B$C$: We now have our answer for keeping Boise and Houston out...

It's Stanford and the Heisman winner/#1 Draft Pick.

And here's the kicker, the game may have been rigged to ensure overtime.

34-34, time running out, USC with the ball and the last chance to win it.

Here's what ABC showed...

Remember, this week, Kansas State and Clemson both lost, leaving the number of undefeated "Big Six" teams at 4. Two of them will play (in, because of the door being slammed on the other two FBS undefeateds, will almost certainly be The Real BCS National Championship Game) next week, LSU at Alabama.

The third is Oklahoma State, a near-unanimous #1 in the computers, by some weird mechanism.

The fourth is Stanford, who was losing most of the night in Los Angeles to the ineligible University of Spoiled Cheats.

Until Luck and his boys got the game to 34-34, and then the above happened.

By college rules, the player does not have to be touched down to be down, and the referee signals (without seeing the clock) that he had touched down out of bounds to ensure what probably would've been about a 50-yard field goal to win the game.

The call on the field was that time had expired, but go to 0:18 in the clip. He's DOWN. College rules, the play is over. ONE SECOND REMAINS ON THE CLOCK.

It appears as if two calls have to be made:

1) Did he get out of bounds?

So if the official is signalling "time out", the only call possible is that the player did achieve out of bounds. (Though the "yellow line" is unofficial, it's far enough away from it that we can conclude that there was no way the USC player achieved the first down. Even then, there would've been essentially no chance to snap the ball had he and the ball been in bounds, even had they gotten the first down.)

Another angle (second clip below, after the Stanford touchdown) makes it very hard to believe he actually got out of bounds, but that's the only way he could've signalled it.

2) Did time expire?

Clearly, at 0:18 in the clip, you see he was down. The play is over. (Cross-reference the 2009 Nebraska-Texas Big XII title game to ensure Texas got in the BCS title match!) If the official signals "time out", then the official is stating that the player did achieve out of bounds, and there clearly is one second remaining on the clock in the clip that the booth was reviewing.

If the call was that he was in-bounds, then there should've been no signal of "time out", as the clock would've continued to run (and run out) at that point.

Boise, you're getting screwed again.

Houston, welcome to the screwjob.

BOHICA, boys!

On edit: Here's another one...

Watch this clip at about 0:38. 2:21 to go in the game, Stanford down 7, 3rd and 6 at their own 40. They need a touchdown.

Luck throws incomplete, but the receiver is abjectly levelled with a high (and clearly illegal) hit.

Either the player knew he was going to be flagged and was following the script, or that was a terrible call. Either way, welcome to the showbiz manipulations, as Brian Tuohy puts it.