A Split Championship Ends A Crazy & Chaotic 1990 College Football Season

The 1990 college football season started with defending national champion Miami being upset by BYU and its soon-to-be Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Ty Detmer. That should have told us we were headed for a year that would be on the bizarre side. The BYU-Miami game unleashed a year of upsets and upheaval not seen since the seminal year of 1981.

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Notre Dame moved to the top of the polls with an exciting 28-24 win over Michigan, but the Irish were upset in October by what was then a lowly Stanford team—in South Bend, no less. The Wolverines made it to the top of the polls—while it’s not unusual for a one-loss team to find its way back to the top, it’s certainly unusual for the ascendancy to take place by October. Michigan couldn’t cash in though, and lost to Michigan State.

The up-and-down year continued, and just like happened with the 1981 Clemson Tigers, it was an ACC team quietly moving its way up through the wreckage. Virginia got the top of the polls behind quarterback Shawn Moore. They needed only to defeat Georgia Tech at home.

Georgia Tech was coached by Bobby Ross, who had previously turned Maryland into an ACC power and would take the San Diego Chargers to their first (and thus far only) Super Bowl four years down the line. Ross’ Yellow Jackets had one tie, but no one had beaten them. And befitting this crazy year, Tech upset Virginia 41-38, setting off another round of chaos.

Notre Dame climbed back to #1, but blew a fourth-quarter lead at home against Penn State and lost 24-21. In this completely messed up year, the Colorado Buffaloes made their way to the top. Colorado had not only lost a game, but tied one as well, and had a disputed victory over Missouri that came about only because they were accidentally given a fifth down on their game-winning drive. In spite of this, they were the team that reached the end of the regular season ranked #1 in the country.

For the second year in a row Colorado had to play Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. Georgia Tech was #2 and had gave pollsters something to think about, with a 45-21 thrashing of Nebraska in the Citrus Bowl in the early portion of New Year’s Day. Georgia Tech might have a tie, but they were the nation’s only undefeated team.

Even so, when the Buffs clinging to a 10-9 lead late in the fourth quarter of that night’s Orange Bowl, it looked like Tech was out of luck.

Then Colorado decided to risk punting the ball to Notre Dame’s explosive return man Raghib Ismail. “The Rocket”, as he was known, took the ball on his own eight-yard-line and took it to the house, with 43 seconds left to play. Except for the fact that a clip was called and the touchdown came back. Colorado’s defense held and the game ended 10-9.

As it turned out, Ismail’s nullified heroics still mattered. While Colorado won the writers’ poll, Georgia Tech, by a single point, scraped out a share of the national title in the coaches’ poll. Is it too much to assume that one vote might have swung based on the called-back Notre Dame play? Especially given that the call was seen in some quarters as being ticky-tack?(I was rooting for Notre Dame, but felt that while the call was close, it was probably a clip and given the speed of Ismail, had to be flagged, even at that point in the game).

Either way, a strange finish and a split national title seemed an appropriate way to end a chaotic 1990 college football season.