What is the worst college football team to win/share a national title?

Yeah, but their opponents weren't locked in. They could play anybody they wanted in those bowls.

The Orange Bowl chose No. 4 Washington to play against No. 2 Oklahoma in 1984. Fine, but the Orange Bowl could have invited No. 1 BYU, or, Washington -- who didn't win the Pac 10 that year -- could have played BYU in the Holiday Bowl.

Turns out, if Washington had played BYU, they might have won the national title, instead of finishing No. 2. Depends also on what Oklahoma, who was No. 2 going into its Orange Bowl, would have done.

 

I believe the same thing could be said for Osborne in 94. As I recall, Penn State had the tougher schedule and had beaten up its schedule just as convincingly as the Huskers, and Penn State had been ranked No. 1 and Nebraska 2 the entire season until around week 10 or 11 when the voters decided to flip em for no legitimate reason. Anyone who thinks that wasn't at least "a tough decision" should not have a vote.

 

Wasn't the WAC winner (at the time) locked into the Holiday Bowl?

 

That's interesting considering how the vote wasn't even close that year.

 

Yes. Washington turned down an invite to play BYU in the Holiday Bowl.

As I recall, and I could be wrong on this, BYU was willing to buy their way out of its Holiday Bowl commitment if a major bowl came calling, but none of them did.

 

The "reason" the voters switched Penn State and Nebraska that year was that on the last play of the game, Indiana scored a touchdown and two-point conversion to cut Penn State's lead to eight points. When it came across the ticker that PSU had "struggled" against Indiana, that basically decided the national championship.

 

Wow, that's interesting. I'd never heard that. Good stuff...

 

Penn State was only ranked No. 1 for two weeks in 1994. Their goose was cooked when they only beat Indiana by six and Illinois by four late in that Big Ten season.

 

Like I said, I could be wrong on that, so don't take it as gospel. 8)

 

I think that was also before Nebraska crushed Colorado, which ended that season ranked No. 3 in the country.

 

I take everything you say as gospel. It goes:

1. My wife
2. Bubbler
3. God

 

Doesn't make it any more legitimate. The week the 1/2 order flipped was after Penn State had played at Indiana and won by a misleadingly close 35-29 score. And the only reason people could figure for the flip was that Penn State was being penalized for not blowing IU off the field.

But what those voters didn't bother to notice is that Penn State HAD BEEN blowing IU out, but IU had gotten a couple garbage touchdowns in the final couple minutes (including on a tipped hail mary in the final seconds) that resulted in a very misleading final score. Also, that IU team finished 6-5 and wasn't that bad. Paterno essentially lost a national title that year because he chose not to run up the score in a game. Classic example of how arbitrary and silly picking a champ by voting can be.