2001 Sugar Bowl: A Game That Never Should Have Been

Miami did everything they needed to do after an early season loss to Washington to play for the national championship. In October, Jermey Shockey's TD lifted the Canes over #1 Florida State. Four weeks later The Hurricanes bombed #2 Virginia Tech. Having beaten both teams that participated in the BCS Title game after the 1999 season, Miami at 10-1 would normally have been a cinch to play Oklahoma for the national title. But the BCS computers with a built in Florida State bias saw to it that the Hurricanes were jumped by FSU following the Noles 30-7 win over Florida at Doak Campbell Stadium. Butch Davis' classy effort not to run up the score on overmatched opponents was rewarded by a trip to a meaningless game against Florida: But the game would be first between the two rivals since Florida citing the need to play a "more national schedule" which included Montana State, Indiana State and SW Louisiana (while Miami replaced Florida on the schedule with among other Iowa, Michigan and Penn State) which actually meant play another home game each year dropped Miami. In 1991, Florida would play what is to date its last non conference game outside the state.

The Hurricanes crushed the Gators 37-20 in New Orleans. Enjoy this game summary from Wikipedia.

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