2010 BCS National Championship Game

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2010 Citi BCS National Championship Game
BCS Bowl Game
Texas Longhorns Alabama Crimson Tide (13–0) (13–0) Big 12 SEC 21 37 Head coach:  Mack Brown Head coach:  Nick Saban AP Coaches BCS 2 2 2 AP Coaches BCS 1 1 1
1 2 3 4 Total Texas 6 0 7 8 21 Alabama 0 24 0 13 37
Date	January 7, 2010
Season	2009
Stadium	Rose Bowl
Location	Pasadena, California
MVP	Offense: Mark Ingram II (RB, Alabama) Defense: Marcell Dareus (DE, Alabama)
Favorite	Alabama by 4[1]
National anthem	Josh Groban and Flea
Referee	John McDaid (Big East) [2]
Halftime show	Million Dollar Band University of Texas Longhorn Band
Attendance	94,906
Payout	US$31 million (estimated)[3]
United States TV coverage
Network	ABC
Announcers	Brent Musburger (play-by-play)[4] Kirk Herbstreit (analyst)[4] Tom Rinaldi and Lisa Salters (sideline)[4]
Nielsen ratings	17.2 (28.5 million viewers)[5]
BCS National Championship Game  < 2009  2011 >

The 2010 BCS National Championship Game (branded as the 2010 Citi BCS National Championship Game for sponsorship reasons) was a college football bowl game to determine the national champion of the 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and was played between the Texas Longhorns and the Alabama Crimson Tide. It was hosted by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, January 7, 2010. It was the 12th BCS National Championship Game, and the second consecutive year the champion of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) was matched against the champion of the Big 12 Conference. Alabama got the win over Texas, 37-21, to complete a perfect 14-0 season and clinch the school's 13th national championship and first since 1992.

The game was the ninth meeting of Texas and Alabama, though the first since the 1982 Cotton Bowl Classic. Prior to the game, Texas led the all-time series with a 7–0–1 record, with the first meeting in 1902.^[6]

The match-up was the third game in which the Tournament of Roses hosted the BCS National Championship game in Pasadena, and the fifth time, overall, that it has hosted a No. 1 versus No. 2 match-up. However, this was the first time the Tournament of Roses hosted the game as a separate event from the Rose Bowl Game. They had previously hosted BCS Championship games in the 2006 and 2002 Rose Bowls, and pre-BCS No. 1 versus No. 2 match-ups in the 1969 and 1963 Rose Bowls.

With the win, Alabama became only the third team to complete a 14-0 season (after Ohio State in 2002, and Boise State just three nights earlier in the Fiesta Bowl).

ABC televised the game, as well as the Rose Bowl; Fox televised the remainder of the BCS. The match-up was the final BCS game to air on broadcast television, with cable network ESPN taking over all Bowl Championship Series telecasts starting in 2011,^[7] and also the last national championship game to be televised on broadcast television until 2027.^[8] Following the game in June, Citi decided to end the sponsorship of any future Rose Bowl games, including the National Championship game.^[9]