Year 2!

In real life, undefeated Florida State was the sport’s very first wire-to-wire #1. They ranked #1 in the preseason AP poll, and never relinquished that spot en route to a national championship. They would win that championship against also undefeated Virginia Tech, who swept the Big East behind freshman QB phenom Michael Vick. (Perhaps you’ve heard of him?) In our version, they’re joined in the bye club by 11-1 Nebraska, champions of the Big XII after avenging their regular season loss to Texas in the conference championship game, and also 10-2 Alabama, champions of the SEC after a shocking upset of Florida in their championship game.1Remember kids, this was well before Nick Saban. Bama used to be pretty inconsistent, and not the favorite in everything they did. They were LSU with worse food. 

The real-life BCS would once again screw-over Kansas State. The so-called “Kansas State rule” was passed that offseason, guaranteeing one auto-bid went to the highest ranked non-champion. Which that year was #5 Tennessee, runners up in the SEC East. #6 KSU would be left out over #8 Michigan, invited in a true helmet clash to face Bama in the Orange Bowl. That game was a classic, featuring Michigan coming from behind to force the very first overtime in program history, before ultimately winning 35-34. They were powered in that game by a QB named Tom Brady, who I’m sure went on to widespread acclaim as a crypto pitchman or something. 

The true frustration for the Wildcats lay not in the Wolverines jumping them a little, but by unranked2In the BCS, anyway. They were AP #22, Coaches #21. KSU was #7 in both, for the record 8-3 Stanford jumping them by a lot. The Rose Bowl still had strict ties in years it was not the national championship host, so the Pac 10 champion was guaranteed a chance to lose against Big 10 champ Wisconsin, while KSU slummed it in the holiday bowl. 

But we have the power to change all that! Tennessee still outranks KSU, earning the #5 seed, but KSU is now just one spot lower at #6. Instead of a building narrative about KSU being screwed by the old money club, we get a more fun narrative of a rising upstart crashing the party, on the verge of crashing the protected seeds. Depending on how they perform in these hypothetical tournaments we might be looking at Kansas State football completely differently today. 

Wisconsin once again wins the Big 10, this time outright, and get a first round rematch with Florida, who now do have to travel to Madison. The weather would be even colder this year, hovering around the low 20s. I guess we’ll see if these gators are warm-blooded!

The final first-round host is Michigan, hosting fellow Big 10 runner-up Michigan State in what would have been an intense and hateful rivalry rematch. Earlier that season Michigan State, behind head coach Nick Saban3A real famous name heavy article, this one, won a 34-31 victory over the Wolverines at Spartan Stadium. There would likely be much gnashing of teeth over Big Brother getting to host the rematch, despite the school’s identical records. Michigan was exactly one spot ahead of the Spartans in the BCS, AP, and Coaches poll, for reasons unclear. Perhaps a win over eventual conference champ Wisconsin (whom Sparty lost to) was the difference? Regardless, this would be a hatin-ass game, haunt the dreams of the losing fanbase forever, and be a great example of why college football is the best. 

Kansas State would be hosting Marshall, undefeated champions of the Mid-American Conference. In real life, they were well outside of any BCS contention despite a perfect record. Like Tulane before them, they were held back by the company they kept. But in this world, not only are they in, they aren’t even the champ that gets the token final bid! That honor goes to 8-3 Southern Miss, champs of Conference USA. The Pacific 10 was baaad in 1999. So bad that their champion, Stanford, couldn’t even outrank a 3-loss C-USA squad. Southern Miss’s losses were respectable, at least, falling to Big XII champ Nebraska, SEC champ Alabama, and a decent 8-3 Texas A&M.4Also, that’s pretty good scheduling for a small-time program. Props to Southern Miss for taking those swings! Stanford wasn’t as lucky, with losses to a dreadful 3-7 San Jose State team and a mediocre 7-4 Washington in there keeping them down. In our more perfect universe it is they who suffer the indignity of the Holiday Bowl!

These selections seem like they would have been fairly non-controversial, outside of outrage at the mere idea of the storied Pac-10 being snubbed. I’m sure that’s the last time the upper echelon of the sport deals them a bad hand. There may have been grousing about Florida taking the last at-large, after how badly Bama womped them in the SEC championship.534-7! But, a Gators fan might counter that they shouldn’t be unduly punished for winning their division and getting that extra game in the first place. The loss was only their third, putting them in a tie with schools like Penn State, Minnesota, and Texas A&M, all of whom got to 3 losses without a conference championship to lose, thank you very much. 

What do you think? Would you have bumped the Gators (or anyone else)? Who do you think should have hosted the Paul Bunyan rematch? And how weird is it to remember “oh yeah, Nebraska used to be really good”? 

Next time, it’s the new Willennium baby. Year 2000!