Ooh boy was there some controversy about this one. Miami were an obvious number 1, in both the BCS and the human polls. The only undefeated team, they picked up right where they left off from last season, tearing a hole through the Big East en route to their 5th (and final, at time of publication) national championship.1And somehow their second under a 1st year head coach, as last year’s offensive coordinator Larry Coker took over for Butch Davis after the latter’s departure for the NFL. This of course mirrors Dennis Erickson, who took over in 1989 after Jimmy Johnson left for the league. But to win that championship, they played against Nebraska, the very first non-champion team to make a BCS title. Nebraska were #4 in both the AP and Coaches poll, behind both #2 Oregon (identical record, conference champions) AND #3 Colorado (2 losses, but champs of Nebraska’s conference after erasing them, 62-36). Nebraska were not competitive in that Rose Bowl, trailing 34-0 at the half as opposing fans chanted “Number 4” mockingly. This selection was so indefensible (especially after Oregon routed Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl, proving they really were the #2 team in the country and deserved Nebraska’s spot) that it resulted in the BCS changing its formula, a frequent occurrence during the BCS era. 

We don’t have to deal with any of that mess, however! The BCS’s weirdness still shows up (Colorado probably shouldn’t be above Oregon, even without considering a Fiesta Bowl that hadn’t happened yet) but it’s less impactful. Nebraska falls all the way to #5, lacking a conference championship2The importance of winning a conference in the 12-team system is likely in part a reaction to controversial selections in the BCS. Instead they cede the #4 spot to Illinois, who had an excellent season and won the Big 10 outright. 10 wins remains a program record, matched only in 19833The 2024 Illini can match if they win their bowl game, and 2001 remains their most recent Big 10 title. They absolutely deserve the celebration more than the Cornhuskers, who’ve been here every year in our system and, for all anyone at the time knew, would continue to be a staple. 

You may notice some strangeness in the SEC teams, with non-champs Florida and Tennessee ranked 6th and 7th, while actual champ LSU is down at 11th as an auto-bid4It’s maybe against the spirit of the auto-bid rule to allow the champ from a conference with 2 at-large selections to qualify, but hey, rules are rules.. Just a few weeks prior Florida were ranked #2, with just one loss and in prime position to play for and win the SEC championship. But, they had yet to play rival Tennessee, as their traditional early September matchup5The game’s literally called “The Third Saturday In September”, though I’ll admit I don’t here that one used quite as much as the Tennessee/Bama “Third Saturday in October” was cancelled and rescheduled to December thanks to 9/11. (This wasn’t just a them thing, of course; nobody played any games that week, and the season was pushed back one week to allow for rescheduling) Tennessee pulled the upset, and were in prime position themselves to win the SEC. But, LSU, champs of the comparatively weaker SEC West6I started paying attention to the sport in the mid-10s, so it’s wild to learn that the East used to dominate an overmatched West, rather than the other way around. and with 3 losses already under their belt (including one each to both Tennessee and Florida!) managed to pull an upset themselves in the rematch. Perhaps an early sign that 2nd year head coach Nick Saban was turning things around in the bayou? 

All this drama results in Florida getting their shot at LSU in a “let’s pretend the Tennessee game didn’t happen” special, while Tennessee hosts ACC champs Maryland??? That’s right, for the very first time since they joined the ACC in 1992 Florida State had failed to win the conference, losing 4 times (including twice in conference) and allowing the Terrapins to claim the crown. Although he would remain head coach until 2010 this marked the end of Bobby Bowden’s dynastic period with the Noles. They finished in the AP top five 14 years in a row, which remains a record. Despite this drop off they did manage to beat Maryland, taking the shine off their title just a bit. 

Our final matchup is Texas, champs of the Big XII South division, vs Stanford, a shockingly decent 9-2 out of the Pac-10. Stanford’s placement is baffling to me; Washington State had an identical record AND the head-to-head win, and I’m really not sure why they ranked below the Cardinal in both the BCS and the human polls. Also frustrated by Stanford’s ranking are defending champs Oklahoma, 10-2 and one spot ahead of Stanford in both human polls. (Also with a head-to-head over Texas, for what that’s worth) The computers really liked the Cardinal, however, and their suspicious favoritism towards a Silicon Valley school smells like home cooking to me. In this reality the Oklahoma Sooners may have begun the Butlerian Jihad over their snub. But hey, that’s what happens when you blow it against Oklahoma State in the last week of the season. Try not doing that next time, Sooners.

Our final at-large spot goes to BYU, champions of the Mountain West. This selection required some guestimating from me, as neither BYU nor Louisville (champs of Conference USA) nor Toledo (champs of the MAC) were ranked in the BCS. But in the AP those schools were 19, 23, and 25 respectively, so I gave the nod to the Cougars. BYU are lucky their final week loss at Hawai’i (by the truly video game score of 72-42, goddamn y’all) didn’t drop them out of this spot. The Louisville Cardinals have real reason to cry fowl, though, and in real life would in fact beat this BYU team in the Liberty Bowl. Louisville’s own final week loss to TCU would wind up hurting them just a bit more. And of course 11-2 Fresno State, AP #20, likely take this spot out of the WAC if they had managed to win said conference. Lots of drama for this final spot, it’s genuinely what I love about a larger playoff. We get capital “I” Important games from so many more places, rather than just the usual suspects. 

And on that note I should mention some conference realignment taking place amongst the mid-majors in 2001. The Big West stopped sponsoring football that year, and their 6 football schools scattered to various other conferences. The southeastern-focused Sun Belt also began sponsoring football that year, claiming various independents from the region as well as some former Big West schools. The loss of a western conference and the gain of a southern one was, in retrospect, an omen of things to come. You can learn a lot when you pay attention to the entire sport, it turns out.