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Grex Sports Item 72: Nebraska is the national champion!
Entered by richard on Tue Jan 6 17:36:02 UTC 1998:

The 1997 college football national champion is the University of Nebraska
Cornhuskers.  They were voted #1 in the CNN/USA Today poll of the nation's
college football coaches *and* by the NYTimes computer power rankings
(which factor in schedule toughness, statistics and everything else...they
had Michigan #3 behind Florida State)  The New York Post and the Los
Angeles Times also had Nebraska #1 in their polls.  The only poll showing
MIchigan #1 was the AP sportswriters poll, and apparently many had sent
their ballots in before Friday's Nebraska-Tennesee game.

Congratulations to Nebraska and retiring coach Tom Osborne.  They
finished undefeated and beat a higher ranked, more regarded team.  They
are #1.

8 responses total.

#1 of 8 by wjw on Wed Jan 7 15:30:41 1998:

The incessant lobbying by the Nebraska players downgading Michigan
was classless.  I'm glad Michigan had more class.  They could have 
brought up the Missouri-Nebraska game but did not.

Michigan is the National Champion!

#2 of 8 by albaugh on Wed Jan 7 23:44:54 1998:

Keep in mind the supposedly higher-ranked Tennessee team ended up being ranked
only 1 stop higher than Washington State.  So that calls into question how
good Tenn. was to begin with and therefore how impressive Nebraska's win
really was.  For all of the so-called power rankings, Florida State *lost*
a game to a team that lost twice, to teams that had more than 2 losses, etc.
So much for the Seminoles being #2 ahead of Michigan.

#3 of 8 by omni on Thu Jan 8 02:21:31 1998:

  Nebraska and Michigan should play a game. Winner is the National Champ.

  Nebraska played 13 games and won them all.
  Michigan played 12 games and won them all.

  who's better? hard to say from a layman's point of view. I think it's a lot
fairer to the athletes and the public if the winner of the Rose Bowl and the
winner of the Sugar Bowl meet to settle the question. No polls, no opinions,
no sentimentality over retiring/deserving/overdue teams/coaches/schools.

  It's the only way to remove favoritism from the system.

#4 of 8 by richard on Thu Jan 8 17:18:54 1998:

Vegas oddsmakers have said that if such a game was played, Nebraska would
be a seven to ten point favorite.  But the oddsmakers are Nebraska marks
because they win every year, making them very safe to bet on.  I think
it would be a close game.

#5 of 8 by wjw on Mon Jan 12 01:40:21 1998:

One more point I haven't heard mentioned:
After the 1985 season Michigan played Nebraska in the Jan 1 1986
Fiesta bowl.  Michigan was 9-1-1 going into the game.  I believe
Nebraska was favored to win.  Jim Harbaugh and John Kolesar, along
with Michigan's always-strong running attack made Nebraska's
option style offense look really inept and neandrethal.  Michigan 
won, 27-23, and as I recall the game was not as close as the score
appeared.  Had they played this year, the same thing could have 
happened.  The swelled heads of the Nebraska players would not have 
helped them.

#6 of 8 by albaugh on Mon Jan 12 20:14:20 1998:

And lest any of you are tempted to blindly accept richard's assertions, note
that the Football Writers Association of America awarded Michigan its
Grantland Rice National Championship Team trophy (2nd oldest such award, only
AP writers award is older), and the National Football Foundation (College
Football Hall of Fame) also awarded its MacArthur Bowl trophy (awarded for the
last 38 years) to Michigan.  So 3 and 1/2 of the major awarding groups thought
Michigan was deserving of the National Championship, something that Nebraska
can't claim.

#7 of 8 by omni on Tue Jan 13 06:21:11 1998:

  Your point is well taken, kevin. But I am saying that they need to have a
game for this. How would it look in the NFL? I mean 2 teams with identical
records, or nearly identical beg for a game to be played.

#8 of 8 by albaugh on Tue Jan 13 21:11:16 1998:

I'm not speaking against a game.  Given that there are 2 clear choices for
#1 and #2, let 'em have at it.  But what about this year:  If Florida State
hadn't been beaten by Florida, there would have been 3 teams undefeated
heading into the bowls.  Nebraska & Florida State would have played each other
in the Orange Bowl, Michigan would probably have remained #1 in the AP poll
as it played Washington State in the Rose Bowl.  With Michigan winning, it
*probably* would have remained #1 in the AP poll, but the Orange Bowl winner
would certainly have been #1 in the coaches poll.  In this case, Nebraska
would have been shut out of the championship game, as Michigan & Florida State
were ranked #1 ahead of the other teams in the respective polls.  Probably
some top-4, top-8, or even top-16 playoff would be needed to eliminate the
vast majority of the "what about us?!" complaints.

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