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Sunday, November 28
 
Put away the computers, Sugar Bowl is all but set

Associated Press

Unless a Big Red computer virus strikes in the next week, college football has itself a perfect matchup for the national championship -- No. 1 Florida State vs. No. 2 Virginia Tech.

The Hokies (11-0) all but clinched their spot in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4 by completing a perfect regular season with a 38-14 win over No. 22 Boston College on Friday. The Seminoles (11-0) punched their ticket to New Orleans a week ago with a 30-23 victory over No. 5 Florida.

If the matchup holds -- the final Bowl Championship Series standings are released Dec. 5 -- it will mark the first national title showdown between perfect teams ranked 1-2 since 1995, when Nebraska beat Florida in the '96 Fiesta Bowl.

Standing in the way, barely, is No. 3 Nebraska, the Big Red. The Cornhuskers (10-1) needed overtime to pull out a 33-30 win over unranked Colorado on Friday, and they still have the Big 12 title game against No. 7 Texas (9-3) on Dec. 4.

How that result impacts the final BCS standings is unclear. The BCS standings are based on several factors, including computer ratings and strength of schedule. Florida State-Virginia Tech can't officially be sealed until the final numbers are in and BCS coordinator Roy Kramer announces the results next Sunday about 4 p.m. ET. The next BCS standings come out Monday.

"I think Virginia Tech being in the big game is the right thing to do," Tech coach Frank Beamer said Saturday. "No one has questioned Florida State. If Florida State belongs, we certainly belong."

After Friday's results, the odds heavily favor the Hokies.

Entering the Thanksgiving weekend, Virginia Tech led Nebraska by .63 points in the BCS standings. The margin is sure to increase on Monday because Tech beat a Top 25 team by 24 points, and the Huskers beat an unranked team by three points in OT. In the world of the BCS, margin of victory counts, meaning the results will affect both team's strength of schedule and might influence computer ratings.

Beamer, though, is not a big fan of computers. He says games have to be looked at from an emotional standpoint, too.

"Maybe we're making something a little more complicated than it needs to be," Beamer said "We've got to be careful about computers."




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