1993 Sugar Bowl

The Alabama Crimson Tide had not won a national championship in the post-Bear Bryant era, and while they opened the 1992 college football season ranked #9, there were not tremendous expectations—at least outside Tuscaloosa—that this would be the year that changed.

Miami was the preseason #1 team in the country and had split the championship vote the previous year with Washington. The Hurricanes had won four national championships over the previous nine years and come within one play of two more.