By JOHN P. LOPEZ

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Dear Mack:

Thanks for last Oct. 23. Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much.

Regards, Bobby and Frank.

A national champion will be crowned in the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday and, well, sure. The Sears Trophy should belong to the winner of Florida State-Virginia Tech, at least under the contrived system that gives college football fans lots of bowls and hype of crowning a "true" champion but in reality offers even more raised eyebrows.

Either the Seminoles or the Hokies will finish the season undefeated and claim the title the only way it can be claimed under the Bowl Championship Series. But calling a single-game national championship game a "series" is like calling Madonna a one-fella lady.

Play one more at least. Give 12-0 Marshall a chance in a playoff, for gosh sakes. It earned such a chance as much as Nebraska or any team that can dust off a midseason loss and turn itself into a powerful force.

The BCS only leads to a multitude of questions, not the least of which was hammered into the collective face of the Tennessee Volunteers on Sunday night at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

Any time, anyplace.

If another game could be played between the winner of Tuesday's Sugar Bowl and Nebraska, I take the men of corn.

Under the steady hand of coach Frank Solich, the so-called Blackshirt defense has proved to be as formidable and unforgiving as ever. No Big Red news there.

Huskers dismantle Volunteers

But it is Solich's creative play-calling offensively that won Sunday night's affair and surely would give the Seminoles or Hokies a bruising lesson in balance and unpredictability.

Solich's team tamed the Vols with an assortment of speed and passing early, then pounded the ball upfield 23 consecutive times in the second half, slapping the normally tough Vols run defense with scoring drives of 96 and 99 yards that seemed almost unfair.

The Vols entered the game having given up more than 100 yards rushing only five times in 11 games. They talked of shutting down the powerful Nebraska offensive line, even calling the burly lads "wimps" for all their chop blocking.

But when it counted most, the Cornhuskers monsters up front pounded out the kind of yardage counterfeiters would love -- in 10s and 20s.

The Huskers rushed for 321 yards in the game, more than twice what the Vols had given up in any game this year, and had 469 yards total. Dan Alexander gained 108 yards on 21 carries, Willie Miller added 87 yards on eight carries, and Eric Crouch had 64 yards on 17 carries.

When the Vols used the smart passing of Tee Martin to pull within 10 points with 7:25 remaining, the Nebraska offensive line squashed Tennessee defensive linemen like it had all night and ate up the entire clock.

"They talked about playing physical against us," Nebraska wingback Bobby Newcombe said. "But we were the physical team. We pretty much dominated the whole game. They really never stopped us."

Loss to Texas costly

Oh, but for a few ill-timed fumbles and an inspired Texas effort last October ... That 24-20 loss to the Longhorns cost the Cornhuskers what could have been a fourth national championship in the decade of the '90s. But that doesn't mean Nebraska isn't the best team playing football right now.

Cut to the sideline in the waning moments of the Cornhuskers' 31-21 win Sunday. There was Huskers guard Russ Hochstein, all 295 muscled pounds of him, dabbing sweat from his brow and shouting into the camera, "Hello, everybody! Who's No. 1?"

For the BCS, that question will be answered in New Orleans on Tuesday night. The rest of us might have gotten the answer Sunday night.

The likes of Hochstein, 300-pound Dave Volk, 295-pound Dominic Raiola, 300-pound James Sherman, 320-pound Adam Julch and 300-pound Jon Rutherford sent the normally stingy Tennessee defense sliding backward all night. It happened only one game after the Nebraska line did the same to Texas in a 22-6 Big 12 title game rematch of the October loss that proved to be no match.

"We're a very physical team," Solich said. "Our guys up front did a good job of establishing themselves in the second half and taking over the game. They showed people a lot."

They showed that given a chance against Florida State or Virginia Tech, they would do the same thing. Any time, anyplace.