It was arguably the best 24-hour period in Nebraska football history.

The long wait for Frank Solich and Nebraska is over -- they do get a shot at the title after all.(AP)

Not that the Huskers had all that much to do with it at times.

Quarterback Eric Crouch won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night at almost the precise moment LSU was kicking off against Tennessee in the SEC title game. Nineteen and one-half hours later, the BCS declared the Huskers the winner in a run-off election against Colorado by .05 of a point.

The trophy and the team came in the back door, but when all the critics are done, ask yourself one question: Ain't it great?

The Rose Bowl matchup is one for the ages: Miami-Nebraska. This will be the fifth meeting between the two superpowers since 1983, all of those games have been played with at least one team ranked in the top two. In four of the five meetings, the national championship has been at stake.

Since 1983, Miami has won four national titles, Nebraska has won three. Between the two programs, they will own eight of the last 19 national championships when a winner emerges Jan. 3 in Pasadena.

Put them all together -- the Game of the Century, Johnny Rodgers' and Mike Rozier's Heismans, three national titles in five years. No two of those occurrences came bunched so close together that heads were spinning.

Nebraska clinched sitting on the couch with remote in hand. There was Crouch winning the Heisman from New York. There was LSU winning in Atlanta. Hours later, there were the Huskers, winning a race of decimal points coming out of who knows where.

More meat and potatoes for everyone in the nation's heartland.

"We've had big wins and conference wins, but it is a big day," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. "Any time you get a chance to play for a national championship, that's as big as it gets. The fact that we're going to the Rose Bowl that is recognized as the granddaddy of them is even better.

"Look at what happened with Eric Crouch winning the Heisman. This is a great day."

And a dismal one for Big 12 brother Colorado which found itself out of the BCS loop basically because the BCS computers hated it. The Buffs did more than any contender this season, beating five ranked teams. Included in that total were consecutive victories over No. 2 Nebraska and No. 3 Texas.

But the Buffs did lose twice. Their consolation prize is a trip to the Fiesta Bowl where they still might not be out of it. They are in the distasteful position of rooting for their hated red rivals. If Nebraska beats Miami, then the winner of the Colorado-Oregon Fiesta could claim a split national championship.

It seems weird the Big 12 will cash BCS checks totaling $19 million ($13 million for Nebraska, $6 million for Colorado) and somehow there is an injustice.

But for the participants, it's all about football. Solich defended his right to party in Pasadena despite a horrific 62-36 loss to Colorado on Nov. 23.

"We did not give up hope," Solich said. "Our feeling was if people were going to step back and take a look at the entire season, we were going to have a chance."

The problem for many is there have been shorter prison sentences than the time between Nebraska's last game and Sunday. Sixteen days separated the Huskers from the Fiasco by the Flatirons and just another glory day in Nebraska football history.

"We've been breaking down Nebraska for two weeks," Miami coach Larry Coker said. "We knew it was going to be Nebraska."

He was kidding, of course. In the end, it came down to the computers liking Nebraska a smidge better than Colorado. BCS No. 4 Oregon made an equally strong case for itself finishing 10-1 and winning the Pac-10. The galling thing for the Ducks and Buffs is Nebraska finished as the runner-up in the Big 12 North Division.

"Colorado and Oregon particularly weren't able to quite get there in the BCS, I understand that frustration," BCS chairman John Swofford said. "If I were at either of those schools, I would feel the same way. The reason we have the formula is to distinguish between those two teams. What the formula kicked out was Nebraska."

Above it all was Miami, a jilted BCS victim last year. The Hurricanes sat back just like Nebraska waiting for things to play out. It secured a Rose Bowl berth, its first, by beating Virginia Tech on Dec. 1.

The Rose Bowl need not worry about its tradition being tarnished. The game marks the first set of non-Pac-10-Big Ten participants in Pasadena in more than 50 years. It has only taken Nebraska 70 years to return since its last appearance in 1941.

The two old rivals should have enough history between them that the keepers of the granddaddy's tradition will be able to appreciate it.

Remember Tom Osborne going for two in the 1984 Orange Bowl? The missed conversion clinched Miami's first national title and launched the program's run of greatness.

Beatings by Florida State and Miami in bowl games in the 1980s and 1990s caused Osborne to change his recruiting tactics. He needed faster, more athletic defenders. It finally showed up in 1994 when Osborne won his first title by beating Miami 24-17 in the Orange Bowl.

This is an NCAA-record 33 consecutive bowls for Nebraska. No team has won more national championships than Miami since 1983.

"We're going to take the invitation because we feel we've earned it," Solich said. "We're not bothered by it."

By .05 of a point, he's right. There will never be another day in Nebraska football history like this one.

Unless, of course, the Huskers win the Rose Bowl.