ROUT, NO DOUBT MIAMI WINS TITLE IN IMPERFECT BCS SYSTEM.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

PASADENA - While the University of Miami was earning the national championship of college football with a victory over the University of Nebraska on Thursday night, the game itself was earning a place in the deepest, darkest, dankest corner of the Rose Bowl's 100-year history.

It was Jan. 1, 1902, that the very first Rose Bowl game was played, with teams from Michigan and Stanford colliding in a then-rare intersectional contest. The Rose Bowl stadium as we know it had yet to be built. A crowd of 8,500 showed up at a field in Pasadena to watch. Michigan won 49-0.

The initial attempt at Rose Bowl football was deemed such a flop that, for the next 13 New Year's Days, polo and Ben Hur-style chariot races were scheduled instead.

Miami's one-sided, 37-14 victory over Nebraska in front of 93,781 fans - about three-quarters of whom wore Nebraska red - did not deal such a serious setback to the sport that Tournament of Roses organizers will begin scouring eBay for a fleet of Roman chariots.

But it will intensify the cry for a change from the way college football has determined its champions in the past four years.

At least the so-called Bowl Championship Series produced a deserving winner in Miami, which followed quarterback Ken Dorsey, pass receiver Andre Johnson and a speedy defensive unit to the 13th victory for the nation's only undefeated team. The Hurricanes, who began the game as No. 1 in the BCS's computer-generated rankings and the writers' and coaches' polls, clinched their fifth national championship and made Larry Coker the first rookie head coach in more than half a century to lead a team to the title.

As for whether Nebraska was a deserving entry in the 2001 season's ultimate game, or whether the University of Oregon would have put on a better show, that was the topic of much debate for weeks before kickoff, and that will remain the question for National Collegiate Athletic Association politicians.

This Rose Bowl was the first to be played as late as Jan. 3, the first to be played at night and the first to feature laser lights dancing on the low clouds - all because the so-called Granddaddy of Bowl Games was taking its first turn as the designated showdown between the BCS's first- and second-ranked teams. The Rose Bowl had crowned national champions five times before. This was the first time a matchup was contrived for that purpose.

So ended the 56-year tradition of the Rose Bowl matching representatives from the Pacific 10 Conference (and its forerunners) and the mid-western Big Ten.

The game could only have been better if the champion of the Pac-10 - Oregon - had been here.

Oregon, No. 2 in the writers' and coaches' polls but excluded from the marquee game because it was No. 4 on the BCS list, routed Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day in Tempe, Ariz.

Miami beat Nebraska just as badly in the Rose Bowl.

Call them two semifinal games in search of a final.

Unfortunately, NCAA leaders never have figured out how to organize a multiteam elimination tournament for Division I football as they employ for other sports - so a Miami-Oregon game will remain a fantasy.

The best thing about Nebraska was its fans' blind faith. They came to California confident of victory even though their Cornhuskers had looked bad in losing to Colorado, 62-36, in their final regular-season game. In the pregame party scene in the Rose Bowl parking lots, Nebraska red swamped Miami orange and green. Some Nebraska fans wore Styrofoam corn cobs as hats, in the style of the University of Wisconsin cheeseheads.

When the referee announced Nebraska had won the pre-kickoff coin toss, most in the stadium leapt up and cheered.

But before the Nebraskans had another chance to cheer, it was 34-0 Miami.

Nebraska's Heisman Trophy-winning, option-style quarterback, Eric Crouch, couldn't escape the quick Miami defense. Dahrran Diedrick, the Big 12's leading ball-carrier, was held to his lowest yardage of the season.

Fumbles, interceptions and quick strikes from Dorsey (362 yards passing) to Johnson (199 yards receiving, two touchdowns) knocked the wind out of the Cornhuskers.

When safety James Lewis intercepted a tipped pass and sprinted 47 yards for a touchdown to put Miami ahead 21-0, early in the second quarter, the Rose Bowl was effectively over.

One hundred years from Thursday night, football historians will look kindly on Miami, which left no doubt it is the champion of college football.

They will not look back kindly on this Rose Bowl game and this way of ending a season.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) University of Miami's Brett Romberg hugs teammate Maurice Sikes after the Hurricanes defeated Nebraska in the Rose Bowl.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) University of Miami fans celebrate a second touchdown during the second quarter of Thursday's Rose Bowl against Nebraska.

Ric Francis/Associated Press