2000 Chicago Bowl (Napoleon's World)

The 1999-2000 Chicago Bowl was the final game of the 1999 NCAA Division I college football season, pitching No. 1 Florida State against No. 2 Huron for the national championship. Huron would win 35-34 in a nail-biting thriller to take home their 10th national title, becoming only the second modern major-power to reach double-digit titles (the other being Michigan, with 13 national championships).

Huron Highlanders
Huron was in the second year of the Brett Estevez regime - the former Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator had only been 35 years old when hired in the winter of 1998 to replace the retired Randy Edison and had devised defenses that had won two AFL championships despite being of an impressively youthful age. While his hire had been questioned by some in Huron due to his youth and lack of college experience, Estevez had strung together a 9-3 regular season in 1998 capped with finishing second in the Lakes Crest Division to 11-1 Michigan and had then handed Huron a 15th consecutive 10-win season thanks to the Chicago Bowl victory over a superior LSU, and Huron ended the year ranked No. 12, their first season since 1988 ranked outside of the Top Ten.

In 1999, the vultures continued circling over Estevez as his team won its opening games by a narrow margin, but the offense under coordinator Bill Martin began to gel as the season progressed and the quarterback, Patrick Symonds, emerged as a legitimate Bosch candidate. Estevez's slogan became "Just Win, Baby" as the Highlanders continued pounding opposition, winning their final five games by an average margin of 23 points.