BYU's Trump Card: The 1984 National Championship
Only 19 schools have been consensus national champions since 1955, and BYU's one of them.
BYU fans, just click this link from the NCAA’s official website showing the list of football national champions, scroll to 1984, and enjoy yourself for a moment. Take it in. Bask in its glory. Revel in its awesomeness.
The consensus 1984 champion is “Brigham Young” as determined by Associated Press, Football Writers Association of America, the National Football Foundation, USA Today/CNN, and UPI. The same governing bodies that chose Penn State in 1982 and Miami in 1983, followed by Oklahoma in 1985 and Penn State in 1986, gave the same honors to the 1984 BYU Cougars.
There are no asterisks next to the names of any of these schools. There is no controversy as to who was No. 1.
LaVell Edwards’ squad was the 1984 national champion and will always have that honor. It’s true today, will be true tomorrow, and will continue as truth through the eternities
BYU’s consensus national championship is the ultimate trump card for BYU fans.
Few fans can make the same bold pronouncement. Since 1955 there have only been 19 schools to be consensus national champions (some years have had split national champions). If a “Reunion of Champions” was held today for consensus national champions the exclusive invitations would go to BYU along with Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Southern Cal, Syracuse, Tennessee, and Texas.
That’s it. Only 19 schools have been consensus national champions since 1955. Brigham Young is one of them.
The 1984 national championship will always be the stuff of legend. In the first week of the season an unranked BYU team beat No. 3 Pittsburgh 20-14 in a memorable game that also happened to be ESPN’s first ever college football broadcast. With the upset win BYU moved to No. 13 in the polls the following week. They then annihilated Baylor and Tulsa over the next two weeks by a combined 57 points and never looked back.
The Cougars went on to dominate the Western Athletic Conference, including a memorable three week stretch in which they beat New Mexico, UTEP, and San Diego State by a combined 124-12. BYU went on the road and beat Utah by double digits at Rice Stadium. The Cougars were ranked No. 1 in the nation going into their final regular season game against Utah State and took care of business with a convincing 38-13 win.
Despite finishing the regular season ranked No. 1 and having been ranked No. 8 or higher for 11 straight weeks, none of the major bowl games gave BYU an invitation to play on New Year’s Day. It’s easy to understand why the nation’s top team was locked out of a major bowl game as a BYU victory over a highly-ranked team from a more prestigious conference would have obliterated the myth that teams from non-power conference can compete with the blue bloods. Instead, BYU had to watch lesser teams like No. 11 LSU and No. 18 USC play in the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl, respectively.
Organizers of the Holiday Bowl reportedly extended invitations to No. 4 Washington, No. 12 Maryland, and No. 16 Auburn to face the No. 1 ranked Cougars, but each declined to face the nation’s best program.
BYU ultimately faced unranked Michigan in the Holiday Bowl. The Wolverines had previously beaten No. 1 Miami and was ranked No. 13 through five weeks of play, but then tapered off to end the season with a 6-5 record. With other ranked programs running away from a bowl game against the eventual national champions, all BYU could do was beat the best team willing to play them, and that’s just what they did to end the season a perfect 13-0.
Those who love to hate BYU will always try to downplay the significance of the Cougars’ national championship. They’ll say BYU wasn’t deserving because they played in the WAC, but this holds no weight as the Cougars were voted consensus national champions under the system in place at the time, just as the champions before them and after them were selected.
BYU detractors will say 1984 was a long, long time ago and the title is in the past, but the reality is only 19 schools since 1955 have consensus national championship trophies in their display cases, and BYU’s one of them. Being a member of this exclusive club will always be relevant and deserves to be celebrated now and in the future.
People who accuse BYU fans of living in the past by still celebrating the 1984 title are often frustrated supporters of schools that have never won a football national championship. When it comes to University of Utah fans who try to diminish 1984, the rebuttal is simply this: “Utah was in the WAC right along with BYU and the Utes just didn’t get it done. For decades Utah had the same opportunity as BYU to win a national title, but only the Cougars emerged as champions.”
Trying to explain the impact of a consensus national championship to unfortunate fans of schools that don’t have one is like trying to explain Handel’s Messiah to a toddler - they just don’t get it. They are on the outside enviously looking in on a very exclusive, prestigious club to which they don’t belong and therefore don’t comprehend.
The exclusive, prestigious club of consensus national champions where BYU resides today, and forever.
Dear BYU Friends - Please consider becoming a loyal, proud, and true subscriber to the BYU Brag Sheet so I can keep the content coming!