College Football Championships with A Plus-One: The 1999 Season
Part one in the Plus-One series examined 1998, the first and an appropriately chaotic season in the Bowl Championship Series era. The 1999 campaign followed a path I’m sure those behind the system envisioned would be the norm, as Florida State and Virginia Tech faced for the national championship in a controversy-free Sugar Bowl title tilt.
It was even a great game! Michael Vick went God Mode and nearly powered Virginia Tech to the title, taking the style of play that Charlie Ward revolutionized and taking it to the next phase in its evolution against Ward’s former team.
And yet, 1999 began the long and in many ways, still ongoing conversation about the inequitable standards to which power-conference outsiders are held.
Tulane went through the 1998 campaign undefeated, but the Green Wave’s success hardly created a ripple in national media. Marshall, on the other hand, was spotlighted not just on SportsCenter, but the CBS Evening News.
I have noted this segment in the past, but it warrants repeating because of just how significant a stage this was for a program that had just recently moved up to Div. I-A. The Thundering Herd commanded attention in a way Tulane hadn’t in part because their undefeated 1999 season marked a culmination of an incredible decade:
Two national titles
Randy Moss2 finishing as a Heisman Trophy in 1997, Marshall’s first year after moving up
Marshall was also approaching the 30-year anniversary of the tragic plane crash that killed 75 and nearly marked the end of the football program. For the Herd to have risen from such depths was and still is among the most incredible stories in college football history.
But, it wasn’t enough for the BCS to take Marshall seriously. The Herd, as one of only three undefeated teams at the end of the 1999 regular season, were relegated to the Motor City Bowl to play an unranked BYU — which sure sounds familiar.
Marshall may not have had the resume to warrant consideration for the BCS Championship Game at the Sugar Bowl: Florida State beat three opponents ranked in the final regular-season Top 25 with No. 23 Miami; No. 17 Georgia Tech and Heisman runner-up Joe Hamilton; and No. 10 Florida. Virginia Tech also beat Miami and No. 25 Boston College, and destroyed a then-16th ranked Syracuse by 62 points.
The Herd beat Clemson in Week 1, coincidentally coached by most of the previous season’s Tulane staff, and then ran roughshod over the MAC. So maybe Marshall wasn’t deserving of a shot in a system that only allowed for two teams in the championship, but to be frozen out of a marquee matchup altogether set a precedent that lingers today.
With a Plus-One and fair bowl positioning, Marshall may have earned a championship shot. It would have taken a lot of help, but the majority of teams ranked ahead of the Herd carrying two losses could have helped.
ROSE BOWL: No. 4 Wisconsin vs. No. 22 Stanford
For as much as the Pac-12’s been a punching bag over recent years, it’s never been as bad as 1999. Preseason top five Arizona went into Penn State for the season opener and was summarily shoved in a locker by LaVar Arrington.
The next week, a little-known running back at TCU named LaDainian Tomlinson ran circles around the Wildcats, signaling a clear end to the era of Desert Swarm.
With the preseason favorite Arizona a mess and traditional banner-carrier USC enduring one of the worst stretches in program history, the tone was set for a dismal slog of a Pac-10 season. Oregon was a year away from making the leap to viable title contender, leaving the door open for Stanford to win an ugly race to the Rose Bowl played out primarily on FOX Sports Network regional channels.
Playing a Cardinal squad that wasn’t even ranked in the end-of-season poll would do nothing for the Plus-One aspirations of ‘99 Heisman winner Ron Dayne and fourth-ranked Wisconsin. However, the Badgers wouldn’t factor into the conversation without some profound chaos in the bowl games.
Wisconsin earned its Rose Bowl berth with an unambiguous conference championship, unlike the controversial 1998 “title,” finishing with just one Big Ten loss. However, the Badgers dropped two games that regular season: One was a confounding defeat against 3-8 Cincinnati, the other to league counterpart Michigan.
SUGAR BOWL: No. 5 Alabama vs. No. 2 Virginia Tech
Two bowl games carry the most consequence in this exercise, and the Sugar Bowl is one of them. Big East Conference champion Virginia Tech was deserving of its spot in the BCS title game (which was, coincidentally, the Sugar Bowl) and this scenario may knock out the Hokies.
The SEC had not yet overtaken all discussion in college football, so we’d have been spared the force-fed narrative that Alabama should jump all other contenders despite having two losses — one of which was against Louisiana Tech.
Still, the Crimson Tide went into the postseason on a five-game winning streak that included a 34-7 deconstruction of Florida in the SEC Championship Game. It was Alabama’s second win over a Gators team that finished the regular season ranked No. 103.
Perhaps nothing changes if the two meet, and Michael Vick simply runs around another defense on the Hokies’ inevitable march to the title game. Nevertheless, a matchup with Vick on one offense and Shaun Alexander on other and the highest of stakes at play is fun to imagine.
ORANGE BOWL: No. 1 Florida State vs. No. 3 Nebraska
Here’s one that’s easy to arrange with the benefit of hindsight, as it would have marked a fitting finale to a two-decade rivalry of lofty implications.
The Seminoles and Cornhuskers played eight times from 1980 through 1994, including four straight from 1988 to 1994 in either the Fiesta or Orange Bowl. The two haven’t played since ‘94 when Charlie Ward capped his illustrious career with a national championship, and ‘99 would have been the last chance for a high-stakes showdown.
And make no mistake, this would have been the premier New Year’s Day bowl in the Plus-One format as the lone contest with two teams that would have been Win And You’re In under the system.
Florida State was good this season — file that under No Kidding, given it went undefeated and won the BCS Championship — but Bobby Bowden had more dominant teams. The Seminoles won nail-biters against Georgia Tech and Florida, and barely survived when visiting Tommy Bowden’s Clemson squad.
Frank Solich won his first Big 12 championship in 1999 with a Blackshirt defense that held all but two regular-season opponents (including Big 12 title-game foe Texas) to 17 points or fewer. While the 2001 Huskers played for the BCS Championship, ‘99 was arguably the last truly great Nebraska team.
I suspect this would have been one helluva ostensible semifinal matchup, and a worthy last chapter between the Seminoles and Cornhuskers before Nebraska devolved into touting close losses and playing victim in a global pandemic.
COTTON BOWL: No. 7 Kansas State vs. No. 6 Tennessee
Nebraska’s marquee win in 1999 — at least, prior to beating Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl — was a 41-15 drubbing of Kansas State. Perhaps as lopsided as that final score was explains K-State lagging behind in the national rankings despite having fewer losses than multiple teams ahead of it.
Still, in a Plus-One system, the Wildcats might have had a crack at advancing to the title game. A Frank Beamer vs. Bill Snyder championship sounds incredible, though wouldn’t have been possible: Nebraska would be ahead of the Wildcats, and thus a win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl sends the Cornhuskers to the title round.
K-State would have needed a Florida State win in the Orange Bowl and two-loss Alabama to knock off Virginia Tech, while then defeating Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl. Tennessee scored a head-to-head win against Alabama in the regular season, thus giving K-State a trump card beyond just one fewer loss for championship consideration.
Put in this context, it’s remarkable to think just how close Kansas State — KANSAS STATE! — came to playing for the national championship twice in the late ‘90s.
FIESTA BOWL: No. 8 Michigan vs. No. 11 Marshall
Marshall deserved better than the Motor City Bowl and unranked BYU. Marshall deserved the Fiesta Bowl.
Ironically, given that it became the face of BCS-era administrative malfeasance, the Fiesta Bowl began as a high-profile opportunity for under-the-radar programs to shine. Legendary coach Frank Kush took over for colleague Dan Devine at Arizona State in 1958, and steadily built a budding power in Tempe.
By the end of the ‘60s, however, ASU was still almost a decade away from a Pac-8 invitation and thus ruled over the Western Athletic Conference. The WAC had yet to gain the national attention that came with the advent of cable TV and the introductory of LaVell Edwards’ revolutionary offense at BYU, and thus Arizona State was left to dominate in obscurity.
An invitation to the 1970 Peach Bowl, however, provided the blueprint for a committee that had hopes to launching a bowl in Arizona. The Sun Devils’ success in ‘70 led to the launch of the Fiesta Bowl in 1971. In its first decade, the Fiesta Bowl existed as a national showcase for the under-appreciated WAC, pitting its champions against prominent opponents like Florida State, Oklahoma, Penn State and Nebraska.
Featuring Marshall in 1999 would have been a perfect homage to the game’s roots, giving ta program that was near extinction at the time of the Fiesta Bowl’s debut a New Year’s Day stage against one of college football’s blue bloods.
Michigan scored a head-to-head win over Wisconsin in ‘99, but the Wolverines dropped two Big Ten games to deny them a Rose Bowl. For the sake of playing into the Plus-One conversation, the Fiesta Bowl would have been a more attractive option, anyway.
Blue would have had a difficult but not impossible road to a Plus-One National Championship Game — ditto Marshall. It would take a lot:
Alabama beats Virginia Tech
Tennessee beats Kansas State
Wisconsin beats Stanford (specifically for Michigan so as not to devalue the win)
And even then, hardly guarantees advancement. An undefeated Marshall would have had an interesting case that might have brought about change for outsiders.
The Div. I-AA title game aired on CBS in that era, so the familiarity with Marshall on the network may have influenced the CBS Evening News in covering the Herd’s undefeated ‘99. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that the National Championship Game was once broadcast through a property that viewed it as more than “inventory.”
Coincidentally, Moss was originally at 1999 national champion Florida State. While he’d have been in the NFL by ‘99, it’s not unreasonable to suggest the Seminoles would have won the 1997 championship with Moss lining up in a receiving corps that also featured Peter Warrick. That would have been the greatest receiver tandem in college football history.
It’s also the second biggest “What If” about Randy Moss’ college career — the other being if he and Allen Iverson had ended up as teammates at Notre Dame, which wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.
Influencers pretty effectively Steve Spurrier’s reputation in the 21st Century, depicting as something of a jovial, trash-talking pro wrestling tweener. But for the press conference wisecracks and out-of-pocket cracks like calling the former Georgia coach “Ray Goof,” Spurrier had a tendency to pout. After losing to the Mike Dubose-coached Crimson Tide in ‘99, Spurrier famously sent Dubose a letter accusing the program of cheating in recruiting.