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

Undeniably, the 90s in college football was dominated by the state of Florida. The 1996 season was the perfect reflection of that trend, as two Florida schools met in the national championship game. A number of dominoes had to fall first for that event to take place. The first one fell very early in the season, when defending national champion Nebraska was shutout by upstart Arizona State, 19-0. The Sun Devils had won a shootout with Washington in the first week, 45-42, eliminating their main competition in the Pac Ten. Arizona State proved to be the real deal, finishing the season 11-0.

Arizona State would play Ohio State from the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl, in a game that came ever so close to a de facto national championship battle. At 3-0, the Buckeyes dispatched 5-0 Penn State 38-7 in their first conference game, and proceeded to lay waste to the remainder of their Big Ten competition until their final game against a 7-3 disappointing Michigan team. The Wolverines had handed Ohio State their first loss of the year in 1993 and 1995, and did it again in 1996 with a 13-9 victory over the Buckeyes. The loss left them tied with Northwestern atop the Big Ten conference. The Wildcats had suffered an opening season loss to Wake Forest and had later dropped a 34-9 game to Penn State, but would be denied a second straight Rose Bowl thanks to the rule that breaks Big Ten ties: the most recent Rose Bowl participant is eliminated. Nevertheless, the season included a 17-16 upset of Michigan and a high profile bowl game (the Citrus) that validated the previous year's accomplishments.

Of course, the first major battle for the Florida schools was Miami's showdown with Florida State. Both teams came in 4-0, but only the Seminoles were left standing after a 34-16 rout of the Hurricanes. Florida State had beaten a strong North Carolina club in a 13-0 defensive classic earlier in the year. The Noles then avenged last season's defeat by Virginia with a hard-fought, 31-24 win, then went on to enter the Florida game 10-0.

Florida was also 10-0, winning the SEC East for the fifth straight season. The Gators blew out Tennessee in a not-as-close-as-it-sounds 35-29 game in Knoxville. The Volunteers, incidently, would later be the victims of one of the biggest upsets of the decade, a 21-17 loss on the road against a terrible Memphis team that would finish 4-7. The Gators, meanwhile, continued to roll, with an effortless victory against a 4-0 Louisiana State. The 56-13 victory was the first half of a two-game stretch in which the Gators played close to perfectly, the second being a 51-10 win over Auburn. The Gators toppled Georgia 47-7, before struggling mightily in Nashville against Vanderbilt, winning just 28-21.

But the Seminoles' defense was oppressive in the game in Tallahassee, and the offense scored just enough early to allow them to hold on for a 24-21 victory. The Gators would need a lot of help to get back into the national title picture, but part of that puzzle would fall into place with the Michigan upset of Ohio State.

The major beneficiary of the Florida State win over Florida, besides the Seminoles themselves, was Nebraska. The Cornhuskers were in pursuit of their third straight title, and the Florida loss moved the Cornhuskers up in the polls to be the likely opponent for Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. Nebraska had climbed back into the picture thanks to a 17-12 win over 9-1 Colorado, whose only loss had been a 20-13 decision against Michigan early in the year.

Two other teams, meanwhile, were tearing it up in the Western Athletic Conference. Wyoming had gotten to 9-0 before losing to San Diego State, 28-24, and Brigham Young had overcome a 29-17 loss to Washington in their third game to finish the regular season 12-1. That set up an exciting, inaugural Championship Saturday, in which the WAC, Big Twelve, and SEC Championship games would be contested. The entrants in the Big Twelve game were Nebraska and Texas, and in the SEC, Florida and Alabama.

The Crimson Tide had won the SEC West by virtue of the head to head tiebreaker. The Tide got to 7-0 before losing 20-13 against Tennessee, and to 8-1 when they beat Louisiana State 26-0. The Tide would later lose to Mississippi State in a squeaker, but the head to head win over LSU sent the Tide to their fourth SEC Championship game in five years.

Brigham Young beat Wyoming in a 28-25 thriller. Texas, just 7-4, played the game of the season in the first Big Twelve Championship, pulling out all the stops to upend Nebraska 37-27. The loss meant that Florida was suddenly in line for the Sugar Bowl and a rematch with Florida State if they could take care of business in Championship Saturday's nightcap. The game was a surprising offensive battle, but the fired-up Gators won 45-30.