2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season

Updated on Dec 11, 2023

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Duration August 28 – December 6 Start date August 28, 2008		Preseason AP #1 Georgia Bulldogs Site Hard Rock Stadium

Number of teams 119 full members, 1 transitional Duration December 20, 2008 – January 31, 2009 Bowl games 37 (34 team-competitive and 3 all-star games) Heisman Trophy Sam Bradford, Oklahoma QB National championship 2009 BCS National Championship Game Similar 2009 NCAA Division I, 2007 NCAA Division I, 2006 NCAA Division I, 2005 NCAA Division I, 2002 NCAA Division I

Timothy tyler 2008 football season for fairmont heights high school class of 2009

The 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season, or the college football season, began on August 28, 2008, progressing through the regular season and bowl season, and (aside from all-star exhibition games that followed) concluded with the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game in Miami Gardens, Florida on January 8, 2009, where the #2 Florida Gators, defeated the #1 Oklahoma Sooners, 24–14, of which the teams were determined by the BCS Ranking. The Gators were declared national champions by the BCS and most major polls.

Rule changes

The NCAA football rules committee made several rule changes for 2008, and includes the following:

Teams have 40 seconds from the time a ball is declared dead to snap the ball. The 25 second play clock will still be used for administrative stoppages and penalties.

The 15 second play clock after a TV timeout (adopted in the 2007 season) is repealed and returned to 25 seconds.

Outside of the final two minutes of each half, if a runner goes out of bounds, the game clock restarts after the ball is spotted.

The penalty for kicking the ball out of bounds on the kickoff is increased, placing the ball at the 40-yard line, similar to the NFL.

Reinforcing that contact that leads with the crown of the helmet to another player (targeting) is a foul, penalized 15 yards.

All face-mask penalties result in a 15-yard penalty. Incidental contact with the face mask is no longer penalized.

Sideline warnings are now penalized five yards for the first two occurrences, and 15 yards (unsportsmanlike conduct) for the third and subsequent violations. Previously the officials gave teams two warnings before a five-yard penalty was called.

All horse-collar tackles are now subject to a 15-yard penalty.

If a coach challenges a play, and he wins the challenge, then he is given a second challenge to use later in the game, but each coach has a maximum of two challenges per game even if both are decided in his favor.

Conference and program changes

One team upgraded from Division I-AA, thus increasing the number of Division I-A schools from 119 to 120.

Bowl games

If a conference does not have enough eligible teams to fill all of its contracted bowl slots, and an affected bowl does not have a contingency agreement with another conference (e.g., the Poinsettia Bowl, which has a contract with the WAC to take one of its teams if the Pac-10 does not have enough eligible teams), the bowl "left out" can select an at-large team. By NCAA rule, an at-large bowl slot must be filled by a team with at least 7 wins, if available. Two new bowl games were added for the 2008–09 post-season: the EagleBank Bowl, which was played at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., and the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl in the titular Florida city at Tropicana Field.

Bowl Championship Series

Ten teams played in the five BCS bowls. The top two teams in the final BCS ranking played in the BCS National Championship Game. The champions of the six BCS conferences who are not in the top two are given automatic berths into other BCS bowls. Unless playing in the championship game, the champions of the Big Ten and Pac-10 play in the Rose Bowl, the ACC champion in the Orange Bowl, the SEC champion in the Sugar Bowl and the Big 12 champion in the Fiesta Bowl. The Big East champion can play in any open BCS bowl games.

After the completion of the regular season and conference championship games, seven teams had secured BCS berths: Big Ten champion Penn State, Big East champion Cincinnati, ACC champion Virginia Tech, SEC champion Florida, Big 12 champion Oklahoma, Pac-10 champion USC, and Mountain West champion Utah, as the highest-ranked non-BCS conference champion. With Oklahoma and Florida being selected to play in the championship, Texas and Alabama were selected to assume their conference's spots in the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls. Cincinnati was selected for the Orange Bowl and Utah for the Sugar Bowl, with the remaining at-large spot awarded to Ohio State for the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State was selected despite being ranked behind #9 Boise State at #10. #7 Texas Tech did not receive an at-large selection, as they were ineligible with the Big 12 already being awarded two BCS slots.

Other bowl games

Winners are bold

Bowl Challenge Cup standings

* Does not meet minimum game requirement of three teams needed for a conference to be eligible.

Heisman Trophy voting

The Heisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player.

Winner: Sam Bradford, So. Oklahoma QB (1,726 pts)

2. Colt McCoy, Jr. Texas QB (1,604 pts)

3. Tim Tebow, Jr. Florida QB (1,575 pts)

4. Graham Harrell Sr. Texas Tech QB (213 pts)

5. Michael Crabtree, So. Texas Tech WR (116 pts)

Other major award winners

Top Player

Coaching

Offense

Defense

Lineman

Special Teams

Other

All-Americans

2008 Consensus All-America Team

Statistical leaders

Team scoring most points: Oklahoma, 716

Final rankings

* - The AFCA requires that their voters make the winner of the BCS Championship at the number one position in the final poll.
^≠ - Kyle Whittingham, head coach of Utah, broke the agreement and voted his team number one on his ballot.

References

2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season Wikipedia

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