BYU's 1984 National Championship: How a 13-0 Team Won the Poll-Era Argument

On Oct. 18, 2026, BYU football rose to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 after beating No. 2 Notre Dame 28-24 in Provo. BYU's release called it the program's highest ranking "since winning the national championship in 1984," and the first time the Cougars had been in the top three of both major polls since that season.

That 1984 team finished 13-0 and was voted national champion in a system that no longer exists.

How a champion was chosen in 1984

There was no playoff, no Bowl Championship Series and no title game in 1984. The season ended with the bowls, and selecting organizations, chiefly the polls, named the champion afterward. When they disagreed, the title could be split; as one list of NCAA-recognized champions puts it, "multiple teams were deemed the national champions if there wasn't a clear-cut No. 1."

The two best-known were the Associated Press poll and the United Press International poll, which was voted by the UPI Board of Coaches. On Jan. 2, 1985, UPI reported that the national title would be decided "following voting by the UPI Board of Coaches," with 13-0 BYU ranked ahead of 11-1 Washington.

Both polls put BYU first. The Cougars were named No. 1 by the AP, UPI, Sports Illustrated, CNN-USA Today and the Football Writers Association of America, according to BYU, and won the Grantland Rice Trophy and the MacArthur Bowl. The NCAA's list of recognized champions credits BYU for 1984 by the AP, FWAA, the National Football Foundation, USA/CNN and UPI.

It was close. BYU's final AP total was 1,160 points with 38 first-place votes; Washington had 1,140 points and 16 first-place votes, and Florida was third with 1,092.

From unranked to No. 1

BYU began 1984 unranked. Its season opened with a 20-14 upset at No. 3 Pittsburgh, on what BYU calls the first live college football telecast by ESPN, and the Cougars jumped to No. 12 in the UPI poll and No. 13 in the AP, according to The Daily Universe. Quarterback Robbie Bosco's 50-yard touchdown pass to Adam Haysbert is among the plays BYU highlights from that night.

Baylor coach Grant Teaff, whose team lost 47-13 in Provo in week two, cast the first No. 1 vote BYU received, according to the school. The rest of the climb was not a straight line. BYU lists its weekly ranking as 12th, sixth, fourth, down to eighth, fifth for two weeks, back to fourth, third, fourth, third again and finally first.

The wins along the way were often narrow. At Hawaii, an 18-13 victory, safety Kyle Morrell leaped over both lines on a fourth-quarter third-and-goal stop. Lee Johnson's kicking made the difference in a 30-25 win over Air Force and a 41-38 win over Wyoming. A 42-9 win over UTEP clinched the Western Athletic Conference title, and with it BYU's seventh straight Holiday Bowl, according to BYU's student newspaper, The Daily Universe.

BYU took over No. 1 on Nov. 17, after a 24-14 win at Utah, a Nebraska loss to Oklahoma and Navy's upset of unbeaten, second-ranked South Carolina.

The Holiday Bowl

The final game was in San Diego against Michigan, a 6-5 team, per The Daily Universe, that BYU notes had been ranked No. 9 at the beginning of the season. Bosco left in the second quarter with an ankle injury and came back taped to play from the shotgun late in the half. Running back Kelly Smith caught the winning touchdown, and BYU won 24-17. Linebacker Leon White was the game's defensive MVP.

BYU's history calls it the first time a No. 1 team had played in a bowl that was not on New Year's Day. In 2009, 25 years later, the school wrote that BYU was still "the only national champion to never win that honor in a New Year's Day Bowl."

The schedule argument

The case against BYU was its schedule. On NBC's Today show, Bryant Gumbel described BYU's opposition as a "Bo Diddley Tech" schedule, and Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer was among the critics, according to BYU, which notes that a Midvale sewage lagoon was later named the "Barry Switzer Bowl" in response. Michigan, BYU's bowl opponent, was unranked. The Daily Universe, looking back in 2005, described national critics who "made light of what they perceived as a bogus ranking for BYU."

Washington had the strongest counter-argument. The Huskies finished 11-1 after a 28-17 win over No. 2 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, UPI reported, the best record in their history.

BYU's case was the record. The Cougars were the only undefeated team in the country at the end of the season, beat a top-three team on the road in the opener and closed with a 24-game winning streak, the longest in the nation at the time, according to the school. The voters split, narrowly, in BYU's favor.

Not the Miracle Bowl

The comeback known as the Miracle Bowl is a different game. It came four years earlier and decided no championship.

In the 1980 Holiday Bowl on Dec. 19, 1980, No. 14 BYU trailed No. 19 SMU 45-25 with 4:07 left. The Cougars scored 21 points in the final 2:33, according to BYU's record, and Jim McMahon threw a 41-yard pass to Clay Brown in the end zone as time expired. Kurt Gunther's extra point made it 46-45. McMahon completed 32 of 49 passes for 446 yards. Brad Rock, in a book excerpt published by the Deseret News, wrote that the game has been "affectionately known since as the 'Miracle Bowl.'" The 1984 season is the national championship.

The team

LaVell Edwards was named NCAA National Coach of the Year and visited President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1985. Fifteen players from the team were drafted by NFL teams, according to BYU, and center Trevor Matich was the only first-round pick. "It was part of a run of amazing games that made BYU a national name," Matich said in 2009.

On the title's 25th anniversary, BYU published the degrees earned by players on the 1984 two-deep. Among them was linebacker Marv Allen, who took the medical school entrance exam the day after his two-interception game against Tulsa and became a medical doctor.

Where BYU stands now

After reaching No. 2, BYU lost 39-31 in double overtime at UCF on Oct. 24. In the polls released Oct. 25 it was No. 8 in the AP Top 25 and No. 9 in the coaches poll, with a 6-1 record before its Oct. 31 home game against Arizona State. Unlike 1984, a playoff now decides the champion. For the full rivalry history, see the Holy War guide, and for this season, the BYU football page.

Key facts:

• Season: BYU football, 1984, 13-0, coached by LaVell Edwards
• Title: No. 1 in the final AP and UPI polls; the NCAA's recognized-champion list credits BYU by the AP, FWAA, NFF, USA/CNN and UPI
• Final AP vote: BYU 1,160 points (38 first-place votes), Washington 1,140 (16), Florida 1,092
• Bowl: Holiday Bowl, San Diego, BYU 24, Michigan 17
• Key wins: 20-14 at No. 3 Pittsburgh (opener); 24-14 at Utah, after which BYU took over No. 1 on Nov. 17
• Streak: 24 straight wins at season's end, the nation's longest at the time, per BYU
• Not to confuse with: the 1980 "Miracle Bowl," BYU 46, SMU 45, which decided no title
• 2026 link: BYU reached No. 2 in the AP poll on Oct. 18, 2026, its highest ranking since 1984