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With the release of the BCS pairings, all of the official bowl announcements are now pouring out through the Internet.
As long had been expected, Mississippi State ended up in the Liberty Bowl while Vanderbilt landed in the BBVA Compass Bowl. With the on-field results of the the SEC, ACC, and Big Ten Championship games, there was little doubt that Auburn would play for the national championship while Alabama would replace them in the Sugar Bowl.
Nothing felt too solid concerning the match-ups in the next tier of bowl games, but that picture became clear during the day Sunday. Another trip for LSU to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl would not have been a welcomed announcement, and the Tigers dodged such a placement when they ended up in the Outback Bowl.
The Capital One Bowl had an obligation to select either Missouri or South Carolina, and the bowl took the Gamecocks. With the Cotton Bowl as the safety net for the SEC championship game loser, all was in place for the Cotton to take Missouri to match up against a former Big 12 rival and change the traditional alignment of the Outback and Cotton Bowls.
| VIZIO BCS National Championship Game | No. 2 Auburn | No. 1 Florida State |
| Allstate Sugar Bowl | Alabama | Oklahoma |
| Capital One Bowl | South Carolina | Wisconsin |
| AT&T Cotton Bowl | Missouri | Oklahoma State |
| Outback Bowl | LSU | Iowa |
| Chick-Fil-A Bowl | Texas A&M | Duke |
| Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl | Georgia | Nebraska |
| Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl | Ole Miss | Georgia Tech |
| AutoZone Liberty Bowl | Mississippi State | Rice |
| BBVA Compass Bowl | Vanderbilt | Houston |
