Nebraska could lay claim to two more National Championships if we could only go back in time and replay the referees calls.
1982 regular season game against Penn State when a pass was clearly caught out of bounds on Penn State's home field. That was Nebraska's only loss that year. Seems to me that Penn State also scored against Alabama that year on another out of bounds miscall. There were T-shirts made after that season that showed the Penn State home field with two notches added to the rectangle field shape.
1994 Orange Bowl national championship game against Florida State. The phantom penalty on a punt return for a touchdown. During the same game the referees missed a Florida State fumble near the goal line.
Anyone think of any more bad calls that took away a potential national championship from someone?
Yeah, Bad Call By President Nixon
By saying Texas was the National Champ for 1969 before anyone voted, Penn State (2) got shut out in the voting.
That year Penn State 11-0 beat Navy, Colorado, Kansas State (20), West Virginia (17), Syracuse, Ohio U., Boston College, Maryland, Pittsburgh, North Carolina State and Missouri (6) in the Orange Bowl. (Rankings at end of the year). That was against 2 current ACC teams, 3 Big 12 teams, 4 Big East teams. Texas went 11-0 and beat Notre Dame (9) in the Cotton Bowl, a home game.
In 1994 their second year in the Big 10, Penn State went 12-0, beating Minnesota 56-3, USC 38-14, Michigan 31-24, Ohio State 63-14, Michigan State 50-31 and Oregon in the Rose Bowl 38-20. After the Ohio State drubbing the Ohio State coaches lobbied other Big 10 schools to join them in voting for Nebraska as # 1. So Nebraska backed into one championship. They were 13-0 benefitting from the extra game beating West Virginia in the Kickoff Classic game to start the year.
In 2005, Penn State went 11-1 losing only at Michigan to a Michigan catch out of bounds, a tackle in bounds, where they stopped the clock ruling out of bounds and the miraculous 2 seconds added back to the game clock. That was 3 bad calls in a matter of 22 seconds.
BTW, in 1982 Penn State 11-1 lost at Alabama but beat Heisman Trophy winner Herscehl Walker and Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
No matter what all those seasons were better than any year watching the Smurfs play pitch and catch.
Paul in PA
Yeah, Bad Call By President Nixon
That Alabama win was Bear Bryant's last major win. His bad health caught up with him after that and the team lost to Tennessee, LSU, Southern Miss, and Auburn for the first time in at least 10 years each.
After the 1964 season, when Alabama had already been awarded the AP and UPI NC's, they lost to Texas in the Orange Bowl. Joe Namath still claims he had possession of the ball in the end zone for what would have been the winning score but was ruled out of bounds.
