The 1994 NCAA Division I-A football season, play of college football in the United States at the NCAA Division I-A level, began in August 1994 and ended on January 2, 1995. Nebraska, who finished the season undefeated, ended the year ranked No. 1 in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls. This was the first national championship of coach Tom Osborne's career at Nebraska, having come close the year before, when Nebraska lost to eventual national champion Florida State on a missed field goal as time expired.
Although Osborne's team finished the season unbeaten, the national championship picture again was engulfed in controversy. For much of the second half of the season, Nebraska and Penn State were regarded as the top two teams in the country. This raised the possibility of a split national championship for the third time since 1990, due in large part to the system in place that had been concocted to avoid a split title.
Following the 1991 season, where Miami and Washington split the national championship in the AP and Coaches' polls, the Bowl Coalition was founded. The Coalition consisted of six bowls, with the Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, and Sugar bowls were all considered potential hosts for a national championship game. Since three of these bowls already had specific tie-ins with conferences, an agreement was struck where the conferences would agree to release those teams from their contractual obligations in order to achieve a No. 1 vs No. 2 matchup. For the first two years of the Coalition, this occurred without incident as the Sugar and Orange Bowls in 1993 and 1994 featured No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchups in their respective games.
The problem with this as far as 1994 was concerned was that the Rose Bowl, which featured the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions playing each other, was not included in the Coalition and thus a team that finished No. 1 or No. 2 in the polls from those two conferences could not be considered by the Coalition to be its national champion. Nebraska, as a member of the Big Eight Conference, was part of the coalition while Penn State was not. As Nebraska went on to win the conference title, it earned an automatic bid to the Orange Bowl to face off against No. 3 Miami, who won the Big East title and was No. 2 in the Coalition pool. Thus Miami, who as recently as two years earlier was in the Coalition championship game, had a chance to stake a claim as the national champion with a win (as they would have been awarded the Coaches' Trophy) and all but ensure a split title with Penn State provided they defeated No. 13 Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
On January 1, 1995, Nebraska defeated Miami in the Orange Bowl 24–17 and clinched the championship. The next day Penn State defeated Oregon in the Rose Bowl by a count of 38–20 and secured the No. 2 spot in the polls.
In the offseason that followed, the Bowl Coalition was disbanded and in its place came the Bowl Alliance, which attempted to serve the same purpose by rotating a national championship game between the Sugar, Fiesta, and Orange Bowls. Like the Bowl Coalition before it, the Bowl Alliance did not include the Rose Bowl and two of the three national championship games did not feature a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, with the 1997 season seeing another split national championship.
In February 1994, before the season began, an announcement was made regarding the future of the Southwest Conference. In 1991, the SWC became an all-Texas conference as Arkansas left the SWC to join the Southeastern Conference. As 1994 began Texas was rumored to be considering joining the Pac-10 with Big Eight member Colorado (rumors that would resurface over a decade later, which eventually resulted in Colorado joining the Pac-10 with Utah to form the Pac-12), while Texas A&M was reported to be looking at joining the SEC (which they would eventually do in 2012). On February 25, 1994, it was announced that Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Baylor would be joining with all eight of the teams in the Big Eight to form the Big 12 Conference, in 1996. Following this decision, another decision was made regarding the future of remaining SWC members SMU, Houston, TCU, and Rice; SMU, TCU, and Rice would join the Western Athletic Conference while Houston joined Conference USA. (TCU, SMU, and Rice all eventually became part of Conference USA as well, with TCU being the first to join while the other three schools joined as part of the 2005 conference realignment. TCU left for the Mountain West Conference in 2005 and eventually joined their former SWC brethren in the Big 12, while SMU and Houston became part of the American Athletic Conference in 2013 with the former Big East football schools that were still in the conference. Rice joined the AAC in 2023. Houston would eventually accept an invite to the Big 12, joining the conference for the 2023 season, and SMU would join the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024.)
McNair's nomination as a finalist was a rare feat, as Alcorn State was a member of Division I-AA and I-AA awarded the Walter Payton Award to its most outstanding player (which McNair won).
Notable games
The Miracle at Michigan: in a September 24 matchup between No. 4 Michigan and No. 7 Colorado, the visiting Buffaloes trailed the host Wolverines 26–14 with 2:16 remaining in the game. Colorado scored two touchdowns in the final minutes, the last being a 64–yard pass from Kordell Stewart to Michael Westbrook on the last play of the game.
Choke at Doak: In the annual matchup between Florida and Florida State, the visiting Gators led the defending national champion Seminoles 31–3 entering the fourth quarter. Florida State rallied to score four touchdowns in the final period, but ran out of time to potentially score the winning points on their last possession and the game ended in a 31–31 tie.
Penn State-Indiana: Despite beating No. 21 Ohio State 63–14 in Happy Valley on October 29, Penn State surprisingly dropped to No. 2 in the subsequent AP poll after No. 3 Nebraska defeated No. 2 Colorado 24–7. The Nittany Lions remained No. 1 in the CNN/USA Today Coaches poll by a small margin. Penn State traveled to Indiana for their next game and took a comfortable 35–14 lead in the fourth quarter. Penn State coach Joe Paterno elected to pull his starters with the lead, which allowed Indiana to score two touchdowns late in the game including a deflected Hail Mary and two-point conversion with no time on the clock. Penn State won 35–29, but fell further behind Nebraska in the AP poll and dropped to No. 2 in the CNN/USA Today coaches poll as well. The Indiana game is often cited erroneously as the single point at which Nebraska passed Penn State, but the reality is that the Nittany Lions fell to No. 2 in the AP poll a week prior to that game.[3][4]
Although Nebraska, Penn State and Alabama were still ranked in the Top 10, many of college football's legendary[citation needed] teams finished the regular season with their lowest rankings in years. Ohio State finished the season ranked 14th in the AP poll while Michigan was No. 20 and USC No. 21. Notre Dame, which started the season ranked fourth, finished the season unranked as did preseason No. 16 Oklahoma.
Rule changes
Due to several fighting incidents that occurred during the 1993 season (including one between the Miami Hurricanes and the Colorado Buffaloes that resulted in 12 ejections), the following changes were made:
Players involved in fighting on the field will draw a 15-yard penalty and an automatic ejection. If the ejection occurs in the first half, the player(s) will be disqualified for the remainder of the game. If the ejection occurs in the second half (or in overtime as of the 1996 season), the player(s) will be disqualified for the remainder of that game plus the first half of his team's next regularly scheduled game.
Players leaving the bench to participate in fights will be ejected for the remainder of the game plus his team's entire next regularly scheduled game.
Repeat offenders will be ejected and suspended for the remainder of the season.
The officials' jurisdiction over games will begin 60 minutes before kickoff. Any pre-game fights or taunting will be penalized the same as if the fight/taunting occurred during the game, with any yardage penalties enforced on the opening kickoff. The officials' jurisdiction was extended to 90 minutes before kickoff starting with the 2020 season.
The prohibition against the use of two-post goalposts is deleted, reversing a 1985 rule. LSU was allowed by the NCAA to place goals with two posts in Tiger Stadium late in the 1993 season in conjunction with its football centennial. Florida State and Washington State quickly followed suit.
The use of officials from different conferences ("split crews") was outlawed, except for game contracts signed before January 1, 1994. The NCAA extended the ban to all games before the 1998 season.
Regular Season
August–September
The top five of the preseason AP Poll were No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Florida State, No. 4 Nebraska, and No. 5 Michigan. There was something of a lack of consensus at the top as each of the top four teams received at least ten first-place votes, with fourth-place Nebraska getting the most such votes.
August 28: No. 4 Nebraska shut out No. 24 West Virginia 31-0 in the Kickoff Classic. The other top teams had not begun their schedules, and the Cornhuskers moved up in the next poll: No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Florida State, and No. 5 Michigan.
September 3: No. 1 Florida overwhelmed New Mexico State 70-21. No. 2 Nebraska was idle. No. 3 Notre Dame won 42-15 at Northwestern, and No. 4 Florida State beat Virginia 41-17. No. 5 Michigan defeated Boston College 34-26, but No. 6 Miami shut out Georgia Southern 56-0 and moved ahead of the Wolverines in the next poll. The voters also made a change at the top: No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Florida State, and No. 5 Miami.
September 8–10: No. 1 Nebraska won 42-16 at Texas Tech while No. 2 Florida blew out Kentucky 73-7, leading the two teams to switch places again. After coming back to take the lead with less than a minute to play, No. 3 Notre Dame lost 26-24 to No. 6 Michigan on a field goal with two seconds left. No. 4 Florida State won 52-20 at Maryland, and No. 5 Miami defeated Arizona State 47-10. The next poll featured No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Florida State, No. 4 Michigan, and No. 5 Miami.
September 17: No. 1 Florida visited No. 15 Tennessee and shut the Volunteers out 31-0, No. 2 Nebraska defeated No. 13 UCLA 49-21, and No. 3 Florida State won 56-14 at Wake Forest. No. 4 Michigan and No. 5 Miami were idle. No. 6 Penn State beat Iowa 61-21 and moved up in the next poll: No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Florida State, No. 4 Michigan, and No. 5 Penn State.
September 24: No. 1 Florida was idle. No. 2 Nebraska defeated Pacific 70-21, but the Cornhuskers’ star quarterback Tommie Frazier was sidelined for the rest of the regular season with blood clots in his calf. No. 3 Florida State beat No. 13 North Carolina 31-18. In the “Miracle at Michigan,” No. 7 Colorado won 27-26 over No. 4 Michigan thanks to Kordell Stewart’s 64-yard Hail Mary for a touchdown as time expired. No. 5 Penn State was a 55-27 winner over Rutgers. The next poll featured No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Florida State, No. 4 Penn State, and No. 5 Colorado.
October
October 1: No. 1 Florida won 38-14 at Mississippi. With Brook Berringer taking over the quarterback duties from Frazier, No. 2 Nebraska got off to a slow start against Wyoming but came back for a 42-32 victory. No. 3 Florida State was idle. No. 4 Penn State visited Temple for a 48-21 win. No. 5 Colorado pulled off a buzzer-beating play for the second week in a row, this time beating No. 16 Texas 34-31 on a field goal as time expired. The top five remained the same in the next poll.
October 8: No. 1 Florida defeated LSU 42-18, and No. 2 Nebraska opened Big 8 play with a 32-3 win over Oklahoma State. No. 3 Florida State visited No. 13 Miami with an unlucky result, as the Seminoles committed five turnovers on the way to a 34-20 loss. No. 4 Penn State was idle. No. 5 Colorado beat Missouri 38-23, and No. 7 Michigan won 40-20 over Michigan State. The next poll featured No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Penn State, No. 4 Colorado, and No. 5 Michigan.
October 15: No. 1 Florida was upset 36-33 by No. 6 Auburn, who capitalized on a late interception to score the game-winning touchdown with 30 seconds left; it was the Gators’ first home loss to a conference opponent in coach Steve Spurrier’s five years with the team. No. 2 Nebraska defeated No. 16 Kansas State 17-6, No. 3 Penn State won a back-and-forth 31-24 matchup with No. 5 Michigan, and No. 4 Colorado beat No. 22 Oklahoma 45-7. The AP voters reshuffled the top teams in the next poll: No. 1 Penn State, No. 2 Colorado, No. 3 Nebraska, No. 4 Auburn, and No. 5 Florida.
October 22: No. 1 Penn State, No. 4 Auburn, and No. 5 Florida were all idle. No. 2 Colorado defeated No. 19 Kansas State 35-21, and No. 3 Nebraska won 42-7 at Missouri. The top five remained the same in the next poll.
October 29: No. 1 Penn State blew out No. 21 Ohio State 63-14, but the AP voters were more impressed by the performance of No. 3 Nebraska, who took control of the Big 8 race with a 24-7 defeat of No. 2 Colorado. No. 4 Auburn beat Arkansas 31-14, No. 5 Florida defeated Georgia 52-14, and No. 6 Miami won 24-3 over No. 13 Virginia Tech. The top five in the next AP Poll were No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Auburn, No. 4 Florida, and No. 5 Miami. Penn State remained at No. 1 in the Coaches Poll.
November–December
November 5: No. 1 Nebraska defeated Kansas 45-17. No. 2 Penn State held a 35-14 lead over Indiana midway through the fourth quarter, but the Hoosiers mounted a comeback and cut the final margin to 35-29. No. 3 Auburn beat East Carolina 38-21, No. 4 Florida defeated Southern Mississippi 55-17, and No. 5 Miami won 27-6 at No. 10 Syracuse. The top five remained the same in the AP Poll, and Nebraska took over first place in the Coaches Poll as well.
November 12: No. 1 Nebraska won 28-12 at Iowa State to clinch the Big 8 title and an Orange Bowl berth. No. 2 Penn State had another close call in their game at Illinois. This time the Nittany Lions were the ones who faced a big deficit, trailing 21-0 at the end of the first quarter, but they mounted a comeback for a 35-31 victory which earned them the Big Ten championship and a spot in the Rose Bowl. No. 3 Auburn brought a 20-game winning streak into their game against Georgia, but the Tigers missed a last-second field goal and had to settle for a 23-23 tie. No. 4 Florida beat South Carolina 48-17 to clinch the SEC Western Division title. No. 5 Miami defeated Pittsburgh 17-12, while No. 6 Alabama won 29-25 at No. 20 Mississippi State. The top five in the next poll were No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 5 Miami.
November 19: No. 1 Nebraska was idle. No. 2 Penn State defeated Northwestern 45-17, and No. 3 Florida won 24-7 at Vanderbilt. No. 4 Alabama and No. 6 Auburn squared off in a battle for the SEC Eastern Division championship. Alabama was already assured of a spot in the SEC Championship Game because Auburn was barred from postseason play due to NCAA violations, and the Crimson Tide won the division title outright with a 21-14 triumph. No. 5 Miami beat Temple 38-14. The top five in the next poll were No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Florida, and No. 5 Miami.
November 25–26: No. 1 Nebraska won a defensive struggle against Oklahoma, 13-3, while No. 2 Penn State prevailed in a 59-31 shootout against Michigan State. No. 3 Alabama had finished their regular-season schedule. In the “Choke at Doak,” No. 4 Florida entered the fourth quarter with a 31-3 lead over No. 7 Florida State, but the Seminoles scored 28 unanswered points (tying an NCAA record for the biggest fourth-quarter comeback of all time) to salvage a 31-31 tie. No. 5 Miami beat No. 25 Boston College 23-7. No. 6 Colorado had finished their schedule, but the Buffaloes still moved up in the next poll: No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Miami, and No. 5 Colorado.
December 3:The third annual SEC Championship Game featured the same teams as the first two, with undefeated No. 3 Alabama facing off against No. 6 Florida. The Crimson Tide had won in 1992 and the Gators prevailed in 1993, and the rubber match was a very close game. Alabama held a 23-17 lead in the fourth quarter, but Danny Wuerffel threw a touchdown pass to put Florida back up by a point, and the Gators closed out the game with an interception on Alabama’s final drive. The final AP poll of the regular season featured No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Miami, No. 4 Colorado, and No. 5 Florida.
Alabama’s loss in the SEC title game left Nebraska and Penn State as the only undefeated and untied teams in the nation. However, since they were the Big Ten champions, the Nittany Lions were required to play in the Rose Bowl against the Pac-10 winner, No. 12 Oregon. Therefore, Nebraska’s opponent in the Orange Bowl would be third-ranked Miami. The other major bowls included a rematch between Florida and No. 7 Florida State in the Sugar Bowl and Colorado against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. No. 8 Texas A&M finished with a 10-0-1 record and easily won the SWC title, but the Aggies were on probation and ineligible for postseason play. Texas Tech, who finished in a five-way tie for second place and sported a less-impressive 6-5 record, replaced A&M in the Cotton Bowl against No. 21 USC.
The Bowl Coalition did not include the Big 10 and Pacific-10 conferences, whose champions played in the Rose Bowl. Penn State, which was ranked No. 1 in the Oct 18 and Oct 25 polls, and No. 2 for the remainder of the season, finished the regular season 11–0–0 and played in the Rose Bowl as the champion of the Big Ten.
The 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with a split national championship and the ensuing controversy helped lead to the creation of the Bowl Coalition, a precursor to the Bowl Championship Series. The national title was split between the Colorado Buffaloes and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The Buffaloes (11–1–1) took the AP poll while the Yellow Jackets (11–0–1) took the UPI Coaches poll by one vote over Colorado, 847 to 846. During the season Colorado had a particularly controversial victory over Missouri in what would later be known as the "Fifth Down Game". It was the only time in UPI Coaches poll history that a coach changed his vote against the pre-bowl #1 after that #1 team won their bowl game. Unlike several seasons to come in the 1990s, the two teams that became split national champions could have actually met in a 1 vs. 2 bowl game. Georgia Tech's ACC champion status did not preclude them from taking their #2 ranking to the Orange Bowl to face the automatic Big-8 champion in #1 Colorado for a decisive title game. But the Orange Bowl committee wanted Notre Dame instead of Georgia Tech as the Buffaloes' opponent, because Notre Dame had a larger fan base and would accrue more money and better TV ratings than the Yellow Jackets would have.
The 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with Miami winning its third National Championship during the 1980s, cementing its claim as the decade's top team, winning more titles than any other program.
The 1991 NCAA Division I-A football season was the main college football season sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The season began on August 28, 1991, and ended on January 1, 1992. For the second consecutive season, there was a split national championship. Both the Miami Hurricanes and the Washington Huskies finished the season undefeated (12–0) and with the top ranking in a nationally recognized poll.
The 1992 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first year of the Bowl Coalition and concluded with Alabama's first national championship in thirteen years—their first since the departure of Bear Bryant. One of Bryant's former players, Gene Stallings, was the head coach, and he used a style similar to Bryant's, a smashmouth running game combined with a tough defense.
The 1993 NCAA Division I-A football season saw Florida State crowned national champions, in both the AP and Coaches poll.
The 1995 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first year of the Bowl Alliance.
The 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the Florida Gators being crowned National Champions after defeating rival Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, which was the season's designated Bowl Alliance national championship game. Florida had faced Florida State earlier in the year, when they were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, and lost 24–21. However, unranked Texas's upset of No. 3 Nebraska in the first ever Big 12 Championship Game set up the rematch of in-state rivals in New Orleans. In the Sugar Bowl, Florida's Heisman Trophy-winning senior quarterback Danny Wuerffel and head coach Steve Spurrier led the Gators to a 52–20 victory and their first national championship.
The 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season, play of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-A level, began in late summer 1997 and culminated with the major bowl games in early January 1998. The national championship was split for the third time in the 1990s. The Michigan Wolverines finished the season atop the AP Poll after completing a 12–0 campaign with a Big Ten Conference championship and a victory in the Rose Bowl over Washington State, and the Nebraska Cornhuskers garnered the top ranking in the Coaches' Poll with a 13–0 record, a Big 12 Conference championship, and a win over Tennessee in the Orange Bowl.
The 1999 NCAA Division I-A football season saw Florida State named national champions, defeating Virginia Tech in the BCS Sugar Bowl.
The 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first college football season of the 21st century. It ended with the University of Miami winning the national title for the fifth time.
The 1987 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with Miami winning its second national championship of the 1980s in an Orange Bowl game featuring a rare No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup between the top ranked Oklahoma Sooners and the Hurricanes.
The 1986 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with Penn State winning the national championship. Coached by Joe Paterno, they defeated Miami (Fl) 14–10 in the Fiesta Bowl. This Fiesta Bowl was the first in the game's history to decide the national championship, launching it into the top tier of bowls.
The 1985 NCAA Division I-A football season saw the Oklahoma Sooners, led by head coach Barry Switzer, win the national championship.
The 1984 NCAA Division I-A football season was topsy-turvy from start to finish. It ended with the BYU Cougars being bestowed their first and only national championship by beating Michigan in the Holiday Bowl. While the Cougars finished with a perfect 13–0 record and were the consensus National Champions, some commentators maintain this title was undeserved citing their weak schedule and argue that the championship should have gone to the 11–1 Washington Huskies. Despite this the Cougars were voted No. 1 in the final AP and UPI polls. The Huskies declined an invitation to play BYU in the Holiday Bowl; they decided instead to play Oklahoma in the more prestigious 1985 Orange Bowl. All subsequent national champions have come from what are now known as the Power Five conferences + Notre Dame.
The 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the University of Miami, led by Bernie Kosar, winning their first national championship over perennial power and top ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
The 1981 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the Clemson Tigers, unbeaten and untied, claiming the national championship after a victory over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. This was also the first year of the California Bowl, played in Fresno, California; this game fancied itself as a "junior" version of the Rose Bowl as it pitted the Big West Conference champion vs. the Mid-American Conference champion.
The 1979 NCAA Division I-A football season saw the Alabama Crimson Tide bring home a national title with a perfect 12–0 season. The title was Alabama's 11th claimed, and their 6th Associated Press awarded title.
The 1966 University Division football season was marked by some controversy as the year of "The Tie", a famous 10–10 game between the two top-ranked teams, Michigan State and Notre Dame on November 19. Both teams were crowned national champions by various organizations after the regular season concluded, and neither participated in a bowl game. Alabama finished the regular season undefeated and was third in the AP poll, while Georgia was fourth. Alabama went on to win the Sugar Bowl in dominant fashion. During the 20th century, the NCAA had no playoff for the major college football teams in the University Division, later known as Division I-A.
The 1971 NCAA University Division football season saw Coach Bob Devaney's Nebraska Cornhuskers repeat as national champions. Ranked a close second behind Notre Dame in the preseason poll, Nebraska moved up to first place the following week, remained there for the rest of 1971, and convincingly won the Orange Bowl 38–6 in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game against Alabama.
The 1977 NCAA Division I football season was one in which the top five teams finished with 11–1 records. Notre Dame, which beat top-ranked and undefeated Texas in the Cotton Bowl, became the national champion.
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