What If There Had Been a Four-Team Playoff Since 1988?

[TonyStalloni]

The mid 90s were awesome.   90-91-92 were pretty forgettable other than Tommie in 1992 and the we-backs.    Pretty comparable to the Pelini years.   

The thing about our mid-nineties run is that nobody realized how good the team was until the season was over.   93 had a lot of close games and it didn't look like we stood a chance against FSU.   94 was probably the most fun during the year.  95 was a weird deal, nobody realized how good we were in reality because of the distractions.   96 had some down moments and distractions like 95 did.   97 had moments of greatness and moments of feeling like it was only a matter of time before someone bested us.    I don't want to say any of what we think about that run is revisionist history,  because it's not.   It's just that in each season there was still the feeling that it wasn't going to end in a title.   

I think that in the midst of one of the greatest runs in college football, we still had doubts because for 11 or 12 years the road to the Big 8 championship went through Norman Oklahoma and the Sooners.  They were a hurdle we rarely could get over.....till we did.  Then when we finally became the king of the Big 8 on a regular basis, we ran into the Goliath that was the Fla St/ Miami winner and had to play on their home turf and in Miami's case it was their home field.  Every Jan 1 they gave us a wedgie and stole our lunch money.  People in Nebraska were beginning to think we would never win another bowl game and doubted Tom O could win the big one.  In 93 and 94 Nebraska's players had a feeling they could compete with Fla speed but the Husker fans still in the back of our mind....mine too....felt we might be in over our heads again.  93 was the year little brother grew up vs Fla St and the rest is history.  96 and 97 we were in a way our own worst enemy and team leadership let us down till in mid 97 a few of the guys stood up and said enough.  If anyone else gets in trouble you are gone, no questions asked.

 

[GBRFAN]

The records between these two teams were near 50/50 both teams had a decade of near dominance - i know they broke NU's hearts on multiple occasions, however NU did the same to OU.

 

[Crazyhole]

I wish they'd gone back further.... I'd love to see the 1981-84 period especially.

1981: The Nebraska-Clemson Orange Bowl would have been a semi-final; the other game would have been.... wait for it.... Georgia vs Alabama

1982: #1 Georgia vs #4 SMU and #2 Penn State vs. #3 Nebraska. Oh baby, if only.

1983: #1 Nebraska vs. #4 Georgia, #2 Texas vs #3 Auburn. Miami doesn't even sniff this conversation and history could be a lot different...

1984: This is an interesting one, because #3 Florida didn't play in a bowl game, presumably due to some kind of probation. Nebraska's pre-bowl ranking was #5, so I wonder if we somehow get in as the fourth spot. In this case, we would have played BYU, and Oklahoma would have played Washington (which they did in the actual Orange Bowl that year)

It isn't totally out of the realm of possibility that we would have won 3 straight titles from 82 to 84.  

 

[r06ue1]

Always wished that we could have stomped on Michigan in '97 and Penn State in '94.  

 

[TonyStalloni]

It isn't totally out of the realm of possibility that we would have won 3 straight titles from 82 to 84.  

And 5 straight titles from 93,94,95,96 and 97.  It blows my mind how many more chances there were.  Wasn't 82 the year we played PSU there and the field was irregularly shaped?  And if we had won in 82,83 and 84 how would that have changed recruiting on into the late 80's and early 90's?