Before the Florida Gators were 2007 BCS College Football Champions

It was not always nice and dandy for the Florida Gators in BCS Bowl games. This year's BCS College Football championship was hosted by the Fiesta Bowl and Fiesta Bowls are not always a good thing as far as Florida is concerned.

Nebraska 62, Florida 24. Ouch. A loss as lopsided as that is definitely not something you can easily forget about. And it's ironic that probably the biggest game these Florida Gators played this season, the BCS National Championship, was near the same stadium, that very stadium in Glendale, Arizona dubbed ''Sun Devil Stadium,'' where Nebraska utterly gave them their most humiliating defeat 11 years ago.

The Florida Gators did return to Glendale to take on the top-ranked team in the nation, the Ohio State Buckeyes. And yes, the memories of Sun Devil Stadium 11 years ago was definitely echoing even louder.

Former Florida linebacker James Bates remembers the numbness, the surprise, the disbelief. The details of that Tuesday night he spent near here 11 years ago never will leave his memory, and neither will the numbers on the Sun Devil Stadium scoreboard at its end.

''It was a shock for everybody,'' Bates said. ''We felt like we were ready to play, and we just got steamrolled by one of the best teams to ever come through college football.''

And boy, were they steamrolled by the Nebraska Cornhuskers indeed. It was the 24th Fiesta Bowl, Jan.2, 1996, where Florida seemed destined to win. After all, the Florida Gators were a perfect 12-0, had won another Southeastern Conference title and was playing for a national crown for the first time in school history.

If they only knew that the Huskers were planning to humiliate them like that.

Nebraska rushed for an NCAA-bowl record 524 yards and six touchdowns. A slew of sacks of Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel kept the Gators' rushing yards below zero. And the Gators, safety Tony George said, received a clinic in a sort of football they never had seen.

''In the game, they came very, very hard,'' George said. ''They came hard on kickoff, punt, giving everything they had on every play. Once we felt those guys hit us in the mouth, instead of responding, we didn't attack.''

That 1996 blowout loss, a 62-24 loss to Nebraska, was the first of many letdowns Florida experienced before their BCS Championship win over the Ohio State Buckeyes.

January 3, 2003. Ohio State 31, Miami 24. When Miami fired Coach Larry Coker in November, UM Athletic Director Paul Dee mentioned that Coker won two national titles, then explained that to a lot of UM folks, this game was a Hurricanes victory. A disputed interference call on fourth down in overtime kept underdog Ohio State alive. The Ohio State Buckeyes won it on a goal-line stand in the second OT.

January 4, 1999. Tennessee 23, FSU 16. In their first season of the post-Peyton Manning Era, the Vols rolled to a 13-0 record and the national title. FSU QB Chris Weinke was out with a herniated disk, meaning sophomore Marcus Outzen made his third career start. He had nine completions and threw a pick returned for a score.

January 2, 1987. Penn State 14, Miami 10. A college football-record 70 million viewers tuned in on NBC to see the Nittany Lions win despite being outgained 445-162. UM's Vinny Testaverde threw five picks.

Yes, somehow, the state of Florida can't seem to win these Fiesta Bowls. Well, in the last BCS National Championship game, the Florida Gators finally won when it counted the most. Now, they are the 2007 BCS College Football champions of the world.