Ranking the 30 Greatest National Championship Games
By Zach Bigalke
13. 1999 Fiesta Bowl
#1 Tennessee d. #2 Florida State 23-16
BEFORE THE GAME
The 1998-1999 season marked the first year of the Bowl Championship Series. Where previous attempts at creating an annual national championship had fallen short, the BCS succeeded in unifying the disparate I-A power players into a cohesive unit. For the first time, the Rose Bowl was incorporated into the championship bowl structure along with the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences. Now the biggest leagues at the top level of the sport could provide at least a modicum of certainty that they would pair the top two teams against one another to play for the national title.
In the first season, only one of the Big Six conference champions ran the table to finish the regular season undefeated. Tennessee won the SEC despite the graduation of Peyton Manning, scoring nearly 34 points per game with Tee Martin leading the offense. The defense was just as stout, holding opponents to an average of just over 14 points per game. After taking down Mississippi State 24-14 in the SEC championship game, there was no doubt that the Volunteers would be playing in the inaugural BCS championship at the Fiesta Bowl.
The question was who they would face. Kansas State was in the second spot heading into the final weekend, but they dropped after losing the Big 12 championship 36-33 in overtime to Texas A&M. That opened the door for UCLA to jump up to face the Vols, but instead they too fell in a 49-45 thriller at Miami in a year where the Hurricanes finished in a three-way tie for second in the Big East. The question came down to Florida State versus Ohio State, and the Seminoles were next in line in the preceding ranking. The algorithm held true to the human polls, and Bobby Bowden got his shot at a second national title in the 1990s.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Neither team scored in the first quarter, easing into this brave new world of college football history. Tennessee started driving late in the first quarter, and Martin hit Shawn Bryson with a four-yard touchdown pass to open up the scoring less than a minute after switching sides for the second quarter. Then Marcus Outzen tried to hit Peter Warrick, and Dwayne Goodrich hauled in an interception and returned the pick 56 yards to build a 14-0 Volunteers lead. Florida State came back to pull within 14-9 at halftime, but they never came any closer to victory.
Martin found Peerless Price for a 79-yard scoring reception six minutes into the fourth quarter, and Jeff Hall added a short field goal on the next drive to build Tennessee’s lead to 23-9. The Seminoles pulled back within a touchdown on Outzen’s seven-yard scoring run with 3:42 left, and Travis Henry fumbled on the ensuing drive to give FSU some hope in the waning minutes. But Outzen was picked off by Steve Johnson, and Phillip Fulmer’s team held on for the one-score victory and maintained their undefeated status to earn their national championship.