1997 Champs? BTN Says Michigan

[Thanks_Tom RR]

Big Ten Conference ‏@bigtenconf 2h

1997 @umichfootball team won the National Championship after going 12-0 & winning @rosebowlgame. #ThrowbackThursday pic.twitter.com/3wwxoRhr6h

 

Husker Nation's collective response...

BTN Stock in my book...

 

Hey, BTN, it reads University of Nebraska...

[74Hunter]

I'm not sure how you can claim national championship without playing in the national championship game.

[Redux]

Um no, but thanks for playing BTN. Sorry your legendary Woverines were to chikenshat to play us heads up and prove they were clearly second best.

[HUSKER FREAK]

Didn't the B1G back then puss out of playing a title game?

[jsneb83]

Didn't the B1G back then puss out of playing a title game?

Yes, cause they wanted to play in their coveted Rose Bowl

[Creighton Duke]

I try to NOT be a homer about most things, but this is so off. Nebraska would have beaten Michigan by at least 2 TDs that year

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Nebraska_Cornhuskers_football_team Mizzou and CU were close

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Michigan_Wolverines_football_team like half of their games were close (and almost lost the bowl game)

 

No comparison

[JJ Husker]

OMG, not this BS again..........

 

No, no, no Michigan.....just NO.

Hell, Tennessee was better than Michigan and we saw what happened to them. Well we saw it because, unlike Michigan, they at least had the balls to get on the same field with us. This is what happens when you cling to an inferior bowl game.

[Guy Chamberlin]

But...but....Michigan defeated the great Ryan Leaf!

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Sorry Michigan and B1G, we won it, simple as that, move the F on!

[Guy Chamberlin]

Sorry Michigan and B1G, we won it, simple as that, move the F on!

 

(technically it WAS a split title. No reason for them not to hold up the AP trophy)

[whateveritis1224]

I'd like to point out one thing, while we are in the Big 10 now, the '97 championship was won while we were in the Big XII and Michigan was in the Big 10.

 

I can see where they're coming from, but Michigan would not have beaten us that year.

[NUance]

I'm not sure how you can claim national championship without playing in the national championship game.

 

Or even finishing the game they did play in.

 

With 2 seconds to play the clock was stopped to move the chains. With no timeouts left, Leaf spiked the football, but although there appeared to be 1 second remaining on the clock, Dick Burleson, the referee from the Southeastern Conference crew, shook his head as Leaf contested the decision. LINK

 

 

Wazzu clearly should've had one more shot at the end-zone. But all the Meechicken fans rushed the field so the refs called it.

[knapplc]

I invite anyone from the Big Ten head office, Jim Delaney himself, to come out to Chez Knapp for a discussion on this one. I'll provide the beer & chips, they just gotta show up. Give me 30 minutes and we'll put a stop to this nonsense.

 

I get that we weren't Big Ten members in 1997, and Michigan is one of the foundational pillars of the conference. That's great.

 

But right's right and wrong's a shitass, as my grandfather used to say.

 

The facts, gleaned from past conversations about this very topic:

 

---

 

Jeff Sagarin's final 1997 rankings had Nebraska at #1, followed by 11-1 Florida St. at #2, 10-2 Florida at #3 and 12-0 Michigan at #4.

 

Nebraska and Michigan played roughly the same strength of schedule in Sagarin's rankings, but we throttled Sagarin's #5 Tennessee while Michigan barely beat #8 Wazzoo.

 

---

 

It's pretty simple. Nebraska played the #3 team in the country, Tennessee, with Peyton Manning, Peerless Price, Terry Fair, Jamal Lewis and Trey Teague, and a host of other future NFL stars on their roster.

 

We destroyed them.

 

The Big Ten ducked out of the national championship game - 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 Washington State roster. And Michigan barely 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.

 

---

 

The 1998 Rose Bowl - the one in which Michigan won their "National Championship," didn't even end without controversy. Leaf was driving Washington State down for a final throw into the end zone, the ball was placed at the Michigan 26 yard line, and Leaf got the team to the line to kill the clock.

 

In some bizarre clock fiasco, Leaf's spike took the full two seconds - a near impossibility - and the game was declared over.

 

 

Let's contrast that to the 1998 Orange Bowl against that crazy-talented Tennessee team, which was all-but-decided at halftime (we had an 11-point lead) and was FOR SURE over midway through the third quarter when we scored 14 more. Manning got his token touchdown in the third quarter, and got pulled when we put the game away with a third TD in the quarter.

 

---

 

That's what pissed me off so much about the candy-asses in the Big Ten back in the 1990s. Their damned Rose Bowl was SOOOOO important that they couldn't join the Bowl Coalition, so that aural vomit purveyor Howard didn't get the chance to prove on the field they had earned their 1997 National Championship.

 

Because I will guara-and-GODDAM-tee you that Woodson would have filled once, maybe twice, on the Option before developing an injury or simply being in "the wrong position" the rest of the game.

 

That skinny runt wouldn't have fared well trying to tackle Ahman Green. Green puts a shoulder into him once and that's the last tackle Woodson would have made that game. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he would have tried to tackle Frost twice before giving up.

 

He gets half a share of a "National Championship" and Michigan gets a nice little High School shop class quality wooden plaque for ducking the Huskers and cowering off to the Rose Bowl. And he and they are welcome to it.

 

We'll take our Sears trophy and our crystal football.

 

You know, the REAL trophy.

 

 

It's one of these. Sorry, we have so many I forget which one was for 1997.

[NebraskaShellback]

The following year, the Rose Bowl was included in the Championship Series.

[NebraskaShellback]

I invite anyone from the Big Ten head office, Jim Delaney himself, to come out to Chez Knapp for a discussion on this one. I'll provide the beer & chips, they just gotta show up. Give me 30 minutes and we'll put a stop to this nonsense.

 

I get that we weren't Big Ten members in 1997, and Michigan is one of the foundational pillars of the conference. That's great.

 

But right's right and wrong's a shitass, as my grandfather used to say.

 

The facts, gleaned from past conversations about this very topic:

 

---

 

Jeff Sagarin's final 1997 rankings had Nebraska at #1, followed by 11-1 Florida St. at #2, 10-2 Florida at #3 and 12-0 Michigan at #4.

 

Nebraska and Michigan played roughly the same strength of schedule in Sagarin's rankings, but we throttled Sagarin's #5 Tennessee while Michigan barely beat #8 Wazzoo.

 

---

 

It's pretty simple. Nebraska played the #3 team in the country, Tennessee, with Peyton Manning, Peerless Price, Terry Fair, Jamal Lewis and Trey Teague, and a host of other future NFL stars on their roster.

 

We destroyed them.

 

The Big Ten ducked out of the national championship game - 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 Washington State roster. And Michigan barely 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.

 

---

 

The 1998 Rose Bowl - the one in which Michigan won their "National Championship," didn't even end without controversy. Leaf was driving Washington State down for a final throw into the end zone, the ball was placed at the Michigan 26 yard line, and Leaf got the team to the line to kill the clock.

 

In some bizarre clock fiasco, Leaf's spike took the full two seconds - a near impossibility - and the game was declared over.

 

 

Let's contrast that to the 1998 Orange Bowl against that crazy-talented Tennessee team, which was all-but-decided at halftime (we had an 11-point lead) and was FOR SURE over midway through the third quarter when we scored 14 more. Manning got his token touchdown in the third quarter, and got pulled when we put the game away with a third TD in the quarter.

 

---

 

That's what pissed me off so much about the candy-asses in the Big Ten back in the 1990s. Their damned Rose Bowl was SOOOOO important that they couldn't join the Bowl Coalition, so that aural vomit purveyor Howard didn't get the chance to prove on the field they had earned their 1997 National Championship.

 

Because I will guara-and-GODDAM-tee you that Woodson would have filled once, maybe twice, on the Option before developing an injury or simply being in "the wrong position" the rest of the game.

 

That skinny runt wouldn't have fared well trying to tackle Ahman Green. Green puts a shoulder into him once and that's the last tackle Woodson would have made that game. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he would have tried to tackle Frost twice before giving up.

 

He gets half a share of a "National Championship" and Michigan gets a nice little High School shop class quality wooden plaque for ducking the Huskers and cowering off to the Rose Bowl. And he and they are welcome to it.

 

We'll take our Sears trophy and our crystal football.

 

You know, the REAL trophy.

 

 

It's one of these. Sorry, we have so many I forget which one was for 1997.

Said it better than I would of.....+10