1994 NCAA Division I - A football season The 1994 NCAA Division I - A football season saw yet another controversial finish as both Nebraska and Penn State finished undefeated , and yet Penn State finished a distant second in the final AP and UPI polls . The controversial finish , however , could have been an even worse morass if not for some end of season results . Late in the season , there were two other undefeated teams : Alabama and Auburn . The Auburn Tigers , who had gone undefeated the year before but was barred from post - season play , were 9 - 0 before tying Georgia and losing to Alabama in the Iron Bowl . The Alabama Crimson Tide finished the regular season undefeated at 11 - 0 , but lost a heartbreaker 24 - 23 on a fourth quarter touchdown pass against Florida in the 1994 SEC Championship Game . The Bowl Coalition championship game featured Big Eight Conference champion Nebraska hosting Big East Conference champion Miami in the Orange Bowl , a game which Nebraska won in a come from behind victory . However , over at the Rose Bowl , undefeated Penn State defeated Oregon . After failing to provide a clear national champion for three years in a row , the Coalition would be dismantled in favor of a Bowl Alliance . The National Championship was Tom Osborne ' s first at Nebraska . Ten years after Doug Flutie ' s Hail Mary pass against Miami , history would repeat itself as Kordell Stewart of Colorado threw a last second , 64 - yard Hail Mary to defeat # 4 Michigan in the Big House and is called The Miracle at Michigan . A moral defeat was also handed to Penn State as the already defeated , who had been drubbed 35 - 14 until Joe Paterno took mercy on them and removed his starters from the game , scored 15 meaningless points - - including a Hail Mary TD pass on the final play - - to finish with a misleading 35 - 29 score . Voters promptly demoted Penn State from # 1 in a poll and elevated Nebraska to that spot , a result that the Nittany Lions were never able to overcome ( not least because , under the Rose Bowl / Orange Bowl selection rules of the time , Penn State could only play in the former contest and Nebraska only in the latter one ) . Another notable game was Florida vs . Florida State . Florida led 31 - 3 at the start of the fourth quarter , but scored 28 points and held Florida scoreless in the fourth quarter to tie the game 31 - 31 . Rashaan Salaam of Colorado would win the Heisman Trophy , but in a very uncommon turn of events , Division I - AA quarterback Steve McNair of finished third in the final Heisman voting . Feb 25th , months before the season began , would be an infamous day in the history of the Southwest Conference . An all - Texas conference could only capture a small portion of the national TV market , and with Arkansas ' s flight to the SEC , other schools began to make plans for associating themselves with other conferences . Texas and Colorado were rumored to be joining the Pac - 10 , Texas A & M were thought to be joining the SEC . Ultimately , on February 25 , Texas , Texas Tech , Texas A & M , and Baylor announced they were going to leave the Southwest Conference for the newly formed Big 12 Conference . The Southwest Conference would still continue to play for two more years , as the remaining members looked for new homes . The SEC Championship Game moved from Birmingham , Alabama to the Georgia Dome . The John Hancock Bowl went back to its original name , the Sun Bowl . The Gator Bowl was played in Gainesville , Florida during construction of ALLTEL Stadium , which was to be the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars and future home of the Gator Bowl game . Although Nebraska , Penn State and Alabama were still ranked in the Top 10 , many of college football ' s legendary teams finished the regular season with their lowest rankings in years . The Ohio State Buckeyes were ranked 13th , Michigan was 20th and the USC Trojans 21st , and Notre Dame , and were unranked . Northeast Louisiana University , now University of Louisiana Monroe joined Division 1 - A this year bringing the total number of schools to 107 . Bowl Coalition # 1 and # 2 . The Bowl Coalition did not include the Big 10 and Pacific 10 conferences , whose champions played in the Rose Bowl . Penn State , which was ranked # 1 in the Oct 18 and Oct 25 polls , and # 2 for the remainder of the season , finished the regular season 11 - 0 - 0 and played in the Rose Bowl as the champion of the Big Ten . Heisman Trophy voting . " The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award is given to the Most Outstanding Player of the year " Winner : Rashaan Salaam , Colorado , JR . RB ( 1400 votes )