The end of this season means there's only a year left of the snaggle-toothed Bowl Championship Series, a cartel dreamed up by Satan that has been infuriating college football fans since 1998. We can't wait for the new four-team playoff starting in 2014 that would have solved this season by picking Oregon as the clear-cut No. 4 team. Or, wait, should it have been Stanford? OK, so maybe the controversies won't end, but that shouldn't stop the sport from continuing to be rip-roaring fun.
This season's top 10 moments:
1. Crimson Tide landslide
Alabama's toughest obstacle to the national title wasn't Notre Dame in Monday night's BCS title game at Miami Gardens, Fla. Shoot, that was easy — Tide 42, Irish 14. Alabama's toughest obstacle was getting out of the Southeastern Conference championship game.
"We got here by five yards," Coach Nick Saban said. "Georgia was five yards from scoring."
Had Georgia succeeded, the Bulldogs would have earned the right to defeat Notre Dame for the national title.
Alabama has combined great players, great coaching and, yes, a little luck to win three of the last four BCS titles. Alabama will probably be the early season favorite to three-peat in 2013.
2. USC's football is deflated
Expectations had never been higher for USC football as the Trojans entered the season No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. But they collapsed to a 7-6 finish that ended with a mail-it-in performance against Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl. How bad was it? USC became the first AP preseason No. 1 to finish with six losses. The low moment came when the Pac-12 Conference fined the program $25,000 after it was learned a student manager intentionally deflated footballs before the Oregon game.
3. Johnny Football
Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel came out of nowhere, almost like a comic-book hero, to win the Heisman Trophy. He was the first redshirt freshman to claim the award as he led the Aggies to an 11- 2 record in their first season as members of the SEC. Manziel amassed 4,600 total yards of offense in the regular season, and led the Aggies' Nov. 10 upset at Alabama. Manziel closed the season with a virtuoso performance — 516 total yards — in Texas A&M's Cotton Bowl win over Oklahoma.
4. "S" stands for success
There's no getting around it: The Southeastern Conference is really good. Yes, it has gotten some great BCS bounces through the years, but the bottom line is that the SEC is better than all other football leagues because it cares more about being better.
The SEC has dominated the BCS era, winning nine of 15 championships. The league's only loss in a BCS final came last year when Alabama shut out Louisiana State in New Orleans.
Next year is the last BCS season before there is a four-team playoff.
The last BCS game is at the Rose Bowl. The SEC will be favored to win that one too.
5. Chip stays on the block
One of the most surprising stories of the season was when Chip Kelly recently announced he was not leaving Oregon for the NFL. Kelly has led the Ducks to four straight BCS bowls, and the prevailing thought was that it was time to take his up-tempo offense to the big leagues.
Kelly nearly left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the 2011 season but returned, saying he had "unfinished business." Only an overtime home loss to Stanford prevented Oregon from probably playing for the national title. The Ducks capped a 12-1 season with a 35-17 win over Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl.
6. Lot of grit in those Nits
