The year 1999 was one to remember.

Cher was still belting out relevant hits, Y2K had everyone freaking out like they were at a Sugar Ray concert and Bill Clinton was not having sexual relations with that woman.

It was a crazy year. It was also the last time Mississippi football experienced the kind of across-the-board success we saw this season.

In those oh-so-simpler times — when getting on the Internet took three hours and a therapy session, and people hoarded Beanie Babies like cute gold — Ole Miss, Southern Miss and Mississippi State all ended the year ranked in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. The Bulldogs topped the state at No. 13, with USM sliding in right behind them at No. 14. Ole Miss rounded things out at No. 22.

It was the year when Mississippi, population less than 3 million, had more ranked teams than California and Texas . Party like it’s 1999, indeed.

But 2014 tried pretty hard to outdo our past.

Mississippi State became the first No. 1-ranked team in the inaugural College Football Playoff poll, something that will no doubt be a Jeopardy question in about seven years.

The Bulldogs parlayed their successful run with a 10-2 season highlighted by wins over Auburn and LSU to finish at No. 7, earning a berth in the Orange Bowl against Georgia Tech. Ole Miss fell right behind the Dawgs in the poll at No. 9, but ruined MSU’s national title hopes with a 31-17 win to make the most of an injury-ravaged season. The Rebels went 9-3 despite losing Laquon Treadwell and the Auburn game in the most gruesome way possible, yet still rebounded from that and a 30-0 shellacking at Arkansas to smack their friends in the Egg Bowl and stay in the Top 10. Ole Miss will finish off the year in the Peach Bowl against a TCU team that narrowly missed the playoff themselves in what most believe will be one of the best matchups of the bowl season.

In Lorman, where Alcorn State had as many SWAC championships in the last two decades as I did, Jay Hopson did his thing. The born-and-bred Mississippian — he played at Warren Central and Ole Miss, and was once Southern Miss’ defensive coordinator — took a program far too used to losing and made them the class of the SWAC, winning the title over Southern to end the season 10-3 as the best Historically Black College team in the nation.

It was a fine year for Mississippi football, and undoubtedly the best since that glorious 1999 season.

This year might have been even better, honestly. This time, we don’t have to hear “Livin’ La Vida Loca” on the radio every 10 minutes.

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Cory Gunkel is a reporter. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, Ext. 178, or by email at cory.gunkel@vicksburgpost.com