ANALYSIS : EXPANSION TEAMS WIN HEARTS PANTHERS, JAGUARS EXCEL WITH CHARACTER AND MANAGEMENT.

Byline: Thomas George The New York Times

Football fans everywhere are rubbing their eyes after the Carolina Panthers beat the venerable Dallas Cowboys 26-17 Sunday. Only a day earlier the Jacksonville Jaguars had toppled the tough Denver Broncos 30-27.

This is shocking. This is numbing.

This is fun.

One upset would have been a surprising signal of the rapidly changing order in the NFL. But now both expansion teams have reached their respective conference championship games after competing for only two seasons on the field. Both are one step away from Super Bowl XXXI on Jan. 26 in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

On Sunday, Carolina (13-4) plays at Green Bay (14-3) for the NFC championship and Jacksonville (11-7) plays at New England (12-5) for the AFC title. The winners meet in the Super Bowl.

But before that, the two conference championship games on Sunday will provide a day unlike any ever before in the 76-year history of the NFL.

It will be a day when the pups of the league join the league's biggest dogs.

How did it happen? So many NFL franchises have been around so much longer, have so much more experience. They were supposed to have at least a leg up on the two teams with such little history, such little national following and such little respect.

First, remember that Carolina and Jacksonville did not just show up, kick the ball off and begin playing last season. Carolina was awarded its franchise on Oct. 26, 1993, at an NFL owners meeting in Chicago. Jacksonville earned its spot as the league's 30th franchise a month later.

Thus, both teams gained a chance to sit on the sideline and watch the entire 1994 NFL season unfold. Both took notes. Both mulled their options. Both paid attention to detail.

What we see today is the surface, but the foundations for both franchises were laid in rock-solid fashion.

The owners, Jerry Richardson in Carolina and Wayne Weaver in Jacksonville, set the standard with a first-class approach in nearly everything they touched. Carolina had its general manager (Bill Polian) and head coach (Dom Capers) in place within three months of gaining its franchise. Jacksonville had its coach (Tom Coughlin) and senior vice president of football operations (Michael Huyghue) in place within two months.

Their peers around the league complained that both expansion teams gained advantages unlike any previous expansion team. The chief criticism was that each team gained a total of 14 extra picks in the past two NFL drafts, which helped them dramatically. Second, their peers said, both clubs had the help of a new pool of players provided via free agency.

The real difference is what both did with those opportunities. Both drafted with speed, skill and character in mind. Both drafted players who would be molded into a cohesive unit. Both proceeded to do the molding. And all the while, both kept reminding their personnel that they were not expansion teams at all. That there was not a 10-year plan or even five-year one but that, indeed, the goal was to win now.

That idea has been crucial to both teams' success. Think like a veteran team. Think like a championship team. Play like one.

The coaching staffs of both teams have excelled. Both teams have fashioned stout defenses, one of the critical elements to winning championships. And both teams put their energies, their hopes, their dreams into unproved quarterbacks who have produced.

Kerry Collins in Carolina and Mark Brunell in Jacksonville have learned fast while on the run. Collins is only two years out of Penn State. Brunell, from the University of Washington, was the fourth quarterback drafted in 1993 and was obtained in a trade from the Green Bay Packers before the 1995 draft. He had played in two games in two years at Green Bay and at first was a backup in Jacksonville.

Both young quarterbacks were available for teams that truly wanted them, for clubs that could see down the road that the two players possessed championship moxie. It was Carolina and Jacksonville that took the bait.

Carolina all along was the golden expansion team. Vying for the coveted spots with a group of cities which included Baltimore, St. Louis and Memphis, Carolina was viewed as the can't-miss applicant. Its economic forecast and spirited fan base made it the front-runner.

The conventional thinking was that Baltimore and St. Louis were next in order.

But Jacksonville seemingly came from nowhere, with a mad push at the end that swung NFL voters its way.

Carolina and Jacksonville. They have watched each other from up close and from afar. They have competed with each other to make the quickest, biggest and most lasting impact in expansion.

Carolina and Jacksonville. This is shocking. This is numbing.

This is fun.

What could possibly be more stunning? Carolina and Jacksonville in Super Bowl XXXI?

Both say, why not? Onward and upward. Fresh and new.