1983 NCAA Division I-A football season


The 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the University of Miami, led by Bernie Kosar, winning their first national championship over perennial power and top ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
The Hurricanes' 31–30 win over Nebraska is still talked about as one of the greatest games of all time, not only for its last minute finish, but for its role in changing the face of college football. Miami came into the game ranked #5, but losses by #2 Texas in the Cotton Bowl and #4 Illinois in the Rose Bowl launched them to #1.
Nebraska scored a touchdown with 48 seconds remaining, putting them within one point of the Hurricanes. Despite knowing a tie would still give Nebraska the national title, Coach Tom Osborne decided to go for two points and the win rather than one point and the tie. Miami was able to hold, snapping Nebraska's 22-game winning streak and launching Miami as a powerhouse program.
This Miami team was the first to win a national title without a single player voted to the first team All-Americans and only the second to win a national title gaining more passing yards than rushing.
The Auburn Tigers, featuring Bo Jackson also had a stellar season going 11-1 and beating Michigan in the Sugar Bowl 9–7. Despite entering the bowl games ranked third in both major polls, and with both teams ranked higher losing their bowl games, the Tigers ended ranked third in the final AP poll as Miami jumped from 5th to ranked #1 when they beat #1 ranked Nebraska to gain the National Championship. Auburn had played the toughest schedule in the nation, including eight bowl teams, seven of which were ranked in the top 20. Even with this difficult schedule the Tigers were ranked first by a few polls, including The New York Times computer rankings. The NCAA record book also formally recognizes the Tigers as co-national champions, along with Nebraska. It is not uncommon for the NCAA record book to "recognize" multiple national champions in a given year, with the AP and Coaches' poll winner regarded as national champions.
The Holiday Bowl was also a classic, as Brigham Young University, led by future NFL star Steve Young, defeated Missouri with a last second halfback pass.
The annual rivalry game between Oregon and Oregon State is still widely known and derided as "The Toilet Bowl", as the teams played to a 0–0 tie, the last scoreless tie in college football. The game featured 11 total turnovers, as 6 fumbles were lost, 5 interceptions, and 4 missed field goals.
This season saw no conference have two or more teams tie for the title—an event that did not happen again in either Division I-A or its successor, Division I FBS, until 2009.

Rule changes

School1982 Conference1983 Conference
Georgia Tech Yellow JacketsIndependentACC

September

The pre season top five was 1. Nebraska 2. Oklahoma, 3. Texas, 4. Penn State, and 5. Auburn.
In the kickoff classic on August 29, Nebraska routed defending national champion Penn State, 44-6. Penn State opened with 3 losses and never made it back into the top 20. They were replaced in the top 5 by Notre Dame.
September 17 was a day of shakeup in the top 5. #2 Oklahoma lost at home to #6 Ohio State, 24-12. #3 Texas won at #4 Auburn 20-7. #5 Notre Dame lost at home to Michigan State, 28-23. The new poll was 1. Nebraska, 2. Texas, 3. Ohio State, 4. Arizona, and 5. North Carolina. Nebraska and Texas would hold their spots at #1 and #2 for the remainder of the regular season.
On September 24, #3 Ohio State lost at #7 Iowa 20-14. The new poll was 1. Nebraska, 2. Texas, 3. Arizona, 4. Iowa, and 5. North Carolina. Miami appears in the poll for the first time in the top 20, after shutting out #13 Notre Dame 20-0.

October

On October 1, #3 Arizona was tied by California at Berkeley 33-33 and #4 Iowa was shut out at Illinois, 33-0. The new poll was 1. Nebraska, 2. Texas, 3. Alabama, 4. North Carolina and 5. West Virginia.
On October 8, #3 Alabama lost at Penn State, 34-28. Auburn replaced their rivals in the top 5.
October 15 saw no changes as the top 5 all won.
On October 22, #4 West Virginia lost at Penn State 41-23. Florida replaced them in the top 5 that was 1. Nebraska, 2. Texas, 3. North Carolina, 4. Auburn, and 5. Florida.
On October 29, #3 North Carolina started a 3-game losing streak by falling to #13 Maryland 28-26. #5 Florida lost at #4 Auburn 28-21. The new top five was 1. Nebraska, 2. Texas, 3. Auburn, 4. Georgia, and 5. Miami

November

November 5 saw no change in the top 5, but on November 12, #4 Georgia lost at home to #3 Auburn, 13-7. #5 Illinois clinched the Big 10 title and Rose Bowl berth with a 49-21 rout of Indiana, their 9th straight win. The Illini jumped ahead of Miami and replaced Georgia at #4. That would be the last change in the top 5 for the regular season. The key traditional New Year's Day bowl matchups were set with #1 Nebraska facing #5 Miami in the Orange Bowl, #2 Texas facing #7 Georgia in the Cotton Bowl, #3 Auburn facing Big 10 runner-up #8 Michigan in the Sugar Bowl, and #4 Illinois facing unranked Pac-10 champion UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

Conference standings

AP final poll

  1. Miami
  2. Nebraska
  3. Auburn
  4. Georgia
  5. Texas
  6. Florida
  7. Brigham Young
  8. Michigan
  9. Ohio State
  10. Illinois
  11. Clemson
  12. SMU
  13. Air Force
  14. Iowa
  15. Alabama
  16. West Virginia
  17. UCLA
  18. Pittsburgh
  19. Boston College
  20. East Carolina

    Final coaches poll

  21. Miami
  22. Nebraska
  23. Auburn
  24. Georgia
  25. Texas
  26. Florida
  27. Brigham Young
  28. Ohio St.
  29. Michigan
  30. Illinois
  31. Southern Methodist
  32. Alabama
  33. UCLA
  34. Iowa
  35. Air Force
  36. West Virginia
  37. Penn St.
  38. Oklahoma St.
  39. Pittsburgh
  40. Boston College

    Notable rivalry games

In the AP preseason poll released on August 27, Big 8 Conference rivals Nebraska and Oklahoma were #1 and #2. After the Oklahoma Sooners lost 24-14 to Ohio State on September 17, the Nebraska Cornhuskers remained #1 and were trailed for nearly the entire season by Texas. Nebraska received all 60 of the first place votes in the polls of September 26 and October 3, and no fewer than 51 as the season continued, while the Longhorns never received more than five votes during the same period. Meanwhile, the University of Miami Hurricanes, unranked in the preseason Top 20, began winning after their first week 28-3 loss to Florida. Miami came in at #15 in the September 26 poll. As they continued unbeaten, the Hurricanes gathered force, rising to #12, #10, #8, #7, and reached #5 by October 31, where they remained in the final regular season poll after they were invited to play against Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

Bowl games

The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award is given to the
Most Outstanding Player of the year
Winner:
Mike Rozier, Nebraska RB