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So apparently BYU was awarded the 1984 national championship in college football. Anyone want to defend that BYU deserves to be the champions of that year?

As evidence I present:

BYU had the 82nd worst schedule out of 110 teams.

BYU didn't play any traditional football powers. They played in the WAC and avoided teams from the Big 8 (Now Big 12), Big 10, SEC, and PAC 10. The only game that might be considered a real power was Pittsburgh who was ranked #3 in the season opener. This is undercut by the fact that Pittsburgh ended their season 3-7-1. The only other challenge came from Michigan, a Big Ten team who finished 6-6, in the Liberty Bowl to end the year. Other Big Ten powers went to more important bowl games.

Discuss.

Was there a better team that also went undefeated that year? Robbie Bosco should have won the Heisman trophy that year.

ajax18 wrote:Was there a better team that also went undefeated that year? Robbie Bosco should have won the Heisman trophy that year.

No but BYU didn't play anyone who was any good. They might have been as good as those other teams, but I think in the modern BCS era BYU would have been exposed against a major team.

Affirmative Argument

For the three years prior to the championship, BYU had only one loss. BYU had become the school of quarterbacks. Other schools had harder schedules simply by virtue of competing against players named Bubba and having their parking lots overrun with kudzu vines. Location, location, location and TV market share.

Negative Argument

It was BYU that received this honor.

Bond James Bond wrote:

ajax18 wrote:Was there a better team that also went undefeated that year? Robbie Bosco should have won the Heisman trophy that year.

No but BYU didn't play anyone who was any good. They might have been as good as those other teams, but I think in the modern BCS era BYU would have been exposed against a major team.

Why didn't BYU play anyone good in the final bowl game? It seems to me that this was partially college footballs mistake for letting an undefeated team go unchallenged.

ajax18 wrote:Why didn't BYU play anyone good in the final bowl game? It seems to me that this was partially college footballs mistake for letting an undefeated team go unchallenged.

The MWC (where BYU played) probably had a contract to send their champion (who no one thought would be undefeated) to the Liberty Bowl which was contracted to play the 5th or 6th team from the Big Ten. The bowls decided who played in them. The major bowls (Rose, Orange, etc) were played by bigger teams (in name anyway).

What does number one mean? Does it mean the best team? Even the best teams can be beaten. Who would have ranked the Ravens as number 1 going into the playoffs? Maybe BYU wasn't the best team that year, but they came out undefeated and that's why they ended the year at number 1.

ajax18 wrote:What does number one mean? Does it mean the best team? Even the best teams can be beaten. Who would have ranked the Ravens as number 1 going into the playoffs? Maybe BYU wasn't the best team that year, but they came out undefeated and that's why they ended the year at number 1.

Right but when a team doesn't play anyone does it mean they're any good? Imagine a master chess player who beats average players all the time but never plays any other players of master rank. Does he deserve the #1 ranking over other masters who play each other and perhaps have a loss or two because they played other quality players?

ajax18 wrote:
Why didn't BYU play anyone good in the final bowl game? It seems to me that this was partially college footballs mistake for letting an undefeated team go unchallenged.

That was one of the impetus arguments for the formation of the Bowl Conference Series. Someone had to play the only undefeated team in the country (BYU), but why go for that challenge when they could play in a more lucrative bowl against someone named Bubba. If no nearly as good team is willing to step up, then some system must be devised to match teams. Thus we had the Bowl Coalition, the Bowl Alliance and finally BCS.

by the way, BYU was a near unanimous pick for #1 going into the Holiday Bowl. This later caused Bryant Gumble to ask the piecing question, "BYU who?" after he noticed that no one name Bubba was on the team roster.

Update: I just read that Robby Bosco did not convert to Mormonism until his senior year at BYU. So is it also true that Robbie Bosco, the junior quarterback and star player of BYUs one and only national championship team was not LDS at the time? Maybe they should have the member and nonmember players wear different color helmets so as not to confuse the believers. How many Mormons knew that both Jim McMahon and the receiver who caught his hail Mary winning pass were both Catholic?

I was eight years old when BYU went undefeated. In my heart they were still the best, but in reality they were probably around the level of the last few Boise State teams more recently. You can't substitute Tongans for Negroes at the speed positions and expect to be the best, even when your quarterback was among the very best period, which Robby Bosco truly was.

If you really wanted to find out who the best team was, you'd have a 7 game series of lengthy playoffs and even then there would be upsets. Football is of such a nature that injury just doesn't allow that many contests. Secondly there's still an illusion out there that NCAA athletes are college students as well. Even so I'm sure that's a minor factor in why they don't do playoffs.