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It's the end of the line, friends. After tonight, college football goes dark for the next almost-nine months. Well, "dark" if you ignore recruiting, the inevitable Fulmer Cup shenanigans, and the ever-present specter of conference realignment. This sport no longer really takes any time off. Although in terms of the action on the field -- you know, the thing that made us love it in the first place and the thing that allows us to put up with all the other nonsense -- that's over with as of tonight, with the BCS National Championship Game between #1 Notre Dame and #2 Alabama.
As Iowa fans, we're more than ready to put this season behind us -- hell, we've been there since... November? October? September? -- but still: watching football is fun and after tonight there will be no more new college football to watch for a very long time. Sad.
As far as tonight goes... does it really matter who wins or loses? The winning fanbase is guaranteed to be insufferable and the losing fanbase is guaranteed to provide a bounty of schadenfreude. Let's just hope the game itself is not the crushing bore that last year's BCS title game was.
The game kicks off at 7:30 on ESPN.
The usual rules apply: no links to illegal online streams, no porn, no religion, no slurs, no politics, etc.