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This week: College football wraps up with marquee matchups
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With the first full week in the new year comes that last week of college football and an area team will be involved.

Georgia Tech will make its 13th consecutive bowl appearance when it plays Iowa on Tuesday in the
FedEx Orange Bowl at Land Shark Stadium in Miami, Fla.

The Yellow Jackets, who beat Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, are playing in their first Bowl Championship Series bowl game.

Tech is 11-2 overall, one victory shy of tying a school and Atlantic Coast Conference record for wins in a season, and is ranked ninth in the Associated Press poll and 10th in the USA Today poll.

Iowa, 10-2 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten Conference, won its first nine games of the season. The Hawkeyes are ranked 10th in the AP poll and 11th by USA Today.

Georgia Tech, 22-15 all-time in postseason bowl play, ranks ninth all-time for bowl victories (22) and 12th for bowl appearances (38).

The Yellow Jackets have appeared in four different major bowl games including the Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Rose, but none since losing 27-12 to Florida on Jan. 2, 1967. Tech is 3-2 all-time in five previous Orange Bowl appearances. Even in the Jackets’ most recent national championship season of 1990, Tech did not play in a major bowl game. That season Tech defeated Nebraska in the Florida Citrus Bowl.

Two of the winningest programs in NCAA history will face off for the national championship Thursday when No. 1 Alabama (sixth all-time with 812 wins) and No. 2 Texas (second with 845 wins) meet at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

Alabama (13-0) beat Florida 32-13 in the Southeastern Conference Championship game to earn the right to play for the national title. Texas (13-0) beat Nebraska on a last-second field goal in the Big 12 championship game to make it to Thursday’s showdown.

The Crimson Tide is making its third BCS Bowl appearance and second straight under coach Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide also played in the 2009 Sugar Bowl and appeared in the 2000 Orange Bowl.

The game will mark the Longhorns’ second appearance in the BCS title game and its fourth BCS bowl in the last six years.

In high school wrestling, area duals will take place at the end of the week.

After winning its third straight Hall County championship, Flowery Branch enters the team portion of the 7-AAA tournament as the clear favorite with North Hall and West Hall not far behind.

Tuesday night, area high school basketball teams will begin the journey of subregion and region supremacy after a month of play chocked full of out-of-region play.

The Buford girls enter into this phase of the season as the No. 1-ranked team in Class AA with an 8-0 record. The Lady Wolves will play Westminster on Tuesday to start a region season in which they hope to repeat as Region 6-AA champions.

As for Region 7-AAA, the North Hall girls are currently 2-0 in subregion play having beaten Pickens and Lumpkin County. The Lady Trojans play host to Gilmer on Friday.

The early leaders in the south portion of Region 7-AAA on the girls side will face off Tuesday night at East Hall plays host to Gainesville. The winner will determine the early frontrunner for the coveted No. 1 seed heading into the region tournament.
Gainesville will also play host to No. 3 Franklin County on Friday and will look to avenge a 53-47 Lady Lions’ win earlier this season.

On the boys’ side, East Hall and Gainesville are both 1-1 in subregion play heading into Tuesday night’s matchup at Valhalla.
Flowery Branch and Johnson sit atop 7B-AAA with matchups against West Forsyth and West Hall (Tuesday) and Lumpkin County and East Hall (Friday) looming.

The Falcons have the chance to take sole control of the top spot of Region 7B-AAA by week’s end as they play two subregion games to Johnson’s one.

In college basketball, the University of Georgia women led by former Dade County standout Ashley Houts, will attempt to stay undefeated.

The Lady Bulldogs  beat Alabama 52-44 on Sunday to kickoff Southeastern Conference play and will face Kentucky on Thursday and Florida on Sunday.

With Sunday’s win, the Lady Bulldogs equaled the best start in University of Georgia women’s basketball history and could best that mark with another win this week.

The Georgia men will play Georgia Tech on Tuesday before starting conference play on Saturday against undefeated Kentucky. The Wildcats are led by freshman sensation John Wall. The Bulldogs (8-4) come into this week fresh off an 89-61 rout by Missouri.

The Georgia Tech men, after facing in-state rival Georgia, will begin ACC play Saturday against Duke.

The Georgia Tech women currently sit at 13-2 and start ACC play Wednesday at North Carolina.

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