The 1994 NCAA Division I-A football season was the main college football season sanctioned by the NCAA. The season began in August 1994 and ended on January 2, 1995. Nebraska, who finished the season undefeated, ended the year ranked #1 in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls. This was the first national championship of coach Tom Osborne's career at Nebraska, despite coming close in two prior attempts; in 1983, his team lost to Miami after Osborne, with his team trailing 31-30 late in the game, elected to try for the lead instead of the tie and failed. In the previous season, Osborne's team lost to eventual national champion Florida State on a missed field goal as time expired.
Although Osborne's team finished the season unbeaten, the national championship picture once again was shrouded in controversy. For much of the second half of the season, Nebraska and Penn State were regarded as the top two teams in the country. This raised the possibility of a split national championship for the third time since 1990, due in large part to the system in place that had been concocted to avoid a split title.
Following the 1991 season, where Miami and Washington split the national championship in the AP and Coaches' polls, the Bowl Coalition was founded. The Coalition consisted of six bowls, with the Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, and Sugar bowls were all considered potential hosts for a national championship game. Since three of these bowls already had specific tie-ins with conferences, an agreement was struck where the conferences would agree to release those teams from their contractual obligations in order to achieve a #1 vs #2 matchup. For the first two years of the Coalition, this did occur without incident as the Sugar and Orange Bowls in 1993 and 1994 featured #1 vs. #2 matchups in their respective games.
The problem with this as far as 1994 was concerned was that the Rose Bowl, which featured the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions playing each other, was not included in the Coalition and thus a team that finished #1 or #2 in the polls from those two conferences could not be considered by the Coalition to be its national champion. Nebraska, as a member of the Big Eight Conference, was part of the coalition while Penn State was not. As Nebraska went on to win the conference title, it earned an automatic bid to the Orange Bowl to face off against #3 Miami, who won the Big East title and was #2 in the Coalition pool. Thus Miami, who as recently as two years earlier was in the Coalition championship game, had a chance to stake a claim as the national champion with a win (as they would have been awarded the Coaches' Trophy) and all but ensure a split title with Penn State provided they defeated #13 Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
On January 1, 1995, Nebraska defeated Miami in the Orange Bowl 24-17 and clinched the championship. The next day Penn State defeated Oregon in the Rose Bowl by a count of 38-20 and secured the #2 spot in the polls.
In the offseason that followed, the Bowl Coalition was disbanded and in its place came the Bowl Alliance, which attempted to serve the same purpose by rotating a national championship game between the Sugar, Fiesta, and Orange Bowls. Like the Bowl Coalition before it, the Bowl Alliance did not include the Rose Bowl and two of the three national championship games did not feature a #1 vs. #2 matchup, with the 1997 season seeing another split national championship. Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_NCAA_Division_I-A_football_season

Final Stats:

AP Poll Summary
School	Conf	Final
Nebraska	Big 8	1
Penn State	Big Ten	2
Colorado	Big 8	3
Florida State	ACC	4
Alabama	SEC	5
Miami (FL)	Big East	6
Florida	SEC	7
Texas A&M	SWC	8
Auburn	SEC	9
Utah	WAC	10
Oregon	Pac-10	11
Michigan	Big Ten	12
Southern California	Pac-10	13
Ohio State	Big Ten	14
Virginia	ACC	15
Colorado State	WAC	16
North Carolina State	ACC	17
Brigham Young	WAC	18
Kansas State	Big 8	19
Arizona	Pac-10	20
Washington State	Pac-10	21
Tennessee	SEC	22
Boston College	Big East	23
Mississippi State	SEC	24
Texas	SWC	25
Top 10 NFL players drafted in 1995
Rnd	Pick	Tm		Pos	College/Univ
1	28	TAM	Derrick Brooks HOF	LB	Florida St.
1	12	TAM	Warren Sapp HOF	DT	Miami (FL)
3	74	NWE	Curtis Martin HOF	RB	Pittsburgh
1	3	HOU	Steve McNair	QB	Alcorn St.
1	6	STL	Kevin Carter	DE	Florida
1	23	NWE	Ty Law	DB	Michigan
7	230	GNB	Adam Timmerman	G	South Dakota St.
1	14	BUF	Ruben Brown	G	Pittsburgh
1	5	CAR	Kerry Collins	QB	Penn St.
1	8	SEA	Joey Galloway	WR	Ohio St.