Ranking the 30 Greatest National Championship Games
By Zach Bigalke
9. 1994 Orange Bowl
#1 Florida State d. #2 Nebraska 18-16
BEFORE THE GAME
The Bowl Coalition had succeeded in putting together a definitive national championship in its first year of existence, and the Big Ten and Pac-10 cooperated yet again to provide a pair of flawed champions. 9-1-1 Wisconsin met 8-3 UCLA on New Year’s Day on the Bruins’ home field, neither in the hunt for the national title. Thus the Orange Bowl gained the opportunity to feature its first national championship game since 1972.
Florida State had opened the season at number one in the polls to start the 1993 season, and only a 31-24 loss at #2 Notre Dame in mid-November blemished an otherwise stellar Seminoles season. Once the Fighting Irish fell at home to Boston College the following week, Florida State was right back in the top spot of the rankings. The ACC champs finished the year 11-1 and were locked into the Orange Bowl.
The Orange Bowl and Bowl Coalition couldn’t really go wrong regardless of which way the polls went after the final weekend. Ultimately it was 11-0 Big 8 champion Nebraska who got the nod ahead of 11-0 Big East champ West Virginia after taking down Oklahoma 21-7 in their regular season finale. The duel brought together the same two teams that had played in the Orange Bowl a year earlier. That time Florida State had taken down the Cornhuskers 27-14. This time it would not prove as easy.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Two of the top five offenses in the country were shut down by the respective defenses in a low-scoring championship game. Neither team could get in scoring range in the first quarter. Florida State scored first on a 34-yard Scott Bentley field goal midway through the second quarter. Nebraska needed less than two minutes to take the lead as Tommie Frazier found Reggie Baul for a 34-yard touchdown pass. Bentley kicked another field goal before halftime, and the two teams were a point apart at the intermission. Florida State scored on the opening drive of the second half, retaking the lead after William Floyd took it the last yard over the goal line. Scott Bentley kicked his third field goal of the game later in the third quarter to give Florida State a 15-7 lead.
The Cornhuskers snapped out of their funk as Lawrence Phillips scored on a 13-yard run early in the fourth quarter, and they thought they had the game won when Byron Bennett kicked a 27-yard field goal with 1:16 remaining to take a 16-15 lead. But they left the Seminoles too much time, and Bobby Bowden’s crew worked downfield to set up a chip shot for Bentley’s fourth field goal of the day. He knocked the 22-yard attempt through with 21 seconds remaining, and the FSU defense held on to secure the school’s first national championship.