendance during the regular season increased for the fourth time in five years last year, and big matchups like the LSU-Alabama game this November were huge on TV -- that game alone drew almost 6.5 million more viewers than 2010’s highest-rated matchup. So what gives with the bowl attendance?

Bowl executives list a number of reasons for the decline. Tina Kunzer-Murphy, an ESPN executive who is also executive director of the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas and chairwoman of the Football Bowl Association, says factors include public disenchantment with football’s postseason system, the tough economy and games that feature teams which haven’t been able to draw fans. (ESPN owns seven non-BCS bowl games and the BCS broadcast rights through 2014.)

Seven bowls thus far have seen a decrease in attendance of 10,000 or more from last year. With the exception of the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl, all have one thing in common: last year’s game featured a team whose campus was less than 300 miles from the bowl. In the cases of the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman, last year’s matchup featured a team within just 10 miles.

After posting its highest attendance ever last year at 48,049 with local team San Diego State University playing, the Poinsettia Bowl saw attendance slashed in half this year with a TCU vs. Louisiana Tech matchup. The Sheraton Hawaii Bowl saw a decline of more than 10,000 this year with its Southern Miss vs. Nevada matchup, with Nevada distributing less than 1,000 tickets to its fans.

The Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl, Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl and Outback Bowl each featured a team located less than 300 miles away last year, and each saw at least 11,000 fewer tickets sold this year. The local-school-tie-in anomaly: the Gator Bowl, which despite having a matchup between Urban Meyer’s former team and the team he’ll coach in 2012 -- and the University of Florida’s close proximity to Jacksonville -- the bowl saw a decline of 16,185 fans this year.

Bowls that saw increases of 10,000 or more fans this year similarly saw their fortunes tied to fan base proximity.

The Chick-Fil-A Bowl, which saw its 15th straight sellout in 2011, benefits from its proximity to the fan bases of the ACC and SEC, but that’s not the key to success, says bowl president and CEO Gary Stokan.

“Every bowl has the opportunity if they work diligently to sell tickets to local people and businesses before the teams are announced," he says. Stokan says his bowl sells approximately 38,000 tickets each year before teams are announced, leaving essentially only the team ticket allotments available.

While he says some of the bowl’s success is due to Atlanta being the “capital of college football” and home to the first- or second-largest segment of each ACC and SEC school’s alumni base, he believes the true secret to attendance success is in selling to locals, not waiting until schools are announced to sell to fans.

Will Webb, executive director of the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, says his bowl looks at fan interest level, not only proximity.

He says in addition to attending games and paying close attention to a team’s record for the second half of the season, bowl officials also monitor Internet message boards. A lot of fans calling for a coach’s head? Then the fan base probably isn’t excited enough about a bowl game to pack the house. Last year, Louisville looked like a good choice until the bowl committee noted the Cardinals’ basketball schedule. Officials saw a basketball game against rival Kentucky scheduled for the same time as the bowl game. Needless to say, the bowl passed Louisville.

Kunzer-Murphy echoed some of Webb’s sentiments with regard to the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl. Down to Arizona State or UCLA, bowl officials had to weigh UCLA’s two big losses at the end of the season and firing of head coach Rick Neuheisel. Meanwhile, Arizona State had never been selected for the bowl, had never played in Nevada, and traveling to Las Vegas would be easy.

When asked about potential changes in light of the down attendance this year, each bowl executive had a somewhat different answer, but all were open to change. Kunzer-Murphy believes change is inevitable once conference realignment is settled. Stokan likes a playoff idea that keeps the BCS bowls but also boosts the importance of the other bowls.

The full college football bowl schedule was released on Friday, so it's officially time to start daydreaming about Pasadena at sunset or a sunny January trip to Florida to follow your favorite team. Or maybe your dreams are simpler and you envision a December trip to Detroit for the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.

Here's a list of all the bowls that the Big Ten could most likely be playing in at the conclusion of the 2011 season (all times ET):

BCS games

Allstate BCS National Championship Game: Jan. 9, 8:30 p.m. (New Orleans): BCS No. 1 vs. BCS No. 2
Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO: Jan. 2, 5 p.m. (Pasadena, Calif.): Big Ten vs. Pac-12
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Jan. 5, 8:30 p.m. (Glendale, Ariz.): Big 12 champion vs. BCS at-large
Discover Orange Bowl: Jan. 4, 8 p.m. (Miami): ACC champion vs. BCS at-large
Allstate Sugar Bowl: Jan. 3, 8:30 p.m. (New Orleans): SEC champion vs. BCS at-large

Non-BCS Big Ten bowls

Outback Bowl: Jan. 2, 1 p.m. (Tampa, Fla.): Big Ten vs. SEC
Gator Bowl: Jan. 2, 1 p.m. (Jacksonville, Fla.): Big Ten vs. SEC
Capital One Bowl: Jan. 2, 1 p.m. (Orlando, Fla.): Big Ten vs. SEC
Ticket City Bowl: Jan. 2, 12 p.m. (Dallas): Big Ten vs. Conference USA
Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Dec. 31, Noon (Houston): Big Ten vs. Big 12
Insight Bowl: Dec. 30, 10 p.m. (Tempe, Ariz.): Big Ten vs. Big 12
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Dec. 27, 4:30 p.m. (Detroit) Big Ten vs. MAC

I've talked here in the past about how important bowl attendance is for the future of the Big East. The other big factor for bowls is TV ratings.

The Birmingham News reports that bowl TV ratings were up eight percent across the board and has a chart with the rating for every game. Here are the important details for the Big East:

• The Allstate Sugar Bowl drew an 8.5 rating, making it the third-highest rated game of bowl season, behind only the BCS title game and the Rose Bowl and up nine percent over last year. Having Florida and Tim Tebow certainly helped, and there may have been some curiosity about undefeated Cincinnati.
• The Konica Minolta Gator Bowl drew a 4.0, the sixth-highest rated non-BCS game. That's not surprising, given the hype about Bobby Bowden's last game. Yet, the game's rating was down two percent from last year.
• The Meineke Car Care Bowl, which featured an exciting finish between Pitt and North Carolina, attracted a 3.9 rating. That tied it for No. 7 among non-BCS games.
• The other three bowl games were not nearly as popular.The Papajohns.com, St. Petersburg and International bowls were among the six lowest-rated games of the 34 bowls. The Papajohns.com and St. Petersburg bowls each drew a 1.6 rating, though St. Pete was up a whopping 45 percent from last year. That may owe to Rutgers' large TV market presence. The International Bowl had just a 1.1 rating, beating only the New Orleans and Insight games, the latter of which was aired on the NFL Network. The International Bowl was down 39 percent from a year ago, likely because it was moved up to Jan. 2 instead of the later, stand-alone date it enjoyed last year.

No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Texas won't play for the BCS national championship for another 31 days.

Between now and then, 33 bowl games will be played from coast to coast and in Canada.

There are more than a few intriguing matchups, and there's always a reason to watch.

ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach ranks the 2009 college football bowl games from No. 1 to No. 34.

Texas' wild victory over Nebraska Saturday night ensures all of the Big 12's bowl partners will get a team from the conference.

Bowl selections will be released later today.

Here's a look at how I see the bowls' choices play out when the picks are made.

• BCS National Championship Game, Jan. 7, 8 p.m. ET, FOX Sports, Pasadena, Calif. -- Texas vs. BCS team
• AT&T Cotton Bowl, Jan. 2, 2 p.m., FOX Sports, Arlington, Texas -- Oklahoma State vs. SEC team
• Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, Dec. 30, 8 p.m., ESPN, San Diego -- Nebraska vs. Pac-10 team
• Valero Alamo Bowl, Jan. 2, 9 p.m., ESPN, San Antonio – Texas Tech vs. Big Ten team
• Brut Sun Bowl, Dec. 31, 2 p.m., CBS, El Paso, Texas -- Oklahoma vs. Pac-10 team
• Insight Bowl, Dec. 31, 6 p.m., NFL Network, Tempe, Ariz. – Missouri vs. Big Ten team
• Independence Bowl, Dec. 28, 5 p.m., ESPN, Shreveport, La. -- Texas A&M vs. SEC
• Texas Bowl, Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m., ESPN, Houston -- Iowa State vs. Navy

And one other remnant from the game Saturday night: The Longhorns' dramatic victory actually will end up costing the conference about $4.5 million.

The Big 12 stood to make an extra $4.5 million in BCS money if it had two teams in BCS games. If Nebraska had beaten Texas, the conference assuredly would have had two teams in those bowls.

Instead, the Longhorns will represent the conference.

And something tells me that a national championship for the Longhorns would be worth the extra money in credibility for the conference this season.

Boise State is celebrating and TCU is sighing.

Both teams were close to very different bowl berths, but a last-second field goal by Texas gave the Longhorns a 13-12 win, which likely will send the Longhorns to the national championship.

The win all but assures that both Boise State and TCU will end up in the BCS and now they could be playing each other in the Fiesta Bowl -- an anticlimactic ending to what has been a wild year.

Both Boise State and TCU finished the season undefeated and won their respective conferences. Boise State has been criticized for its weak schedule that included just one automatic qualifying team -- Oregon -- but the Broncos did all that was asked of them. And there is not another program with one loss that could challenge the Broncos' undefeated record.

So now we wait for the BCS bowl announcement tomorrow. Several have said that TCU and Boise State will meet in the Fiesta Bowl, which to me, makes little sense and seems like a cop out for the BCS. I’d like to see Boise State play Florida in the Sugar Bowl and TCU play Georgia Tech. I think both would be intriguing matchups.

PITTSBURGH -- While last year's Orange Bowl appearance represented the high-water mark for the Cincinnati program, the game marked the low point in quarterback Tony Pike's career.

Pike threw four interceptions in that loss to Virginia Tech. People wondered why coach Brian Kelly didn't pull his struggling starter for Dustin Grutza. Kelly did, however, question Pike's maturity and toughness this summer by pointing back to that game.

On Saturday, in the Bearcats' biggest game since that night in Miami, Pike seemed to be reliving the same nightmare. Through three quarters, he was just 11-for-29 for 174 yards and three interceptions at Pittsburgh, with the Big East title and an undefeated season slipping away.


After his third pick, an ugly underthrown ball that doubled his season total for interceptions coming into the day, Pike grabbed his helmet in frustration and disbelief. Kelly said something to him on the sideline, and backup Zach Collaros began warming up in earnest. Collaros had played so well while Pike was injured in October and November that some questioned why he didn't keep the job permanently.

Kelly could have made the switch right then, and everyone would have understood. Instead, he stuck with Pike again. This time, it worked as Pike threw two fourth-quarter touchdowns -- including the game-winner with 33 seconds left -- in a 45-44 victory.

Kelly said it wouldn't have been possible if not for the experience last year in Miami.

"He made some of the same mistakes as he did in the Orange Bowl, but today he fought through it," Kelly said. "The Orange Bowl came back to help us."

Pike said the message from Kelly after that third interception was, "You're my guy."

"I feel like coach Kelly has a lot of faith in me," he said.

The senior went 11-for-15 for 128 yards in the fourth quarter. His final drive was the stuff of future lore.

Cincinnati took over at its 39, trailing by six with 1:36 to go. Pike needed just 63 seconds to complete four passes, the last of which hit a stretched-out Armon Binns in the corner of the end zone for a 29-yard score.

"That pass was something I missed two or three times in the game," Pike said. "The defense came up and basically said it was going to go man-to-man. I don't think any team in the country can man up on our receivers. This time, it was Armon who had man coverage, so I looked the safety off a little bit and came back to Armon."

That simple decision is what Pike lacked earlier in the game. He was getting pressured heavily by the Pitt defensive line in the first half. His receivers also had some drops and missteps. But Pike also admitted he tried to go for the big play a few too many times. Not until the team was in full fourth-quarter comeback mode did he settle down.

"In the beginning, I tried to force too many things," he said. "Once you get into the two-minute drill, you forget about thinking. You just go out there and make your reads.

"It's funny how you can go 11-0 and play so well, and the whole season comes down to a minute and 30 [seconds]."

Cincinnati is glad it kept Pike in control of that situation.

PITTSBURGH -- As Cincinnati went through pregame warmups under falling snow at Heinz Field, receiver/kick returner Mardy Gilyard tried to warm his teammates' spirits by telling everybody, "Hey, we're on the beach."

But with 1:26 left to go before halftime, the beach -- where the Bearcats frolicked last year during Orange Bowl week -- seemed awfully far away. Pittsburgh's dominating running game and pass rush had caused things to snowball against Cincinnati, which found itself trailing 31-10. Even Gilyard, ever the optimist, admitted that "it started to get real cold."


That's when the rest of the team turned to Gilyard for some heat. Running back John Goebel, several defensive players and even head coach Brian Kelly grabbed him on the sideline. We need something on this kickoff, they implored.

"I prayed that I could take one back," Gilyard said. "And then everything parted like the Red Sea."

Gilyard's 99-yard return for a touchdown finally gave Cincinnati some life, and the defending Big East champions refused to die the rest of the way. Despite trailing by two touchdowns early in the fourth quarter, the No. 5 Bearcats rallied to win 45-44 thanks to Pitt's late missed extra point and a 29-yard touchdown pass from Tony Pike to Armon Binns with 33 seconds left.

"Our guys are resilient," Kelly said. "Our guys believe, I believe in them, and you've got to have that belief. We've won 18 consecutive regular-season games. Don't count us out."

But is it enough to count the 12-0 Bearcats into the BCS title game? Barring a loss by Texas in the Big 12 title game later Saturday night, Cincinnati will join the 2004 Auburn squad as the only BCS conference teams to go undefeated and not play for the national title in the BCS era. Even a Texas loss might not do it, as Cincinnati would still have to climb past undefeated and No. 4 TCU.

Kelly said he didn't think his team deserved to get into the BCS title game ahead of Texas, but that it should go instead of TCU with a Longhorns' loss. Cincinnati players said they feel they've done enough to play for a national championship. And so, apparently, does Pitt receiver Jonathan Baldwin, who interrupted the Cincinnati postgame news conference to shout, "Good job. Now go win the championship."

"We did our part," senior safety Aaron Webster said. "Now it's in other people's hands."

Big East commissioner John Marinatto, who attended Saturday's game, said the league "strongly believes Cincinnati should be in the championship game" and that any undefeated BCS conference team deserves that privilege. However, Marinatto is not a playoff advocate and did not sound like someone ready to promote sweeping change.

"We recognize as a group the system is not perfect," he said. "At our annual meetings, we'll get together and talk about whether anything needs to be changed."

In order to even make this debate relevant, Cincinnati had to make a lot of changes defensively on Saturday.

Pittsburgh (9-3) scored on each of its first five possessions. Freshman sensation Dion Lewis carried 29 times for 108 yards in the first half alone as the Panthers' offensive line obliterated the Bearcats defense. Cincinnati looked like toast.

Pitt scored only twice after halftime, though, as Lewis -- who finished with a school-record 47 carries for 194 yards and three scores -- had to work a little harder. The defense incorporated more run blitzing, often bringing Andre Revels or J.K. Schaffer to the point of attack to shore up its deficiencies.

"We came in as a defense at halftime and said, 'We just have to tackle him,'" Webster said. "'Don't try to get the big hit, because he'll just dribble out of them. Just tackle and play the next down.'"

A few stops were all the Bearcats' offense needed. They scored three touchdowns in the final 11:09. When Pitt missed the extra point after a Lewis score with 1:36 left, Kelly had one thought: "Cool."

"I was like, man, they're going to give us a shot here," he said.

But Kelly said the comeback would not have been possible without Gilyard's first-half kickoff return. The team often follows his exuberant personality, and Gilyard has had the uncanny ability the past two seasons of coming up with a huge play when the Bearcats need it the most. That's one big reason why the Bearcats are back-to-back Big East champions.

"I'm a praying man, and God is good," Gilyard said.

In other words, for Cincinnati, life's a beach.

Championship week is here and there's plenty at stake on the final Saturday of the college football regular season.

No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama will play in the SEC championship game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome, where a spot in the Jan. 7 BCS National Championship Game will be on the line. No. 3 Texas can punch its ticket to the BCS title game, too, if the Longhorns can defeat Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game in Arlington, Texas.

Elsewhere, Clemson and Georgia Tech will play for the ACC title and No. 5 Cincinnati and Pittsburgh slug it out for the Big East championship.

Here are five things to watch today:

1. Will either offense be able to score in Atlanta?

Two of the country's best defenses will square off in the SEC championship game, so scoring figures to be difficult.

Florida has the more experienced quarterback in senior Tim Tebow. Alabama has the better running back in Mark Ingram.

Both offenses might have to rely on big plays and limit their mistakes. The Crimson Tide rank No. 2 in the country in scoring defense (10.8 points per game), No. 2 in run defense (77 yards per game) and No. 3 in total defense (233.92 yards per game). The Gators have been even better, ranking No. 1 in scoring defense (9.8), No. 1 in total defense (233.08) and No. 1 in pass defense (143.17 rating).

2. Will the Gators miss Carlos Dunlap?

Florida starting defensive end Carlos Dunlap, a projected NFL first-round draft choice if he leaves after his junior season, will miss the SEC championship game. Dunlap was arrested in Gainesville, Fla., early Tuesday morning and charged with DUI. Gators coach Urban Meyer suspended Dunlap from the team indefinitely.

The Gators plan to rotate two players in Dunlap's absence: Justin Trattou and Jaye Howard. They've combined for 32 tackles, including 6 1/2 tackles for loss.

3. Can Nebraska slow down Texas?

The Longhorns will be playing for their first Big 12 title since 2005, when they crushed Colorado 70-3 in the 2005 championship game. Scoring figures to be more difficult against Nebraska, which gave up a Big 12-low 11.1 points per game this season.

But slowing down quarterback Colt McCoy, who ran for a career-high 175 yards in last week's 49-39 victory at Texas A&M, might be a stiff test for the Cornhuskers.

Texas led the Big 12 in scoring with 43 points per game.

"As a defense, you try to find somewhere you can cheat," Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said. "You try to cheat in coverage and stop the run, or drop more into coverage because a team doesn't run the ball well. You can't do that against Texas because they're so balanced."

4. What's at stake for Cincinnati?

Unless Texas loses to Nebraska, the Bearcats don't have much of a chance of playing for a national championship (and No. 4 TCU would probably move into the Longhorns' spot if the Cornhuskers won), but there's still much at stake for Cincinnati.

The Bearcats could finish 12-0 and win a second consecutive Big East championship. That would secure an automatic BCS berth, probably against the SEC runner-up in the Sugar Bowl. If Cincinnati loses, there's a chance it could fall to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C. Big East officials said the Gator Bowl was leaning toward selecting West Virginia to play Florida State in Jacksonville, Fla.

5. Can Clemson and Georgia Tech rebound in the ACC championship game?

Both teams are coming off deflating losses in their last regular-season games. Georgia Tech lost to Georgia 30-24; Clemson lost to rival South Carolina 34-17.

Both defenses were porous against their SEC rivals. Georgia Tech gave up a season-high 339 rushing yards to the Bulldogs; the Tigers gave up 223 to the Gamecocks.

Clemson's defense played pretty well against Georgia Tech's triple-option spread offense in a 30-27 loss in Atlanta on Sept. 10. The Tigers' special teams let them down more than anything else in the first meeting.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

The dominoes have started falling in the great bowl shuffle, and the Big East is about to end up with a much different lineup when the new contracts begin after this season.

As has been reported, the Gator Bowl is likely to ditch its hybrid affiliation with the Big East for the Big Ten's No. 4 team. The Big East is close to a deal to send its No. 2 finisher to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, a source close to the negotiations told ESPN.com.

The deal with the Champs Sports bowl still includes Notre Dame, but the bowl could only take the Irish instead of a Big East team one out of every four years, the source said. The previous arrangement with the Gator and Sun bowls allowed those games to select Notre Dame instead of a Big East team twice in four years. Cutting that to one was a major priority for the league.

It's unclear what opponent the Big East would play in the Champs Sports. Currently, the game pits the Big Ten vs. the ACC. With the Big Ten going to the Gator Bowl, the ACC seems like the most likely opponent.

The Big East is in talks with the Sun Bowl to sends its No. 3 team to that game in El Paso, Texas. The league would continue its agreement with the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, with its No. 4 team going there. In the current four-years cycle that ends this season, the Big East's No. 2 went to either the Gator or Sun, while its No. 3 went to the Meineke game.

That leaves two more spots for the bowl lineup, which currently includes the St. Petersburg, Papajohns.com and International bowls. The Big East is still talking to all three of those games, as well as the Independence and EagleBank bowls, the source said. The possibility of a new game in New York City still exists as well.

It's likely that the Big East would want to keep St. Petersburg as its No. 6 slot because it helped create that game and it's a favorable destination. That means the league would be considering from that group of other games for its No. 5 slot.

There is a slight hit to perception for the conference because its No. 2 team will not be playing on New Year's Day. (By contrast, the Big Ten will now have three). The Champs Sports Bowl is scheduled for Dec. 29 this season.

On the other hand, New Year's Day isn't as important as it once was. And when Big East officials were weighing all their options, they liked that Orlando is an excellent destination city for fans and teams. The Gator Bowl, while it has more tradition and prestige, is located in Jacksonville.

Think about it: If you were going to take your family to Florida for a week for a bowl game, would you rather have Orlando and all its attractions or sleepy Jacksonville?

Overall, the lineup will be much stronger because the fourth-place team can go to Charlotte, a game that usually attracts a big crowd. Last year's game between North Carolina and West Virginia drew a sellout crowd of more than 73,000 fans.

By comparison, the current deal has the No. 4 team going to either the Papajohns.com or International games. Rutgers -- which finished tied for second in the standings last year -- had to settle for the Papajohns.com Bowl last season.

The deals could be finalized as soon as next week.

The new lineup may not be the home run some Big East fans were looking for, but it's definitely an improvement over the current situation.

To reiterate, the new lineup could look like this:

1. BCS
2. Champs Sports
3. Sun
4. Meineke
5. Papajohns.com/International/Independence/EagleBank/New York City
6. St. Petersburg

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

As the season winds down, it looks like the non-BCS will have the 7-5 (or better) teams that will get the first nod for the at-large bids and several of the 6-6 teams.

There is still a lot up for grabs this week. Several teams are fighting for bowl eligibility and several don't play each other. I would say the most bowl eligibility would come out of C-USA and the WAC. I think the WAC will have two more 7-5 teams when the weekend is over and C-USA will have three more 6-6 teams. The Sun Belt is in a bad position where several of the 5-6 teams play each other this week, so two teams will be knocked out.

Nevada coach Chris Ault said earlier this week that Nevada would not go to a bowl if it finished 6-6 (we'll see), and Notre Dame could be in the same boat depending on which bowl it's talking about.

Here's a quick breakdown of the bowls that could have open slots and the teams that could fill them.

GUARANTEED OPEN AT-LARGE SPOTS
• One in the Texas Bowl
• One in the Hawaii Bowl
• One in the Poinsettia Bowl
• One in the Papajohns.com Bowl

POSSIBLE OPEN AT-LARGE SPOTS
• One in Independence assuming Auburn loses to Alabama this weekend and possibly two if Colorado loses to Nebraska on Friday
• One in the Motor City Bowl if Ohio State moves into the BCS
• One in the Emerald Bowl depending on whether USC moves up into the BCS and Oregon State wins the Pac-10
• One in the EagleBank Bowl if NC State, Clemson and Virginia all lose

POSSIBLE AT-LARGE TEAMS HEADING INTO THIS WEEKEND (guaranteed bowls)

Remember that teams with a 7-5 record or better will be picked first by at-large bowls. Right now, Western Michigan is the only team that falls into that category, though Nevada, Hawaii, Notre Dame and Arkansas State also could finish with seven wins.

MWC (4)
None

WAC (3)
San Jose State (6-6)
Nevada (6-6) at Louisiana Tech
Hawaii (6-5) vs. Washington State

C-USA (6)
Memphis (5-6) vs. Tulane
Southern Miss (5-6) vs. SMU
UTEP (5-6) at East Carolina

SUN BELT (1)
Middle Tennessee (5-6) at Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Lafayette (5-6) vs. Middle Tennessee
Arkansas State (5-5) at North Texas
Florida Atlantic (5-6) vs. FIU
Florida International (4-6) at FAU

INDEPENDENTS (2 with provisions)
Notre Dame (6-5) at USC

MAC (3)
Northern Illinois (6-6)
Western Michigan (9-3)
Akron (5-6) at Temple
Bowling Green (5-6) at Toledo

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

Bowl eligibility is starting to come in waves for the teams of the non-BCS.

If you check out the college football standings page on ESPN.com, there are little stars by several teams denoting bowl eligibility. Currently, six non-BCS teams are bowl eligible -- Utah, BYU, TCU, Tulsa, Ball State, and Western Michigan -- and Boise State is the only team with five wins. The six teams are one fewer than the bowl eligible teams in the BCS conferences.

It's amazing, after the start several teams had in Conference USA, that Tulsa is the only team with bowl eligibility and teams such as East Carolina and Rice are still three wins away from that illustrious sixth win. Tulsa is the only team in the conference above .500 and the only team with more than three wins.

If you're looking for a reason why the Golden Hurricane aren't ranked yet this season, the answer is in the C-USA standings. The level of competition isn't as high as the Mountain West or even the Mid-American Conference right now. The same could be said for the WAC, but Boise State has a long history of dominating that league and it still has its road win against Oregon.

The only conference without a team near bowl eligibility is the Sun Belt. It's still a couple weeks away from getting Arkansas State -- the only team with four wins -- the necessary six wins for eligibility.

But being bowl eligible in the non-BCS does not guarantee a bowl game. All of these conferences have limited opportunities for their bowl eligible teams. It's not just about getting the six wins like it would be in a BCS conference that is guaranteed six or eight spots, it's about being at the top of the conference when the season concludes to guarantee a bowl berth.

Below is a list of the bowls linked to every conference and of course non-BCS teams are eligible for a BCS game should hey meet the requirements for selection. These are taken directly from the Football Bowl Association website.

WAC

New Mexico Bowl: WAC vs. MWC
Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl: WAC vs. Pac-10
Roady's Humanitarian Bowl: WAC vs. ACC
GMAC Bowl: C-USA vs. MAC or WAC

C-USA

AutoZone Liberty Bowl: C-USA vs. SEC
St. Petersburg Bowl: C-USA vs. Big East
R + L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: C-USA vs. Sun Belt
Texas Bowl: C-USA vs. Big 12
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: MWC vs. C-USA
GMAC Bowl: C-USA vs. MAC or WAC

Mountain West

New Mexico Bowl: WAC vs. MWC
Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl: MWC vs. Pac-10
San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl: MWC vs. Pac-10
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: MWC vs. C-USA

MAC

Motor City Bowl: MAC vs. Big 10
International Bowl: MAC vs. Big East
GMAC Bowl: C-USA vs. MAC or WAC

Sun Belt

R + L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Sun Belt vs. C-USA
*St. Petersburg Bowl: C-USA vs. Big East
*Papajohns.com Bowl: Big East vs. SEC
*Independence Bowl: SEC vs. Big 12

*Several bowls have agreed to host schools from non-BCS conferences should the schools with tie-ins not meet eligibility.

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

Although the season is only two weeks old, it's never too early to look at the provisions for multiple non-BCS teams to make a play for a BCS bowl. Currently, there are four undefeated non-BCS teams -- East Carolina, BYU, Utah, and Fresno State -- that are ranked nationally in the Top 25.

If one of those teams remains in the top 12 nationally, it earns an automatic berth. But if two teams are ranked in the top 12 or in the top 16 and above a BCS conference champion (looking at you Big East and ACC) then things get a little dicey.

According to BCS rules, no more than one team from a non-BCS conference can earn an automatic bid. If there is a second -- or third -- non-BCS team that meets the BCS requirements, then that team(s) will be placed into the pool of at-large teams with the other BCS schools.

Basically, that non-BCS school would either be last year's Kansas or last year's Missouri.

So, it is possible for two non-BCS teams to make BCS bowls, but highly unlikely. Besides, I'm fairly certain the number of ranked non-BCS teams will drop to three by the end of the weekend (yes, I'm being vague, wait for my picks).