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1978 College Football National Championship

Charles White's "phantom touchdown" in the 1979 Rose Bowl

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 1978 mythical national championship (omitting selections made by a single magazine or by math/computer ratings, which are not generally accepted as MNCs):

12-1 Southern Cal: UPI Poll (coaches), National Championship Foundation (tie), Helms (tie)
11-1 Alabama: AP Poll, Football Writers Association of America, National Football Foundation, CFB Researchers, National Championship Foundation (tie), Helms (tie)
11-1 Oklahoma: Helms (tie)

As you can see, Alabama is the most popular selection for 1978 MNC, and that makes 1978 unique, because 11-1 Alabama actually lost to 12-1 Southern Cal, who also played a vastly tougher schedule than Alabama did. This had never happened before, has never happened since, and now that we have a playoff, it will never happen again. Of course, it need hardly be said that it should never have happened in 1978 either. Southern Cal defeated Alabama by more than a touchdown (24-14) in Birmingham, and USC played an insane 9 teams ranked in the fixed AP poll for 1978, while Alabama played 5, and that is all there is to say here. Alabama is not even a legitimate contender for the 1978 MNC, nor even close to being one.

I should note that Southern Cal played a tougher schedule than Alabama did by any rational measurement. USC played 6 teams ranked by the original, unfixed AP poll (a top 20), Alabama 4, and USC played 11 teams that finished with winning records, Alabama 8. USC's opponents went 94-53-2, and Alabama's went 82-54-2. And having played a weaker schedule, Alabama simply has no rational argument whatsoever for being named a "champion" over a team that beat them handily on their home field, and produced a better win-loss record.

Southern Cal even performed better than Alabama did when you account for the large difference in strength of schedule. USC defeated their ranked opponents (fixed AP poll) by an average of 7.3 points per game, while Alabama defeated theirs by an average of 7.0, and USC beat their unranked opponents by an average of 24.8 points per game, while Alabama beat theirs by an average of 20.2.

As I said in my article on fixing the 1978 AP poll, Alabama 1978 is the worst choice the AP poll has ever made at #1 aside from seasons when they didn't count bowl games.

11-1 Oklahoma, whom the Helms Foundation selected to share the title with USC and Bama in a 3-way tie, is actually a better choice for sharing an MNC than Alabama is, simply because the Sooners did not get crushed by the Trojans on their home field. I don't think Oklahoma's schedule was good enough for the share, but they arguably outperformed USC (not to mention Alabama), and I do think their schedule was just good enough to call them a "contender." More on this issue below.

Here are the significant games for Southern Cal, Alabama, and Oklahoma in 1978. The opponent rankings come from my 1978 fixed AP poll.
Southern Cal 12-1 Alabama 11-1 Oklahoma 11-1
Texas Tech (7-4) 17-9 #21
(Birmingham) Alabama (11-1) 24-14 #2
Michigan State (8-3) 30-9 #12
at Arizona State (9-3) 7-20
 #20
at Stanford (8-4) 13-7 #17
Washington (7-4)
 28-10
 #16
at UCLA (8-3-1)
 17-10
 #15
Notre Dame (9-3)
 27-25
 #6
Rose Bowl
Michigan (10-2)
17-10
#5
(Birmingham) Nebraska (9-3) 20-3 #8
at Missouri (8-4) 38-20 #14
(Birmingham) USC (12-1) 14-24 #1
at Washington (7-4)
 20-17
 #16
Florida (4-7)
 23-12
 Unranked
(Birmingham) LSU (8-4)
 31-10
 Unranked
(Birmingham) Auburn (6-4-1)
 34-16
 Unranked
Sugar Bowl
Penn State (11-1)
14-7
#4
at Stanford (8-4) 35-29 #17
Missouri (8-4) 45-23 #14
(Dallas) Texas (9-3) 31-10 #10
at Kansas (1-10)
 17-16
 Unranked
at Iowa State (8-4)
 34-6
 Unranked
at Nebraska (9-3)
 14-17
 #8
Orange Bowl
Nebraska (9-3)
31-24
#8

Against opponents not ranked in the fixed AP poll, Southern Cal defeated 4 teams by an average score of 35-10, Alabama defeated 7 by an average of 34-14, and Oklahoma defeated 7 by an average of 45-10.

As you can see, USC's schedule was simply nuts. Oklahoma played a decent schedule, but USC still defeated twice as many rated opponents. USC also defeated 3 teams that were rated higher than anyone Oklahoma played, and of course, they gave #2 Alabama their only loss 24-14 on the road. Oklahoma's accomplishments just don't measure up.

Oklahoma may appear to have performed better on the surface, as they outdid USC in average scoring margin, both against rated opponents (10-6 to 7.3) and against unrated (34.7 to 24.8). But those are largely style points. USC handily routed all of their unranked opponents, while Oklahoma had that hyper-ugly 17-16 win at 1-10 Kansas. In terms of performance, that is the result that stands out most to me. So if Oklahoma did outperform USC on the season, in my opinion it wasn't by much. Regardless, I view performance as more of a tie-breaker when rating teams, nowhere near as important as strength of schedule and big wins. Oklahoma needed more of those.

National Champions
1978 Fixed AP Poll
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