No bowl game this time for University of Miami

The University of Miami in South Florida has always had a quality football program, and at 5-6 against visiting Pittsburgh Saturday, it needed a sixth win to qualify for another bowl.

But the Panthers had better ideas, rolling past the Hurricanes, 42-16, to earn their own bowl bid at 8-4. It was truly a rout as Pitt led 14-0 after one quarter, 23-6 at the half, and 42-13 with the clock winding down. Pittsburgh mixed in a run-pass offense that the Canes had no answer for as it fell to 5-7.

Oklahoma, coming in at 6-5 at Big 12 rival Texas Tech, led 13-3 after one quarter, and 20-10 at the intermission before Texas Tech ran up 23 unanswered points in the second quarter, held a 42-32 advantage after three quarters, and won 51-46 to become eligible for a bowl at 7-5, but the Sooners, at 6-6, still remain eligible.

No. 3 unbeaten Ohio State was all even at 23-all at the half when suddenly visiting Big Ten rival Michigan  Wolverines turned on the offensive express to pull off a 45-23 surprise that knocked the Buckeyes out of the Final Four playoffs and sent Michigan to the Big Ten championship game against Purdue, which got past Indiana.

Brigham Young, too, was looking for a bowl invite and was able to outscore Stanford on the road, 35-26, and up its record to 7-5 and gain a bowl bid while the Cardinal dropped to 3-9.

Same with Syracuse, which after winning its first six starts since 1973, dropped its next five and struggled to find a way to defeat Boston College as it trailed 10-3 after two quarters, 10-6 after three, but then rallied to tally 26 points in the fourth quarter, 13 more than BC, and pull out a 32-23 victory.

South Carolina, with quarterback Spencer Rattler throwing for three touchdowns on 446 yards, improved to 8-4 with its sixth win in its last seven starts and now awaits a bowl invitation after stunning 10th-ranked Clemson, 31-30, on last second field goal to drop the Tigers to 10-2.

Then there was Oklahoma State coming in at 7-4 and gaining a bowl bid despite a 24-15 defeat against visiting West Virginia (5-7). No. 10 Kansas State (9-3) romped over Kansas, 47-27, to gain the Big 12 championship contest against No. 4, unbeaten TCU.

In the PAC 12 title game it will be No. 5 Southern California taking on No. 12 Utah. In the Big 12 championship, the Southeastern Conference pairs No. 1, undefeated Georgia with No. 11 LSU, in Conference USA, the title tilt has No. 23 UTSA against North Texas, in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Clemson goes against No.24 North Carolina for the championship, and in the American Athletic Conference, No. 18 Tulane takes on No. 22 UCF.

The dates and sites of these championship games:

Friday, Southern California and Utah in the PAC 12 at 6 p.m. in Las Vegas, and USTA and North Texas In the USA Conference the same day at 5 p.m. in San Antonio.

Saturday, Georgia and LSU 2 p.m. in Atlanta; Michigan and Purdue 6 p.m. in Indianapolis; TCU and Kansas State, 10 a.m. in Arlington, Tx.; Clemson and North Carolina at 6 p.m. in Charlotte, N.C., and Tulane and UCF at 2 p.m. in New Orleans.