Congratulations to the Louisville Cardinals on becoming this years 2013 Sugar Bow Champions!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the BCS Bowls and the Sugar Bowl, here are some great facts and a little history to get you all caught up.

What are the BCS Bowl Games?

∙ BCS stands for Bowl Championship Series. Teams compete throughout the year to participate in one of the four high-profile BCS games. To figure out who gets to play, a complex, mathematical formula is used to rank the top 25 teams throughout the season.

∙ Each Monday, the BCS ratings are updated based on the teams’ performances during the previous week. At the end of the regular season, the top two teams in the ratings play each other for the national championship.

∙ Unlike other NCAA sports, college football does not have an end-of-season tournament or playoff series. Instead, any Division I-A team with a winning record can play in a post-season competition called a bowl game. These games bring publicity and money to the colleges and universities that participate in them. However, with the old way of having winners of 25 different bowls all claiming to be the number one, it’s been hard to call any one team the “National Champion.” In 1998, the Bowl Championship Series debuted and promised to solve this problem.

What is the Sugar Bowl?

The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Sugar Bowl has been played annually since January 1, 1935, and celebrated its 75th anniversary on January 2, 2009. The Sugar Bowl, along with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl, are the second-oldest bowl games in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. The Sugar Bowl is also a member of the Bowl Championship Series. Presently, its official title is the Allstate Sugar Bowl after its current sponsor.

Now that you’ve learned a little more about their history, it’s time to celebrate your Louisville Cardinals victory in great style! Stock up your closet with some great 2013 Louisville Cardinals Sugar Bowl Championship Gear, some Louisville Sugar Bowl Championship hats, Cardinals Sugar Bowl Champs shirts, and Louisville Cardinals jerseys! Now that your team has won the big game, you deserve to celebrate just as much. No matter what style of merchandise you’re interested in sporting, FansEdge has something just for you. Congratulations again to the Louisville Cardinals!

Notre Dame fans are in the midst of a season to remember as their beloved Fighting Irish football team posted an impressive 12-0 regular season record and will vie for college football’s prestigious National Championship title come January. Fans are getting ready for the big showdown against Alabama by stocking up on Fighting Irish merchandise before college football’s championship game kicks off January 7, 2013 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, FL.

This news could not make Fighting Irish fans any happier as they have waited a very long time for Notre Dame to return to national prominence. Since winning their last national championship in 1988, Notre Dame has seen a number of coaches come and go in South Bend. However, it appears the Fighting Irish have finally found their guy in Brian Kelly who has helped resurrect this once proud football program.

How did Notre Dame get there exactly? Let’s take a look.

Good Defense

All season long, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish relied on their defense to help them win games. This was especially the case during the beginning of the season when Notre Dame was still figuring out their quarterback situation and getting Everett Golson acclimated to the playing at the collegiate level.

In wins over the Purdue Boilermakers, Michigan State Spartans and Michigan Wolverines in the month of September, the Fighting Irish relied heavily on their defense while their offense failed to score more than 20 points in any of those games. However, after those three games, the offense seemed to get going for Notre dame as they throttled the Miami Hurricanes 41-3.

A Little Bit of Luck

As is the case in just about every national championship season, there was a bit of luck on the side of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this season. A controversial call in the Stanford game allowed Notre Dame to escape with a 20-13 overtime victory. Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor appeared to have broken the plane of the goal line in overtime to tie the game but the video replay officials upheld the ruling on the field; Notre Dame dodged a bullet.

Notre Dame also escaped a triple-overtime game against the Pittsburgh Panthers on November 3rd. The effort Pitt gave in that game was easily their best of the season but it was not enough to upend the Fighting Irish.

In addition to those two close calls, the Irish needed a last minute drive against the Purdue Boilermakers to avoid overtime and win their second game of the season. Backup quarterback Tommy Rees who came into the game for an ineffective Everett Golson led the game-winning, field goal drive. Without that drive by Rees, there’s not telling how Notre Dame’s season would have played out.

Help from Other Teams

Notre Dame was not only fortunate to win a couple of close games this season but they also received some help from other teams around the country as well. On November 17th, the Fighting Irish were ranked No. 3 in the BCS standings and took care of business against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. After that win, Notre Dame turned its attention to the Kansas State Wildcats and Oregon Ducks who were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the BCS. As luck would have it, both teams lost their game that night and the Irish were able to jump up to the top spot in the BCS poll.

Without Kansas State and Oregon losing their games, it would have been unlikely that Notre Dame would have finished the season in the top two of the BCS standings.

Whether you love or hate Notre Dame, it appears as if the Fighting Irish are here to stay among the nation’s elite college football programs thanks to the hard work of head coach Brian Kelly and the dynamic play of players like Everett Golson, Mantei T’eo and Tyler Eifert. It’s never too late to join up on the bandwagon and score yourself a Notre Dame jersey to call your own.

Breaking news in the college football world. . . beginning in 2014, the NCAA football playoff landscape will feature four teams battling it out in a single elimination bracket-style competition, with the semi-final winners earning spots in the coveted College Football National Championship game. Playoff games will rotate among six sites with the championship game played at location based on a bid selection.

Current BCS games include the Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA), Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, AZ), Sugar Bowl (New Orleans) and Orange Bowl (Miami, FL) and it’s apparent those sites will continue to be in the mix. Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, home of the Cotton Bowl, is widely rumored to be a front-runner to land one of the other two spots. Expect the sixth to go to a warmer-weather city like Jacksonville or Atlanta.

In the new model, playoff teams will be chosen by a selection committee weighing parameters like schedule strength, win-loss record and head-to-head matchups following the regular season. Conference champions get preferential treatment. While the committee makeup has yet to be determined, it will likely include college athletic directors and 20 conference commissioners.

Right now, the BCS selection process relies on an ambiguous mix of polls and programs to calculate rankings and determine the matchup for the BCS National Championship Game. Many think this methodology is intrinsically flawed because undefeated teams have finished their season without a National Championship game invite. Over the past 6 seasons, there have been more undefeated non-BCS championship teams than teams that went undefeated and won a BCS champions title.

And, while the shakeup seems promising for often overlooked teams, it bodes well for the NCAA too. Preliminary reports estimate the new playoff system will garner television rights upwards of 500 million and with the championship game becoming college football’s super bowl, you can bet that some dome-cities like Indy and Detroit will be wrangling for a chance to host college football’s biggest game and this translates into big bucks for the NCAA.

Back to School and college football season are right around the corner, making now a great time to find officially licensed college apparel. At FansEdge.com, we have an assortment of NCAA Sideline Gear, jerseys and NCAA snapback hats so you can rally your cheers in style. From popular teams like Alabama, Notre Dame, Kentucky, LSU, Ohio State and more, we have a massive selection of officially licensed college apparel. Shop now and stop back often because new styles are arriving daily.

Assuming Boise St. wins their remaining games, they should play for the national championship this season. Period. I could write a master’s dissertation on the subject, but this isn’t school, it’s a sports blog. For that reason, I’m going to break this down and give you all the abbreviated version.

To truly appreciate Boise St., you have to go back to the 2009 season. They were 14-0, won the 2010 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl game to improve their BCS record to 2-0 all time, and own wins over Oregon and TCU. Only three teams in the history of Division I/FBS college football history have ever gone 14-0. The other two, Ohio State (2002) and Alabama (2009) won the national championship. Boise St didn’t even get a chance to play for the championship. The Broncos returned 19 starters to the 2010 team, and started the season with a neutral site victory over soon to be ACC champ Virginia Tech.

Talking about 2010, the Broncos return all American QB Kellen Moore. The talented junior finished last season as the nation’s most efficient passer, and is a top Heisman candidate for 2010. He’s currently the most efficient passer in the nation again, and on pace for a record breaking season. Moore already owns the school’s passing TD record, and potentially has another 16 games or more to improve on that mark as well. He’s led the team to an 8-0 record, and extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 22 games.

Many naysayers have pointed out the weak conference as a reason they don’t deserve to play for the championship. As of this post, the WAC has 4 bowl eligible teams, which is more than both the Pac-10 and the Big East (both of these conferences get an automatic BCS birth). The Broncos can’t control their conference schedule, and have a hard time scheduling tough non-conference games. Big schools don’t want to face them due to the risk/reward factor (ask Oregon or Oregon St.), and no one wants to play in Boise. Boise St. is 59-2 at home since 1999.

I’m not saying they are the best team in college football, but I would love to see them get a chance to prove it on the field. If the BCS system doesn’t let Boise St. play for the national championship, then someone needs to explain why to Coach Peterson and the kids that are doing everything they can to show us they are worthy.