Michigan State's Wild Ending and the Top Miracle Finishes in History

Wow, this may have just been the greatest finish we have ever seen in our entire lives. What a finish and a miraculous ending that not only has impacted the BCS, but perhaps college football forever.

The Wisconsin Badgers came in as touchdown favorites and were legitimate contenders for the BCS National Championship. 

However, Kirk Cousins' 44 yard Hail Mary prayer (play call was rocket) was answered as Keith Nichol caught a defected pass that could have been picked off or perhaps caught by B.J. Cunningham or Keshawn Martin. 

Instead, the former Boomer Sooner catches arguably the greatest game-winner and greatest of finishes in college football history.

Speaking of, what are the greatest finishes of all-time? There are five that stand out the most in the history of college football.

Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42: Fiesta Bowl, 1/1/07

Boise State came in as the second ever non-automatic qualifier to make a BCS Bowl and they did not let us down against the mighty Sooners. They came in as double digit underdogs unlike the Utes who were favored to clobber Pittsburgh as the first non-aq. 

They jumped out to an early 28-10 lead early in the second quarter before Adrian Peterson and the Sooners came back to eventually take the lead in the fourth quarter, 35-28.

Then, Jared Zabransky coughed up the lead after he threw a 33-yard pick six! Zabransky and the Broncos marched right down the field on a hook-and-lateral touchdown to Jerard Rabb from 35 yards out.

The game went into overtime and after the Sooners scored a quick touchdown, the Broncos matched it. However, Chris Petersen and the Broncos decided to go for two and they were successful on a statue of liberty play from Zabransky to running back Ian Johnson.

Johnson threw the ball in the stands and proposed to his soon-to-be wife in what will forever be remembered as one of the greatest finishes in BCS and college football history.

Boston College 47, Miami 45: 11/23/84

This game was moved up a day to see the soon to be Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie go against the defending National Champion Miami Hurricanes.

Miami came off a huge, disappointing loss to Maryland the previous week, 42-40.

Bernie Kosar went off for 447 yards and received help with four touchdowns from Melvin Bratton. Yet, there was Flutie and BC within four points late in the ball game.

Flutie marched right down and had one final play to throw a pass in the end zone even though no Miami player figured he had any chance of throwing it to the end zone.

On the final play of the game (55 Flood Tip), Gerard Phelan got behind the defense as Flutie escaped pressure and chucked it deep from his own 37-yard line. 

Phelan had to wait to adjust to the ball with the ball still in the air since it was not deflected. It soared right over the hands of would-be defenders not hitting anybody, as Phelan caught ball in the back of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown as the clock had already expired.

Doug Flutie went 34-for-46 with 476 yards, four touchdowns (one rushing), one filthy miracle and an eventual Heisman Trophy.

Do you believe in miracles?

Cal 25, Stanford 20: 11/20/82

Mark Harmon just kicked what seemed like was the game-winning field goal with just a few seconds left on the clock. Stanford led 20-19 and Cal was dead as a door nail.

However, Harmon squibbed the kick not thinking there was any chance for Cal to return the kick. Several would be tacklers missed the returner for Cal (Kevin Moen) and after it looked as if he was about to be tackled, Moen then pitched it to Richard Rodgers.

Rodgers then threw it (lateraled) to Dwight Garner who we thought was tackled. Then he somehow got rid of the ball back to Rodgers.

Cal was still around the 50 yard line and then Rodgers then lateraled it back to Mariet Ford.

Wait, what, yes the play was miraculously still alive. In the process right in front of the college football landscape was one of the greatest moment/finishes played on the gridiron in the history of the sport.

The announcers were screaming, "The band is on the field" as the Bears were inching closer to a touchdown and the Stanford crowd was on the field figuring the Cal player was tackled and that the game was over, but Ford chucked the pigskin miraculously into the hands of eventually Moen.

After all, he was the guy who originally returned the kick, and there he was dodging would be tacklers and band members all the way to the end zone before he obliterated the trombone player after a ridiculous leap to paydirt.

No way!? After a quick meeting by officials for nearly ten minutes, they shocked the world and announced the "are you kidding me" touchdown for the 25-20 Cal victory that will forever be remembers as the one of the most epic finished of all-time.

USC 34, Notre Dame 31: 10/15/05

In another game that will go down as one of the greatest finishes of all-time was a thriller that ended with "Bush push".

However, everything was set up on a huge fourth down conversion from Matt Leinart to Dwayne Jarrett with the Trojans trailing 31-27 under two minutes to go. Leinart and USC were backed up inside their 30-yard line.

Jarrett caught a strike from Leinart and he went all the way down inside Notre Dame's 20 and it led to a run by Matt Leinart which pushed him out of bounds with just a few second left.

The clock was expected to keep running, but officials said he was out of bounds and the clock stopped with the ball being placed at the one.

Leinart snuck it and was stoned! Yet, Reggie Bush gave him an extra push and his second, third and fourth efforts gave him the chance to just barely sneak across the goal line for the game-winning touchdown with just three seconds left. 

USC would go on to lose to Texas in the BCS National Championship in another thriller, but it was this game that set everything up and therefor it will go down as one of the craziest, thrilling, most entertaining, miraculous finishes of all-time. 

Michigan State 37, Wisconsin 31 10/22/11

The Spartans were seemingly the only team to have a chance to knock off the Badgers. It was arguably the top ranked defense against the top ranked offense in America.

Russell Wilson was unstoppable with a 15-1 TD/INT ration and yet his Badgers were down 31-17 in the fourth quarter.

He rallied back finding Nick Toon and Montee Ball as he pulled off his typical Houdini-like moves in the pocket to tie the game up at 31 a piece.

Most teams would settle for overtime since the Spartans were at home and yet there was Kirk Cousins dinking-and-dumping his way into the Badgers territory which set up one final play at mid-field.

Cousins threw it two yards deep into the end zone for what was B.J. Cunningham's chance to shine and yet a Badgers defenders tipped it up for grabs and it was Keith Nichol catching it at the one, as he alertly pushed from the one yard-line right to the goal-line.

They ruled the ball did not cross the goal-line and they had to review it as the clock had expired.

After further review and after several replays were shown, the play was reversed as Nichol and Sparty nation pulled off one of the greatest, miraculous finishes in college football history for the 34-31 winner.

Honorable Mentions

There were many other choices such as Michigan-Appalachian State or Texas-USC in the Rose Bowl.

Also, there were hundreds of other choices arguably such as Michigan-Notre Dame this season, but those teams were not both ranked and the stakes were not as high. Plus the game did not end as clock expired. 

I did not forget "The Bluegrass Miracle" but I did not include it in the top five since it was on Jefferson Pilots mainly because it involved an unranked Kentucky team. Still, the finish was spectacular with Devery Henderson catching a deflected pass for a 74-yard touchdown as time expired. 

I weighed a game-winning touchdown with time expiring as a huge bonus in these rankings.