College Football's Most Meaningful Made and Missed Field Goals of the Year

This college football season has been marked with plenty of extraordinary plays from defenses, offenses and most importantly, special teams.

Missed and made field goals have been the story of both regular-season and bowl games this season.

Just think: If some of these kicks had gone sailing through the uprights instead of wide or short, the entire BCS landscape could be completely different.

Alabama vs. LSU Part 1

Cade Foster and Jeremy Shelley of Alabama did not have good days on November 5th. 

With Foster missing 44-, 50- and 52-yarders and Shelley having a 49-yarder blocked, Alabama went 2-of-6 on kicking for the night. 

Drew Alleman of LSU, however, made all three of his field goals, sealing the victory for LSU in Round 1 of the BCS title game. 

This kicking game turned out to be the most important aspect of "The Game of the Century."

Needless to say, it will probably be important the second time around as well. 

The Missed-Extra-Point Debacle: Syracuse vs. Toledo

Although Syracuse isn't going to a bowl game this year, this extra-point attempt is still one of the more interesting and odd stories of this year.

After clearly missing a PAT attempt, the refs called the kick good. Thank goodness they had the wherewithal to review it, right?

Wrong. They again ruled the kick as good, even though it was wide left. This gave Syracuse a three-point lead over Toledo, who then went down the field and kicked the game-tying field goal. 

However, had the call or the review been correct, Toledo would have won the game outright. Instead, they end up losing in OT to Syracuse by yet another field goal. 

Blair Walsh Losing His Foot

For two years Blair Walsh was an ace for the Georgia kicking team. 

He had a kicking percentage of 91 percent in 2009 and 87 percent in 2010. 

This year, he took quite a few steps back as he was 7-of-17 of kicks longer than 40 yards and had a 60 percent average on the year.

In the Outback Bowl against Michigan State, Walsh made his biggest blunder. After Georgia moved nowhere in OT, Walsh had an opportunity to win the game with a 42-yard attempt from the middle of the field. 

Of course, the former ace missed. He then made a 47-yarder in second OT to tie with Michigan State heading into third OT. 

His last kick for the Bulldogs would end up being a blocked 47-yard attempt to seal the victory for the Spartans. 

Interestingly enough, Blair Walsh became the SEC's career scoring leader with an earlier field goal.

Sugar Bowl Magic for Michigan

Justin Myer for Virginia Tech had taken all of two field goals before his five attempts in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. 

Sadly, even though he made four, the fifth one will probably haunt him for a while.

After a controversial call in overtime that had a Hokie touchdown overturned, VT was forced to kick from 37 yards out in order to put three points on the board. 

Myer, the third-string kicker, sliced it to the right. 

Michigan would then nail a 37-yarder with Brendan Gibbons sealing the Sugar Bowl win for the Wolverines. 

Stanford Misses 35-Yard Chip Shot

Despite out-gaining the supposedly potent Oklahoma State offense 590 to 412, Stanford is forced to come away with a bitter loss because of a 35-yard miss at the end of regulation.

After a late touchdown by Oklahoma State, Andrew Luck and his potent arm coupled with a powerful running game marched down the field leisurely, setting up their freshman kicker in the middle of the field. 

Jordan Williamson misses as time expires, forcing the Fiesta Bowl into overtime. 

Then, naturally, the downtrodden kicker was forced to kick again in OT. Another miss and a made field goal for Oklahoma State on the other end would spell the end of Luck's collegiate career.

TCU Wins as Boise State Misses

TCU snapped a Boise State home-game winning streak of 35 games by a score of 36-35 as the Broncos missed a last-second 39-yard field goal. 

With almost every other team in the Top 10 losing and missing their shot at the BCS National Championship Game, a Boise State win here may have actually assured them a spot instead of No. 2 Alabama.

Just another example of how kicking has affected the BCS landscape this season. 

Oklahoma State Misses (Possibly) Against Iowa State

This one kick has affected the entire bowl season more than any other.

At first glance it appears as if this kick, which would have given Oklahoma State a three-point lead on lowly Iowa State with just under a minute to go, sailed just inside the upright. However, after further review, the field goal which was ruled no good was unable to be overturned. 

This sent the game into overtime. The rest is history.

Oklahoma State would lose their chance at the BCS National Championship Game, causing an all-SEC rematch between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama.