College Football Playoffs: Sooners, Trojans to meet for title

Garrett Hartley hit a 37-yard field goal in overtime to send Oklahoma past No. 1 Ohio State 20-17 and into the national championship game to face USC, which easily defeated Arizona State 37-10.

At least that's the way it turned out in our simulated bracket.

No voters or computers deciding which two teams play for the national title.

No biases from coaches ranking one team No. 8 because they "don't like them."

No questions about who should be playing for the national title because all the questions have been answered – Oklahoma and USC were the only teams that won three playoff games; everybody else lost.

If you were late to the party and are just now playing catch up, go back a few weeks and find out how we determined our Sweet 16 teams. You can also read up on the first round results, and quarterfinals.

But back to the semifinals. In what will go down as one of the greatest college games ever, Ohio State rallied from down 14-0 at halftime to eventually tie it at 17 when Brian Robiskie scored on a 3-yard pass with four seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.

Ohio State got the ball first in OT, but Todd Boeckman fumbled an exchange, and Demarrio Pleasant recovered. Oklahoma ran a few plays before sending Hartley out to kick the game-winner.

Oklahoma freshman Sam Bradford finished with 236 yards passing and two touchdowns. Malcolm Kelly was the top receiver with 87 yards on six catches. Boeckman finished with 216 yards passing, including a 73-yard screen pass to Chris Wells.

In the other game, USC had no trouble with Arizona State as John David Booty threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.

Vidal Hazelton, Patrick Turner and Fred Davis all had touchdown receptions, while Chauncey Washington had 93 yards rushing.

The Sun Devils were actually able to move the ball up and down the field, but sacks and turnovers did them in. Rudy Carpenter finished with a game-high 378 yards on 31-of-46 passing, but was sacked seven times, fumbled once and also threw an interception.

So what's next?

Oklahoma vs. USC

There will be no controversy in this outcome, except the fact that it's in the world of make-believe.

We can dream, can't we?