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The automatic bids got claimed first: Virginia Tech won the ACC; Cincinnati won the Big East; Penn State won the Big Ten; Oklahoma won the Big XII; Southern California won the Pac-10; Florida won the SEC; Utah won the Mountain West and finished in the BCS top xii.
Texas and Oklahoma finished at #1 and #2, respectively, so they would have been picked for the BCS National Championship game.
The Orange Bowl gets the ACC champion, so there goes Virginia Tech.
The Rose Bowl gets the Big Ten and Pac-10 champions, so Penn State will play Southern California.
The Sugar Bowl gets the SEC champion, so there goes Florida.
The Fiesta Bowl gets the Big XII champion, but that's Oklahoma, who plays in the BCSNCG. They picked first from the remainder of the automatic qualifiers and the at-large pool, which includes (remaining automatic bids in bold):
- Utah
- Boise State
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- Cincinnati
- Ball State
- Texas Christian
- Mississippi
At this point, the picking order for the 2009 BCS games goes in the order of Fiesta, then Sugar, then Orange.
For its second pick, the Fiesta bowl likely picks Ohio State. The Sugar, forced to take one of the remaining two automatic qualifiers, chooses Utah, and then the Orange gets Cincinnati.
