There were seven teams with one loss at the top of the rankings. Two more were undefeated.

Another big BCS mess?

Not this time.

Nobody dominated the last two months of college football like Oklahoma and Florida, and the Gators and Sooners were easy picks to play in the national title game despite having one loss each. The power programs with Heisman-worthy quarterbacks and 12-1 records meet Jan. 8 in Miami.

Oklahoma was ranked first and Florida second in the final BCS standings released Sunday. They were flip-flopped in the Associated Press poll, which is not used in determining the BCS, but was used by BCS chairman John Swofford as another way of validating the matchup.

"One of the interesting aspects of where we are, looking at the standings, is that Florida and Oklahoma are one or two in the Harris poll, coaches' poll and even the AP poll, which is not used in the BCS standings," Swofford said.

"You have a consistency there with the human polls on those same two teams," he said.

Including Texas, Southern California, Texas Tech, Penn State and Alabama, there were seven teams with one loss in the BCS' final top 10. Two more — Utah and Boise State — finished undefeated.

But only two had resumes like Florida and Oklahoma.

Led by Tim Tebow, the Gators rebounded from their only loss to dominate the next nine games, scoring more than 49 points a game in wins that culminated with a 31-20 victory over Alabama Saturday for the SEC title.

Sam Bradford was the same kind of force for Oklahoma. The Sooners lost 45-35 to Texas in October, but still ended up with an NCAA-record 702 points this season. They ended the season by becoming the first team since 1919 to score 60-plus in five straight games.

"We beat five ranked teams and three ranked teams as the last three games of the year," Sooners coach Bob Stoops said. "That decided it."

This will be the first meeting between these two power programs, each seeking their second title this decade.

Florida was an up-and-coming power and Oklahoma was a declining one back in 1998, when Stoops decided to leave his post as Gators defensive coordinator and take his first head-coaching job with the Sooners.

In 2000, he helped Oklahoma to its seventh national title. He has won six conference championships and this will be the fourth time he's played for the national title.

As for Florida, coach Urban Meyer. is trying for the Gators' second title in three seasons. Tebow has a chance to become only the second player to win back-to-back Heismans.

Two years ago, Meyer took some heat for lobbying to get his team into the title game. This time, he didn't have to work so hard. It was fairly clear-cut that if Florida defeated a top-ranked Alabama team in the SEC title game that the Gators would be going.

LOS ANGELES — Joe Paterno is coming to California for the holidays.The sixth-ranked Nittany Lions will play in the Rose Bowl game on New Year's Day for just the third time, facing No. 5 Southern California.The Trojans will be making their fourth straight appearance and record 34th overall in college football's oldest bowl game, known as the Grandaddy of Them All, an especially appropriate moniker this time around considering Paterno turns 82 in two weeks.The teams met in 1923 in the ninth Rose Bowl, with USC beating Penn State 14-3, one of the Trojans' record 23 wins in the game. The Nittany Lions evened their Rose Bowl record 14 years ago under Paterno, beating Oregon 38-20.

EL PASO, Texas — A pair of top 25 football teams will play in the Sun Bowl for the first time since 1989.Sun Bowl officials announced Sunday night that No. 24 Oregon State has accepted an invitation to play No. 18 Pittsburgh in the New Year's Eve game.Oregon State (8-4, 7-2 Pac-10) is making its second trip to the Sun Bowl. The Beavers defeated Missouri 39-38 in the 2006 Sun Bowl.Pittsburgh (9-3, 5-2 Big East) upset Texas A&M 31-28 in the 1989 bowl game.