Gators fans packed the O?Connell Center for BCS Game

With less than one minute left before halftime, the Oklahoma Sooners marched deep into Florida Gators territory with the score deadlocked, 7-7.

The FedEx BCS National Championship Game was on the line. And in Gainesville, about 10,000 faces in the O’Connell Center — police officers, arena personnel and cheerleaders among them — fixated on video screens with looks of nervousness, indigestion and general trepidation.

But Major Wright’s juggling ping-pong-ball interception snuffed out the OU drive inside the 5-yard line. And the Florida pep band promptly busted out a blaring rendition of "Orange and Blue," the school fight song.

Though the actual football game took place at the opposite end of Florida’s Turnpike, university officials again hosted a championship-game simulcast inside the basketball arena. Students received free admission.

Gainesville police warned fans of stepped-up surveillance measures if they took their revelry onto West University Boulevard, as occurred twice in 2007 after the Gators stomped the Ohio State Buckeyes for football and basketball titles.

Those post-midnight scenes were chaotic: Thousands of students screaming, everywhere. Daredevils climbing lampposts and jumping up and down on rooftops. Toilet paper rolls sailing through the air, draping white streamers over street lights and trees. Fires, choking smoke and assorted burning objects.

This time, several streetlight posts were coated with a clear, slick, oily substance to prevent a repeat of the climbing.

"For the last basketball (title), I actually got taken into the riot on my friend’s shoulders — and escaped when I saw fire," recalled Jennifer Dick, a 2002 Satellite High grad who is pursuing a master’s degree in religion.

Dick hung out off-campus before Thursday’s game with Brittany Ferguson — one of the Sunshine State’s most conflicted football fans. The 2003 Satellite High graduate was born in Norman, home of the University of Oklahoma.

Ferguson spent her first 14 years in the Sooner State before moving to Brevard in 1999. After graduating from UF, she works in Gainesville as a production assistant for the National Center for Construction Education and Research.

"My boss Danielle came in to my office today and said, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re wearing orange and blue!’" Ferguson said.

"She asked if I was going to have one crimson-and-cream pompom and one orange-and-blue pompom. I said, ‘I don’t want to get beat up tonight."

Hours before kickoff, Florida Book Store was already armed with ready-to-sell BCS national championship merchandise — so long as the Gators defeated Oklahoma, that is.

"At the moment, we have three shirts, two stickers, a flag and a hat. We’re getting another 18 (shirt) styles (today), and there’s more stuff coming Saturday," said Taryn Emswiler, merchandise manager.

She said the bookstore planned to open its front window and sell items to street revelers. She estimated the business has more than 140 of the yet-unreleased championship shirts on hand.

But what if the Sooners won?

"We have to destroy them," Emswiler said of the shirts.

When questioned, she said she did not know what method of destruction bookstore officials would employ.