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Sunday, Nov 18, 2012 6:00 AM UTC

A night of upsets and Irish, Tide rise in football

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Topics: From the Wires,

A night of upsets and Irish, Tide rise in footballduring the first half of an NCAA college football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. Alabama won 49-0. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)(Credit: Dave Martin)

Coming into Saturday, Oregon and Kansas State had the inside track to college football’s national championship and the Southeastern Conference’s run of six straight BCS titles was in jeopardy.

Then No. 2 K-State got thumped 52-24 by unranked Baylor and top-ranked Oregon fell in overtime to No. 14 Stanford, 17-14.

Now the SEC is alive and well.

And how’s this for a possible national title game: Alabama vs. Notre Dame.

A week after Alabama was upset by Texas A&M, the upsets re-opened door for the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide, which shut out lower-division Western Carolina 49-0. Georgia has a title shot, too. And so does Florida.

But the happiest of all about the Ducks and Wildcats going down had to be Notre Dame and its fans.

The Fighting Irish were third in the BCS standings, behind K-State and Oregon entering the weekend. Notre Dame was staring at what must have felt unthinkable for the storied program: Finishing unbeaten and not even getting a chance to play for the BCS championship.

More Ralph D. Russo.

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