It's now official: Ducks vs. Tigers

A season spent talking about Bowl Championship Series busters will end with another clash of the big boys - just not the ones we've gotten used to seeing in the title game.

Alabama and Texas? Florida and Oklahoma? Ohio State? Southern California?

Not this year.

BCS title game first-timers Auburn and Oregon will bring perfect records and potent offenses to Glendale, Ariz., for their Jan. 10 matchup.

The Bowl Championship Series matchups were made official Sunday night, a formality after the top-ranked Tigers and No. 2 Ducks completed unbeaten seasons Saturday.

Those outsiders from Texas Christian and Boise State were closer than ever to playing for college football's biggest prize. But the third-ranked Horned Frogs, the nation's only other undefeated team, couldn't overcome playing in the lightly regarded Mountain West Conference. As for Boise State, one loss was one too many, and the Broncos ended up out of the BCS altogether.

The other BCS matchups announced Sunday were: TCU against Big Ten cochamp Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl; Arkansas and Ohio State, which also won a share of the Big Ten, in the Sugar Bowl; Big Twelve champ Oklahoma taking on Big East cochamp Connecticut in the Fiesta Bowl; and No. 5 Stanford playing Atlantic Coast Conference winner Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

While teams from the power conferences will play for the biggest prize of all, the Tigers and Ducks still represent a changing of the guard.

Auburn has one national title to its credit - and it came in 1957. And the Ducks are only the second team in BCS history to reach the championship game looking for the program's first national title.

This title game will be just the second, not including the inaugural BCS championship in 1998, with two teams that have never been there before.

Never before have two teams that started the season ranked outside the Associated Press Top 10 played for the BCS title.

The Ducks began the year ranked 11th in the AP poll. The Tigers were even further back, second in their own state to defending national champions Alabama and ranked No. 22 in the nation.