OU positioned for BCS; SEC plays for title spot

Before the Southeastern Conference sorted out who will play Notre Dame for the national championship, Oklahoma positioned itself be part of the BCS lineup — one way or another.

No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia played in Atlanta for the SEC title and a trip to Miami to face the top-ranked Fighting Irish in the BCS title game Jan. 7.

Earlier, the 12th-ranked Sooners won 24-17 at TCU to finish the regular season 10-2, with at least a share of the Big 12 title.

On Friday, Stanford grabbed a spot in the Rose Bowl and the chances for a BCS buster dwindled.

Northern Illinois' 44-37 victory in double overtime against Kent State on Friday night gave the Huskies the Mid-American Conference title, and ended the Golden Flashes' BCS hopes.

Kent State needed to move up one spot in the BCS standings to No. 16 to earn an automatic bid. Northern Illinois came into the weekend 21st in the standings. The Huskies have a chance to get into the top 16 and get into the BCS, too — but it will be tough.

Kent State's loss could be Oklahoma's gain. If neither of the MAC teams nor Boise State, which was playing Nevada, earns that so-called BCS buster bid, the Sooners (11-2) look like a logical choice to be selected, even if No. 7 Kansas State locks up the Big 12's BCS bid Saturday night.

The Wildcats need only to beat No. 23 Texas at home to earn a spot in the Fiesta Bowl. A loss would send Oklahoma to the Fiesta Bowl and have Kansas State hoping for an at-large bid only a few weeks after being No. 1 in the BCS standings.

No. 8 Stanford locked up the Rose Bowl bid by beating UCLA 27-24 on Friday night and will play the winner of Saturday night's Big Ten championship game between Wisconsin and No. 14 Nebraska.

No. 13 Florida State and Georgia Tech were playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game later for a bid to the Orange Bowl.

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Georgia Tech claims spot in ACC title game at 6-5

ATLANTA (AP) — A team that was routed at home by Middle Tennessee and fired its defensive coordinator at midseason will get a chance to play for a BCS bowl bid.

Georgia Tech (6-5) automatically claimed a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game on Monday when Miami self-imposed a postseason ban for the second straight year, looking to lessen the sanctions from an NCAA investigation into its compliance practices.

The Hurricanes (7-4) could have clinched the Coastal Division title with a victory over Duke, which would leave both Miami and the Yellow Jackets with 5-3 conference records. The Hurricanes were positioned to win the tiebreaker since they defeated Georgia Tech 42-36 on Sept. 22.

Now, it doesn't matter. By banning itself from the bowls, Miami is ineligible to play in the Dec. 1 title game at Charlotte, N.C.

"It's a great opportunity," Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said after practice. "I'm proud of our guys. They won four conference games in a row, two of them on the road. It's a case of persevering and just keep playing."

Early on, the Yellow Jackets struggled. They gave up late leads to Virginia Tech and Miami, losing both games in overtime. There also was that embarrassing 49-28 defeat to Middle Tennessee, which came in the midst of Georgia Tech giving up more than 40 points in three straight games for the first time in school history.

With his team at 2-4 after a 47-31 loss to Clemson, Johnson fired defensive coordinator Al Groh, saying the defense was too complicated and the players weren't sure of their assignments.

"We had a couple of disappointing losses at the beginning of the season, and we let it mushroom on us," Johnson said. "It was good to bounce back."

The defense continues to struggle but Georgia Tech has won three in a row overall, mostly on the legs of its explosive triple-option offense. The Yellow Jackets defeated North Carolina 68-50 two weeks ago, knocked off Duke 42-24 last Saturday and are averaging 38.6 points per game, which ranks 16th nationally. As usual, the run-oriented team ranks near the top of the country in rushing yards (third at 324.9, trailing only Army and Air Force).

Defensively, it's another story. The Yellow Jackets are 61st in yards allowed (393.1) and 76th in points (29.6 per game), which could be a problem when they go against the Atlantic Division champion, No. 10 Florida State (10-1).

But no one is complaining about getting a shot to play in the Orange Bowl.

In an interesting twist, the Yellow Jackets benefited from another school's wrongdoing just three years after losing an ACC crown under similar circumstances. Georgia Tech defeated Clemson in the 2009 title game, only to be stripped of the championship later when NCAA violations were discovered.

This Saturday, the Yellow Jackets will face No. 3 Georgia (10-1) in the regular-season finale. The Bulldogs have a shot at playing for the national title if they win the next two weeks, which has left both coaches with the chore of making sure their players don't get caught looking ahead.

Johnson said that shouldn't be a problem for his team.

"Our guys understand the importance of this game to our fans and our alumni and everyone involved," he said. "Besides that, Georgia's got a very talented football team. If you're not ready to play, you'll get embarrassed really fast."

While plenty of ACC critics pointed to Georgia Tech's appearance in the title game as a sign of the league's weakness, Johnson wasn't about concede that his team wasn't deserving of its spot.

"We're 5-3. Who else is better than that in our division?" Johnson asked. "I'm not apologizing for anything."

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For coaches, no sleep 'til BCS championship game

NEW YORK (AP) — Brian Kelly and Nick Saban expect many restless nights between now and the BCS championship game on Jan. 7.

Kelly and top-ranked Notre Dame play Saban and No. 2 Alabama in Miami. The coaches appeared together at a news conference on Wednesday at the Nasdaq stock exchange in Times Square.

"And in keeping with the venue where we are, you have two blue chip stocks that are going to go against each other," Kelly said.

Asked what about their opponent will keep them up at night, Kelly and Saban both said there is plenty to worry about.

"Are you kidding me? Really?" Kelly said. "Everything about them."

Saban's response: "For me, I never sleep well, so Notre Dame is just the excuse now."

The Fighting Irish will have 42 days between their last game against Southern California and the BCS title game against the Crimson Tide.

Alabama played in the Southeastern Conference title game on Dec. 1, so its break is a week shorter.

This is the third BCS championship appearance in four years for the Tide — Alabama won its previous two — so Saban obviously hasn't had a problem finding a routine that works.

"Many people have asked me how you carry the momentum of winning the SEC championship game into the next game," Saban said. "And I think the answer to that is, you can't. You almost have to look at any bowl game, or any layoff like you have for this length of time, as the next game is sort of a one-game season."

Both teams will go into training-camp mode this week. The players will lift weights and do conditioning and fundamentals drills.

"Right now we're doing two weeks of offseason conditioning programs, which is always fun. Always popular with the guys," Alabama center Barrett Jones said Tuesday, with more than a hint of sarcasm in his delivery.

Kelly said the worst thing a coach can do about the unusually long time between games is worry about it.

"First, I think it's a self-fulfilling prophecy if you keep talking about the long layoff," he said. "We don't talk about that. We talk about what's the next step here and the next stage, or it's the national championship."

"We think we've got a plan and we don't concern ourselves with the length of that time."

The plan is to keep the next few weeks as productive as possible.

"We try to work our way up to a routine," Kelly said. "There's that space there, weight training, conditioning, some fundamental work and then try to get back to that routine that they are all familiar with as we lead into the game."

Aside from keeping the players occupied and in shape, Kelly and Saban are also facing the possibility that members of their staffs could land head coaching jobs over the next week or so.

Kelly's defensive coordinator, Bob Diaco, was a candidate for the Boston College job that was filled Tuesday when the Eagles hired Steve Addazio away from Temple. Diaco recently won the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach.

There was speculation about Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart being a candidate for the Auburn job, but the Tigers hired Gus Malzahn.

As jobs are filled others open and there are still plenty of vacancies. There is still a possibility Notre Dame or Alabama — or both — could be dealing with this issue.

"I think those folks have every right to receive positive self-gratification professionally by taking advantage of some opportunity they have created for themselves by doing a good job," Saban said, without talking about any specific assistant. "And I think it's just a matter of professionalism where you can separate yourself for a day or two, not affect the performance of what you're trying to do at your job, evaluate the circumstance."

Last year, Alabama prepared for the national championship game with its offensive coordinator, Jim McElwain, interviewing and accepting the Colorado State head coaching job.

Alabama won that BCS title game 21-0 and Saban said McElwain, "put a great plan together" for the Tide.

And if there is staff turnover during the layoff, and a coach needs to be replaced, Kelly said there are plans in place to deal with it.

"We can't predict it, but we know that we are prepared regardless of the circumstances, and if we were to lose somebody, we've got great coaches on board that are ready to step up," he said.

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Oil down over US budget, China growth concerns

BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices were weighed down Tuesday by concerns about an apparent deadlock among U.S. leaders to strike a budget deal before year's end and growing uncertainty about the strength of China's economic recovery.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 11 cents to $85.45 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 37 cents to close at $85.56 per barrel on the Nymex on Monday.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, was down 19 cents per barrel to $107.14 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

An abrupt fall in China's export growth and slowing import growth suggests that the recovery in the world's No. 2 economy is faltering, analysts at Capital Economics said in a report.

The data "have added to our doubts about the strength and sustainability of China's rebound," the report said. "The weekend's figures on investment, retail sales and industrial production were more encouraging but they underlined that recent strength has been driven by infrastructure spending rather than a broad-based pick-up across the economy."

Investors are also suffering jitters about whether President Barack Obama will reach a budget deal with congressional Republicans before the "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts takes effect in January — at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy.

Obama has been insisting on higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans, while Republicans are pushing for cuts in government spending on entitlement programs.

In energy futures trading on Nymex:

— Heating oil was unchanged at $2.90 a gallon.

— Natural gas fell 3 cents to $3.43 per 1,000 cubic feet.

— Wholesale gasoline fell 0.1 cent to $2.597 a gallon.

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