College Football Season Ticket: The Ultimate Fan Guide
are invited to participate Some bowl games have a great deal of prestige and tradition For example winning the Big Ten Conference and earning a berth in the Rose Bowl was and still is a big deal Bowl games also brought in a lot of money to the schools However this bowl system meant there was no guarantee that the best two teams would meet on the field That’s where the polls came in In many years polls did produce a clear national champion The Associated Press AP writers poll which was created in 1936 often agreed with the coaches poll and crowned the same team However the system also had its share of flaws
For example the two main polls didn’t always agree When this happened two teams ended the season claiming they were national champion Another problem was that until 1969 the final rankings were released before the bowl games Several times a team finished the regular season ranked No 1 only to lose a bowl game yet that team was still considered the national champ And then there was the issue of perception Was an undefeated team in a weaker conference more deserving than a one-loss team from a power conference Only the voters could decide The controversy increased through the years to the point where Congress became
1990 season highlighted involved It held hearings to examine what many believed was a broken system The the challenges Georgia Tech finished 11 0 1 after beating Nebraska decisively in the Citrus Bowl Colorado defeated Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl to go 11 1 1 However the Buffaloes season included a controversial win over Missouri in which they were mistakenly allowed a fifth down to keep a last-minute game-winning drive going In the end Georgia Tech topped the coaches poll by an 847 846 margin over Colorado But Colorado took the AP poll honor Others yet argued for Miami as the best team that season
A similar situation arose the next year The most dominant Washington team in program history went undefeated winning the coaches vote But Miami prevailed in the AP poll despite having one loss Then in 1997 Michigan and Nebraska led the way all season but they never met on the field Because the Rose Bowl was long tied to the Big Ten Michigan played its bowl game there The Orange Bowl had a tie-in to the Big 12 Conference where Nebraska played so the Huskers went there When both teams won their bowl games the writers favored Michigan and the coaches voted for Nebraska
