re: Many schools have been gypped out of national titles, but 1983 Auburn was one of the worst

I think the best argument for Auburn is that they played a significantly harder schedule than Nebraska, Texas, and Miami.

What if Osborne would have kicked the extra point and took the tie? Would Nebraska have been at least co-champs?

I hate defending Auburn, but their 1983 team had one of the highest rated SOS ever. Maybe even the highest ever pre playoff era. They can indeed make a pretty good case in my opinion.

It is what it is and they finished #3.

But it was a confusing year. Texas beats Auburn, but then loses to UGA. UGA loses to Auburn but beats Texas. That Texas team had a good many players go on to play in the NFL.

And Miami lost badly to Florida, a team that both Auburn and UGA beat.

It was controversial at the time but the reason it hasn't lingered was that the media set up a decider game in the Kickoff Classic at Giants stadium to open the 1984 season. Any old school baws remember the ol' Kickoff Classic?

Anyway #2 Miami won that game 20-18 over #1 Auburn for Jimmie Johnson's first win and people shut up about who deserved it in 83.

Another thing that hurt Auburn was they played Nebraska at home in 1982 and got throttled by like 35 points. That 82 Nebraska team was probably even better. They had one of the greatest O-lines ever and had Mike Rozier, Tom Rathman and Roger Craig running the option. They had something like 500 yards rushing against Auburn that day and averaged over 10 yards a carry. Their Oline mauled us. People remembered that a year later when everyone was trying to sort out who beat who that beat who.

quote:

---

Meh. The AP awarded their national champion after the end of the regular season in 1964. You may not like it but those were the rules at the time.

---

Those rules suck. Bama lost to Texas in a bowl game. Arkansas went undefeated and won their bowl game. They also beat Texas. Bama owns the AP title that year but it’s completely undeserved.

quote:

---

As for 1978, yes USC did defeat Alabama in a close game early in the season but they also lost a month LATER to an unranked Arizona State team that had been blown out in its losses that season.

---

USC won the AP title because the AP changed its ways after the 1964 debacle and awarded its trophy AFTER the bowl games. Bama won the 1978 UPI title because it was awarded BEFORE its bowl game loss. An absolute scandal that caused them too to change its timing of awarding trophies until after bowl games.

Basically 2 of Bama’s titles (the ones they actually won and didn’t invent) were undeserved and were so scandalous that the rewarding institutions changed their rules the very next season because they made a mistake.

quote:

---

If you look at those early claims objectively and look at how the 1925, 1926, and 1930 Alabama teams and how they absolutely dominated their opponents I don't see how you can say those are ridiculous claims while simultaneously making the claim that 1925 Dartmouth, 1926 Stanford, and 1930 Notre Dame were clearly better. That's not to say those other teams didn't have legitimate claims too but to argue one claim is clearly better than the other is disingenuous.

---

Okay. Now do 1983 which was the point of this entire thread. Bama claimed titles it was never awarded. Auburn didn’t. That’s where we stand.

I’ve studied the history of college football for over 20 years, especially the whole mythical national championship saga year-after-year. As discussed already before and in this thread, there are many instances where programs have been snubbed out of a national championship.

My top ten snubs:

1. 1966 Alabama
2. 1983 Auburn
3. 1952 Georgia Tech
4. 1960 Missouri
5. 1994 Penn State (at least a share)
6. 1977 Alabama
7. 1975 Arizona State (see 1984 BYU)
8. 1954 Oklahoma
9. 1960 Ole Miss
10. 1946 Army (denied 3peat)

GT claims 1952. Ole Miss claims 1960. Army claims 1946.

Well that's the thing, basically anything that's not BCS or CFP is mythical.

quote:

---

I used to vote in these opinion polls....son.

---

And you still don't understand that the people being polled just thought Miami was a better team than Auburn.

All that other shite you talked about was meaningless. It was just about people's opinions, it had nothing to do with logic - babe.