The wait is over. In the final college football game of the 2010 season, Auburn and Oregon square off for all the marbles

SCOTT JACOBS

It’s been nearly 40 days since Kenjon Barner used his lightning fast speed to scamper 23 yards into the endzone, putting the Oregon Ducks up 30-13 over their bitter rival, the Oregon State Beavers. It’s been nearly 900 hours since DeVonte Holloman reached up and corraled in Cam Newton’s hail mary prayer at the end of the 1st half in the SEC Championship, to put Auburn up two touchdowns, a deficit South Carolina never recovered from.

Mock the layoff all you want, and it is ridiculous that we had to wait over 5 weeks for this much bally-hooed National Championship game affair, but tonight the wait is over. Oregon. The number two team in the land and the high flying, we run our offense faster than you ever could dare, Ducks put their undefeated season on the line in Glendale where the charmed Tigers await. Despite numerous close calls throughout the season, Auburn and their much maligned star Heisman winning, where did he come from– o wait, nowhere!– quarterback are also undefeated. They’re the number one team in this system the NCAA likes to call the BCS.

Tonight the talk ends. Tonight they play the game.

Tonight we get two explosive offenses. West versus South. Pac10 (soon to be Pac12) versus SEC in a title game matchup the likes of which the BCS has never seen. A pair of second year coaches, in Chip Kelly and Gene Chizik, both of whom were greatly criticized when they were hired.

Cam Newton’s dad will be at the game. Along with a whole lot of green and yellow and navy and orange. Oregon will showcase yet another new look– think neon and space age, as Auburn will wear their traditional blues. It’s new age versus old school. Star quarterback versus star running back. East coast versus West coast.

This game should be amazing.

Oregon scored less than 40 (yeah 40) just twice this year. Auburn scored 50 (yeah 50) in 7 of their 13 games. This isn’t your blue collar versus white collar. This is speed versus more speed. Don’t blink, you’ll miss something.

This is Cam Newton (2589 passing yards, 48 touchdowns combined). Michael Dyer. And o yeah, did we mention Cam Newton?

This is LaMichael James (1682 rushing yards). Daron Thomas. And a bunch of other guys who can run so fast it’ll make your head spin.

This is that “High Life!” 2 second commercial on overdrive. One, two, here we go, round and round the field. Expect 30, maybe even 40 points each from both combatants, assuming the long layoff hasn’t relegated themselves to being rusty.

This is what a bowl season, largely forgettable this year, and banking on the big money BCS Championship finale is banking on. This is what we’re all banking on. Who won the Orange Bowl? O yeah, Stanford. That was a week ago. The Sugar Bowl? Ohio State. But tonight is the show. It’s why they gave it nearly a week to its self. Unless you consider the Compass Bowl and the Fight Hunger (Fight Boredom) Bowl noise in between.

But the time has come. We’ve read all we can read. Listened to enough of Tom Rinaldi’s clever one word narratives over a montage of the desert. Undefeated. Unblemished. Unbelievable really that either one of these teams is going to go home champs.

In the preseason polls Oregon wasn’t even in the top 10. Auburn? Not even in the top 20. Iowa and Texas were higher than the Ducks. Miami and and Pitt were thought of in a better light than the Tigers.  Seems silly now, given all that we know. But who saw this one coming? Answer: nobody.

No one saw Cam Newton’s rise from JuCo prospect to headline dominator. When Jeremiah Massoli was kicked off Oregon’s team in what looked like a crushing off-season who could have seen Darron Thomas to just slide right in and keep the machine rolling?

Back on September 4th when we kicked off this grand ole party who would have thought that the Alabama team to go undefeated would not be the one in that catchy ESPN commercial, the roll tide one.

But that’s what makes this game great. It’s what makes sports great. It’s why year in and year out we watch. The human drama, the thrill of it all. Playoff, BCS whatever the case may be, nothing is more spectacular then unscripted sports. It’s why we’ll pass our love of sports on to our kids, who will then pass it on to their kids, and down on the line we go.

Tonight we finally make it through a cluttered and mostly pointless bowl season to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Make no mistake about it this should be as close to as good as it gets. There is no college football for a while after this. This is the end. The last hurrah to another season that offered countless memories and entertainment like nothing else could.

This is the BCS National Championship Game. Live from Glendale, AZ.

This is the night the Ducks validate Stanford’s success. The night Oregon brings home the shiny crystal football. There’s no logic after a nearly 40 day layoff. Just a prediction. Just a gut.

Call it Oregon 41 Auburn 35.

Graphic Scott Jacobs

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