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

Okay, so When I'm 64 is a bit of an exaggeration, but the national championship was won by the oldest starting quarterback in Division I-A: 27-year old Chris Weinke of Florida State. And he won it for a coach who is well over 64, Bobby Bowden. I guess I'm saying it was a year for the elderly.

The season started off with a couple of preseason games that seemed to have more importance at the time than was probably warranted. The Arizona at Penn State game was billed as a clash between two preseason top 5 schools, but the magnitude of the Nittany Lions' 41-7 win should have been a warning that Arizona was not a force to be reckoned with. Neither was the rest of the Pac Ten, it would turn out. In the other game, Miami beat Ohio State 23-12, but the Buckeyes would not live up to their preseason hype and Miami would merely lose to three title contenders during the season.

Much of the action in 1999 was in the Big Ten, where only Northwestern and Iowa were really bad. Unfortunately for the conference, that meant that no one team could make it to the end of the year undefeated. The first to fall was astonishingly Wisconsin, on the road against a miserable Cincinnati, 17-12. The Bearcats had lost the week before to Division I-AA Troy State. The Badgers lost the following week to Michigan, 21-16. The punch line is that they would go on to play in, and win, the Rose Bowl. The road to recovery began the next game with a 42-17 pounding of Ohio State, and a 20-17 escape against undefeated Minnesota.

Besides Minnesota and Penn State, Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State all got off to fast starts. The Wolverines ended Purdue's unbeaten streak at 4 games with a 38-12 win, but then turned around and lost to the Spartans in a 34-31 upset when both teams were 5-0. Now 6-0, Michigan State went on a two game losing streak at the hands of Purdue (52-28) and Wisconsin (40-10), making their only two losses of the season blowouts. Two losses was the rule, for Michigan lost to 3-3 Illinois 35-29 after a spirited fourth quarter comeback by the Illini.

While much of the Big Ten was knocking one another off, Penn State was marching to a likely national championship game with Florida State. After the win over Arizona, the Nittany Lions had another high-profile, non-conference game at Miami. The Hurricanes played even with them for much of the game, but Penn State took over in the fourth quarter for a gutsy, 27-23 win. It put the Lions at 4-0 entering the tough Big Ten. Penn State surged all the way to 9-0 before the wheels came off. The first loss was to Minnesota, and required a circus catch on a hail mary to set up the game winning field goal, 24-23. The Gophers went to 6-3 and would finish a decade-best 8-4. In the next game, the Nittany Lions fell to 7-2 Michigan, 31-27, and in the regular season finale, to 8-2 Michigan State, 35-28. Good play in the Big Ten only served to knock everyone out of contention, and sent 9-2 Wisconsin (only one conference loss) to the Rose Bowl.

In the SEC, Florida beat the defending national champion Tennessee, 23-21. The Volunteers would later lose to Arkansas 28-24 to eliminate all chance of a repeat title. The Gators suffered their only conference loss at home against Alabama in a 40-39 overtime thriller. The win probably saved coach Mike Dubose's job, hanging in the balance after a stunning loss to Louisiana Tech, 29-28, early in the year. The Crimson Tide would also lose to Tennessee, 21-7, giving them one SEC loss. To win the West, they had to beat 8-0 Mississippi State. The Bulldogs were having an incredible season, but the writing was on the wall: prior to the Alabama game, they had won by 2 against Auburn, and by 1 against Louisiana State and Kentucky. The Tide won 19-7, and would go on to pound Florida 34-7 in the SEC Championship.

Florida was coming off a 30-23 heartbreak loss to Florida State in the Swamp. The Seminoles guaranteed themselves a shot at the national title with the win that brought them to 11-0. The Seminoles had won a shootout with high-powered Georgia Tech 41-35 in their second game, and outlasted a revitalized Miami, 31-21 for their sixth win. Their only scare was in a 17-14 nailbiter against Tommy Bowden's Clemson Tigers, but the Seminoles emerged victorious and brought Bobby Bowden his 300th win.

Until the final month was played out, it was unclear if the Seminoles would face Penn State, Kansas State, Nebraska, or Virginia Tech. The Lions stumbled down the stretch, while Kansas State reached 9-0 before being demolished 41-15 by Nebraska. The Cornhuskers had gotten to 6-0 before being shocked for the second year in a row by Texas in a 24-20 loss. But Nebraska stampeded through the rest of its schedule, including a 22-6 rematch with Texas in the Big Twelve Championship, and thought they might beat out Virginia Tech in the complicated Bowl Championship Series rankings thanks to the Hokies' light schedule. The Hokies had only struggled in a 22-20 win over West Virginia, in which quarterback Michael Vick's heroics saved their season. In the next game, Virginia Tech got back on track against Miami, using a runaway fourth quarter to win, 43-10. It was enough to edge Nebraska in the final rankings.