Note: in the review that follows, title-contenders are shown in bold.

The Florida Gators entered 1994 as preseason #1 on the heels of the previous season's blowout win of West Virginia. The Gators looked to be the wise choice after scoring 143 points in their first two games, and laying to waste arch-rival Tennessee 31-0 in their third. Speaking of that 31-0 score, Nebraska also ascended to the national stage by that same score, in a pasting of that same West Virginia school in a preseason game.

Only Nebraska would survive the second big game for the two front-runners, beating upstart Kansas State (4-0) 32-3. Florida, on the other hand, stumbled for the second year in a row to Terry Bowden's undefeated Auburn team, 36-33. The loss was the first SEC home loss under coach Steve Spurrier. The Tigers' in-state rivals, Alabama, beat a struggling Tennessee team 17-13 to also enter the middle of the season undefeated, now 7-0.

As for Florida's in-state competition, both had stumbled early. The first to fall was Miami, whose NCAA-record 54 game home winning streak came to an end in their third game thanks to the Washington Huskies' 38-20 triumph. But Miami was able to bounce back in handing Florida State its first loss of the season in a 34-20 handling. The season started out with a great deal of promise for the three Florida schools, but by the end of the first half of the year, all three were saddled with losses.

Meanwhile, the team of the Big Ten conference was a surprising Penn State. The Nittany Lions had pummeled its first five opponents 258-86, including an impressive win over Southern Cal. But Joe Paterno's team really announced they were for real with back to back beatings of the only two teams that had beaten them the previous season--Michigan and Ohio State. That put them at 7-0, in control of the Rose Bowl race, and suddenly serious national championship contenders.

The other undefeated teams were out west. Two WAC teams playing impressive football headed for a collision in midseason when 7-0 Colorado State took on 6-0 Utah. The Rams had beaten Arizona and Brigham Young, while the Utes had beaten the eventual Pac Ten champ Oregon. The loser of this 45-31 classic, Colorado State, would actually go on to win the conference, however, as the Utes would stumble against New Mexico and Air Force to finish the regular season at 9-2.

But the undefeated team everyone was watching out west was Colorado. After a non-conference destruction of the 1993 Rose Bowl champion Wisconsin, the Buffaloes looked to all the world like a team of destiny in a memorable game against Michigan. The 27-26 game ended on perhaps the play of the decade, when Michael Westbrook caught Kordell Stewart's hail mary. A good win over Texas followed, and when Colorado beat Kansas State, 35-21, the stage was set for a Big 8 showdown with Nebraska. The Cornhuskers (8-0) were too much for the Buffaloes (7-0), drubbing them 24-7. The startling dominance of Nebraska under Major Tom Osborne came at the same time, unfortunately, that Joe Paterno's Penn State team was inexplicably struggling. The game after scoring 63 on a good Ohio State team, the Nittany Lions staved off a late comeback in a 35-29 win over Indiana, and had all they could handle in a 35-31 win over lowly Illinois. Although Penn State would drub a lot of good teams on their schedule before and after these two games, their lackadaisical play against Indiana and Illinois would cost them dearly in the polls.

After their mid-year battles, Nebraska and Penn State would cruise to undefeated regular seasons. The southern teams, however, still had big games to play. Alabama made it to the annual game with Auburn without a blemish, but the Tigers were unable to hold up their end of the bargain. The Tigers had managed just a 23-23 tie against 5-4 Georgia the game before, but still, the battle of the 10-0 Tide and the 9-0-1 Tigers was the biggest Alabama-Auburn game of the decade. It was Alabama, just two years removed from its national championship, that would win a hard-fought, controversy-plagued 21-14 battle, handing Terry Bowden his first-ever loss at Auburn. The season came to a bitter end for the Tigers, still on probabation and thus denied a bowl bearth.

Alabama, on the other hand, was 11-0 with a good national title shot. But first they would have to get past the preseason #1, a madder-than-hell Florida team. The reason for the Gators' rage was an embarassing regular season finale in Tallahassee. The Gators had blown a 31-3 third quarter lead against 9-1 Florida State and finished the game tied at 31. The SEC Championship game was a thriller. Alabama coach Gene Stallings' decision to kick an extra point ahead 22-17 may have cost his team an undefeated season, as the Gators would win it 24-23 after an inspired fourth quarter TD drive.