1999 NCAA Division I - A football season The 1999 NCAA Division I - A football season saw Florida State named national champions , defeating Virginia Tech in the BCS Sugar Bowl . Florida State became the first team in history to start out preseason # 1 and remain there through the entire season . Their 12 - 0 season gave them 109 victories in the 90 ' s , the most for any decade . Virginia Tech also had a remarkable season behind freshman quarterback Michael Vick , who was being touted as college football ' s best player . Vick was outshined in the national championship game by Florida State Wide Receiver Peter Warrick . Warrick had early problems with the law , charged with a misdemeanor he sat out two games early in the season . But he scored three touchdowns in the title game , earning MVP honors . The BCS adopted a new rule after the previous season , nicknamed the " Kansas State Rule , " which stated that any team ranked in the top four in the final BCS poll is ensured of an invitation to a BCS bowl game . A lot of teams faced debacles . East Carolina faced Hurricane Floyd , and in that same week , faced the # 9 . The Pirates were down 23 - 3 , but scored 24 unanswered points to win the football game , 27 - 23 . Kansas State finished 6th in the BCS standings but again received no BCS bowl invitation , this time being passed over in favor of Michigan ( ranked 8th ) . Kansas State ' s predicament demonstrated early on the problem of trying to balance historic bowl ties and creating a system which gives top bowl bids to the most deserving teams . Four members from each of the WAC ' s two divisions , the Mountain and Pacific , broke off from the unstable 16 - team conference to form the Mountain West Conference . Arkansas State left the ranks of the Independents to join the Big West Conference , as its seventh member . Two schools made the move up to Division I - A football this season : University at Buffalo and Middle Tennessee State University . Also , two schools adopted new names this season . The two Division I - A schools in the University of Louisiana System , Northeast Louisiana and Southwestern Louisiana , respectively became Louisiana - Monroe and Louisiana - Lafayette . Progress of # 1 and # 2 ( AP and BCS ) . Florida State University was ranked # 1 in 17 consecutive AP polls and all of the BCS rankings , which started on October 25 . The # 2 spot was held by several different opponents during the same time span : Final AP Poll . Others receiving votes : 26 . Stanford ( 8 - 4 , 168 points ) ; 27 . East Carolina ( 9 - 3 , 97 pts ) ; 28 . Colorado ( 7 - 5 , 75 pts ) ; 29 . TCU ( 8 - 4 , 45 pts ) ; 30 . Syracuse ( 7 - 5 , 21 pts ) ; 31 . Utah ( 9 - 3 , 20 pts ) ; 32 . Hawaii ( 9 - 4 , 19 pts ) ; 33 . Washington ( 7 - 5 , 7 pts ) ; 34 . Wake Forest ( 7 - 5 , 5 pts ) ; 35 . Boise St . ( 10 - 3 , 3 pts ) and Oklahoma ( 7 - 5 , 3 pts ) ; 37 . Colorado St . ( 8 - 4 , 2 pts ) . Final Coaches Poll . 1 . Florida St 2 . Nebraska 3 . Virginia Tech 4 . Wisconsin 5 . Michigan 6 . Kansas St 7 . Michigan St 8 . Alabama 9 . Tennessee 10 . Marshall 11 . Penn St 12 . 13 . 14 . Florida 15 . 16 . Georgia 17 . Minnesota 18 . 19 . Arkansas 20 . Texas A & M 21 . 22 . 23 . Texas 24 . Stanford 25 . Heisman Trophy Voting . " The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award is given to the Most Outstanding Player of the year " < br > Winner : Ron Dayne , Wisconsin , Running Back ( 2042 points )