by Matthew Zemek

Bowl season roundup

Bowl recaps and analysis:

EagleBank: Wake 29, Navy 19 | CFN
New Mexico: Colo. St. 40, Fresno St. 35
St. Petersburg: S. Florida 41, Memphis 14
Las Vegas: Arizona 31, BYU 21 | CFN
New Orleans: SMU 30, Troy 27 (OT) | CFN
Poinsettia: TCU 17, Boise St. 16 | CFN
Hawaii: Notre Dame 49, Hawaii 21 | CFN
Motor City: FAU 24, Cen. Mich. 21 | CFN
Meineke: W. Virginia 31, UNC 30 | CFN
Champs Sports: Fla. St. 42, Wis. 13 | CFN
Emerald: Cal 24, Miami 17 | CFN
Independence: La. Tech 17, NIU 10 | CFN
Papajohns.com: Rutgers 29, N.C. St. 23
Alamo: Mizzou 30, N'west. 23 (OT) | CFN
Humanitarian: Maryland 42, Nevada 35
Texas: Rice 38, W. Michigan 14
Holiday: Oregon 42, Oklahoma St. 31 | CFN
Armed Forces: Houston 34, Air Force 28
Sun: Oregon St. 3, Pittsburgh 0 | CFN
Music City: Vandy 16, BC 14 | CFN
Insight: Kansas 42, Minnesota 21
Chick-fil-A: LSU 38, Georgia Tech 3
Outback: Iowa 31, South Carolina 10 | CFN
Capital One: Georgia 24, MSU 12 | CFN
Gator: Nebraska 26, Clemson 21
Rose: USC 38, Penn St. 24 | Analysis
Orange: Va. Tech 20, Cincinnati 7
Cotton: Ole Miss 47, Texas Tech 34
Liberty: Kentucky 25, East Carolina 19
Sugar: Utah 31, Alabama 17
International: UConn 38, Buffalo 20
Fiesta: Texas 24, Ohio St. 21 | Analysis
GMAC: Tulsa 45, Ball St. 13
BCS title: Florida 24, Oklahoma 14
Complete bowl schedule

Photo gallery:

• Fiesta Bowl snapshots
• Snapshots from Saturday's bowls
• Best from bowl season's 1st weekend

Shopping:

• Get your '09 BCS bowl gear!

Apparently, Georgia's all-black uniforms work wonders only against half the state of Alabama. Auburn succumbed to the charcoal charms of Mark Richt's men last season, but Nick Saban's Tide weren't fooled by the shift in attire. Blood, after all, runs red when spilled, and 'Bama caused a Crimson flood to cover the Sanford Stadium turf, making it appear that Georgia was wearing its regular home red jerseys.

Alabama's funeral service — a lavish liturgy exceeding three hours in length and witnessed by more than 90,000 worshippers, most of them mourners — stands tall for many reasons, chief among them the fact that the Tide finally throttled a foe with legitimate national-title credentials. With this five-star, top-of-the-line victory — the kind that decides difficult BCS debates on the first weekend of December — the boys from 'Bama announced to the college football world that this signature program has firmly and forcefully returned to the ranks of the sport's elite.

Make no mistake: Alabama has thrown down the gauntlet and told the rest of the SEC that it's going to be a Bear trying to take down this terrific team, which is playing with a Tidal wave of confidence at the moment. Far more than merely "beating" Georgia — which would have ranked as a massive enough accomplishment in its own right — Nick Saban's boys summarily dismantled the No. 3 team in America on its home turf, in a game that was far more decisive than the final 11-point margin could ever hope to indicate. Yes, on a night when 'Dawg fans everywhere missed the classic tones of the legendary Larry Munson, the Tide stole Georgia's thunderous fury, stealing the beloved boot Munson evidently left behind in the press box. Alabama carried that weapon to the field and used it with brutal and lethal efficiency.

The first five times Alabama touched the ball, the Tide posted four touchdowns and a field goal to roll to a 31-0 halftime bulge. Quarterback John Parker Wilson — a senior who is hitting his stride, thanks to newfound maturity and a lot of detail work under the tutelage of Saban's staff — smartly and surely directed sustained scoring drives throughout a fabulous first half. Wilson's icy calm carried over to his tunnel-vision teammates, who existed in the rarified air known as "the zone," the lofty place athletes always dream of reaching. There was nothing more to this game than pure, unadulterated domination by 'Bama at every position on the field.

Comprehensively, coldly and cruelly, the Tide made the words "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer" come alive in real time, pounding Georgia into perplexed submission at every turn. With the 'Dawgs still not able to shrug off the penalties that had nagged them in previous weeks — one kept alive Alabama's first touchdown drive, another aided Bama's second scoring march and a holding penalty prevented Georgia from converting a fourth-and-18 early in the fourth quarter — an already-struggling outfit from Athens had no shot at making a comeback.

There's a ton of season left, and no responsible pundit should be wasting any time, ink or breath anointing anyone as being particularly likely to play in the BCS title game. But one thing can be said at the end of September: With the possible exception of Oklahoma, no one's playing better football in America than this team from Tuscaloosa.