Dave Feit’s Historical College Football Playoffs: The Post-Osborne Nebraska Teams

This is the finale of our look at how many Nebraska teams would have qualified for the 12-team College Football Playoff had it existed since the start of the AP poll in 1936.

For more information on the series, and a look at Nebraska's first hypothetical playoff teams, click here. Brackets from the Bob Devaney era, Tom Osborne's 1970s teams, 1980s teams and 1990s teams are available as well.

With Tom Osborne's retirement at the end of the 1997 season, longtime assistant coach Frank Solich was now in charge of a program that had won three national championships in four seasons.

No pressure, Frank!

In 1998, the Huskers were still adjusting to a new, larger conference. Being the best of eight teams was no longer enough. Nebraska had to win the North division, then beat the South division champ in the Big XII Championship to get an automatic bid.

In 1998, Nebraska's next Heisman Trophy winner was a redshirt freshman, looking to get on the field for the first time. There was a ton of talent in the program.

In 1998, nobody had ever uttered the phrase "gravitate to a level of mediocrity".

Life was good.

But Nebraska was running out of playoff appearances.

1998

Nebraska: 9-3 (records are regular season only), second place in the Big XII North

The Huskers were ranked 14th in the final regular season AP poll and would have been the second team out, after Virginia. This snapped a seven-year run of being in the playoffs - the longest active streak at the time. NU lost to Big XII Champion (and 3 seed) Kansas State 40-30. In the Holiday Bowl, Nebraska lost to Arizona (who would have been the 6 seed) 23-20.

Team that won the National Championship: For the second time in three seasons, the national champion was a team that was blown out by Nebraska the year before. In 1996, Florida rebounded from 62-24 to win the title. In 1998, Tennessee used its loss to NU as motivation for a championship, beating Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl, the first-ever Bowl Championship Series title game.

1999

Nebraska: 11-1, won the Big XII championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers (and their AP ranking at the end of the regular season)

#1 Florida State (ACC)
#2 Virginia Tech (Big East)
#3 Nebraska (Big XII)
#4 Wisconsin (Big Ten)
#5 Alabama (SEC)

At-large teams (and their AP rankings at the end of the regular season)

#6 Tennessee
#7 Kansas State
#8 Michigan
#9 Michigan State
#10 Florida
#11 Marshall
#12 Minnesota

First two out

#13 Penn State
#14 Texas

The Huskers fumbled away a close loss at Texas during the regular season. But NU got revenge in the Big XII Championship, beating the Longhorns 22-6. As a bonus, the loss would have knocked Texas out of the playoffs.

The 1999 Huskers are often mentioned as one of the best Nebraska teams to never win a championship. As the 3 seed, the Huskers would face the winner of Marshall at Tennessee. Nebraska beat Tennessee 31-21 in the Fiesta Bowl. Their semifinal opponent would be Florida, Kansas State or Virginia Tech. The Huskers beat Kansas State 41-15 during the regular season.

Team that won the National Championship: The electric Michael Vick led Virginia Tech to the BCS championship game, but Peter Warrick and Florida State were too much.

2000

Nebraska: 9-2, First place (tied) in the Big XII North, did not qualify for the conference championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers

#1 Oklahoma (Big XII)
#2 Miami (Big East)
#3 Florida State (ACC)
#4 Washington (Pac-10)
#7 Florida (SEC)

At-large teams

#5 Oregon State
#6 Virginia Tech
#8 Oregon
#9 Nebraska
#10 Notre Dame
#11 Kansas State
#12 Texas

First two out

#13 TCU
#14 Purdue

Nebraska travels out to Oregon to face the Ducks. A win sets up a rematch with Oklahoma, who beat Nebraska 31-14 in Norman. The Huskers played two other teams in the bracket, beating 10 seed Notre Dame 27-24 in OT and losing at 11 seed Kansas State 29-28. In the Alamo Bowl, Nebraska destroyed Northwestern 66-17.

Team that won the National Championship: #4 Washington had the same 10-1 record as #3 Florida State, and had beaten #2 Miami and #5 Oregon State during the regular season. Yet, the BCS formula put FSU in the title game. Top-ranked Oklahoma beat Florida State 13-2 to win the championship.

2001

Nebraska: 10-1, First place (tied) in the Big XII North, did not qualify for the conference championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers

#1 Miami (Big East)
#2 Oregon (Pac-10)
#3 Colorado (Big XII)
#6 Maryland (ACC)
#7 Illinois (Big Ten)

At-large teams

#4 Nebraska
#5 Florida
#8 Tennessee
#9 Texas
#10 Oklahoma
#11 Stanford
#12 LSU

First two out

#13 Washington State
#14 South Carolina

Despite an ugly 62-36 loss to Colorado, the Huskers claimed the 5 seed and would host 12 seed LSU, with the winner facing Maryland. Top seed Miami would be lurking in the semifinals. Nebraska did beat 10 seed Oklahoma 20-10, behind a pretty nifty play that helped Eric Crouch win the Heisman Trophy.

Team that won the National Championship: A series of upsets after Thanksgiving (Colorado over Nebraska, Oklahoma State over OU, Tennessee over Florida, and Colorado over Texas) played havoc with the BCS computations. Colorado, Oregon and Nebraska all had arguments for why they should be picked to face top ranked Miami in the championship game. The Huskers were sent to the Rose Bowl, where they were no match for a Miami team loaded with NFL talent.

* * *

And that's it.

Over the next 23 years (and counting), Nebraska would not have qualified for the 12-team CFP.

In 2002, the wheels started to come off as Nebraska went a disappointing 7-7, their first non-winning season since 1961. The Huskers rebounded slightly in 2003, going 9-3. However, the Huskers were nowhere close to the playoff bubble (#22) when Frank Solich was fired.

Since Solich, Nebraska has largely been in a rut marked with bad hires, sloppy play, blowout losses, turnovers, and agonizingly close defeats where defeat is often snatched from the jaws of victory.

Nebraska did play for conference championships in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2012. A win in any of those games would have gotten NU an automatic bid into the playoffs. Unfortunately, the Huskers lost all four of those games and did not end up close to the bubble in any of those seasons.

NU was 22nd in the final regular season poll of 2006 following the loss to Oklahoma. After the last-second loss to Texas in 2009, NU was ranked 20th. They were 17th after the loss to Oklahoma in the 2010 Big XII Championship. That is as close as Nebraska has been to the playoffs since 2001. The Wisconsin blowout in the 2012 Big Ten title game knocked Nebraska down to 23rd.

That's not a very positive way to end what has been a fun look back at some of the greatest seasons in Nebraska football history. So, let's recap with some numbers and stats:

Number of times Nebraska made the 12-team CFP in the AP poll era (1936 - present): 36
Playoff appearances missed in the 36 year Devaney-Osborne era: 6 (1962, 1967-1969, 1976, 1990)
Longest streak of playoff appearances: 13 (1977-1989)
Times NU would have been the #1 seed: 4 (1971, 1983, 1994, 1995)
Times NU would have had a first-round bye: 18
Most common seeding: 3 (seven times)
First-round playoff games hosted at Memorial Stadium: 12
Teams that would have come to Lincoln for a first-round game: Air Force, Alabama, Auburn, LSU (twice), Maryland, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, UCLA and Washington
Most common first-round opponent: Notre Dame (four times)
Number of different teams to make the playoffs (in the years NU qualified): 70
Top 10 most playoff appearances (other than NU, in the years NU qualified): Alabama (21), Michigan (20), Notre Dame (18), Ohio State (17), Penn State (17), Oklahoma (16), Texas (16), Florida State (15), Tennessee (14) and Miami (13)

Dave Feit’s Historical College Football Playoffs: The Post-Osborne Nebraska Teams

1998

1999

Nebraska: 11-1, won the Big XII championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers (and their AP ranking at the end of the regular season)

At-large teams (and their AP rankings at the end of the regular season)

First two out

2000

Nebraska: 9-2, First place (tied) in the Big XII North, did not qualify for the conference championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers

At-large teams

First two out

2001

Nebraska: 10-1, First place (tied) in the Big XII North, did not qualify for the conference championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers

At-large teams

First two out

* * *

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1998

1999

Nebraska: 11-1, won the Big XII championship game Conference champion automatic qualifiers (and their AP ranking at the end of the regular season)

At-large teams (and their AP rankings at the end of the regular season)

First two out

2000

Nebraska: 9-2, First place (tied) in the Big XII North, did not qualify for the conference championship game Conference champion automatic qualifiers

At-large teams

First two out

2001

Nebraska: 10-1, First place (tied) in the Big XII North, did not qualify for the conference championship game Conference champion automatic qualifiers

At-large teams

First two out

* * *

Nebraska: 11-1, won the Big XII championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers (and their AP ranking at the end of the regular season)

Nebraska: 9-2, First place (tied) in the Big XII North, did not qualify for the conference championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers

Nebraska: 10-1, First place (tied) in the Big XII North, did not qualify for the conference championship game

Conference champion automatic qualifiers