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

The last win

Michigan won a share of the last national title before the BCS incorporated the Big Ten, Pac-10, and Rose Bowl into the championship series. With electric Heisman-winning cornerback Charles Woodson playing ironman football, Lloyd Carr‘s Wolverines swept through their 1997 schedule to win the AP national championship.

The season began with a win over No. 8 Colorado out of conference. Baylor and Notre Dame also fell at the Big House before Big Ten play began. Once the conference schedule started, the Wolverines survived several scares to win the league crown outright. Ranked No. 1 by the AP and No. 2 by the Coaches prior to the postseason, Michigan headed to the Rose Bowl to face the No. 8 Washington State Cougars.

In a 21-16 nailbiter, Michigan held off Ryan Leaf and the Pac-10 champions to cap the perfect season. For the first time since 1948, Michigan could realistically claim a national championship.

Since the last win

Lloyd Carr brought Michigan close to national titles on several other occasions. He would last in Ann Arbor for another decade, but could never replicate the feat he pulled off in his third season at the helm. The coach led the Wolverines to four more Big Ten titles, but the best chance at another national title came in a year when UM failed to win the conference crown.

That year was 2006. That year, Michigan faced rival Ohio State at the end of the regular season with some of the highest stakes in the long history of the rivalry. Michigan was ranked No. 2 when the headed to Columbus for their annual showdown. The Buckeyes were No. 1 in the nation, sitting at the top of both major polls and the BCS standings.

The Wolverines lost the 42-39 thriller on the road, and there was plenty of perfectly serious talk about whether the two teams deserved a rematch for the national title. Instead, SEC champion Florida was picked over Carr’s Michigan squad, and the Wolverines had to settle for a Rose Bowl win over USC.

Rich Rodriguez unsuccessfully tried to shake up things in Ann Arbor. Once he left town, in came first Brady Hoke and now Jim Harbaugh. Both are consummate “Michigan men” as Hoke spent eight years as a coach on Carr’s staff and Harbaugh was a former Wolverines starting quarterback. They have yet to win a Big Ten crown since Carr was run out of town, regardless of who is running the show.