The 1999 NCAA Division I-A football season saw Florida State named national champions, defeating Virginia Tech in the BCS Sugar Bowl.
Florida State became the first team in history to start out preseason #1 and remain there through the entire season. Their 12-0 season gave them 109 victories in the 90's, the most for any decade. Virginia Tech also had a remarkable season behind freshman quarterback Michael Vick, who was being touted as college football's best player.
Vick was outshined in the national championship game by Florida State Wide Receiver Peter Warrick. Warrick had early problems with the law, charged with a misdemeanor he sat out two games early in the season. But he scored three touchdowns in the title game, earning MVP honors.
The BCS adopted a new rule after the previous season, nicknamed the "Kansas State Rule," which stated that any team ranked in the top four in the final BCS poll is ensured of an invitation to a BCS bowl game.
A lot of teams faced debacles. East Carolina faced Hurricane Floyd, and in that same week, faced the #9 Miami Hurricanes. The Pirates were down 23-3, but scored 24 unanswered points to win the football game, 27-23.
Kansas State finished 6th in the BCS standings but again received no BCS bowl invitation, this time being passed over in favor of Michigan (ranked 8th). Kansas State's predicament demonstrated early on the problem of trying to balance historic bowl ties and creating a system which gives top bowl bids to the most deserving teams.
Four members from each of the WAC's two divisions, the Mountain and Pacific, broke off from the unstable 16-team conference to form the Mountain West Conference.
Arkansas State left the ranks of the Independents to join the Big West Conference, as its seventh member.
Two schools made the move up to Division I-A football this season: University at Buffalo and Middle Tennessee State University.
Also, two schools adopted new names this season. The two Division I-A schools in the University of Louisiana System, Northeast Louisiana and Southwestern Louisiana, respectively became Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette.
Read more about 1999 NCAA Division I-A Football Season: Final Conference Standings, Progress of #1 and #2 (AP and BCS), Final BCS Rankings, Final AP Poll, Final Coaches Poll, Heisman Trophy Voting, Other Major Awards
Famous quotes containing the words division, football and/or season:
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“... in the minds of search committees there is the lingering question: Can she manage the football coach?”
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