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1977 College Football National Championship

Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana in 1977 green jersey

Alas, I've only written one National Championship article in the last 6 years. Just been too busy! I would still like to write full articles about each season like I have for 1901-1969, but for now, what I am going to do instead is write partial articles that do nothing more than explain my reasoning for my Mythical National Championship selections. Full profiles of the teams and their seasons will have to wait until I have time to write those up.

Here is how all of the organizations listed in the NCAA Records Book see the 1977 mythical national championship (omitting selections made by a single magazine or by math/computer ratings, which are not generally accepted as MNCs):

11-1 Notre Dame: AP Poll, UPI Poll (coaches), Football Writers Association of America, National Football Foundation, Helms, National Championship Foundation, CFB Researchers (tie)
11-1 Alabama: CFB Researchers (tie)

For the 2nd straight year, the College Football Researchers Association is the lone contrarian that keeps an MNC selection from being unanimous. Spoiler alert: I just peeked ahead, and it's going to happen again for 1979 and 1980, and while the CFRA was not the lone contrarian for 1978, they are wrong in their choice that year too. What happened within the CFRA's selection process that caused such unrelenting ineptitude for 1976-1980? Did a group of 4-year-old children make their selections for this time period? I would really like to know, because the CFRA made mostly rational selections before and after this time period, in line with consensus choices. Something was clearly very, very different with their selection process for 1976-1980.

I think Alabama 1977 is a better selection than Southern Cal 1976 was, and unlike that 1976 choice, this time the CFRA made it a tie with the consensus MNC. However, as I discussed in great detail in my article on fixing the 1977 AP poll, Alabama just doesn't quite merit a share of the MNC for 1977.

Listed below are the significant results for Notre Dame and Alabama in 1977. Needless to say, all rankings in this article come from my fixed AP poll for 1977.
Notre Dame 11-1 Alabama 11-1
at Pittsburgh (9-2-1)
 19-9
 #8
at Mississippi (5-6)
 13-20
 Unranked
at Purdue (5-6)
 31-24
 Unranked
Southern Cal (8-4) 49-19 #13
at Clemson (8-3-1)
 21-17
 #24
Cotton Bowl
Texas (11-1)
38-10
#2
Mississippi (5-6)
 34-13
 Unranked
at Nebraska (9-3) 24-31 #11
Georgia (5-6)
 18-10
 Unranked
at Southern Cal (8-4)
 21-20
 #13
Sugar Bowl
Ohio State (9-3)
35-6
#10

Notre Dame defeated their unranked opponents by an average of 36.6 to 10.5 points per game, and Alabama defeated theirs by an average of 33.3 to 9.1.

As you can see, Alabama's one argument for at least sharing the 1977 MNC is the fact that Notre Dame lost 20-13 at unranked 5-6 Mississippi, a team Alabama defeated 34-13 just a week earlier. But as I said in my article on fixing the 1977 AP poll, if that was the only game these teams played, then sure, Alabama would merit an MNC over Notre Dame, but unfortunately for the Tide, these teams played 11 other games, and that's where Alabama's argument falls apart.

Notre Dame and Alabama played 2 other common opponents aside from Mississippi. Both stomped on 3-8 Miami-Florida (Notre Dame 48-10 on the road, Alabama 36-0 at home), but their performances against #13 Southern Cal (8-4) were as different as those against Mississippi. Notre Dame famously surprised USC with green jerseys, then won 49-19. Alabama, on the other hand, won at USC by only 1 point, 21-20, and it would have been a tie game had USC not gone for 2 points and the win at the end. The Tide was outgained 359 yards to 249 in that game. Notre Dame also won 69-14 over 6-5 Georgia Tech, who happened to romp on 3 of Alabama's opponents: Tennessee 24-8, Auburn 38-21, and Georgia 16-7 (Alabama beat Georgia 18-10).

Notre Dame played a tougher schedule, 4 rated opponents to 3 and 7 winning opponents to 5, and most importantly, Notre Dame defeated 2 teams that were ranked higher than anyone Alabama played. Notre Dame and Alabama performed about the same on the season, but against their tougher schedule, Notre Dame did produce a better scoring margin, outscoring their opponents by a total of 429-139, Alabama 380-139.

Still, it is true that Notre Dame's 20-13 loss at 5-6 Mississippi is certainly much worse than Alabama's 31-24 loss at #11 Nebraska, and I do think that Alabama's 35-6 Sugar Bowl win over #10 Ohio State was a very impressive result, and for those reasons I think I'll call Alabama a "contender" for the 1977 MNC. However, what keeps them from a legit share of the 1977 MNC is Notre Dame's huge 38-10 Cotton Bowl win over #2 Texas. And if you're wondering about that "#2" I keep writing next to Texas, it's because yes, I have Texas rated higher than Alabama for 1977. This Texas team had performed spectacularly well heading into their bowl game, which is why Notre Dame's trouncing of them is not only easily the best win by any team this season, but one of the best of this decade. Take a look at Texas' full season below.

1977 Texas 11-1
Boston College (6-5) 44-0
Virginia (1-9-1) 68-0
Rice (1-10) 72-15
(Dallas) Oklahoma (10-2)
 13-6
 #7
at Arkansas (11-1) 13-9 #4
at SMU (4-7) 30-14
Texas Tech (7-5) 26-0 #21
at Houston (6-5) 35-21 #18
Texas Christian (2-9) 44-14
Baylor (5-6) 29-7
at Texas A&M (8-4) 57-28
 #14
Cotton Bowl
Notre Dame (11-1)
10-38
#1

Texas defeated 5 rated teams, more during the regular season than Notre Dame and Alabama beat combined. They gave 11-1 Arkansas their only loss, and 10-2 Oklahoma lost only to Texas and to Arkansas. The Longhorns demolished their other 9 regular season opponents by an average score of 45-11. Unlike Notre Dame and Alabama, no unrated team came close to them, and in fact no team outside the top 10 gave them a close game. So you see, Notre Dame's 38-10 win over this team, in a bowl game played in Dallas, is too remarkable a result to seriously consider Alabama a co-champion for this season.

Joe Montana

Before signing off on this article, I wanted to write a quick bit on Notre Dame's legendary quarterback, Joe Montana (pictured in the MS Paint portrait at the top of this article). Montana was the 3rd string QB to start the season, and did not play in Notre Dame's loss at 5-6 Mississippi. The next week, Notre Dame trailed 5-6 Purdue 24-14 in the 3rd quarter, and that's when Montana was sent into the game to save it and the season. He rallied his team for 17 points and the win, and Notre Dame was a completely different team the rest of the season.

National Champions
1977 Fixed AP Poll
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