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By MICK ELLIOTT melliott@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2009

IAMI - College football's biggest night of the season has arrived, and we can prove it. There will be fireworks.

Strike the match. Light the fuse. There are endless possibilities as to how tonight's BCS Championship Game between the Florida Gators and Oklahoma Sooners might be decided, but everyone with even a passing interest knows what to expect.

You need only to glance at the offensive numbers that have carried each of the two 12-1 teams to Dolphin Stadium for their final game to feel a chill of anticipation.

There is Oklahoma and its newly crowned Heisman Trophy quarterback Sam Bradford, scoring 702 points this season and arriving as the most prolific scoring machine college football has seen in its modern era.

Oklahoma averaged 54 points per game to get here, arriving with a streak of five consecutive outings that produced 60 or more points. The game immediately before that onslaught began, they scored 58.

Not quite as explosive, Florida, nevertheless, has sparklers of its own. All the Gators managed were a school-record 587 points, an average of more than 45 per game.

Drawing the teams even closer to even footing, the Gators defense ranked among the nation's leaders, allowing opponents an average of just 12.5 points per game.

Oddsmakers have given the nod to Florida by 4 points, and set the over/under - total combined points - at an unearthly 70.

"Boom" goes the night.

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