Alliance Meets Its Goal: No. 1 Vs. No. 2 For Title
The much-maligned bowl alliance worked perfectly in its rookie season.
The system was supposed to produce a national championship game, and that’s what it did.
Top-ranked Nebraska (11-0) and No. 2 Florida (12-0) will play for the title Jan. 2 in the Fiesta Bowl. The winner of the game between the nation’s only undefeated, untied teams will be the undisputed champ of college football.
“It’s as close to a playoff as we can get,” Florida coach Steve Spurrier said Sunday night on CBS’ bowl selection show. “It worked out this year that the two undefeated teams are going to play in the Fiesta Bowl. We’re excited to be one of them.”
The Nebraska-Florida matchup would have been impossible under the old system of conference tie-ins. Nebraska would have gone to the Orange Bowl as the Big Eight champion and Florida would have gone to the Sugar Bowl as the Southeastern Conference winner.
Now, except for the Rose Bowl’s agreement with the Pac-10 and Big Ten, league champions are free to play each other in the FiestaOrange-Sugar bowl alliance.
“In the absence of a playoff, this is certainly the best thing we can do for college football,” Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said.
The Fiesta Bowl’s dream game became a reality Saturday night when Florida beat Arkansas 34-3 for the SEC championship. Florida is seeking its first national title, while Nebraska is trying to become the first team to win consecutive championships since Alabama did it in 1978-79.
“It’s going to be one of the megagames of all time,” Fiesta Bowl executive director John Junker said.
The Orange and Sugar bowls also made their selections on the CBS telecast. The Orange took No. 6 Notre Dame (9-2) and No. 8 Florida State (9-2), while the Sugar got No. 9 Texas (10-1-1) and No. 13 Virginia Tech (9-2).
The Fiesta features the 11th bowl showdown between No. 1 and No. 2. The most recent was No. 1 Florida State’s 18-16 victory over No. 2 Nebraska in the 1994 Orange Bowl.
That was Nebraska’s last loss. The Cornhuskers have won 24 in a row and need one more win to become the first team to win two straight national titles with perfect records since Oklahoma in 1955-56.
The Fiesta Bowl will be a game of contrasts: Florida’s high-tech “Fun ‘N Gun” passing show vs. Nebraska’s ground-and-pound option attack, outspoken Spurrier vs. lowkey Osborne, and Danny Wuerffel’s pinpoint passes vs. Tommie Frazier’s elusive runs.
“I don’t think Nebraska is more physical than us,” Florida safety Lawrence Wright said. “We’re not scared of anybody.”
Nebraska tight end Mark Gilman said the Huskers are more versatile than most people think.
“We often get stereotyped as a running team only, but that doesn’t mean we can’t catch the ball, too,” he said.
Wuerffel threw for 276 yards and two touchdowns against Arkansas and finished the season with the highest pass efficiency rating in NCAA history. Now he must wait until Saturday to find out if that was enough to beat out Frazier and Ohio State’s Eddie George for the Heisman Trophy.
Spurrier, who gets to vote as a former Heisman winner, cast his ballot for Wuerffel.
“Danny has been one of the most outstanding passers in the history of college football,” he said.
Frazier, 32-3 as a starter, also got a plug from his coach on national television.
“If you picked one player in college football that maybe has had more impact on more football games over his career, you’d really have a very difficult time finding anybody who’s done more things,” Osborne said.
Texas earned an alliance berth by beating No. 19 Texas A&M 16-6 Saturday for the final Southwest Conference championship. The 81-year-old league is disbanding, and both schools are joining the new Big 12 Conference.
“The SWC era is over and I’ll have fond memories of the good times and the good friends,” Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum said.
It’s been the best of times for No. 3 Northwestern (10-1), which will play No. 17 Southern Cal (8-2-1) in the Rose Bowl. Northwestern’s only other postseason game was the 1949 Rose Bowl, where the Wildcats beat California 20-14.