College Football Rewind: 5 most important games from 2000 season

2. (20) Oregon 23, (6) Washington 16

The Washington Huskies were flying high and coming off a huge victory over the fourth-ranked Miami Hurricanes. They had gotten up to No. 6 in the polls and were ready to take on the Pac-10. They had a big rivalry game with Oregon coming up and getting past Joey Harrington and the high-flying Ducks offense would be no easy task.

Washington’s three turnovers would prove to be the difference and Oregon would go on to win the game 23-16 and keep the Huskies from having a perfect season, as Washington would go on to win the Pac-10 and then take down Drew Brees and the Purdue Boilermakers in the Rose Bowl.

This game is ranked No. 2 based on the fact that it kept Washington from playing for and possibly winning the national championship and the argument could be made that they should have been playing for it regardless of this game based on the fact that they beat Miami head to head and the Hurricanes did beat the Seminoles.

So many “what ifs” are in this season and we have just one more to get to in what I think was the most important and consequential game of the 2000 season.