The 2003 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with an abundance of controversy, resulting in the claim of a split national championship.

Due to on-field circumstances, the BCS becoming a means of having a single champion going forward, and finally the four-team title playoff system's institution in 2014, as of 2025 this is the most recent Division 1-A season to end with split national champions.

At season's end, three BCS Automatic Qualifying (AQ) conference teams finished the regular season with one loss, with only two spots available in the BCS National Championship Game.

LSU defeated Oklahoma in the 2004 Sugar Bowl, securing the BCS National Championship, as the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll was contractually obligated to vote the winner of the BCS National Championship Game No.

Army became the first team in NCAA Division I-A football modern history to finish the season 0–13.

The Orange Bowl game was noteworthy in that Miami and Florida State previously had scheduled to play each other on Labor Day in 2004 in Miami's first game as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Playing in the Orange Bowl ensured that their next meeting would be each of their very next games and their first of the 2004 season.

1 in every BCS rating,[1] AP and Coaches' Poll[2] of the season, lost to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game, 35–7 on December 6.

3, Oklahoma surpassed both USC and LSU on several BCS computer factors.

Ted Waitt, CEO of Gateway Computers, offered the NCAA $31 million for a national championship game between USC and Louisiana State.

Rankings given are AP poll positions at time of game Others receiving votes: 26.