We will have much more on the historical trouble Miami has had in the Fiesta Bowl later in the week, but first let's take a look at the National Championship victories by Florida schools and where they were accomplished. The Fiesta Bowl is the missing link, and the Gators can give Florida Schools a clean sweep of BCS bowl venues for Championships with a win versus Ohio State on January 8th in what is not the Fiesta Bowl, but the BCS Title Game. (Why was an additional BCS game added a week later that isn't a plus one game? That's a topic for another day!)
Below is a list of games where the Florida school had a shot at the national title. Prior to 1998, the BCS did not exist and #1 and #2 did not often play one another in Bowl games due to conference tie ins. (For example the Big 8 champ was locked into the Orange Bowl, the SEC to the Sugar Bowl, etc.) Many of the games listed below were not true national championship games, meaning the team that won did not always win the title. Also the year corresponds not to the Bowl game but to the season. For example the 2002 Rose Bowl is listed as Miami 2001.
ROSE BOWL
Victories
Miami 2001
Defeats
None
FIESTA BOWL
Victories
None
Defeats
Miami 1986
Florida 1995
Florida State 1998
Miami 2002
SUGAR BOWL
Victories
Miami 1989
Florida 1996
Florida State 1999
Miami 2000 (z)
Defeats
Miami 1985 (c)
Miami 1992
Orange Bowl
Victories
Miami 1983
Miami 1987
Miami 1988 (x)
Miami 1991
Florida State 1993
Defeats
Florida State 1979
Florida State 1980 (y)
Miami 1994 (v)
Florida State 2000
z- Miami needed an Oklahoma loss the next day to FSU to claim a share of the national title. Oklahoma won
c- Miami needed a Penn State loss in the Orange Bowl to claim an undisputed title. Penn State lost but so did Miami. Oklahoma won the title despite being blown out at home by Miami during the season.
x- Miami needed a West Virginia win over Notre Dame to claim the National Title. Notre Dame won, after avoiding a rematch with Miami who had lost a controversial 31-30 game in South Bend earlier in the season.
y- Florida State needed a Georgia loss in the Sugar Bowl to claim the title. Georgia won.
v- Miami needed a Penn State loss in the Rose Bowl to win the title. Penn State won.
Monday, December 11, 2006
The Fiesta Bowl: The Missing Link
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4 comments:
Nice work. You are wrong about one thing which is FSU would have earned a split with a Orange Bowl win after the 1980 season. We had that game won and then JC Watts, later a great Congressman from Oklahoma took the game over. Our QB Rick Stockstill, later an assistant to Spurrier threw a pick while we were setting up for a potential game winning FG late. We lost 18-17.
I stand corrected. I looked it up and you are right. 1979 we would have won the title with a win. In 1980 we needed a UGA loss and a win.
Nice article but because of the insane nature of the BCS system, a Gator win would not be a Fiesta Bowl Championship, so technically the point of your aticle cannot be remedied this year. Two Fiesta Bowls are being played this year, one with the name and one without. How dumb.
That 1989 Miami-Bama game in the Sugar Bowl was great! Too bad ABC forced us to listen to the idiot Frank Gifford call the game.
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