Re: Paul Finebaum Obliterates UM Fanbase: "What a whiny and sniveling bunch"
The ony thing that stands out about Bo Schembechler is the final Coaches poll following the 1978 season. It was reported that both Schembechler and USC's John Robinson voted Alabama 14th or worse in order for USC to be ranked #1 in the final poll.
Who reported it? I'm assuming you meant 'in Alabama, we heard a rumor.' But the problem isn't that simple. The beef concerned several overlapping problems.
1) In the final regular season UPI (coach's) poll, Penn State and Alabama were 1-2, just like the AP. But after all the bowl games were completed, the top four teams all had one loss: Alabama, USC, Penn State, and Oklahoma. OU's loss was to Nebraska - who they beat in an Orange Bowl rematch. Penn State's loss was to Alabama, Alabama's to USC and USC to 9-3 Arizona St. Once Alabama beat Penn State, there was a problem: the AP had already set a precedent the year before when they jumped Notre Dame over Alabama in the final poll using the logic "they beat the number one team in the last game and had the best record." But in 1977, Alabama had not beaten Notre Dame head-to-head as USC had beaten Alabama head-to-head. On the road. By double digits.
2) USC had a bigger problem. First, their loss was worse than Alabama's loss. Of course, it's just one and they still won head-to-head. But while most people DO remember the infamous Charles White play, very few recall that USC had benefited from a ridiculous referee decision against Notre Dame. The Irish had taken a 25-24 lead with 48 seconds left, and then they appeared to recover a fumble by USC's quarterback that would have iced the game, but the refs ruled that the quarterback's arm was in motion, and that the "fumble" was an incomplete pass.It was a fumble, but the ruling gave USC the chance to hit a 35 yard pass to set up the winning field goal.
In other words, USC - like Colorado in 1990 - benefited from TWO officiating blunders. The AP likely took those into account as both of those games were televised and everyone knew about them.
The problem with the John Robinson-Bo conspiracy is Oklahoma. How could they ever know what to rank Alabama without knowing what every other coach would vote. And how could they know that. And fourteenth? Are you kidding me? Do ANY of you REALLY believe they could have ranked us down with four-loss Missouri (who we thumped that year) and the press wouldn't have made a big deal about it?
Of course not. There's no way this happened without involving everyone else.
This was following USC's "Charles White phantom touchdown" to give them the 17-10 victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl. They both may have rightly considered USC to be the #1 team, but only by placing Alabama so low could USC get the #1 ranking. I've hated Michigan ever since.
Well, it preaches well, but it's simply not realistic. A lot of coaches would have looked at USC beating Alabama and known they might be in the same situation. Tom Osborne noted after going for two against Miami in 1984 that he would never vote for a coach who had the option of a win but played for a tie in the title game number one - and that he voted in that poll. In other words, Tom knew his coaching brethren just might sock it to him in the polls if he played for a tie against Miami. They had just voted in one-loss Penn State over unbeaten (but one tie) SMU the year before.
