1985 Florida....

They would have deserved it

Didn't OU finish ranked #1 in the AP poll one year back in the 1970s while on probation?
As for Florida in 1985, sure it could have happened, conceivably, although it would have depended on how many voters would have docked them - consciously or otherwise - because of probation. Also whether or not there was another team equally deserving of a #1 ranking. After all, among sportswriters at least, by the mid 1980s probation had become much more of a stigma than it had been in the 1970s.
But then again, the national championship back then was unofficial - "mythical" it was called - so there was no such thing as "vacating" a title that had never been formally conferred. That's why Clemson was able to keep its 1981 title even after it was slapped with probation in 1982.

The 1984 team was better than the 1985 team was capable of winning a Natty. If fact they were named National Champions by at least one publication but they were stabbed in the back by some fellow conference members that stripped their SEC crown and kept them from playing in a bowl game after UF had made a deal with the NCAA to begin probation in 1985.

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1984 Florida was probably a better NC candidate. BYU was hella overrated.

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They played, and I quote, "Bo Diddly Tech" in the process.

I don't know why Barry Switzer was so chapped. I don't think his team was as good as Florida.

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Got caught and haven't done it since. Learned our lesson. Not all can say the same.

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Since June 3, when UF president Marshall Criser said, ''By any law, by any standard of fairness and in our hearts . . . we shall continue to proclaim the 1984 team as SEC champs,'' the gift shop has been told to order more such merchandise. In its July issue, Gator Booster News offered a commemorative paperweight for $30 and a limited-edition poster of the SEC championship trophy for $10. The trophy itself sits, almost invisibly, in a locked glass case on the floor next to secretary Diana Beatty`s desk in the athletic association`s administrative offices. Should the SEC try to retrieve it on the grounds that Florida`s continued possession of the trophy is a display of unlimited gall, Beatty will be ready. ''They gave me some quick karate lessons,'' she said, grinning widely. Her defensive posture, however light-hearted, is mirrored by Gator fans across the state. To the NCAA sanctions against its football program for 59 major and minor rules violations, Floridians have been largely indignant. To the SEC`s ultimate decision about the conference title, they have been defiant. It may say in the conference record books that the 1984 football championship has been vacated. Floridians say that is laughable revisionist history, especially in Gainesville, where the streets around the university`s campus were filled with high-fiving students for hours after the Gators clinched the title. ''Talking about taking it away seemed so unreal after we had earned it. You can`t take away that feeling of victory,'' said Ross Thompson, a senior from Sarasota. ''We are the SEC champs, period,''

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fricking hypocrites. Where is ForeverGator?

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The 1984 team was better than the 1985 team was capable of winning a Natty. If fact they were named National Champions by at least one publication but they were stabbed in the back by some fellow conference members that stripped their SEC crown and kept them from playing in a bowl game after UF had made a deal with the NCAA to begin probation in 1985.

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Cough cough lsu cough tennessee cough cough...
Even though they were doing the same thing...allegedly...