Coaches rank Ohio State No. 1 and Texas No. 2

No chance. Nebraska wouldn't have scored seven points total against that defense.

 

Are you talking about the same Nebraska team that needed an illegal kick to win in overtime at Mizzou on the same day Michigan trumped No. 3 Penn State 34-8 in Happy Valley? And the same Nebraska team that beat Colorado by three (27-24) when Michigan had already thrashed them by 24 (27-3)?

Oddsmakers listed Miami as double-digit favorites to win both the 1987 (Penn State) and 2003 (Ohio State) Fiesta Bowls for national titles. Ditto the Hurricanes in the 1993 Sugar Bowl (Alabama). We saw what happened in those games.

Point is, we don't know. We won't ever know because they never did play.

 

So how quickly will OU plummet?

 

And Michigan had its share of close calls and not-so-impressive wins also. Iowa (28-24), Notre Dame (21-14), Wisconsin, and even the Rose Bowl against a mediocre Washington State team came down to the final play.

Nebraska, meanwhile, won its conference title game 54-15 over No. 14 Texas A&M and steamrolled No. 3 Tennessee 42-17 in the Orange Bowl . . . a more talented Tennessee team, by the way, than the one that won the national title the next season.

And if Iowa could score 24 against "that defense" . . . then I believe Nebraska could have managed to. Somehow. :

Of course, anything can happen on the field.

I'm just knocking down assertations that Michigan got "robbed" just because another undefeated (and damn good) team got a share of the title.

 

Michigan got "robbed" because it was No. 1 going into the bowls and did nothing to merit losing the spot to Nebraska by beating a top-10 team in the Rose Bowl.

That ran contrast to 1994, when Nebraska stayed No. 1 despite unbeaten Penn State.

 

The point is, if Osborne hadn't announced his retirement, there wouldn't be a split-crown in 1997.

 

I guess I don't see what the big problem is.

I'll say, reluctantly, I think Michigan would have beaten Nebraska in a bowl game. But I would put the odds at 60-40, at best.

All of that being said, Nebraska looked awfully good when it smacked down Tennessee. I don't see a problem with split champions.

 

Exactly. And DyePack, Penn State fans in 1994 would agree with your split champions comment.