Voters divide championship

After Orange Bowl victory, Cornhuskers secure a share

Triumph was tinged with disappointment following No. 1 Michigan's victory in the Rose Bowl last Thursday. After No. 2 Nebraska throttled No. 3 Tennessee in the Orange Bowl the next night, giving Tom Osborne a victory in his final game as coach, the Wolverines fell behind the Cornhuskers in the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll and split the national championship.

Michigan (12-0) had been the consensus No. 1 team entering the bowl season and finished first in the Associated Press media poll. Nebraska (13-0), which had been a distant second in both polls, picked up significant ground with its 42-17 victory.

WARREN ZINN/Daily Junior Mark Campbell celebrates Michigan's victory ...

Edging the Wolverines by a narrow margin in the coaches' poll, the Cornhuskers secured a share of their third national title in four years. They were outright champions following the 1994 and '95 seasons. The Wolverines earned a share of their first national title since 1948.

Four points separated the two teams in the coaches' poll, with the Cornhuskers grabbing 32 first-place votes and 1,520 points to the Wolverines' 30 first-place votes and 1,516 points. In the media poll, the Wolverines won easily. They had 51 1/2 first-place votes and 1,731 points to the Cornhuskers' 18 1/2 first-place votes and 1,698 points, though Michigan had boasted all but one of the first-place votes in the media poll before the bowl season.

"From our standpoint, it could not have worked out any better," said Osborne, who last month announced he is retiring after 25 seasons leading the Cornhuskers. "I'm sure people voted as they did for different reasons. My feeling on how you vote is what team you feel would be favored over every other team, regardless of when they last won a national championship, or whether their coach is retiring or all the sidebars that don't really mean anything."

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said he was "disappointed" that the Wolverines did not win the title outright. But he also said: "I'm not a playoff proponent. I don't think there is any way in our sport you can do a playoff and determine a true national champion. I know there's a lot of people who want to see that happen, but I think there will always be controversy."

The split national title was the third this decade. Next season, the Rose Bowl, Pac-10 and Big Ten will join the Super Alliance - along with the Orange, Sugar and Fiesta bowls - in an attempt to prevent a split title from happening again. But matching up a true No. 1 team with a true No. 2 team still will rely on the integrity of the polls - something that was damaged last week.

Doing the math to compute the coaches' poll reveals that one or two coaches voted Michigan No. 3 or No. 4. That did not prevent the Wolverines from finishing No. 1, but it weakened their standing and exposed a willingness by some coaches to stray from the mainstream.

In the poll, 62 coaches rank the teams from No. 1 to No. 25. A first-place vote is worth 25 points, a second-place vote is worth 24 points, and so on. Nebraska received 1,520 points, with 32 first-place votes accounting for 800 of the total. The only way the Cornhuskers could have received their remaining 720 points is if every one of the 30 coaches who voted Michigan No. 1 also voted Nebraska No. 2.

Michigan received a total of 1,516 points. Multiply 30 first-place votes by 25 and you get 750 points. Now, if all 32 coaches who voted Nebraska No. 1 turned around and voted Michigan No. 2, that would have given the Wolverines another 768 points, or a total of 1,518. So the two points less they actually received tells us one coach either dropped them to No. 4, or two coaches put them third.

SARA STILLMAN/Daily ... as does junior safety Marcus Ray.

Final 1997 Associated Press Poll

1. Michigan (51.5) 12-0 1,731.5

2. Nebraska (18.5) 13-0 1,698.5

3. Florida State 11-1 1,599

4. Florida 10-2 1,455

5. UCLA 10-2 1,413

6. North Carolina 11-1 1,397

7. Tennessee 11-2 1,320

8. Kansas State 11-1 1,302

9. Washington State 10-2 1,259

10. Georgia 10-2 1,121

11. Auburn 10-3 1,025

12. Ohio State 10-3 975

13. Louisiana State 9-3 856

14. Arizona State 8-3 773

15. Purdue 9-3 715

16. Penn State 9-3 706

17. Colorado State 11-2 673

18. Washington 8-4 617

19. Southern Mississippi 9-3 490

20. Texas A&M 9-4 421

21. Syracuse 9-4 331

22. Mississippi 8-4 255

23. Missouri 7-5 175

24. Oklahoma State 8-4 72

25. Georgia Tech 7-5 64

Final 1997 USA Today/ESPN Poll

1. Nebraska (32) 13-0 1,520

2. Michigan (30) 12-0 1,516

3. Florida State 11-1 1,414

4. North Carolina 11-1 1,292

5. UCLA 10-2 1,239

6. Florida 10-2 1,209

7. Kansas State 11-1 1,192

8. Tennessee 11-2 1,122

9. Washington State 10-2 1,076

10. Georgia 10-2 1,007

11. Auburn 10-3 854

12. Ohio State 10-3 826

13. Louisiana State 9-3 786

14. Arizona State 8-3 667

15. Purdue 9-3 666

16. Colorado State 11-2 646

17. Penn State 9-3 585

18. Washington 8-4 512

19. Southern Mississippi 9-3 462

20. Syracuse 9-4 380

21. Texas A&M 9-4 359

22. Mississippi 8-4 188

23. Missouri 7-5 114

24. Oklahoma State 8-4 103

25. Air Force 10-3 74

01-07-98