1984 NCAA Division I-A football season

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The 1984 NCAA Division I-A football season saw an aerial attack (in a college version of the West Coast offense), as the only undefeated team, Brigham Young University, won the national championship in the AP and Coaches Polls. Under the leadership of head coach LaVell Edwards, BYU had a 24-17 win over a 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl. The crowning, by the pollsters, of BYU as the 1984 national champion was controversial, and, to many commentators, a sign that the football crown should be decided by a playoff of some sort, if not a reform of the bowl system.

BYU played in the Western Athletic Conference which, in the aftermath of the departure of Arizona and Arizona State a few years earlier, produced several highly ranked BYU teams. Although BYU's critics pointed out that the Cougars had not beaten a single team in the final AP or UPI poll, Pitt had been ranked #3 when BYU beat them (Pitt finished 3-7-1 for the year), and Michigan, despite a 6-5 finish in regular season play, had at one time been ranked as high as #2 (Before Michigan Quarterback Jim Harbaugh broke his arm against Michigan State ending Michigan hope for a good season). Moreover, BYU was, at the time, contractually committed to play in the Holiday Bowl as the Western Athletic Conference champion. By the same token, the top finishers in each conference were similarly committed to playing in other bowl games, with the Big Ten and Pac-10 winners playing in the Rose Bowl, the SEC winner in the Sugar Bowl, Big 8 champ in the Orange Bowl, and SWC titlist in the Cotton Bowl.

The #4 ranked Washington Huskies had been invited to play in the Holiday Bowl but declined in order to play traditional power Oklahoma in the more prestigious Orange Bowl, which also had a higher payout to its participants. The University of Oklahoma was contractually committed to the Orange Bowl as the champions of the Big 8 conference. Washington, whose only loss came in a 16-7 decision vs. Southern California, ended up at #2 after defeating Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. In a thrilling last minute victory, BYU beat a [then] six loss Michigan team to claim its national championship. Early in the following 1985 season, BYU pummeled Washington (who had lost 17 starters from its 1984 team) 31-3.

Critics of the Bowl Coalition and its successors (the Bowl Alliance and the Bowl Championship Series) claim larger conferences felt threatened by BYU's win. Critics consider this exclusion to have the intent of adversely affecting recruitment to exclude conferences and to create a de-facto two-tier Division I-A conference system. Defenders of the system conversely claim that it's unfair to allow a team from a non-BCS conference to only win a single game against a top tier opponent and claim a national championship while teams from the BCS conferences have to play several such games annually. Since the implementation of the six major BCS conference structure, five non-BCS Conference Division I-A teams have finished the regular season undefeated (Tulane in 1998, Marshall in 1999, Utah in 2004, and Boise State in 2004 and 2006) without being given an opportunity to win the title. That structure makes it practically impossible for team from a non-BCS conference to compete for the national title regardless of their achievements on the field.

The 1984 season was also famous for the Boston College v. Miami game, in which Doug Flutie threw a Hail Mary pass to defeat the Hurricanes. Doug Flutie won the Heisman Trophy that year as well, and Boston College obtained a number 5 final ranking.

Contents

[edit] #1 and #2 Progress

WEEKS #1 #2 Event
PRE Auburn Nebraska Miami 18, Auburn 20 Aug 27
2 Miami Nebraska Michigan 22, Miami 14 Sep 8
3-4 Nebraska Clemson Georgia 26, Clemson 23 Sep 22
4 Nebraska Texas Syracuse 17, Nebraska 9 Sep 29
5 Texas Ohio State Purdue 28, Ohio State 23 Oct 6
6 Texas Washington Oklahoma 15, Texas 15 Oct 13
7-8 Washington Oklahoma Kansas 28, Oklahoma 11 Oct 27
9 Washington Texas Nebraska 44, Iowa St 0 Nov 3
10 Washington Nebraska USC 16, Washington 7 Nov 10
11 Nebraska South Carolina Oklahoma 17, Nebraska 7 Nov 17
12-14 Brigham Young Oklahoma BYU 38, Utah State 13 Nov 24

[edit] AP Final Poll

  1. Brigham Young
  2. Washington
  3. Florida
  4. Nebraska
  5. Boston College
  6. Oklahoma
  7. Oklahoma State
  8. SMU
  9. UCLA
  10. Southern California
  11. South Carolina
  12. Maryland
  13. Ohio State
  14. Auburn
  15. LSU
  16. Iowa
  17. Florida State
  18. Miami (Fl)
  19. Kentucky
  20. Virginia

[edit] Final Coaches Poll

  1. Brigham Young (UT)
  2. Washington
  3. Nebraska
  4. Boston College (MA)
  5. Oklahoma St.
  6. Oklahoma
  7. Florida
  8. Southern Methodist (TX)
  9. Southern California
  10. UCLA
  11. Maryland
  12. Ohio St.
  13. South Carolina
  14. Auburn (AL)
  15. Iowa
  16. Louisiana St.
  17. Virginia
  18. West Virginia
  19. Kentucky
  20. Florida St.


[edit] Notable rivalry games

[edit] Bowl games

[edit] Heisman Trophy voting

The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award is given to the

Most Outstanding Player of the year
 Winner: Doug Flutie, Boston College, Quarterback (2,240 points)

[edit] Other annual awards

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