People seem to conveniently forget the FSU/Florida rematch title game.
Because - with all due respect to you - it's irrelevant. It wasn't planned that way. That rematch got set up because of a unique set of circumstances. It was never intended to happen that way.
Entering the final week of the regular season, this was the ranking, the top three teams unbeaten:
1) Florida
2) FSU
3) Arizona State
4) Nebraska - one loss, 19-0, to Arizona St
5) Colorado - one loss, 20-13, to Michigan
6) Ohio State - one loss, 13-9, to Michigan
7) BYU - 12-1 (one loss, 29-17, to Washington)
Arizona St was already done winning the Pac Ten and with their whole season.
So on Thanksgiving weekend, Nebraska beat Colorado (Buffs out) and FSU beat Florida St, 24-21, so the following week's rankings looked like this:
1) Florida State - undefeated, ACC champs
2) Arizona State - undefeated, Pac 10 champs
3) Nebraska - one loss, Big 12 division champs
4) Florida - one loss, SEC East champions
5) Ohio State - one loss, Big Ten champions
6) BYU - one loss, WAC division champion
That was the first year of additional conference title games other than the SEC. It was also the time called the Bowl Alliance, a pre-BCS set-up that DID NOT INCLUDE the Rose Bowl conferences. So Arizona State was contractually obligated to go to the Rose Bowl. If this had not happened then ASU and FSU would have met on the field, probably in the Sugar Bowl (the title game rotated around three bowls - Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar, and it was the Sugar Bowl's turn to host the 1-2 game for 1996).
The suspicion was that we would have a calamity because Nebraska was NOT expected to have much trouble beating Texas to win the inaugural Big 12 title game. That would have set up 1 vs 3 in New Orleans and a 2 vs 4 showdown in Pasadena on January 1.
But then Texas utterly shocked Nebraska, converting a fourth and inches from their own 29-yard line and winning, 37-27. Florida beat Alabama in the SECCG, and all of a sudden we had polls that looked like this:
1) Florida State
2) Arizona State
3) Florida
4) Ohio State
When the games were played, Arizona State had a chance to win the whole bowl of wax, if they could beat Ohio State and Florida could beat FSU. But the Buckeyes prevailed and then Florida made it academic by drilling Florida State in a massacre, 52-20.
What I'm saying is that that rematch doesn't even really qualify as a rematch for the title because it took a bunch of outside circumstances INCLUDING bowl results to produce the outcome. And there was no resistance to a rematch because nobody disputed - really - who the four best teams were that year. In fact, if Ohio State had not lost to Michigan while ranked number two in the final week of 1995, the outcry of injustice would have been very loud. The Bucs would have played USC in the Rose Bowl while Nebraska would have rolled over Florida in the Fiesta Bowl (which is exactly what happened). Only the fortuitous loss by Ohio State bailed out the Bowl Alliance.
Indeed, it was the Big Ten and NOT the SEC feeling hosed that led to the BCS. Consider what happened:
1994 - Nebraska and Penn State both finish undefeated but Nebraska gets the hype and the title all alone
1995 - Ohio State loses to Michigan and sets up an undisputed championship game
1996 - Ohio State, Nebraska, and Colorado all lose but Arizona State runs the risk of being another undefeated team to not win the championship
1997 - Michigan and Nebraska split the national championship
Only two losses by Ohio State to Michigan delayed the inevitable.
And btw - if you go watch the 1996 Florida-Florida St regular season game, it was a lot like the 2011 Alabama-LSU game. Florida lost by three, trailed 17-0 in the second quarter and (wait for it) missed a game-tying field goal in the second half. I think the Gators had something like six turnovers, gave up six sacks....and still only lost by three on the road.
The Gators played the toughest schedule in the country that year and undid their loss. But the rematch was a total coincidence.