1994 NCAA Division I-A Football Season

The 1994 NCAA Division I-A football season saw yet another controversial finish as both Nebraska and Penn State finished undefeated, and yet Penn State finished a distant second in the final AP and UPI polls. Penn State was clearly the better team, but the Big Ten media voters were loath to cast their votes in favor of the new team in the conference - one who had just embarrassed one of the "Big Two" to the tune of 63-14 earlier in the season. The controversial finish, however, could have been an even worse morass if not for some end of season results. Late in the season, there were two other undefeated teams: Alabama and Auburn. The Auburn Tigers, who had gone undefeated the year before but was barred from post-season play, were 9-0 before tying Georgia and losing to Alabama in the Iron Bowl. The Alabama Crimson Tide finished the regular season undefeated at 11-0, but lost a heartbreaker 24-23 on a fourth quarter touchdown pass against Florida in the 1994 SEC Championship Game.

The Bowl Coalition championship game featured Big Eight Conference champion Nebraska hosting Big East Conference champion Miami in the Orange Bowl, a game that top ranked Nebraska won in a come from behind victory over the 3rd ranked Hurricanes. However, over at the Rose Bowl, undefeated Penn State defeated Oregon. Oregon came into the Rose Bowl with a 9-3 record and ranked 12th in the AP Poll. After failing to provide a clear national champion for three years in a row, the Coalition would be dismantled in favor of a Bowl Alliance.

The National Championship was Tom Osborne's first at Nebraska.

Ten years after Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass against Miami, history would repeat itself as Kordell Stewart of Colorado threw a last second, 64-yard Hail Mary to defeat #4 Michigan in the Big House and is called The Miracle at Michigan.

The major poll at the time was the Associated Press (AP) Poll and in that poll, Nebraska is the only team that was ranked in the top five in all 16 polls, from the pre-season poll, through the 14 weekly polls concluding with the final poll. Nebraska received the most votes for number one in ten of those polls and was ranked No.1 in seven of those polls. Penn State appeared in 12 polls and held the top spot in only the weekly poll dated 10/18/94.

The Florida Gators started the 1994 season atop the pre-season AP Poll and remained there all of one more week, but after Nebraska defeated West Virginia 31-0 in the Kick-Off Classic and Florida defeated New Mexico State 70-21, the Huskers took over the top spot. West Virginia had been in the unt for the Bowl Coalition championship game in 1993 and finished at 11-1. Tommie Frazier vaulted himself into the Heisman conversation in the Kick-off Classic and Nebraska cruised to the easy win.

Nebraska only stayed in that top spot for on week. After the Huskers defeated Texas Tech 42-16 and Florida trounced Kentucky 73-7, the Gators edged Nebraska for number one with 1492 pts to 1483 for Nebraska. Florida and Nebraska remained 1-2 in the AP Poll for five weeks. Penn State moved into the top five for the first time in the 9/20/94 poll at number five and heading into games on Saturday October 15, Penn State was in third place behind Nebraska.

The Husker's ranking began to be a bit tenuous when Frazier was sidelined with blood clots after the UCLA win on September 20th. Frazier played only a few downs in the 70-21 drubbing of Pacific, and did not play again during the regular season. Back-up QB, Brook Berringer took over as the starter. but during a 42-32 win over Wyoming he was injured, suffering a partially collapsed lung. Berringer started against Oklahoma State the following week, but 3rd string walk-on Matt Turman took over in the second half as NU won 32-3.

Turman was called on to for the one and only start of his career the next week at Kansas State. Running a very conservative game plan, he kept Nebraska in front and Berringer was able to come in the second half of the 17-6 win. That same day, Penn State defeated Michigan 31-24 in a Big Ten battle and that win elevated the Nittany Lions into the top spot in the AP Poll, 13 points ahead of Colorado and Nebraska was third.

The following week, Penn State was idle. No. 2 Colorado defeated Kansas State 35-21 and Nebraska rolled Missouri 42-7. Berringer appeared back in form and threw three touchdown passes in the win over the Tigers. NU pounded out 330 yards on the ground and started picking up momentum again. This win vaulted Nebraska past Colorado and Penn State back into the top spot in the AP Poll on Nov. 1, 1994. Berringer would have another outstanding game the following week as Nebraska defeated No. 2 Colorado 24-7 and it was not that close. In a highly controversial decision, AP voters dropped Penn State to #2 behind Nebraska after the Nittany Lions defeated Indiana 35-29; Penn State was thumping the Hoosiers 35-14 late in the 4th quarter when Joe Paterno pulled all of his starters and gave his marginal backups a chance to play, leading Indiana to score 15 meaningless points (including a touchdown as the clock expired), and the voters' reaction indicated they looked at the final tally and wrongly concluded Penn State had played poorly enough against a bad team to merit their AP poll demotion. Penn State was thus locked out of the national championship picture despite finishing with a perfect record.

Nebraska would hold the top spot in the AP Poll for the remainder of the season. The Huskers finished at 13-0 and Penn State at 12-0 and in second place. The Big Ten and the PAC-10 were not part of the Bowl Coaltition which meant they would not play each other in a bowl game.

Another notable game was Florida vs. Florida State. Florida led 31-3 at the start of the fourth quarter, but Florida State scored 28 points and held Florida scoreless in the fourth quarter to tie the game 31-31.

Rashaan Salaam of Colorado would win the Heisman Trophy, but in a very uncommon turn of events, Division I-AA quarterback Steve McNair of Alcorn State finished third in the final Heisman voting.

Feb 25th, months before the season began, would be an infamous day in the history of the Southwest Conference. An all-Texas conference could only capture a small portion of the national TV market, and with Arkansas's flight to the SEC, other schools began to make plans for associating themselves with other conferences. Texas and Colorado were rumored to be joining the Pac-10, Texas A&M were thought to be joining the SEC. Ultimately, on February 25, Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Baylor announced they were going to leave the Southwest Conference for the newly formed Big 12 Conference. The Southwest Conference would still continue to play for two more years, as the remaining members looked for new homes.

The SEC Championship Game moved from Birmingham, Alabama to the Georgia Dome.

The John Hancock Bowl went back to its original name, the Sun Bowl. The Gator Bowl was played in Gainesville, Florida during construction of ALLTEL Stadium, which was to be the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars and future home of the Gator Bowl game.

Although Nebraska, Penn State and Alabama were still ranked in the Top 10, many of college football's legendary teams finished the regular season with their lowest rankings in years. The Ohio State Buckeyes were ranked 13th, Michigan was 20th and the USC Trojans 21st, and Notre Dame, Texas and Oklahoma were unranked.

Northeast Louisiana University, now University of Louisiana Monroe joined Division 1-A this year bringing the total number of schools to 107.