Guilty as charged...and I realized I was stepping outside of your OP with some "what if" moments.Not to sound like a school marm, but some of this is getting far more complicated than the question is even intended to be. This is not some "what if Jesus was never born" scenario.
It's more of:
a) something actually did happen BUT
b) happens slightly differently, a matter of inches, history turns on a dime
Not "well if Tebow picks Alabama" (I'll tell you how that ends - he transfers and Shula gets fired anyway but we miss Saban). That - to me - is taking this WAY TOO FAR.
In the case of the missed OSU FG - changing that one thing but leaving everything else the same - OSU plays LSU. Whether they win or not is irrelevant...Alabama has one less title and maybe Miles has a longer chain before he's tossed off the ship.
=================
Another interesting one I see is the Goal Line Stand at the 1979 Sugar Bowl. That one certainly has POTENTIAL ramifications all across the board.
1) Bryant does not win six national titles
2) Alabama is NOT "the team of the 70s", which changes perceptions greatly
3) Paterno wins THREE, not two titles - a huge difference in that perception, too
How that plays going forward....nobody knows. But on the other hand, it changes PERCEPTIONS but does it really change much? Paterno still blows himself up and Bryant still dies in 1983. Well - I guess it affects Daniel Moore but.....
However, I'm not 100% sure the Tebow scenario plays out like you suggest. He was a generational player who could have made a huge difference in choosing Bama. The recruiting impact could have been huge. Kinda like, what if Julio didn't choose Bama...what players might not have followed his lead? Granted, Shula was never going to win like CNS, but as bad as we were under him we were still pretty good in 2005 and the question is could Tebow have beat out John Parker Wilson in 2006 and made much of a difference in the outcome of that year? Would Tebow be worth 2 more wins and one of those against Auburn? We'll never know for sure, but if it does happen we don't get CNS in 2007 so I'm glad Tebow chose UF!
However, I fully agree with the implications of 1979 Penn State game.