2001 Miami Hurricanes National Championship Ring

The 2001 Miami Hurricanes football team was the national champion of the 2001 college football season, voted by ESPN as one of the top college football teams of all-time. They finished the 2001 season with a 37-14 drubbing of the vastly overmatched 2001 Nebraska Cornhuskers in the BCS National Championship Game.

In 2000, Miami was shut out of the Orange Bowl BCS National Championship Game by the BCS computers. Despite Miami beating Florida State head-to-head that season and being higher ranked in both human polls, it was Florida State, and not Miami, that BCS computers selected to challenge the Oklahoma Sooners for the national championship (Oklahoma would win, 13-2). This was because Miami had lost to #15 Washington 34-29, while the Seminoles' lone loss was on the road to the #3 team in the country by 3. The experience led[citation needed] to alterations in the BCS rankings system to ensure that the situation would not repeat itself in the future. Nevertheless, Miami was left with a bitter sense of disappointment, believing they had been deprived of a shot at a potential national championship. That off-season, the team resolved to take the matter entirely out of the discretion of the computers by going a perfect 12-0. However, they had to do so under a new head coach, Larry Coker, who was named to the post after Butch Davis left to become head coach of the NFL's Cleveland Browns.