1994 National Championship

[g-man]

I see a lot of Penn St. sites(along with some national sites)that push the same old argument that we got the NC vote because Tom had tried for so long and come up short and so we got sympathy votes. To my recollection PSU defeated Oregon in the Rose Bowl which I would definitely call a nuetral field. Nebraska had to play Miami IN Miami at the Orange bowl. How much more of a home game could you ask for?

 

And just to pick on Miami's supposed domination in the 80's, just how many of their NC's were won on nuetral fields outside the state of Fla.

[deedsker15]

didn't the big 8 always play a member of the big east...so wouldn't this be zero?

[g-man]

Not always. Colorado played Notre Dame when they won the NC. We played Florida State in 93 when we should have won the NC except for the last minute field goal by FSU. And we all remember 78 when they made us replay Oklahoma.

[VA Husker Fan]

didn't the big 8 always play a member of the big east...so wouldn't this be zero?

No, the Big East didn't even exist for football until 1991, and the Big 8 had the only automatic spot in the Orange Bowl for those years. Miami was an indy in the 80s, and capped their '89 championship with a Sugar Bowl win, and of course 2001 in the Rose Bowl.

[PSU1995]

If somebody can explain why Nebraska went to #1 in the polls ahead of Penn State after we killed a ranked Ohio State 63-14 back in 1994, I'm still waiting to hear it.

[In the Deed the Glory]

If somebody can explain why Nebraska went to #1 in the polls ahead of Penn State after we killed a ranked Ohio State 63-14 back in 1994, I'm still waiting to hear it.

 

We beat the #2 team in the nation the same week in CU 24-7 with Kordell Stewart, Michael Westbrook, Rae Carruth and Rashaan Salaam (who happened to win the Heisman Trophy that season) on National Television. We had also already beaten the #24, #13, and #16 team before that but this game proved that NU was still dominant even without Tommie Frazier (who was out with blood clots).

 

Compare that to the Penn State team that snuck past #5 Michigan by 7 points. The same Michigan team that lost to CU in the Big House that year. The same Colorado team whose vaunted offense, who put up 27 points on Michigan, got throttled by NU's defense later in the same year amassing only 7 points.

 

Of course this is just my opinion, here is this guy's opinion

[huKSer]

didn't the big 8 always play a member of the big east...so wouldn't this be zero?

For those too young to remember:

Rose: Big Ten vs PAC 8

Cotton: SWC vs __

Sugar: SEC vs __

Orange: Big 8 vs __

 

No other bowls had any tie ins, or if they did, I don't remember, or it didn't really matter.

 

There was LOTS of back room maneuvering to get your bowl the best deal. No (official) invites until the end of the season, but Notre Lame accept one invite with three games remaining, and then lost 2 of the 3. The Fiesta Bowl became big time when Nebraska accepted an invite to play the WAC champion Arizona St.

[huzkerbob]

If somebody can explain why Nebraska went to #1 in the polls ahead of Penn State after we killed a ranked Ohio State 63-14 back in 1994, I'm still waiting to hear it.

 

We beat the #2 team in the nation the same week in CU 24-7 with Kordell Stewart, Michael Westbrook, Rae Carruth and Rashaan Salaam (who happened to win the Heisman Trophy that season) on National Television. We had also already beaten the #24, #13, and #16 team before that but this game proved that NU was still dominant even without Tommie Frazier (who was out with blood clots).

 

Compare that to the Penn State team that snuck past #5 Michigan by 7 points. The same Michigan team that lost to CU in the Big House that year. The same Colorado team whose vaunted offense, who put up 27 points on Michigan, got throttled by NU's defense later in the same year amassing only 7 points.

 

Of course this is just my opinion, here is this guy's opinion

 

Owned!

[PSU1995]

Yes, I've heard all the arguments before. Paterno had a nasty tendency to call off the dogs once the game was in hand. That really made us look bad against Indiana who bombed away at the end and also went for 2 points to end the game.

 

But we could also talk about how Penn State was sporting the nation's #1 offense. Would the Nebraska D hold up? How good must your defense be if you're offense is putting up two and three touchdowns in the first quarter?

 

We could also talk about the 3 touchdowns that NU allowed against Pacific (you remember them? They dropped their football program in 1995), the 10 point win against unranked Wyoming (in Lincoln), and the 10 point win against unranked Oklahoma.

 

The only equitable thing to have done was to split the NC if no game was going to be played.

[sd'sker]

Yes, I've heard all the arguments before. Paterno had a nasty tendency to call off the dogs once the game was in hand. That really made us look bad against Indiana who bombed away at the end and also went for 2 points to end the game.

 

But we could also talk about how Penn State was sporting the nation's #1 offense. Would the Nebraska D hold up? How good must your defense be if you're offense is putting up two and three touchdowns in the first quarter?

 

We could also talk about the 3 touchdowns that NU allowed against Pacific (you remember them? They dropped their football program in 1995), the 10 point win against unranked Wyoming (in Lincoln), and the 10 point win against unranked Oklahoma.

 

The only equitable thing to have done was to split the NC if no game was going to be played to have a playoff.

fify.

[Joe_5700]

If somebody can explain why Nebraska went to #1 in the polls ahead of Penn State after we killed a ranked Ohio State 63-14 back in 1994, I'm still waiting to hear it.

 

The Indiana game happened.

[808Husker in KCMO]

Yes, I've heard all the arguments before. Paterno had a nasty tendency to call off the dogs once the game was in hand. That really made us look bad against Indiana who bombed away at the end and also went for 2 points to end the game.

 

But we could also talk about how Penn State was sporting the nation's #1 offense. Would the Nebraska D hold up? How good must your defense be if you're offense is putting up two and three touchdowns in the first quarter?

 

We could also talk about the 3 touchdowns that NU allowed against Pacific (you remember them? They dropped their football program in 1995), the 10 point win against unranked Wyoming (in Lincoln), and the 10 point win against unranked Oklahoma.

 

The only equitable thing to have done was to split the NC if no game was going to be played.

Cornhusker rushing stats for the Pacific game:

Rushing	AT	YDS	AVG	LG	TD
Lawrence Phillips	9	138	15.3	1
Damon Benning	10	87	8.7		1
Clinton Childs	10	64	6.4		1
Jeff Makovicka	3	59	19.7		
Cory Schlesinger	3	51	17.0	2
Matt Turman	4	37	9.2		
Brook Berringer	6	32	5.3		1
Todd Uhlir	3	13	4.3		
Vershan Jackson	2	10	5.0		
Scott Davenport 2	10	5.0	
Tommie Frazier	1	5	5.0		
A. Kucera	1	4	4.0		
Chris Norris	1	2	2.0		
Chad Stanley	1	0	0.0		
Ryan Held	1	0	0.0		
Brian Schuster	2	-2	-1.0		

 

This is indicative of the personnel that played in the game. I cannot find specific defensive numbers but if True Freshman Ryan Held had a rushing attempt, I'm positive that there were no Blackshirts in during the Second half of the Pacific game. You know. The half they scored all of the (OMG!) 3 touchdowns.

[knapplc]

Bottom Line - the rest of the nation tried to settle it on the field and created the Bowl Coalition while the Big 10 held on to the Rose Bowl. When Nebraska won the Orange Bowl it was all over, and it had nothing to do with "giving" anything to Tom Osborne. That championship was earned on the field, and the voting wasn't even close.

[PSU1995]

Bottom Line - the rest of the nation tried to settle it on the field and created the Bowl Coalition while the Big 10 held on to the Rose Bowl. .

I won't dispute this point. The Big 10 was stupidly hanging on to the "tradition" of the "Grandaddy of them all". Whatever. It's not the grandaddy if it doesn't pit the right teams together.

 

So I concede this, because you're right.

 

(but we would have won )

[Blackshirt316]

If somebody can explain why Nebraska went to #1 in the polls ahead of Penn State after we killed a ranked Ohio State 63-14 back in 1994, I'm still waiting to hear it.

 

 

Why do Penn State fans always bring up Nebraska moving ahead of Penn State without Penn State losing in 1994 when the only reason Penn State was #1 to begin with is because the same thing happened to Nebraska earlier that same year? Nebraska was #1 on September 8th, crushed Texas Tech 42-16 in Lubbock and fell to #2 September 17th even with a 49-21 win over #14 UCLA.

 

Pertaining to the switch between Nebraska and Penn State after the Penn State vs. Ohio State game however, the reason it happened is fairly simple.

 

In the 10/25 AP poll, the final poll before Penn State beat #21 Ohio State and Nebraska beat #2 Colorado (still without Tommie Frasier) the polls were pretty evenly split...

 

In that 10/25 AP poll Penn State was ranked #1 with 1486 points and 19 first place votes, Colorado was ranked #2 with 1482 points and 16 first place votes and Nebraska was #3 with 1461 points and 24 first place votes.

 

The next poll on 11/1 had Nebraska #1 with 1520 points and 33 first place votes and Penn State #2 with 1514 points and 28 first place votes. Colorado fell to #7 with no first place votes after their bad loss to the Huskers.

 

So in both polls the point total was so close it was pretty much negligible. And Nebraska already had more first place votes than Penn State in the poll before those games, what actually happened was that Nebraska simply GAINED those first place votes that used to belong to Colorado and Nebraska's previous votes + the votes they took from Colorado by beating the Buffaloes was worth more points than Penn State's total. -Penn State actually did gain 28 points and 4 first place votes as a direct result of the OSU win in the 11/1 poll but three of those first place votes had previously belonged to #4 Auburn and thus wasn't enough to stay ahead of Nebraska.

 

So Nebraska didn't really take any votes away from Penn State at all. The people that had Penn State #1 before that week still had Penn State #1 and the people that had Nebraska #1 also stayed the same, but the people that had Colorado #1 and Penn State #2 simply changed their vote for #1 to Nebraska and left Penn State at #2 and the people previously had Nebraska #2 and Penn State #3 simply moved Nebraska up to #1 and Penn State up to #2.