The 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the University of Miami winning the national title for the fifth time.
The Hurricanes were led by Larry Coker, who was in his first year as head coach after five years as Miami's offensive coordinator under Butch Davis and became the first head coach since 1989's Dennis Erickson from the University of Miami to win a national title in his first season. Coker had the benefit of inheriting a star-studded program that Davis had rebuilt in the aftermath of NCAA sanctions in the mid-to-late '90s. Miami completed a perfect 12–0 season, which culminated in a 37–14 win over Nebraska in the Rose Bowl BCS National Championship Game.
In yet another controversial season for the BCS, (AP) #4 Nebraska was chosen as the national title opponent despite not having even played in the Big 12 championship game. The Huskers went into their last regularly scheduled game at Colorado undefeated, but left Boulder having lost the game by a score of 62–36. The Buffaloes went on to win the Big 12 championship game. The BCS computers, among other things, didn't weigh later games any more heavily than earlier games, and one-loss Nebraska came out ahead of two-loss #3 Colorado and one-loss, #2 Oregon. Some fans chanted "number 4" at the title game held at the Rose Bowl.
Florida State did not win the ACC championship for the first time since joining the conference in 1991, losing out to Maryland. Steve Spurrier left the Florida Gators at the end of the season to coach the Washington Redskins, accepting what was then the largest salary for an NFL head coach.
The season had one of the more competitive Heisman Trophy races with Eric Crouch of Nebraska winning by only a small margin over Rex Grossman of Florida. All of the five finalists played the quarterback position. Two of the finalists were coached at some point by Oregon offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford. Indiana quarterback Antwaan Randle El earned first-team All-America honors from the FWAA after becoming the first NCAA Division I-A quarterback to throw for 40 touchdowns and rush for 40 touchdowns in a career. He also became the first player in NCAA I-A history to record 2,500 total yards from scrimmage in four consecutive seasons.
The newly formed Boise State/Fresno State rivalry would be a major factor in the race to be the "BCS buster" for several seasons.
The Aloha Bowl and Oahu Bowl lost funding after Chrysler Corporation, which owned the former bowl's sponsor of Jeep, was acquired by Daimler-Benz and became DaimlerChrysler. The Aloha Bowl moved to Seattle and became the Seattle Bowl.
The New Orleans Bowl began play, the host team being the Sun Belt champion. Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_NCAA_Division_I-A_football_season

Final Stats:

AP Poll Summary
School	Conf	Final
Miami (FL)	Big East	1
Oregon	Pac-10	2
Florida	SEC	3
Tennessee	SEC	4
Texas	Big 12	5
Oklahoma	Big 12	6
Louisiana State	SEC	7
Nebraska	Big 12	8
Colorado	Big 12	9
Washington State	Pac-10	10
Maryland	ACC	11
Illinois	Big Ten	12
South Carolina	SEC	13
Syracuse	Big East	14
Florida State	ACC	15
Stanford	Pac-10	16
Louisville	CUSA	17
Virginia Tech	Big East	18
Washington	Pac-10	19
Michigan	Big Ten	20
Boston College	Big East	21
Georgia	SEC	22
Toledo	MAC	23
Georgia Tech	ACC	24
Brigham Young	MWC	25
Top 10 NFL draft picks in 2002
Rnd	Pick	Tm		Pos	College/Univ
1	2	CAR	Julius Peppers	DE	North Carolina
1	24	BAL	Ed Reed	DB	Miami (FL)
1	11	IND	Dwight Freeney	DE	Syracuse
2	51	DEN	Clinton Portis	RB	Miami (FL)
3	91	PHI	Brian Westbrook	RB	Villanova
1	7	MIN	Bryant McKinnie	T	Miami (FL)
2	37	DAL	Andre Gurode	G	Colorado
1	9	JAX	John Henderson	DT	Tennessee
4	128	PIT	Larry Foote	LB	Michigan
4	108	JAX	David Garrard	QB	East Carolina