1997 Champs? BTN Says Michigan

[EbylHusker]

I see BTN has been infected with the stupid. So much stupid it burns.

[Redux]

can we fax Knapps dosage of truth to BTN headquarters and see if they have the balls to read it

[Warrior10]

[Count 'Bility]

Jesus knapp. Did you type that all out again or do you have it saved for an easy copy-paste? Cuz i swear ive read that exact word for word commentary from you at leadt 8 times now.

[knapplc]

That apostrophe must be blocking your vision.

 

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

[The Dude]

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:

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

I . . . agree.

[KazLong]

[Kernal]

Because college football is enamored with bowl games and money, rather than the athletes and sports, NU didn't play UM in 97. I think NU would have won, but there's nothing wrong with both teams claiming the National Championship.

 

I'm less concerned about 1997 and more concerned about 2014. BTN can run the 97 Michigan photo all they want as long as we get the next Championship!

[hskerprid]

Ohio state averaged 5yds per carry vs Meechicken. NU was the number 1 ranked rushing offense that year and UM would of beaten NU.........ya right.

[southernoregonhusker]

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

 

And the game still isn't over. There are eight seconds left.

[southernoregonhusker]

 

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

 

And the game still isn't over. There are eight seconds left.

 

Oh, I see it's been covered already

[beanman]

Just to add onto this thread:

 

1997 Michigan vs. 1997 Nebraska - Who would have won?

In 12 games 97 Michigan scored an avg. 26.83 against an avg. 9.5, 14.33 avg. margin of Victory.

In 13 games 97 NU scored an avg. 46.69 against an avg. 16.46, 30.23 avg. margin of Victory.

NU Season Overview:

NU played 6 ranked opponents(final AP ranking): #7, 8, 18, 20, 23, 24 and in our bowl game beat a Tennessee team loaded with talent(Payton Manning, Jamal Lewis, Chad Clifton, Shaun Ellis, Leonard Little, etc.) by a score of 42-17 with 7 of those points coming against our scrubs on Tennessee's last possession of the game. Tennessee went on to win the national title the following season.

The Big 12 finished 2-3 in bowl games that season. NU's opponents scored an average of 8.8 pts through 3 quarters and when our scrubs got into the game the opponents averaged an average of 7.34 points in the 4th quarter.

Michigan Season Overview:

Michigan played 3 ranked opponents(final AP ranking): #9, 12, 15 and escaped with a 21-16 victory in their bowl game despite being out-gained in yardage by perennial powerhouse Washington State. Keep in mind that Washington State failed to win a conference game the following season.

The Big 10 finished 2-5 in bowl games that season. I could find no stats on opponents scoring breakdown by quarter, but I'd guess that given the relatively small average margin of victory Michigan's starters were probably playing most of the 4th quarter in the majority of their games thus skewing their defensive statistics a bit if comparing to Nebraska's.

[jaws]

I don't know what is funnier, seeing Michigan and Nebraska fans get bent out of shape about this or seeing their respective fan bases wishing it was still 1997..the last time both schools had great teams.

 

 

[quickly takes cover]

[knapplc]

^^^^

The two bold sections in beanman's post up there are compelling arguments. I knew Tennessee won the National Championship in 1998 (just like Spurrier's Florida team won in 1996 when we were reloading), but I had no idea Washington didn't even win a conference game in 1998.



Michigan has claim to the Pac-10/Big Ten 1997 championship. Nebraska stood tall and said, "Bring on all challengers from across college football. We'll play them and decide it on the field." The best team - aside from Nebraska - in the land took that challenge, in the midst of their conference's boundaries, and we whooped 'em. Whooped 'em real good.



Think about this. How bad would Nebraska have beaten Washington State if we'd have played in the Rose Bowl? WAY worse than we beat Tennessee, guaranteed.

But if Michigan had played Tennessee, does Michigan beat that team? I don't think so, and I don't think it would have been all that close. Tennessee by ten points, maybe two TDs.

[knapplc]

I don't know what is funnier, seeing Michigan and Nebraska fans get bent out of shape about this or seeing their respective fan bases wishing it was still 1997..the last time both schools had great teams.

Michigan Fan probably takes comfort in knowing that, no matter what, they have scoreboard on you for that year.

 

And Ohio Fan can take comfort in the fact that they didn't have to face Nebraska that year, because the beating would have been worse than what they got from TSUN.