Attention Northwestern Fans: Cancel Your Rose Bowl Tickets

The ranking, the undefeated season and the respect all were gone. After two heady weeks near the top of the college football world, Northwestern was back in a more familiar position.

Beaten.

The latest embarrassment came Saturday - just one game after a supposed watershed victory at Notre Dame - as Northwestern (1-1) blew a 21-point fourth-quarter lead and lost 30-28 to Miami of Ohio (2-1).

Chad Seitz made a 20-yard field goal on the final play after a botched snap in punt formation gave Miami (1-1) the ball at the 1-yard line with 43 seconds left.

“I feel bad for our students and our fans because we created a bandwagon and everybody jumped on,” Northwestern coach Gary Barnett said. “Now things seem to be teflon-coated and sliding right off. We’ve got work to do. We lost our focus. They outhustled us, outhit us, outcoached us, outplayed us.

“This is about as low as it gets.”

The stunning victory over Notre Dame two weeks ago earned Northwestern its first national ranking since the final poll of 1971.

But the loss to a Mid-American Conference team - and a 17-point underdog - made both the Irish result and the ranking look like flukes.