USC won split national championships at Michigan’s expense, 25 years apart

The Michigan Wolverines will try to win the national championship when they face the Washington Huskies on Monday. It’s good for Michigan that the Wolverines aren’t facing USC with the national title on the line. In the past, that scenario hasn’t worked out very well for the Maize and Blue.

In the 1979 Rose Bowl, USC stopped No. 5 Michigan to split the national championship with Alabama. The two schools gained half of a title by getting first place in one of the two major polls, the AP and UPI votes. USC should have been the sole national champion for 1978, given that it beat Alabama head-to-head in Birmingham that season. Nevertheless, the Trojans were clear and deserving national champions thanks to a win over Michigan in Pasadena.

A quarter of a century later, the script was repeated, with the only difference being that LSU, not Alabama, gave the SEC a shared title with USC.

In the 2004 Rose Bowl, USC hammered No. 4 Michigan to give Pete Carroll his first national championship at USC. However, LSU and Oklahoma — the other two teams in the top three of the national rankings — met in the 2004 Sugar Bowl, which was the BCS National Championship Game. When LSU won, the Tigers claimed the BCS championship, but USC won the Associated Press Poll and the national championship attached to it. The BCS was supposed to eliminate split titles, but not in the 2003 season. USC, of course, should have played LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Oklahoma had no business being in that game after getting dump-trucked by Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game.

In the end, though, USC was a legitimate national champion in the 2003 season. The Trojans have fared well against Michigan when the Rose Bowl decides the national title.

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/usc-won-split-national-championships-184952801.html

Author : Trojans Wire

Publish date : 2024-01-06 18:49:52

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