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National champs: Cougars finished on top after going 13-0 in 1984

The sleeping giant will soon be awake again

It's Ironic BYUs success is responsible for the bowl alliance, BCS and media bias. It's even more ironic that utah is the team that's been able to tear down the wall that BYU inadvertently helped greedy men set up.

Now we await the inferiority complex laiden posts from Ute fans saying their 2 BCS games are a bigger deal, or that the 84 title is "mythical", or quit living in the past, etc... News flash, last year is in the past. In life, all you have is memories and hope for the future. Both programs should revel in their respective successes and hopes for the future.

Jeff,

Great article about the 1984 National Championship team.

Although the 25th anniversary of the 1984 team will undoubtedly get the most attention this year, 2009 is also the 30th anniversary of the 1979 team that came within one play of an undefeated season. That team, led by QB Marc Wilson and DB Tom Holmoe among many others, is all but forgetten to most BYU football fans. I would love to see a similar article about them.

Thank you,

Robert Bledsoe
Temecula, CA

So, once again BYU is responsible for any and all maladies in the world according to "Ironic." So, it's not surprising either that "Ironic" tags the U as the solution. When hard-core Utes point the finger of blame at the Y anymore, all I can do is laugh. Problem with local phone service? BYU is the cause. Poor decisions at the Utah legislature? Look no further than BYU. LDS church members that are imperfect? Source: BYU. War in Iraq? George Bush led by the nose to war by a clandestine, all-powerful underground quorum at BYU.

Let the brainwashing on the hill continue....

Keep hanging your hat zoobies on this heavily disputed national championship. It makes you look like fools. If you seriously believe you could have beaten the likes of Washington, Florida, Nebraska, and Oklahoma that year, your even bigger fools. A 6-5 Michigan team. You should be very proud. Get a grip zoobs, you dominated for years in a week conference after Arizona and Arizona State left to the PAC 10. Earth to Zoobs, please return to earth, the ride has been over for some time now.

yawn..........This is the BCS Era. NO one cares about this dated team.

Thanks for the article. Great memories of my freshman year at BYU. Go Cougs!

are you kidding? they will lose at least 3 this year.

Actually BYU 1996 and BYU 2000 both put pressure on the Bowl Alliance/BCS to modify their at large selection requirements. Before 1996 the Bowl Alliance required a top 6 ranking to get in one of the top 4 games if you were not from one of the chosen conferences. Because of BYU's performance in 1996 they then dropped it to 12 until after 2000 when they dropped it to 16. So if it wasn't for those years from BYU the BCS Busters we know of today (Hawaii, BSU, Utah) likely wouldn't have even qualified for selection (with the possible exception of Utah 2008 which I believe was at #6 at time of game selections in the BCS poll).

BYU 1984 forced the conferences whining about their national title to create the bowl alliance/BCS. Without that their wouldn't even be this new 'mythical' accomplishment of being a BCS buster and at least 3 out of the 4 teams that have done it wouldn't even have qualified without additional years of BYU tearing down the criteria for inclusion.

My my where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday that this team (the 1984 BYU Cougars) won the national championship. What's really funny is here where I live in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida one of the newspaper editors threw his coffee cup up against the wall. Like the rest of the country UF (University of Florida) was complainting the most. Then again that was then & this is now. I hope the state of Utah does sue the BCS & force it to change that would be good for college football if you ask me.

I still remember BYU "claiming" the National Championship title 25 years ago, I still laugh at the banner at the end zone in BYU's stadium. While they did go 13 - 0 their schedule was weak in comparison.

BYU will never see another chance towards a "National Championship" so keep the highlight films readily available so that you can cherish the one and only glorified moment in BYU Football History (even though it was a fraud).

P.S. Have you guys quit playing that Danny Ainge dribble against ND back in the days???? Or do you still run the play over and over again in the Marriott Center during your devotions, gymnastic, volleyball and basketball games during the half time ice cream social????

I remember as a freshman sitting in a intro to investments class and going over who needed to lose the next week, it was amazing that all those teams in front of BYU kept losing. It was a great year.

I think any logical fan knows that what happened in 1984 wouldn't happen today.

As Utah, Boise State, and Hawaii have proven, undefeated in a non-BCS conference is no longer sufficient even with two or three wins against teams from BCS conferences. As a die hard cougar fan it's easy for me to say what Utah accomplished last year was on par with BYU's NC (higher quality wins but still no consensus NC). If Michigan had been ranked 3rd to begin the season in 2008 then I believe Utah would have made it to the title game. Luck was on the Y's side in '84, but luck also played no small factor in the U's 2008 undefeated season.

I think we as BYU fans take ourselves a little too seriously if we think the only reason for the BCS was to prevent another 1984, but I'm sure that was on Washington's mind. I'd rather take credit for innovations contributing to the West Coast Offense and the multitude of future NFL coaches and players out of BYU during those years than think the BCS was created only to prevent another 1984.

on the sports desk-------so write about something that has nothing to do with nothing.........

Oh, and very interesting all the YBU'ers who started right out with negatives about the Utes (the article is about byu and 84)???????? Just tells ya where the mind set is! Always looking over your shoulders blue boys!

and work for the future.

13-0 with a weak schedule was not NC material.

SoCalUtahFan

byu received the ultimate gift in 84: an unearned championship....they were good but with a schedule full of patsies such as colo st, utah, utah st, utep, wyoming, new mexico, and of course the 6-5 michigan how could a decent team not go undefeated?...you got scoreboard on all the D1 teams that year cougs...count your blessings because it was a freebie, a gift you clearly did not earn...the champion was washington that year i believe....

What was Michigan's record at the end of he year and where they even ranked in the top 20 when they played YBU? Coug fans, please be honest and quit using the excuse that "we were crowned NC by the media" when you know, if you have any common sense, that you beat a terrible team. This would not happen in today's game.

Once again, a vision of a past history acts as an invitation for a smorgasbord of replies.

There are the myriad of BYU "haters" spreading their venom; the Naysayers offering their best impression of Bryant Gumble's BYU played "Bo Diddley Tech".

Still, the milestone was set. The improbable occurred. Small steps by "unknown" stars led to BYU being the 1984 National Champion.

No one can take away the 1984 National Championship. Whether that occurance led to the many gyrations and versions of exclusion for the "have not" NCAA schools or not is immaterial. History bears out that the "BIG" schools did not proceed to monopolize until after BYU wins the National Championship.

The 1984 BYU National Championship was a catalysisic occurence that set up a chain of monopolistic events that led to the monopoly known as the BCS. Twenty-five years later, there are continous rumblings and eruptions as the BCS continues to try to "corner the market" on college football.

To all you doubters, BYU didn't vote themselves natn'l champs. BYU had a great season and were rewarded. I bet BYU could've played with anyone that year, maybe not beat them, but hang. No matter what the haters say the record books will always have BYU as the 1984 national champs. This season sets up well for BYU to do it again.

Let's go get OU.