by Steve Eubanks, Special to FOXSports.com

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

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

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"It was always Auburn or Alabama," said Tide defensive end Bobby Greenwood, whose family moved to Prattville, Ala. when Bobby was a teenager. "You had to pick one. I'm glad I made the choice for Alabama. I'll be a whole lot happier after this game."

"You gotta buy into it," Tide nose tackle Terrance Cody said. "You gotta understand the hate that's there."

Nick Saban understands, even as he does his best to tamp down the hoopla. "It's not just another game," Saban admitted.

That ranked among the top understatements of the year. Saban probably hasn't been told out loud that his job security depends on him consistently beating Auburn, but it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Bill Curry went 26-10 as the Tide's head coach, the best winning percentage since Bear Bryant. He won three bowl games, played in one national championship game, won the Bobby Dodd award and was the 1989 SEC Coach of the Year. He also lost to Auburn three straight years. After having bricks thrown through his windows, Curry was chased out of town.

In 2003, Mike Shula took over a program in shambles, and turned it into a 10-2 team in his third year. But the day after his fourth straight loss to Auburn, Shula was shown the door.

On the flip side, Tommy Tuberville has been the subject of firing rumors at least three times, but his six straight Iron Bowl wins have pulled him back from the brink.

A national championship would be nice, but this game was the reason Alabama broke the piggybank to hire Saban. Winning it means more to Tide fans than the SEC or the BCS.

Alabama is a 14-point favorite, even after six straight losses to their in-state rival. Still, Saban understands that this is Auburn, not The Citadel.

"This is a very good football team," he said of the Tigers. "They've lost four games in the SEC by five points or less. They are an outstanding defensive team. They're dominant up front. They can play against the run. They have some great pass rushers. And they're outstanding on special teams. I know we're going to have to play."

Alabama is also going to have to overcome the insanity that accompanies a game of this magnitude. Every radio station in the state has been "All Iron Bowl, All the Time" for a week. It will only get worse as kickoff draws near. "It's a huge distraction," Greenwood said. "You've just got to try and avoid it, take it a game at a time. Take it as another game."

Taking it as another game has been Saban's mantra for two weeks. "When you play a game like this, it's like a one-game season," he said. "It's not about where you're ranked, or the BCS, or anything like that. It's about Auburn and Alabama."

Enough said.

Georgia happy for week off

Georgia is coming off a bye week where it watched its next opponent, in-state rival Georgia Tech, demolish Miami. The 41-23 score didn't do it justice. Tech rushed for 472 yards to the 'Canes 105, a stat that had the Georgia defensive staff scrambling. "I think it's valuable to have the break where it is," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "With Georgia Tech running a new system -- the type of system you really don't see by anybody else -- it's going to take some time to try to simulate it and try to get an idea of how to defend it."

Florida hoping for a boost

Florida fans were scratching their heads last week as their team routed the Citadel and watched as Oklahoma jumped over them in the BCS computations. Even though the Gators are ranked second in the AP and Harris polls, and third in the coach's poll, through the magic of BCS wizardry they are fourth in the standings. A win against in-state FSU, an 8-3 team ranked No. 23 should bump them into the top three, but as Urban Meyer said this week, "We just have to take care of our business and let everything else take care of itself."

Fulmer casualties continue to mount

Phil Fulmer is still racking up losses for Tennessee, even when he wins. The Vols beat Vandy last week, but the victory was dampened when top recruit David Oku, ranked by many scouts as the top all-purpose high school back in the country, reopened his recruiting after committing to Tennessee. Oku cited Fulmer's departure as the reason for his change of heart.