No. 6 Texas, who clinched the SWC title and a Cotton Bowl berth with a 22-13 win at Baylor, moved up in the next poll: No. 1 Colorado, No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 3 Miami, No. 4 Brigham Young, and No. 5 Texas. Week Thirteen: December 1, 1990 No. 1 Colorado had finished their season. No. 2 Georgia Tech ended the year with a 40-23 win at Georgia. No. 3 Miami barely got past unheralded San Diego State 30-28, and No. 4 Brigham Young lost 59-28 at Hawaii. No. 5 Texas beat Texas A&M 28-27 on a failed two-point conversion by the Aggies. No. 7 Notre Dame, who had already finished their schedule, moved back into the top five in the final regular-season poll: No. 1 Colorado, No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Miami, and No. 5 Notre Dame. In a chaotic year where nearly every club had two or more losses, the top two teams were 10-1-1 Colorado and 10-0-1 Georgia Tech. The Buffaloes had an inferior record and were the beneficiaries of the referee’s error in the Fifth Down Game, but they also played an extraordinarily tough schedule (their non-conference opponents included the champions of the Big Ten, Pac-10, and SWC as well as the second-place team in the SEC), while the Yellow Jackets faced easier opposition. As the champions of the Big 8 and ACC, the two teams were locked into the Orange and Citrus Bowls and were not able to play each other in a de facto national championship game. Many of the bowl matchups were affected by unusual circumstances. For the second year in a row, the Orange Bowl organizers had invited top-ranked Notre Dame to play Big 8 champion Colorado in what they hoped would be a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, only for the Fighting Irish to lose their next game after accepting the invitation; they had fallen to No. 5 by the time they faced No. 1 Colorado. The Sugar Bowl made an even bigger blunder by selecting Virginia as one of its participants, as the Cavaliers lost all of their remaining games after accepting the invitation and entered bowl season unranked. No. 11 Florida, the SEC champion, was barred from bowl participation due to NCAA sanctions, so No. 10 Tennessee (the only team to beat the Gators in conference play) took their place in the Sugar Bowl.