It's pretty simple. Nebraska played the #3 team in the country, Tennessee, with Peyton Manning, Peerless Price, and a host of future NFL stars on their roster. We destroyed them.
Michigan ducked out of the national championship game - not entirely their fault, but they contributed to the decision - because the Big Ten and Pac-10 felt the Rose Bowl was more important than joining the Bowl Alliance. In their little Rose Bowl game with everything on the line, they barely beat Ryan Leaf and.... nobody else. No other star or even decent player was on that Wash. State roster. And they eked out a win, and they claim their title was "better?"
They can keep their little 11th-grade shop class wooden plaque that says "National Champions" on it. It's a bone we can throw a team that hasn't won anything of significance in 70 years.
We'll take the giant crystal trophy, though. That's the real trophy, the trophy the real champ gets, and it's sitting in our trophy case as I type this. I'll go down to the stadium and take a picture of it if this writer wants to see what a real trophy looks like.