The 1997 National Championship Discussion Thread

[EZ-E]

While drunk as hell at the Michigan game this year, afterwards I ran to the rescue of a fellow Husker fan being harassed by Michigan fans. I pointed to the trophy room and said "Hey now guys. This isn't necissary. We can all get along tonight and have fun. Allow me to show you the real deal, true blue, 1997 National Championship Trophy. Its right in there. Let's go check it out guys. Bet you've never seen one."

[Count 'Bility]

As bullish most on here are about the huskers, I find it hard to take most peoples memory on here about the 97 team. From memory, I find it hard to say that either team would have easily won the game. To me, it would have been a good match up.

 

As for the article, that is a horrible reason to give it to Michigan.

I usually always try to look at things with a common sense and unbiased point of view. With that said, Michigan would not have had a frickin prayer. It would have close (on the scoreboard) through a half or so as the Tennessee game was, but then, wallah, dun.

[ZRod]

I would rather have a national championship that was decided by coaches of the game instead of sportswiters any day.

Why? Coaches can't watch games, and they have no idea what's going on. Bo doesn't even know the names of the best players on the teams we play, why do you think that type of person would be a qualified voter?

I'm pretty sure he knows the names, it's probably a bit of a psychological game. When you give someone a name they're a person not a piece of meat that you're going to beat up on.

[Enhance]

Michigan had the defense, we had the offense, and an offensive line that was without question the best in the country at the time. Usually, I will side with the team that has the great defense, but Nebraska's defense was no pushover that year. They were a talented squad.

 

Both teams were great. The thing that really hurts Michigan is they played pretty awful in their bowl game while we dominated in ours.

[shyndy]

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.

 

Just wanted to add that that rose bowl ended controversially too. The way I remember it wsu was driving and they ran nine seconds off the clock when the clock should have been stopped

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

Ann Arbor is a whore.

I can confirm this as well!

[ObamaRocks91]

I would rather have a national championship that was decided by coaches of the game instead of sportswiters any day.

Why? Coaches can't watch games, and they have no idea what's going on. Bo doesn't even know the names of the best players on the teams we play, why do you think that type of person would be a qualified voter?

 

And the writers are always correct? They had USC picked to win nc this year and ND not even ranked.

You act like nobody had USC being good and the AP went out on a limb ranking them high. Both the AP and Coaches poll had USC and Notre Dame each ranked within 2 spots of themselves on their respective poll, so this argument has absolutely no credibility.

[southernoregonhusker]

Michigan had the defense, we had the offense, and an offensive line that was without question the best in the country at the time. Usually, I will side with the team that has the great defense, but Nebraska's defense was no pushover that year. They were a talented squad.

 

Both teams were great. The thing that really hurts Michigan is they played pretty awful in their bowl game while we dominated in ours.

 

Michigan's D was very good. Their O? Not so much. Griese, not that great.

[Branno]

I would rather have a national championship that was decided by coaches of the game instead of sportswiters any day.

Why? Coaches can't watch games, and they have no idea what's going on. Bo doesn't even know the names of the best players on the teams we play, why do you think that type of person would be a qualified voter?

 

And the writers are always correct? They had USC picked to win nc this year and ND not even ranked.

You act like nobody had USC being good and the AP went out on a limb ranking them high. Both the AP and Coaches poll had USC and Notre Dame ranked within 2 spots of each other on their respective poll, so this argument has absolutely no credibility.

 

What? They had USC at #1 and Notre Dame at like 28th. Maybe I forgot how to

Count.... 1, 2, 28... Yeah that seems about right.

[Nobody]

[ObamaRocks91]

I would rather have a national championship that was decided by coaches of the game instead of sportswiters any day.

Why? Coaches can't watch games, and they have no idea what's going on. Bo doesn't even know the names of the best players on the teams we play, why do you think that type of person would be a qualified voter?

 

And the writers are always correct? They had USC picked to win nc this year and ND not even ranked.

You act like nobody had USC being good and the AP went out on a limb ranking them high. Both the AP and Coaches poll had USC and Notre Dame each ranked within 2 spots of themselves on their respective poll, so this argument has absolutely no credibility.

 

What? They had USC at #1 and Notre Dame at like 28th. Maybe I forgot how to

Count.... 1, 2, 28... Yeah that seems about right.

Apparently you don't know what RESPECTIVE means. Coaches had USC #3 and AP had USC at #1. That is a difference of two. Coaches had ND at #24, AP had ND at #26. That is a difference of two. That does seem about right, buddy!! His point was the AP loses credibility because they had USC at #1 and I was stating the that the coaches having them at #3 is virtually no difference and equally bad.

[Mavric]

Just wanted to add that that rose bowl ended controversially too. The way I remember it wsu was driving and they ran nine seconds off the clock when the clock should have been stopped

Not trying to nit-pick but this is a bit of an exaggeration. WaSt got a first down (somewhere around the 25-30 yard line, iirc) with four seconds to go, stopping the clock. They whistled the clock to start and Leaf spiked the ball with two seconds left but the clock didn't stop.

[knapplc]

Just wanted to add that that rose bowl ended controversially too. The way I remember it wsu was driving and they ran nine seconds off the clock when the clock should have been stopped

Not trying to nit-pick but this is a bit of an exaggeration. WaSt got a first down (somewhere around the 25-30 yard line, iirc) with four seconds to go, stopping the clock. They whistled the clock to start and Leaf spiked the ball with two seconds left but the clock didn't stop.

 

If that had been Texas...

[Mavric]

Just wanted to add that that rose bowl ended controversially too. The way I remember it wsu was driving and they ran nine seconds off the clock when the clock should have been stopped

Not trying to nit-pick but this is a bit of an exaggeration. WaSt got a first down (somewhere around the 25-30 yard line, iirc) with four seconds to go, stopping the clock. They whistled the clock to start and Leaf spiked the ball with two seconds left but the clock didn't stop.

 

If that had been Texas...

That's what you get for not having the officiating crew on the payroll.

[MichiganDad3]

Some stats for the argument. I apologize for the format, but I have tried everything and I can't seem to get the format to work. It looks great until I submit the post, then I lose the formatting.

 

Opponent Nebraska Opponent Final Rank Margin

Akron 59 14 45

Central Fla. 38 24 14

Washington 27 14 18 13

Kansas State 56 26 7 30

Baylor 49 21 28

Texas Tech 29 0 29

Kansas* 35 0 35

Oklahoma 69 7 62

Missouri 45 38 23 7

Iowa State 77 14 63

Colorado 27 24 3

Texas A&M* 54 15 21 39

Tennessee** 42 17 8 25

 

Opponent Michigan Opponent FinalRank Margin

Colorado 27 3 24

Baylor 38 3 35

Notre Dame 21 14 7

Indiana 37 0 37

Northwestern 23 6 17

Iowa 28 24 4

Michigan State 23 7 16

Minnesota 24 3 21

Penn State 34 8 17 26

Wisconsin 26 16 10

Ohio State 20 14 12 6

Washington State 21 16 9 5

 

Summary

NU beat 5 top 20 teams by an average margin of 22.8 points and 2 top 10 teams by an average of 27.5 points. For the season NU's victory margin averaged 30.2 points for the season.

 

Michigan beat 3 top 20 teams by an average margin of 12.3 points and 1 top 10 teams by 5 points. For the season Michigan's victory margin averaged 17.3 points for the season.