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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4283821, member: 289"] 1978 [URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_NCAA_Division_I-A_football_rankings[/URL] [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.tiptop25.com/fixing1978.html[/URL] Alabama started out #1 in both polls and held that position until September 23rd when Southern California came to Birmingham and beat them 24-14. Oklahoma took over #1 with USC #2. Two weeks late, the trojans were upset at Arizona State, (who would finish 9-3), 7-20. The Sooners rolled on until upset by another 9-3 team, Nebraska, 14-17 in Lincoln on Veteran’s Day. Penn State then became #1 and finished the regular season in that position. Michigan was 10-1, having lost on 10/14 to Michigan State, 15-24. Clemson was also 10-1, having lost to Georgia, 0-12 on the same day USC beat ‘Bama. In both the final regular season polls, Penn State was #1, 11-0, followed by Alabama, USC, Oklahoma and Michigan, all with one loss, (USC played Hawaii, which in those days didn’t count against the 11 limit so they were 11-1). Clemson was 7th in the writer’s poll and 8th in in the coach’s, with 9-2 Nebraska and 9-1-1 Georgia appropriately ahead of them. The bowl results were especially memorable this year. Clemson beat Ohio State in the Gator Bowl, 17-15, a game remembered as the one where Woody Hayes ended his career by punching the Tiger’s Charlie Bauman after Charlie had made the clinching interception. It was actually the second time in his career that Woody had done this but the first was a 1959 game against USC in the Coliseum that wasn’t nationally televised, so he kept his job on that occasion. [MEDIA=youtube]wEVJyf0ft3I[/MEDIA] In the Rose Bowl, Charles White scored at TD that proved to be the winning margin, (17-10), against Michigan but forgot the football. Amazingly a Pac-10 ref ruled it a fumble and gave the ball to Michigan on the 1 yard line but was over-ruled by a Big 10 ref who erroneously said he’d crossed the goal line. There was no replay rule in those days and the call stood. (see the link below at 1:13:25 – OJ is doing color and even he thinks White lost the ball before he got to the goal line and White admitted it. There is a definitive replay at 1:22:00) [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9iSpLeFdDY"]1979 Rose Bowl #3 USC vs #5 Michigan[/URL] Oklahoma got a rematch with Nebraska in a controversial All- Big 8 Orange Bowl. The team that lost the regular season game almost always wins post-season rematches and that’s what happened this time, 31-24. It wasn’t that close. The Sooners led 31-10 going into the fourth quarter. Much like the 1966 Orange Bowl against Alabama, Nebraska made it respectable with two late TDs, the last scored on the game’s final play. [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwdeWNGnPQo"]1979 Orange Bowl #4 Oklahoma vs #6 Nebraska No Huddle[/URL] The Sugar Bowl had a dramatic ending with Alabama beating Penn State 14-7 on a goal line stand with Barry Krause tackling Mike Guman on the 1-foot line. State forced a punt and got the ball at the Alabama 30 but had 12 men on the field to give the Tide a first down and they were able to run the clock. The Krause play is at 18:40: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v5X4Gwhot4"]1979 Sugar Bowl - #1 Penn State vs. #2 Alabama Highlights[/URL] Alabama was voted #1 in the writer’s poll based on their having been the #2 team who beat the #1 team in the bowl game, a classic national championship scenario. The first base votes were 38 for Alabama, 19 for Southern Cal and 1 for Oklahoma, (who had wiped their record clean – sort of – by beating the only team to beat them. But the curmudgeonly coaches decided to vote for USC, remembering their 9/13 win over the Tide in Birmingham. The two teams split the coach’s #1 votes 15-15 with 5 for the Sooners. Vautravers considers this a ‘joke’: “As the NCAA measures strength of schedule (winning percentage of opponents), Southern Cal not only played a tougher schedule than did Alabama in 1978, they played the 2nd toughest in the country, and the toughest ever played by a team that finished #1 in one of the major polls (.663). Southern Cal played 7 teams that finished ranked in either the AP or coaches' polls, and this is back when they just ranked 20 teams, so that is an incredible number. Alabama played 4. USC played 9 teams that will finish ranked in the fixed and expanded top 25, Alabama 5. So we're not just talking about a tougher schedule for USC here-- we are talking about one of the toughest ever played by a national championship contender, if not the toughest. As far as I'm concerned, that plus USC's easy win at Alabama ends all possible debate, but let's go ahead and look at performance anyway. Alabama outscored their opponents by an average margin of 14.8 points per game, USC by 12.7, and Alabama had 2 close wins (touchdown or less), while USC had 5. But that advantage for Alabama largely evaporates when you take into account USC's tougher schedule. Alabama had 2 close wins and 1 loss in 5 games against teams that will finish ranked in this fixed top 25, while USC had 5 close wins and a loss against 9. That's 60% for Alabama, 67% for Southern Cal, and that isn't much of a difference. Furthermore, USC outscored opponents who will finish ranked in this fixed top 25 by an average of 7.3 points per game, Alabama by 7.0. And USC outscored opponents who will finish unranked by an average of 24.8, Alabama by 20.3. So USC outperformed Alabama in both regards. Now throw in the fact that USC played 6 road games, while Alabama played a ridiculous 3, and this "debate," if it can even be called that, is far past over.” My recollection is that the consensus was that you can’t compare the stakes in an early regular season game to those in a bowl game so Alabama’s win over Penn State was more meaningful than USC’s win over Alabama. An obvious way to resolve this is to have a rematch between Alabama and USC. But what about Oklahoma? They were #1 for more weeks, (6) than any other team and they avenged their sole defeat decisively. Shouldn’t they be in on this? And didn’t Penn State’s loss drop them down to the level of the 1 loss teams, not below them? Surely the closeness of their game with Alabama should be considered. They were a foot away from 12-0. Vautravers points out that, despite the bad call in the Rose Bowl, USC was the official winner of that game. You can’t treat it like a loss. What of Clemson? The Tigers rose to a #6 ranking, tied in the coaches’ poll with 9-3 Notre Dame and with 10-2 Michigan still ahead of them. You have to remember that the Tigers did not have the reputation that they have now. The ACC was easily the weakest ‘power’ conference. This was before conference expansion and it consisted of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke, Wake Forest and Clemson, which was viewed more like a mid-major. Their win over a 7-4-1 Ohio State team was like Boise State’s win over Oklahoma 28 years later: a great story with little bearing on the national championship. I think what we have here is a four-team playoff. To avoid an immediate rematch, I’ll use the coaches’ final ranking; #1 Southern California vs. #4 Penn State and #2 Alabama vs. #3 Oklahoma. Southern California vs. Penn State Southern California beat Alabama 24-14 who beat Penn State 14-7 = +17 for Southern California Southern California beat Michigan 17-10 who beat Ohio State 14-3 who lost to Penn State 0-19 = +1 for Penn State Southern California beat Notre Dame 27-25 who beat Pittsburgh 26-17 who lost to Penn State 10-17 = +4 for Southern California Southern California lost to Arizona State 7-20 who lost to Rutgers 18-34 who beat Villanova 24-9 who lost to Clemson 0-31 who beat North Carolina State 10-19 = +54 for Penn State Southern California beat UCLA 17-10 who tied Arkansas 10-10 who lost to Texas 21-28 who beat Maryland 42-0 who lost to Penn State 3-27 = +18 for Southern California Result: +16/5 = Penn State wins by 3. Alabama vs. Oklahoma Alabama beat Nebraska 20-3 who lost to Oklahoma 41-45 over two games = +13 for Alabama Alabama beat Missouri 38-20 who lost to Oklahoma 23-45 = +4 for Oklahoma Alabama lost to Southern California 14-24 who beat Stanford 13-7 who lost to Oklahoma 29-35 = +10 for Alabama Alabama beat Penn State 14-7 who beat Maryland 27-3 who lost to Texas 0-42 who lost to Oklahoma 10-31 = +32 for Oklahoma Alabama beat Louisiana State 31-10 who lost to Missouri 15-20 who beat Iowa State 26-13 who lost to Oklahoma 6-34 = +1 for Oklahoma Result: +14/5 = Oklahoma wins by 3. So much for re-matches. Oklahoma vs. Penn State Oklahoma beat West Virginia 52-10 who lost to Penn State 21-49 = +14 for Oklahoma Oklahoma beat Nebraska 45-41 over two games who lost to Alabama 3-20 who beat Penn State 14-7 = +6 for Penn State Oklahoma beat Texas 31-10 who beat Maryland 42-0 who lost to Penn State 3-27 = +39 for Oklahoma Oklahoma beat Stanford 35-29 who beat Tulane 17-14 who lost to Pittsburgh 6-24 who lost to Penn State 10-17 = +16 for Penn State Oklahoma beat Iowa State 34-6 who lost to Missouri 13-26 who beat Illinois 45-3 who beat Syracuse 28-14 who lost to North Carolina State 19-27 who lost to Penn State 10-19 = +54 for Oklahoma Result: +85/5 = Oklahoma wins its 3rd national title in 5 years by 17. [/QUOTE]

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