SMQ: Which undefeated college football teams could end long championship drought?

The last win

A year after Colorado shared the national title with Georgia Tech, Washington split the national title with the Miami Hurricanes. Don James led the Huskies to the Pac-10 championship after a perfect 11-0 regular season. That campaign included wins over Big Eight co-champion Nebraska and a Cal team ranked No. 7 at the time they played.

The Bowl Coalition was not yet in existence, but it would not have mattered anyway. As the Pac-10 champion, No. 2 Washington was locked into a Rose Bowl appearance against the Big Ten champions. Michigan, the Big Ten’s representative, had finished the regular season 10-1 with its only loss coming at home to then-No. 1 Florida State. Ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 and No. 3 in the UPI Coaches Poll, the Rose Bowl served as one de facto national championship game.

Washington prevailed 34-14 to split the national championship with Orange Bowl winner Miami. Washington finished No. 1 in the Coaches poll, while the AP gave the nod to the Hurricanes.

Since the last win

A year after the breakthrough national title share, Don James coached his final season with the Huskies. They climbed back up to No. 1 in the polls and won a share of the Pac-10 crown, but losses to Arizona, Washington State, and Michigan prevented any chance of a title repeat.

Once James left Seattle, things went south for the Huskies. Jim Lambright went 44–25–1 in six seasons at Washington, but never managed to win more than nine games in any season. Then Rick Neuheisel came to Washington, and it appeared that things were about to turn around for the better.

Under Neuheisel, the Huskies won every game but one in 2000. A 23-16 rivalry loss against a ranked Wisconsin team prevented Washington from playing for the BCS national championship as an outright Pac-10 champion, and a 34-24 Rose Bowl win over Purdue was small consolation for being overlooked.

Neuheisel left Seattle in 2002 after drawing heat for participation in an office pool magnified earlier NCAA infractions. That departure steered the Huskies into the abyss, as they went seven straight seasons without a bowl appearance and finished 0-12 under Tyrone Willingham in 2008. Steve Sarkisian started to restore the Washington brand, and now Chris Petersen has turned Washington into a Pac-12 champion and College Football Playoff contender.