Round 2 of the College Football Tournament

Round 1 of the simulated NCAA Football tournament featured tons of close games, wild finishes, and upsets. The 2nd round? not so much. But the truly dominant teams came out to play and BYU and Central Michigan are playing the roles of George Mason and Bradley in this tourney so far. Let's go to the results...

0 30

Sloppy game with a showing of Ohio State's dominance. Troy Smith only threw for 219 yards for 0 TD and 3 INTs, but Brandon Cox outdid him by throwing for only 113 yards 0 TD and 4 INT, one of which was returned for a touchdown. Auburn had 7 turnovers in total. Ohio State only scored 1 offensive TD. They got the remaining 16 points from 4 field goals and 2 safeties, which were the result of Troy Smith throwing an interception at the 1 yard line twice.

35 7

Another game filled with interceptions. At one point near the end of the first half, there were 3 interceptions thrown back-to-back-to-back. BYU starting QB John Beck was injured early in the game and was replaced by Jason Beck (no relation) who threw for 3 TDs but also 3 INTs. However, just like in the last game, 2 of the 3 INTs set up safeties for BYU. Wake Forest was not able to get anything going on offense in this game beyond their 1st quarter TD. The mid-major team advances to the final four.

24 44

Michigan dominated from the very beginning of this game and never looked back. Mike Hart had 139 yards rushing and 2 TD's and Steve Breaston caught a 73 yard TD Pass right before the end of the first half to give Michigan a 28-10 lead. An interception return for a TD was Notre Dame's only first half touchdown, and Michigan had one as well in the 4th to make the score 44-17. Notre Dame scored a garbage time TD with only 24 seconds left. Ironically, this score is similar to when these teams played in real life this season, and the exact same score from Notre Dame's last game, where they were crushed by USC.

36 23

Somewhere, Dick Vitale is smiling. Central Michigan must have watched a lot of tapes of George Mason last year. Strong defense and electrifying passing gets them another victory with Dan LeFevour throwing for over 400 yards and completing several bombs. CMU held a 7-0 lead going into halftime, but capitalized on Sooner turnovers in the 2nd half to take a 23-0 lead. Oklahoma retaliated with a TD and a 2, then intercepted LeFevour and returned it for another TD and 2 to make it a ball game again. However almost immediately, Central hooked up for a 72 yard TD pass and then recovered a fumble on the following kickoff that lead to field goal to put them ahead 33-16, and they never looked back. Can you imagine seeing Trev Alberts hanging out for a week in Mt. Pleasant, MI to hype up their Orange Bowl appearance? I can.


THE FINAL FOUR
#1 Ohio State vs. #13 BYU @ The Rose Bowl
#3 Michigan vs. #15 Central Michigan @ The Orange Bowl