GATOR BOWL: NORTH CAROLINA HOLDS OFF WEST VIRGINIA
*January 1, 1997: No. 12 North Carolina Tar Heels (10-2) defeated No. 25 West Virginia (8-4) in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida. There's been speculation about the future of Tar Heels Football Head Coach Mack Brown on whether he'll bolt from Chappel Hill in a few years.
FLORIDA CITRUS BOWL: TENNESSEE VOLS BLOW OUT OHIO STATE
*January 1, 1997: The No. 9 Tennessee Volunteers (10-2) led by Vols quarterback Peyton Manning, routed No. 5 Ohio State Buckeyes 48-28 in the Florida Citrus Bowl. Manning had been considering going to the NFL after the 1996 Season, but decided to come back to Knoxville for his senior year in 1997.
ORANGE BOWL: CORNHUSKERS TAKE THEIR ANGER OUT ON HOKIES
*December 31, 1996: Just weeks after seeing their dreams of a three-peat crash and burn in the inaugural 1996 Big 12 Championship Game in St. Louis, No. 6 Nebraska Cornhuskers (11-2) easily trounced the Big East champion No. 10 Virginia Tech Hokies (10-2) by a score of 65-21 in the Orange Bowl at the Pro Player Stadium in Miami, Florida.
SUN DEVILS MAKE HISTORY, FINISH CINDERELLA SEASON GOING UNDEFEATED AFTER WINNING ROSE BOWL CLASSIC
*January 1, 1997: In what many people called "One of the classic college football games in history", millions watched on ABC as the Pac-12 champion No. 2 Arizona State Sun Devils (12-0) led by Sun Devils quarterback Jake Plummer, came from behind to defeat Big 10 co-champion No. 11 Northwestern Wildcats (10-2) in overtime by a score of 49-48 when Plummer used a trickplay by faking the handoff and ran into the endzone all alone when Sun Devils Football Head Coach Bruce Snyder decided to go for the game-winning two-point conversion.
The win likely gives the Sun Devils a share of the national championship.