Today in 1978 was the best day ever for Alabama football---for having an open date

I don't post that often but a bit of friendly advise to the tl;dr crowd :exit this post NOW. I like waxing nostalgic in a postitive manner about all SEC teams.

Got to set the table for this to make much sense. Things in college football were just so different in the 1970's that they really don't make any sense. This day was ,of course,a Saturday, so on the prior Saturday, #1 Oklahoma played #4 Nebraska, #2 Penn State played NC State an #3 Alabama played #10 LSU. Seemingly normal stuff,but as members of the "Big Eight" Oklahoma and Nebraska would decide the conference's bid to the Orange Bowl. Penn State was still an independent with no tie-in with any bowl. This is part of the story that gets tricky. An Alabama win would keep them in line for the SEC's berth in the Sugar Bowl. But the tie-in with the SEC was only a couple of years old and only had two provisions for a tie: head to head or 'most recent trip.'

Georgia had seemingly come out of nowhere after Vince Dooley's first losing season in 1977 and was 4-0-0 (yes,the -0 suffix is important) with only a loss to South Carolina, who was still an independent. The SEC was in the midst of a six game conference schedule and Alabama and Georgia didn't play one another. Georgia did reprensent the Sugar after the 1976 season while Alabama played the year before in the Sugar. Advantage: Georgia.

Okay. November 11: (4) Nebraska 17, (1) Oklahoma 14.. Penn State beat NC State and Alabama beat LSU, 31-10. Another oddity that's hard to fathom now is AP and UPI voting was still basically done by phone and hand so the new polls wouldn't come out unti Tuesday, the 13th.

Well, with an Oklahoma and Penn State Orange Bowl match shot, the polls would surely have Penn State now #1 and Alabama #2 .Alabama was ranked ahead and had easily beaten Nebraska 20-3 in September so with Nebraska headed to the Orange and a very good shot of Georgia beating a "good" Auburn team, folks got busy. The Fiesta (WAAAAY before it got big time) and the Gator offered up a Penn State-Alabama matchup provided Georgia did beat to secure the SEC's Sugar bid.

The polls came out Tuesday and Penn State ,of course, was #1. #2? Nebraska. Joe Paterno and Penn State could now accept an Orange Bowl bid to play #2 Nebraska which would be for the national title as Paterno wanted to play the highest ranked team. Alabama was now looking at the Cotton or to be the "at large"team in the Sugar. But the Tide's hopes for a national title were rather bleak.

So, after years of bowls breaking 'gentlemen's agreements' and such Saturday the 18th at 6 PM was when bids could be officially announced. Alabama was off (as they also would be the following week caused by a scheduling quirk with ABC and Nebraska so there was no opportunity to sway anyone with a decisive win. Unfortunately for Nebraska the game with Oklahoma did not conclude their conference season. The Huskers had 1970's giant killer Missouri coming up at home where the Tigers had done most of their damage as the road team. And of course, The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry was chock full of upsets. But for Nebraska --guaranteed an Orange bid regardless-- to lose and Georgia to not beat Auburn were slim.

Somehow,someway within 30 minutes of each other on Saturday, November 18, Missouri upset Nebraska, 35-31 and Georgia tied Auburn , 22-22. Paterno and Penn State gambled on Alabama beating Auburn two weeks later (Georgia concluded their SEC mark at 5-0-1) and would go to the Sugar and play either Alabama or Georgia--if Alabama faltered. Polls came out and Penn State was #1 and Alabama was #2 and the Sugar Bowl committee did cartwheels.

And six weeks later Daniel Moore became a household name to sports fans in Alabama.