MIAMI -- Never mind the new bowl alliance that takes effect next season. Given Nebraska's luck, it will face Arizona State in the 1995 Fiesta Bowl, Miami in the 1996 Orange Bowl and LSU in the 1997 Sugar Bowl.
Those bowls will be host to the next three national championship games, as long as the Rose doesn't confuse the issue.
Yes, Nebraska might again get caught on its opponent's home field.
But most likely, it finally would play at a neutral site.
The Orange Bowl against Miami isn't neutral. The Orange Bowl against Florida State isn't neutral. Yet this has been Nebraska's fate year after year, because the Big Eight has committed its champion to this game.
So it is that the Cornhuskers have lost seven straight bowl games, four to Florida teams in the Orange. Of course, the excuse only goes so far, seeing as how the streak also includes two losses to Florida State in the Fiesta.
Which brings us to tomorrow night, and Tom Osborne's latest attempt to win his first national championship. His team is ranked No. 1. But it is a one-point underdog against No. 3 Miami.
The line reflects the obvious. The Orange Bowl is Miami's home field, the stadium where it has won 62 of its past 63 games.
Some neutral site.
Miami has won three of its four national titles in this game -- the first in 1984, when top-ranked Nebraska missed a two-point conversion rather than kick an extra point in the final minute, and lost, 31-30.
People forget Osborne's noble stand when citing his inability to win the big one, just as people forget Scott Norwood's missed field-goal try when mocking the Buffalo Bills for losing four straight Super Bowls.
No question, Nebraska is the Buffalo of college football. But wouldn't the Bills elicit more sympathy if they had lost their first two Super Bowls in New York and Washington and their next two in Dallas?
That, in effect, is what happened to Nebraska -- not in every major bowl defeat, but certainly in the '84 loss to Miami and '94 loss to Florida State, games that were decided by a total of three points.
"I'd like to see them come to our place and play in 10-degree weather," offensive tackle Zach Wiegert said. "They wouldn't do any better than we do here."
The weather changes everything. Big Eight teams find it difficult to throw in November, when temperatures fall below freezing and high winds sweep off the plains. Nebraska's option attack is designed for the cold.
By now, you'd think Osborne would adjust in the bowl games, but he's starting option specialist Tommie Frazier at quarterback against Miami, when Brook Berringer would be preferable because of his passing ability.
Whatever, this could be the last time the national championship is decided at such a non-neutral site. The new rotating bowl arrangement is for six years. A playoff could be the next step.
The flaw in the new alliance is obvious -- it does not include the Big Ten or Pac-10, which are bound to the Rose through the 2000 season. Thus, a split national championship could result if Penn State had another big year.
The Big Ten athletic directors don't want to hear it. They're already talking about the possibility of seeking a contract modification that would allow their league, the Pac-10 and Rose Bowl to merge into the alliance after 1997.
Either way, the new system will be fairer -- fairer in determining a national champion and fairer in selecting neutral sites.
Yes, Miami could again wind up in the Orange. But the NFL has rotated the Super Bowl for 28 years, and only twice has a team played near home -- in '85, when San Francisco won at Stanford, and in '80, when the Los Angeles Rams lost in Pasadena.
Miami has been host to six Super Bowls. The Dolphins have appeared in five. But somehow, they've yet to cross paths. Maybe this is the year, with the Dolphins in the playoffs and the game at Joe Robbie Stadium.
If it happens, it happens.
It shouldn't happen every year.
For Nebraska, the disadvantages extend beyond the weather, the travel, the pro-Miami crowd. Even the disparity between locker rooms reflects the hostile surroundings.
This year, for the first time, the Orange Bowl offered Nebraska its choice of locker rooms. Osborne chose Miami's regular-season room, because Nebraska dresses 110 players and wanted the extra 20 lockers.
"We know it's hard to play against Miami in the Orange Bowl," said Orange Bowl spokeswoman Lisa Franson. "We wanted to do everything possible to create a neutral situation for this game."
Alas, their efforts backfired.
Orange Bowl officials quickly discovered that the locker-room switch would amount to a logistical nightmare. They asked Nebraska to reverse its decision, leading to an uproar.
Osborne said he was told by an Orange Bowl official that the Miami police couldn't guarantee his team's safety if it dressed in the larger locker room. He joked that maybe he should "bring the National Guard down there."
The police loved that.
So did a city sensitive to its reputation for crime.
The security concerns were legitimate, but not because of anything to do with fans. To reach their respetive sidelines, the teams would have needed to cross paths to and from the locker rooms, a situation that often leads to fights in college football.
So, Nebraska wound up back in the smaller room. Osborne said he would dress 20 fewer players, but has repeatedly downplayed the incident, saying he wants "the game to be bigger than the locker room."
Obviously, the Cornhuskers won't win or lose because of where they dress, but it's no wonder they want Miami so badly. They see the Orange Bowl as the ultimate challenge. The ultimate road game. The ultimate victory.