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No. 3 Nebraska strolled into Folsom Field Friday a national championship contender. It left with a bullet in its hide and the life draining out of its dream to win four national titles in six years. It showed in the faces of the Huskers, hoping for the best but resigned to the worst after a ridiculously difficult 33-30 overtime victory over unranked Colorado.

The Sugar Bowl is, or should be, a fantasy lost in a second-half collapse that will cost Nebraska dearly. The Bowl Championship Series computers? Shut 'em down. Monday's poll? All but meaningless.

It's Florida State against Virginia Tech for the national championship. Don't ask the computer experts, ask the Huskers themselves.

"We're not even focused on the Sugar Bowl right now," Nebraska linebacker Tony Ortiz. "By now, it's probably Florida State and Virginia Tech. That's all good and great. Our focus right now is the Big 12 championship."

That's about all the Big 12 North Division champion Huskers (10-1) can hope for if they beat Texas next week in the Big 12 title game. That and perhaps a berth in the Fiesta Bowl. But even if the Huskers somehow get to New Orleans, they don't deserve the shot. Not after fumbling 18 times in their final two games, including eight Friday. Not after the nation's No. 2 defense gave up 387 yards in the second half alone.

Amid what passed for celebration, Nebraska defensive coordinator Charlie McBride summed up: "What do I feel? I feel like we were lucky as hell."

There will be posturing and spin control next week trying to pump up the Huskers' chances to the pollsters both human and machine, but resignation wore red Friday. Moments after Eric Crouch's game-winning 1-yard sneak won it in overtime, the realization washed over the Husker Nation. No computer worth its programming would vault the Huskers over the Hokies, even if Nebraska beats Texas.

"We just have to put in the hands of the people who know college football," Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. Perhaps Solich didn't realize his team's fate lies, in part, with the get-a-life BCS computer nerds. Perhaps he was in shock. Perhaps he knows that ...

• Unblemished Florida State is in.
• Virginia Tech, already ahead in the six of the eight computer indexes, finished undefeated with a computer-pleasing 24-point victory over Boston College.
• Texas hurt Nebraska's strength of schedule by losing to Texas A&M.
• Nebraska, with a chance to hang 50 on the inept Buffs, blew a 24-point fourth-quarter lead, only to surface for air in overtime.

"It wasn't a celebration," Crouch said of the subdued locker room. "It was more a sense of relief."

Of course anything's possible as long as those computer nerds are given instant credibility by stepping in front of a camera.

But don't count on it. It sure seemed like the Huskers could at least check flight itineraries to New Orleans early on. They led 24-3 at halftime and 27-3 with 14 minutes left. I-back Dan Alexander rushed for a career-high 151 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone.

Then Colorado roared back with three touchdowns in 5 minutes, 48 seconds to tie it 27-27 with 2:59 left in the regulation. The game-tying touchdown was, fittingly, set up by Nebraska's seventh fumble when All-America rover Mike Brown couldn't handle an onside kick.

Still, Nebraska had a chance to win in regulation when Colorado's Cortlen Johnson fumbled at his 16 with 1:49 left. But six seconds later, Colorado had the ball back after Crouch tossed an errant pitch to Alexander.

Fumble No. 8 -- the nation-leading 47th of the season -- almost cost the Huskers. The Buffs (6-5) marched through Nebraska's suddenly porous defense 69 yards to set up Jeremy Aldrich with a game-winning 34-yard field goal attempt with two seconds left. Somehow, some way Aldrich missed wide right -- barely -- as time ran out.

"Our kickers did a ritual we call 'The Circle of Death' on the sidelines to jinx him," Nebraska kicker Josh Brown said. "I guess it worked."

It has come to that for Nebraska, stealing Colorado's mojo a la Dr. Evil. Colorado coach Gary Barnett, the master motivator, prepared more conventionally. During a Wednesday meeting, he showed his team a box that contained the Big 12 North Division trophy that was delivered to campus just in case Nebraska won.

"He told the seniors to open this box and see what you find," Colorado defensive end Brady McDonnell said. "All the seniors went up and picked up the trophy. They said, 'We get no respect. This is bull. They're looking past us.'"

It would have made a better story had Colorado and its mascot not arrived comatose in the first half. Ralphie IV, the school's 850-pound living, breathing buffalo, refused to lead the team onto the field by taking her customary lap around the field. Schools officials said she was in heat.

Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch tries to run past Colorado's Justin Bannan, who makes the tackle.(AP)

Until Ralphie's team then showed up flat, the chances for Nebraska's 245-pound I-back outgaining her were nil before the game. Alexander fumbled the first snap against Kansas State two weeks ago and didn't play the rest of the game. But he was the best back in practice since then, earning the start. He bolted for a 50-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage Friday.

Alexander later added runs of 1 and 80 yards to seemingly put it out of reach at halftime. While BCS watchers monitored Virginia Tech, Nebraska looked to be in better shape, with a chance to score at will against Colorado's tiring front seven.

Alexander's second-half contribution mirrored the team's slump: 29 yards and two fumbles. The last fumble, on a pitch from Couch at the Colorado 15, was as much coach Frank Solich's fault as Alexander's. With three runs into the line, Solich could have set up a chip-shot field goal.

"If I had it to do all over again," Solich said, "I wouldn't have called the play that caused us to put it on the ground."

From the Colorado standpoint, the game summarized the 1990s. Colorado has dropped dramatically from its national championship caliber at the beginning of the decade. But it still keeps a healthy hate for Nebraska. Colorado students pelted Nebraska fans with marshmallows Friday. Chip, Colorado's human mascot, threw a couple of menacing punches at Nebraska's Lil Red on the field.

Nebraska apparently forgot about the intensity of that hate. In the past three meetings, a superior Nebraska team had won by only five, three and two points.

"Last year, it was the same situation," Ortiz said. "The year before that it was the same situation. We were up by a good 20 points and they came back with a valiant effort in the end to try to take us out. We knew the history. So we try to avoid the history. Apparently, history repeated itself."

Now the only past worth remembering in Lincoln is this: The Huskers are history.