The United States Senate passed a resolution on August 6 recognizing the 1960 Missouri Tigers for their claim to that season's national championship. Sen. Eric Schmitt introduced S. Res. 833, which passed by unanimous consent, and it carries no force of law whatsoever. It reflects, by the chamber's own definition, the Senate's sentiments.
The Tigers went 10-1 on the field, lost only to Kansas, and the Big Eight later ordered Kansas to forfeit that game for using an ineligible player, which made Missouri 11-0. They beat Navy and Heisman winner Joe Bellino in the Orange Bowl. Five different selectors picked four different champions that year: the AP and UPI took Minnesota, which then lost the Rose Bowl; the Football Writers took Ole Miss; Helms took Washington; the Litkenhous formula took Iowa. Missouri has never claimed the title itself.
So here is the natural question for anyone in Coral Gables: does Miami have a season sitting in the same drawer?
The 4 titles that Miami does not claim
Miami claims five national championships: 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991 and 2001. The record books list four more as unclaimed: 1986, 1988, 1990 and 2000.
Two of those are easy to dismiss. The 1986 team went 11-1 and lost the Fiesta Bowl to Penn State, which was the de facto title game. The 1988 team went 11-1 and lost at Notre Dame, which finished 12-0.
The 1990 team was named national champion by ERS and the New York Times computer ranking and co-champion by Billingsley, Sagarin and Rothman, which is more selector support than any other unclaimed Miami season. It also went 10-2 and nobody is passing a resolution for a two-loss team.
The 2000 Miami Hurricanes
That leaves 2000. Butch Davis' last Miami team went 11-1, with the only loss coming to Washington on September 9, and Washington finished 11-1.
On October 7, Miami beat Florida State 27-24 at the Orange Bowl, ending a 17-game Seminoles winning streak on a Ken Dorsey touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey in the final minutes. A month later the Hurricanes beat No. 2 Virginia Tech 41-21, though the Hokies were without a healthy Michael Vick.
Miami won the Big East and finished the regular season 10-1, but Florida State played Oklahoma for the national championship anyway.
The reason was the BCS formula, which at the time let its computers count margin of victory. Florida State closed the year by beating Florida 30-7 in Tallahassee, the computers rewarded the style points, and the Seminoles passed Miami in the final standings despite ranking No. 3 in both human polls to Miami's No. 2.
Oklahoma eventually beat Florida State to 13-2 in the Orange Bowl, one of only two BCS or CFP championship games in which a team failed to score a touchdown. Miami beat Florida 37-20 in the Sugar Bowl behind three Dorsey touchdown passes and finished No. 2 in both final polls.
The BCS more or less conceded the point and over the following offseason it rebuilt the formula to prevent a repeat, instructing its computers to reduce weight from margin of victory and adding a bonus for beating highly ranked teams.
Miami probably wouldn't welcome any sort of resolution, but it's fun to speculate
Missouri can do this because Missouri has nothing to lose. For Miami, picking up a disputed sixth cheapens the other five.
The 2000 Hurricanes deserved to play for a championship. There's no doubt about that. But they don't need a resolution, and they would probably tell you the same thing.
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