Between them, they have won 9 National Championships. Coaches for both teams are considered the best in college football. Bob Stoops coached OU to a 12-0 record in 2000 which culminated with a 13-2 win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl. It was only Stoop' second year with Sooners and he had already guided them to a National Championship. Urban Meyer spurned Notre Dame to become head coach at Florida in 2005. Just like Stoops, his second year ended with the Gators securing the National Championship. An added amount of intrigue about this BCS title game is the fact that Stoops was the defensive coordinator for Florida before leaving for Oklahoma.
Oklahoma got into the title game by beating Missouri 62-21 in the Big 12 conference title game. No one debated who was the better team in that game, but some people wondered whether Texas should have been playing instead of OU because of a late season jump in the BCS rankings. Nevertheless, no one questions Oklahoma's talent. The Sooners set a modern-day NCAA record, scoring 702 points this season. Quarterback Sam Bradford led this prolific offense throwing for 48 touchdowns, the most in college football this season. And for that, he won the Heisman Trophy(college football's award for the best player). The Sooners won 11 games and lost one. That one loss is the reason for the controversy as it was to Texas, the team they jumped in the rankings.
Florida got into this game by beating Alabama 31-20 in the SEC Championship game behind their Quarterback Tim Tebow's heroics. Tebow, who won last year's Heisman award, threw for three touchdowns in the game against previously unbeaten Alabama. Although Oklahoma owns the most prolific scoring offense in the country, Florida isn't far behind in the rankings at 3rd. Along with their high-ranked offense, they own the 5th-ranked defense in the country. The challenge for Florida will be for their strong defense to limit the explosive Oklahoma offense.
The BCS National Championship is the defacto championship game for the college football championship in the US. And although the winner of this game is considered by most to be the best that year, the title is not sanctioned by college sports governing body, the NCAA. But the BCS is not without controversy. Every year since its inception, it has attempted to identify the best college teams and proclaim a winner. However, the process of choosing the teams to play in the title game has its detractors.
At the end of the regular season, the top two teams in the BCS rankings are pitted against each other. But the criteria used to rank the teams is heavily criticized. As a result, even when the #1 and #2 teams meet, some people will question whether or not they were the right teams. More and more people(including US President-elect Obama) have called for scrapping the BCS system and installing a playoff system.
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