Michigan, Unified 1997 National Champion

Tom Osborne has named himself interim head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Fantastic news. It just leaves me with one question. When does the 1997 Sears National Championship Trophy get shipped to Ann Arbor?

Nothing says excellence like Sears.

As you may or may not remember, in 1997, undefeated Michigan was ahead of undefeated Nebraska in both polls at the end the regular season. They had one common opponent: Colorado. Michigan beat the Buffaloes 27-3, Nebraska 27-24. Hell, Nebraska shouldn’t have even been undefeated. A blown call allowed them to sneak past Mizzou in overtime. Michigan was number one, Nebraska number two. Then Tom Osborne announced he was retiring at the end of the year. And suddenly — after both teams won their respective bowls — the coaches thought that Nebraska was the better team. No doubt, the fraternal coaching loyalty came into play. They all wanted to send their comrade off with a national championship. Fine, whatever. It was a monumentally stupid reason to give someone a national championship, but the polls are often filled with monumentally stupid reasoning.

But that reason, it no longer exists. He’s back now. I don’t care that it’s an interim role to help recruiting. Tom Osborne is once again head coach at the University of Nebraska, and I would just like any Nebraska representative’s reading this to know that they can send the 1997 Sears National Championship Crystal Football to the University of Michigan Athletic Department. The address is 1000 South State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2201. You don’t have to overnight it or anything, just make sure you include a lot of those foam peanuts. And maybe some bubble wrap. And would it kill you to send a card.