The Horned Frogs of TCU scoffed at BSU's early 13 point lead, rallied with 17 unanswered points, then intercepted a crazy lateral on the final play to beat the Broncos at the Poinsettia Bowl. Now Boise is just another 12-1 team that wasn't quite good enough. (And the dream of a playoff grows slightly fainter.)

It's sort of like what happened with Gonzaga all those years ago. For awhile it was cute when they would knock off top seeds in March and reach the Sweet Sixteen or whatever, but now they start the preseason in the Top 10 and everyone points and laughs when they lose to teams like Portland State at home. Ha ha! Your plucky underdog act only works for so long.

Horned Frogs rally to hand Broncos 1st loss [AP]
Portland St. upends Gonzaga [SF Gate]
Butler fouls up Xavier's night [Cincy Inquirer]

Because the Southern Mississippi senior is not very good at placekicking. He's a decent enough punter, but Britt was only 7-for-13 on field goals lifetime and did not make a single kick over 29 yards this season. Until the last game of his career that is, when Barefoot kicked a 38-yarder, a 46-yarder to tie with 3 minutes left, and 39-yarder in OT to beat Troy in the New Orleans Bowl. He did wear shoes, however, so that's slightly less impressive.

He also did not have an on-air temper tantrum like his counterpart Sam Glusman did, but then again, Glusman's game-tying attempt was blocked. (See above.) Such is life. More fun facts: Barefoot's wife is the first cousin of Lance Bass. What a way to say bye, bye, bye to his college career! Am I right ... anyone ...?

The Golden Eagle victory almost made up for the fact that their wide receiver DeAndre Brown shattered his forelock on a freak play near the endzone. Winning a bowl game is great and everything, but I'm sure that all things considered, Brown would much rather have his left leg still attached to his body. (The replay below is not for the squeamish.)

In other bowl news ...

EagleBank Bowl: Riley Skinner only threw 11 passes for Wake Forest, but he completed every single one of them—and that was still four more passes than the other team even attempted, as the Deacons rallied to beat Navy's all-running, all-the-time attack.

St. Petersburg Bowl: South Florida manhandled Memphis, 41-14 in the (sigh) MagicJack.com St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field. Memphis may have fired their phone company, but perhaps they should fire their athletic director for agreeing to play the Bulls in their own backyard.

New Mexico Bowl: Colorado State’s Gartrell Johnson had 375 total yards, including 285 yards rushing—the second-highest bowl total in history—as the Rams held off Fresno State 40-35.

Las Vegas Bowl: Arizona won its first bowl game in 10 years, by upsetting No. 17 BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl. It's okay, though, because I'm sure the Mormon fans had blast on the Strip after the game. Sheesh.

Bowls/Postseason Scoreboard [Yahoo]

We guarantee you that Johnson is looking at video of this right now, and throwing the red flag. Unfortunately, there must be indesputable video evidence that a proposal was not made in order to overturn the call, and we simply don't see that from this angle.

For drama on Monday, you couldn't beat this game, with the Broncos and Sooners scoring 22 points over the final two minutes of regulation, Boise finishing its season 13-0. Down by one with the conversion pending in overtime, Broncos head coach Chris Petersen opted for the two-point conversion, with Johnson taking a handoff on an apparent pass play and running in untouched for the victory. Begone BCS committee, you have no powers here.

• Rose Bowl: USC 32, Michigan 18. Gerald Ford proved no more help from the beyond than did Bo Schembechler, as the Wolverines were trampled into putty to run their losing streak to two games. Rather than bore you with dry statistics, we think this about sums things up. But this was probably a foregone conclusion: Michigan had to know it was in trouble when USC summoned the power of Lord George Lucas and his Legion of Nerds for the Rose Parade.

• Gator Bowl: West Virginia 38, Ga. Tech 35. Because we know you're keeping track, the Mountaineers and Yellow Jackets set Gator Bowl records for scoring (Tennessee 45, Virginia Tech 23 in 1994), total yardage (928), plays from scrimmage (121) and first downs (40). WV quarterback Patrick White shook off a variety of injuries to throw for 131 yards and two touchdowns and rush for 145 yards and a TD.

• Outback Bowl: Penn State 20, Tennessee 10. They're saying that this gives Joe Paterno his record-setting 22nd bowl victory, but does it count if he spent the game in the press box? Penn State (9-4) forced three turnovers, holding Tennessee (9-4) to a season-low in points.

• Capital One Bowl: Wisconsin 17, Arkansas 14. The Badgers finish 12-1 behind quarterback John Stocco (two first-half TD passes), but a second-quarter pass by Wisconsin punter Ken DeBauche was the big play in this one. Sad, really.

• Cotton Bowl: Auburn 17, Nebraska 14. See above. OK, actually this was a different game, as no punters attempted passes, and Tommy Tuberville was involved. Carl Stewart scored two touchdowns on his only two carries, and the Tigers won despite only 178 yards total offense. — RC

Update: Thanks to reader Kenny Loggins for pointing out this tasty YouTube footage.