National Championship

Here were the potential brackets for an eight-team playoff:No. 1 Tennessee vs. No. 8 Texas A&M.No. 4 Kansas State vs. No. 5 Arizona.No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 6 UCLA.No. 2 Florida State vs. No. 7 Florida.The four major bowls could have served as the quarterfinals, followed by a Final Four and a true national championship game.Which schools would have gotten shafted?No. 9 Wisconsin, which defeated UCLA in the Rose Bowl, 38-31. And No. 10 Tulane, which finished 12-0, but plays in Conference USA against opponents like Army.

MIAMI -- South Florida is filled with equal parts anxiety and expectation toward Friday's Orange Bowl.The final game of the college football season should be a can't-miss matchup. It has a back-room seal of approval as the "Alliance National Championship," and the farewell of not one legend, but two, Nebraska coach Tom Osborne and Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning.And it will mean diddly if Michigan blows out Washington State in the Rose Bowl, which will join the Bowl Alliance a year too late for Nebraska's liking.

COLLEGE PARK -- Third-ranked Southern-B won its second state Class 4A championship in three seasons, routing Northwestern of Prince George's County, 64-41, at Cole Field House last night.Dedric Galloway and Marlin Wise led a balanced Southern (24-3) attack with 15 points each and John Hemsley added 12. Sean Smith led Northwestern (17-7 and ranked No. 9 in the Washington area) with 10 points.In winning their third state championship in four seasons, Southern, ranked No. 16 nationally by USA Today, also gave Baltimore City seven state titles in four seasons and a 61-8 record in tournament play.

SEATTLE -- Toby Bailey played the best game for a freshman in an NCAA final since Pervis Ellison rallied Louisville to the championship in 1986."Surprising?" said Bailey. "Why should it be surprising? I've played this way in big games all season."There were heroes aplenty for the Bruins as they won their first national championship in 20 years, but no one was more UCLA, more Southern California, more bizarre than Bailey. His fearless play was the perfect antidote for a UCLA team that so many times had been afraid of its past.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Can you imagine what it would have been like had Florida State's Warrick Dunn squeezed himself over the goal line in the final, frantic seconds at Virginia earlier this month? Can you imagine if both the Seminoles and arch-rival Florida had come into today's high-noon showdown here at "The Swamp" unbeaten?If you can't, let Bobby Bowden do it for you."It's already something 'cause the stakes are so high," the Florida State coach said earlier this week. "But if we hadn't stubbed our toe against Virginia, it would have really been something."

MIAMI -- Tom Osborne walked into the interview room at media headquarters yesterday morning with the same purposeful, stoic style that he showed during the week leading up to Sunday night's Orange Bowl.Then again, it's the way Osborne has been, at least publicly, during his 22 seasons as football coach at Nebraska. There was no hint of what had happened hours before, no clue that this was a man celebrating the most significant victory of his career."I'm no better a coach this year than I was last year," Osborne said, referring to his top-ranked team's 24-17 victory over third-ranked Miami on Sunday night as much as to last year's 18-16 loss here to Florida State.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The road to college football's national championship has taken several detours this season -- through Florida, Penn State and Nebraska.But it all could end in a familiar spot -- in the green flatlands of Tuscaloosa, Ala., a small college town surrounded by barbecue stands and small shopping centers, and overshadowed by a legend named Bear Bryant."I don't know if anybody picked us to be in this position at this point in the season," said Alabama coach Gene Stallings. "I think we've come from behind four or five times this year, so we're just sort of winning some close games.

They have spent their respective coaching careers winning a large majority of games on autumn Saturdays: Tom Osborne at Nebraska, as both an assistant to the legendary Bob Devaney and, for the past 21 years, as the Cornhuskers' head coach; Bobby Bowden at Samford University, West Virginia and, for the past 18 seasons, at Florida State.But they also have chased the ultimate accomplishment for any collegiate football coach -- winning a national championship -- with equal frustration. It doesn't matter that Osborne is the winningest active coach in Division I-A, or that Bowden has the highest winning percentage of any coach with more than 10 bowl appearances.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- There was only one thing wrong with the NCAA lacrosse Final Four.Oh, the best team in the country -- North Carolina -- won.The Tar Heels beat Towson State in the title game here yesterday, 18-13. Carolina, which was seeded No. 1 in the 12-team tournament, thereby finishes the season with a record of 16-0 and the school's first national championship since 1986 when Baltimorean Gary Seivold scored in overtime and beat Virginia in the title game at Delaware.This year the Heels beat everybody all year long and in the semifinals they beat Syracuse, winner of the last three NCAA Division I championships -- in their own dome.

|TC DALLAS -- In college football, the distance of four feet, 10 inches should inspire fear in no one. It is well short of two yards, a gap that invites coaches to gamble on fourth down.Hoist that distance 10 feet in the air, however, and it transforms the game. Four feet, 10 inches, the amount by which the goalposts narrowed this season, produced the most noticeable change in the game in the last 10 years.In reducing the width from 23-4 to 18-6, the NCAA Football Rules Committee intended to restore some balance between offense and defense.

During his four years playing goalie for the Loyola Dons, Akira Fitzgerald had just about as many compliments sent his way as shots. The three-time All-Metro standout - the area's Player of the Year as a senior in 2005 - was quick and agile, determined and vocal, sure-handed and poised. Fitzgerald's finest attribute, many said, was the smart decisions he made while fiercely protecting his penalty area. It turns out Fitzgerald made another wise choice when, after thorough consideration, he decided to play at Wake Forest.

Markakis contract situation handled correctly by Angelos, O's All those people up in arms about the Nick Markakis contract non-negotiation, fans and media alike, need to chill out and relax. This is not another example of Orioles mismanagement; this is simply Angelos and company playing the system the way it is designed to be. The owners have all the leverage early, arbitration quickly kicks in and the guys who perform get paid, then free agency follows, where anyone still standing gets overpaid.

COLLEGE PARK -- Contrary to popular belief, the Maryland women's basketball team didn't get everything it wanted last year. To be sure, the Terps got the program's first national championship. During yesterday's media day, a few of the players sported the very large championship rings, with the last remnant of the title run, the championship banner, to come in the home opener against George Mason on Nov. 12. Those are very nice things, but there were enough missing components from last year to fuel this year's quest.

COLLEGE PARK -- A year ago on the night of Maryland Madness, the official start of college basketball here, Marissa Coleman and her Maryland women's basketball teammates felt like afterthoughts, like a speed bump on the way to the introduction of the men's team. A year later, and with a national championship in tow, Coleman peeked her head out from the tunnel entrance at Comcast Center last night, waiting to see and feel how much love the crowd would wash over her and her teammates. "It [the feeling]

CAN'T-MISS GAMES Ohio State at Texas, Sept. 9 For the second year in a row, the two programs, both with national championship aspirations, meet early in the season. 2. Notre Dame at Southern California, Nov. 25 As it did last season, this historic matchup should actually mean something. The Trojans have won four straight, but the Irish nearly pulled off an upset last year in one of the best games of 2005. 3. LSU at Auburn, Sept. 16 Two Southeastern Conference West rivals, both ranked in the preseason Top 10, square off with the winner grabbing the inside track to the SEC championship game.

PASADENA, Calif. -- A few days after Southern California's top-ranked football team stayed unbeaten by surviving a huge scare in November against Fresno State, Trojans coach Pete Carroll received an interesting phone call. It came from Texas coach Mack Brown. "It really sounds a little facetious now, but really it was to congratulate him on being able to win 34 straight games," Brown said yesterday. "I've learned something from Pete out here. Pete says that if you keep talking about the streak and you keep thinking about the streak, they're more likely to end."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Senior Jackie Ciconte lamented all season about playing her last season with the Maryland field hockey team and how she'll miss her teammates. She gave them all a lasting memory. Ciconte scored the only goal of the game to give the top-seeded Terps the NCAA Division I national championship. Ciconte corralled a bouncing ball, dribbled around Duke goalkeeper Christy Morgan and hammered a backhand shot into the cage to give the Terps a 1-0 lead that would hold up for the game's last 61 minutes at the University of Louisville's Trager Field.

In an era when "the old college try" sounds hopelessly quaint, lacrosse remains possibly the only sport where the term rings true. Young men who play the game can aspire to no greater heights than to reach the NCAA Division I championship - as have Johns Hopkins and Duke, which play today for the title at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. When their college careers end, these players won't be signing multimillion-dollar pro contracts, selling sodas in glitzy TV ads or even competing for Olympic gold.

MIAMI -- As Southern California alumnus and ABC broadcaster Lynn Swann brought Matt Leinart to the microphone on the podium at Pro Player Stadium early yesterday morning after the top-ranked Trojans crushed Oklahoma, 55-19, in the Orange Bowl, the fans who remained sent a message to their favorite quarterback. "One more year! One more year!" USC fans chanted. It was an uncomfortable spot for the redshirt junior who had looked so assured in shredding the then-No. 2 Sooners for an Orange Bowl-record five touchdowns and 332 yards to lead the Trojans (13-0)

MIAMI - From a distance of nearly 2,500 miles, over the course of two college football seasons, Southern California and Oklahoma have eyed each other like a couple of battle-tested heavyweight champions, ready to decide which will wear the unified belt. A year ago, a potential meeting for the Bowl Championship Series national title was derailed by the only blemishes on their respective schedules: The Trojans lost midway through the season to California, and the Sooners dropped the Big 12 championship game to Kansas State.