Description
The 2014 Vizio BCS National Championship Game was the national championship game of the 2013 college football season, which took place on Monday, January 6, 2014. The game featured the Auburn Tigers and Florida State Seminoles.It was the 16th and last time the top two teams would automatically play for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) title before the implementation of a four-team College Football Playoff system. The game was played at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, kicking off at 8:30 p.m. ET. The game was hosted by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, the organizer of the annual Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game on New Year’s Day. The winner of the game, Florida State, was presented with the American Football Coaches Association’s “The Coaches’ Trophy”, valued at $30,000.Pre-game festivities began at 4:30 p.m. PT. Face values of tickets were $385 and $325 (end zone seats) with both teams receiving a total of 40,000 tickets.
Starting immediately after the 2014 Rose Bowl Game, a fresh field was placed on top of the existing field. The field was laid on Thursday, and painting of the field began Friday. The field was completed Saturday in time for it to rest on Sunday for the game on Monday.
Florida State scored first on a 35-yard field goal to take an early 3–0 lead. Auburn responded with a touchdown in the first quarter and two in the second to storm out to a 21–3 lead. After a successful punt fake, the Seminoles managed a touchdown late in the second quarter, making it a 21–10 game in Auburn’s favor going into halftime. Both teams dominated on defense in the third quarter with the Seminoles hitting a field goal to cut Auburn’s lead to eight. In the fourth quarter, Florida State scored a touchdown early to make it a one-point game. Auburn extended its lead to 24–20 on a field goal, but Florida State took the lead 27–24 when Levonte Whitfield took the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. Auburn then retook the lead 31–27 with 1:19 remaining in the game, but Florida State was able to respond, winning the game 34–31 with a Kelvin Benjamin touchdown with 13 seconds left on the clock.
For their performances in the game, quarterback Jameis Winston and defensive back P. J. Williams were named the game’s most valuable players.
Teams playing in this game were officially selected on Selection Sunday, December 8, 2013. They are the No. 1 and No. 2 nationally ranked teams in the final BCS standings. In the final BCS Standings, Florida State ended up ranked No. 1 and Auburnended up ranked No. 2. Auburn and Florida State have played 17 times before, with Auburn leading the series, 13–4. Their last meeting was in 1990 at Auburn, Auburn winning 20–17.
The teams were housed in Newport Beach, Orange County. They held practices at UC Irvine (Auburn) in Irvine, CA and Orange Coast College (Florida State) in Costa Mesa, CA. On game day, Auburn wore its white away jerseys and used the west bench while Florida State wore its dark home jerseys and used the east bench
