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January 7, 2008

Tonight in sports: College football title on the line

Top-ranked Ohio State enters the BCS national championship game against LSU searching for redemption, hoping to bury the memories of an embarrassing loss in last year's title game.

"As much as you try to forget about it, there's no way of forgetting about it," Ohio State fullback Dionte Johnson said. "I can close my eyes and go through that game like I'm still there."

The second-ranked Tigers come into tonight's showdown at the Superdome looking for validation, trying to prove they were indeed the team most deserving of a chance to play the Buckeyes for the title.

"I really feel it was our destiny to be here," LSU receiver Early Doucet said. "For things to go the way they went - us losing to Arkansas, Pittsburgh beating West Virginia and Oklahoma beating Missouri - it all fell into place the way it did and I just think it was meant to be."

That's a good theory. How else to explain how two teams that lost their second-to-last games are playing for the national championship?

The winner will become the first school to win two BCS titles since the Bowl Championship Series began in 1998. The Buckeyes won it in 2002, then lost 41-14 to Florida as a prohibitive favorite in last year's championship game.

LSU won the BCS title in 2003, beating Oklahoma right here in New Orleans, the Tigers' home 90 miles south of Baton Rouge.

Ohio State (11-1), the Big Ten champions, and LSU (11-2), champs of the Southeastern Conference, have been two of the nation's elite programs over the past six seasons; the Buckeyes have won 66 games and the Tigers 63.

Get the latest from the Associated Press ...

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 6:36 PM | Permalink

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