1994 Penn State Nittany Lions
National Championship
This site is dedicated to breaking down the facts of that horrible decision to give the Nebraska Cornhuskers the National Championship of college football and to bring to light how the current BCS system, although some what flawed at least rewards the true power ranked teams with their rightful place in history as National champs. Our belief is that back in 1994, voters gave a sympathy vote to Neb's head coach Tom Osbourne due to Joe Pa already having 2 rings and Tom, near retirement not having any after coaching for many many years with the cornhuskers. The power ranking show the pollsters were wrong!
Sympathy vote for Osborne gives him the National Title!After coaching many many years without producing a single National Championship, Tom Osbourne finally coaches himself into a position to gain his first title. After going 12-0, only a win in the 1995 Orange Bowl game stood in his way of him holding College footballs grandest title. Well, along with a powerhouse 12-0 Penn State team that earlier on Jan 1st beat the OU Ducks by a comfortable margin. Making it's own statement for being crowned National Champs. But non of that mattered. Joe Pa had won 2 National Championships for PSU so it was only fitting that the pollsters "give" Tom Osbourne his first title. By NOT allowing a "share" of the title, the pollsters proved that without the BCS, they could "hand" the title to whoever they felt deserved it more. Joe Pa 2 Titles, Osbourne No titles... Sympathy vote Osbourne! period.
Nebraska's Cream Puff Schedule! Even by today's standards, Nebraska's schedule would have been considered too weak to contend for the National Championship with the BCS. With the 49th easiest schedule in the country, it was very apparent the Nebraska sympathy vote is what gave them the national title.
POWER RANKINGS! When someone uses the term "Cream puff" to describe your favorite teams schedule, they better have the facts! Well, as you can see, we have the facts and have determined that Nebraska's schedule in 1994 could be best described as "Cream Puff". Nebraska's schedule was littered with some of the worst ranked teams in all of college football. Of the 13 games played, Nebraska played the #99, 80 79, 76 and 51 worse teams out of 100. Only the #5 ranked Colorado Buff's team breaks UNDER 20. Miami, who had a ranking of 7 was the bowl game. Props to Nebraska's effort in beating a team largely dependent on it's defense [Warren Sapp and company] who Themselves didn't really belong in the Orange Bowl. Penn State by contras, played #14, 13, 12, 10 and 18 power ranked teams in the country. Then destroyed the #14 power ranked team Oregon for the Rose.
1994-1995 Season
Congrove Computer Rankings
(Released 1/4/1995)
#1 PSU 71.66 71.66 12-0#2 Neb 70.72 70.72 13-0
Although the final AP rankings "gave" Nebraska the National Championship, the True National Computer Power rankings had Penn State being ranked #1. We contend that the 0.94 margin of victory in the power rankings favoring PSU looms even larger due to PSU only playing 12 where Neb played 13 games. [an extra win for Neb would surely give them the edge in any power ranking... but because these are "True" power rankings,... even the computer knows PSU's season was greater than Neb season]
The 1994 Indiana game was the difference!
35-29 score was misleading! Fact was, Penn State was leading by 3 TD's in the 4th Quarter. Joe Pa put in his 2nd string to get some game time experience when Indiana scored a late touchdown. With 2nd stringers in the game.. Indiana got the ball back, and with no time on the clock, scored on a hail Mary pass and then scored the 2 point conversation to bring the final score to 35-29. Joe Pa would say later that putting in his 2nd stringers caused the misleading score... which in turn caused Pollster's to wake up Sunday morning, see the close score and voted PSU #2 in the Polls instead of their #1 ranking prior to the victory in Indiana. Nebraska was then voted #1 and the rest is history...or as I like to say...Bull$hit!
Note to Husker fans...Joe Pa has never nor ever would run up the score JUST to look good in the polls. I guess Husker fan would say that if your going to play the game, then you should play to win. I'd rather have sportsmanship and winning any day over holding a trophy you didn't deserve AND looking like a PUNK doing it. ...Just our take.