2011 Bowl Games: Georgia and Teams Whose Postseason Prospects Took Biggest Hits

Championship Saturday was either a terrific day or a terrible one for teams across the college football landscape, and not just because of the necessity that half the teams won and the other half lost.

Rather, it was the way in which some of the losers stumbled in pursuit of an automatic berth into the BCS that made the final weekend before the start of the bowl season so polarizing.

Of all the teams that went home losers on Saturday night, these three easily did the most harm to their reputations, not to mention their pocket books.

Georgia

Nobody outside of Athens thought Georgia would beat LSU in the SEC Championship Game, but the Bulldogs certainly could've acquitted themselves much better than they ultimately did.

UGA owned a 10-point advantage in the second quarter that would've (and probably should've) been much wider had it not been for a widespread case of the dropsies across the receivers to whom Aaron Murray so dutifully slung the ball.

That put all the pressure on a typically stout defense, which stood its ground admirably until Tyrann Mathieu went about setting up short fields for Kenny Hilliard and Alfred Blue.

In the end, the Dawgs were sent home from the Georgia Dome with a 42-10 defeat and their tails between their legs. Rather than being the first-ever third SEC team to play in the BCS in the same year, they'll instead have to vie with Arkansas and South Carolina for a spot in the somewhere between the Cotton Bowl, the Outback Bowl or the Capital One Bowl.

Oklahoma

Much the same goes for Oklahoma, who could've secured a Big 12 title and a BCS berth with a ninth consecutive victory over Oklahoma State in the Bedlam Game.

Now, after a 44-10 throttling in Stillwater, the Sooners will be boxed out of the BCS picture by Kansas State and Baylor. Certainly, they couldn't have expected much better from five turnovers and another sub-par performance by Landry Jones sans Ryan Broyles.

A terribly disappointing result overall, considering Bob Stoops' boys came into the fall of 2011 as the preseason No. 1 team and, in turn, the favorite to hoist the crystal football at season's end. A spot in the Cotton Bowl will simply have to do, even if it doesn't do much to calm the storm in Norman.

Houston

No team's fall from grace, though, can quite compare to that of Houston. In one fell swoop, the Cougars went from undefeated and on the verge of a spot in the Sugar Bowl to being the Conference USA runner-up and on track for a trip to the Hawai'i Bowl.

That's a difference of about $16.25 million in bowl earnings for UH and practically spells the end of Case Keenum's Heisman Trophy candidacy. They can thank Southern Miss, and the 49-28 trouncing they administered, for all of that.

With Keenum's collegiate career over and Kevin Sumlin likely on his way to bigger and better things, there's no telling if or when the Cougs will be so close to playing on or after New Year's Day in the future, though if the university accepts its invitation to the Big East, it may be back in the thick of things sooner rather than later.