The College Football Blog: 2012 Horse Collar Awards Part IV (Team/Game National Awards)

National Awards (Team/Game)

Most Surprising Team: Notre Dame.

Runner Up: Texas A&M.

Most Disappointing Team: USC. 

Runner Up: Arkansas.

Best Regular Season Inter-conference Game

Week 10: Notre Dame vs. Pittsburgh (29-26, OT-III)

Runner Up

Week 7: Notre Dame vs. Stanford (20-13, OT)

Best Bowl Game

New Mexico Bowl: Arizona vs. Nevada (49-48)

Runner Up

Outback Bowl: South Carolina vs. Michigan (33-28)

Worst Bowl Game

Sun Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. USC (21-7)

Runner Up

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl: Arizona State vs. Navy (62-28)

FBS Game of the Year

SEC Championship Game: Alabama vs. Georgia (32-28)

Runner Up

Week 12: Stanford at Oregon (17-14, OT)

Biggest Shocker

Week 2: Louisiana-Monroe beats Arkansas in Little Rock (34-31, OT) as 30-point underdog.  

Runner Up

Sugar Bowl: Louisville beats Florida (33-23) as 14-point underdog. 

Comments: This year’s runner up most surprising team (Texas A&M) was last year’s most disappointing team. It was tough to choose the biggest shocker this year, as there were a number of good candidates. Some others considered include Texas State over Houston; Stanford over Oregon; NC State over Florida State; Kansas State over Oklahoma; Texas A&M over Alabama; and SMU over Fresno State.