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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nProjecting the best records for the top college football conferences<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Sports’ Paul Myerberg breaks down who he thinks will win the in each of the Power Four conferences and the Group of Five.<\/p>\n
Sports Seriously<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/story-highlights> Nearly 35 years later, former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne<\/a> finally is willing to talk about which team he voted to win the national championship for the 1990 college football season<\/a>.<\/p>\n Did he select Big Eight Conference rival Colorado<\/a> as the nation\u2019s No. 1 team after the Buffaloes beat Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl<\/a> on Jan. 1, 1991?<\/p>\n Or did he instead coronate Georgia Tech<\/a>, which beat his Nebraska team that same day in the Citrus Bowl?<\/p>\n Osborne, 88, discussed it by phone with USA TODAY Sports as Colorado and coach Deion Sanders<\/a> prepare to face Georgia Tech in a season-opening game in Boulder on Friday, Aug. 29. It will be the first meeting of Colorado and Georgia Tech despite forever being linked by what happened in the voting for that national championship.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you wanted to know how I voted, I did vote for Georgia Tech,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n Osborne was seen as an important vote because his team was the only one that played both teams in the 1990 season. He previously has declined to talk about it publicly, even though many speculated he voted Georgia Tech No. 1, perhaps even to deny league foe Colorado of a national championship prize that he had had yet to win.<\/p>\n Osborne denies he did it to spite Colorado. \u201cI would never do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He had other reasons.<\/p>\n There was no College Football Playoff back then. The national championship instead was decided by voters in two main polls after teams played their postseason bowl games.<\/p>\n Colorado (11-1-1) and Georgia Tech (11-0-1) ended up \u201csharing\u201d the national championship for 1990 because one poll \u2212 the Coaches Poll \u2212 picked Georgia Tech while the other \u2013 the Associated Press \u2212 picked Colorado No. 1<\/a><\/p>\n Their link to a shared national title<\/a> serves as a reminder of how controversy and conflicts of interest could shape the sport back then in an age before replay review and rules to prevent such conflicts.<\/p>\n Something seemed especially strange about the Coaches Poll then because the balloting was secret and the winning margin in that poll was only one point (847-846), including a 30-27 margin in first-place votes for Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n The coaches\u2019 voting then was tabulated by Jeff Shain, then the college sports editor of United Press International (UPI), which sponsored the poll. Shain told USA TODAY Sports recently that after 58 ballots were counted in the final Coaches Poll on Jan. 2, 1991, Colorado and Georgia Tech were tied at No. 1 with one vote left to be tracked down. That 59th<\/sup> and final coach then voted for Georgia Tech to break the tie.<\/p>\n \u201cThat coach, unbeknownst to him, essentially swung the national title,\u201d Shain said. \u201cAll 59 votes count the same, but because he was last, it was the determining ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n Shain said it wasn\u2019t Osborne. But because the margin was only one point, any coach who voted Georgia Tech No. 1 could have changed the result had he voted for Colorado instead.<\/p>\n Shain declined to say who cast the final vote, citing a confidentiality agreement with the coaches\u2019 association back then.<\/p>\n He confirmed the ballots were required to be kept secret and then thrown away.<\/p>\n \u201cOur procedure was to tally them and toss them,\u201d Shain said.<\/p>\n By contrast, the final Associated Press poll wasn\u2019t as close or controversial: It was 39-20 in first-place voting for Colorado over Georgia Tech. That poll of voters in the news media also had consistently kept Colorado No. 1 since November 1990<\/a> as the Buffaloes navigated one of the nation\u2019s toughest schedules<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a big shift, the Coaches Poll moved Georgia Tech into the No. 1 spot even though Colorado was in first in the previous poll in December 1990 and the Buffaloes beat No. 5 Notre Dame the day before, 10-9. It was the first time in that poll\u2019s history that a No. 1 team fell out of the top spot after winning a bowl game.\u00a0<\/p>\n This flipflop stunned then-Colorado coach Bill McCartney, who learned the results of the final UPI Coaches Poll after landing at the airport in Denver after the Orange Bowl, according to University of Colorado athletics historian Dave Plati<\/p>\n \u201cThat’s not right,\u201d McCartney said then<\/a>. \u201cYou call UPI back and tell them to have the coaches vote again.”\u00a0<\/p>\n McCartney, who died in January<\/a>,\u00a0 long suspected Osborne had ranked Georgia Tech No. 1. Plati said he never got confirmation of Osborne’s ballot.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would never come out and say where he voted us,\u201d Plati said recently.<\/p>\n Coaches weren\u2019t required to reveal their ballots in the final poll, unlike now in the US LBM Coaches Poll, administered by USA TODAY Sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n The secrecy of the ballots and lack of confirmation from Osborne led to decades of rumors about how he voted and why.<\/p>\n Osborne told USA TODAY Sports he doesn\u2019t remember where he voted Colorado on his final ballot or final regular-season ballot. He cited two big factors for his final vote.\u00a0 One was that Colorado had received an illegal fifth down to beat Missouri<\/a> that season on the final play of the game, 33-31. \u00a0Another was that Georgia Tech beat his Nebraska team more soundly than Colorado did (45-21 by Georgia Tech, 27-12 by Colorado).<\/p>\n \u201cThey were both good teams, and I think the distinguishing factor was Colorado ended up having five downs in one of their wins and Georgia Tech didn\u2019t have any somewhat questionable finishes,\u201d Osborne told USA TODAY Sports. \u201cSo I voted for Georgia Tech, and of course we played them both. I thought Georgia Tech at the end of the year was pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n Colorado started the year 1-1-1, including a loss at Illinois and a tie against Tennessee in Anaheim, California, before finishing with 10 consecutive wins. But one of those wins came on that fifth down at Missouri.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t Colorado\u2019s fault, but the Buffs won on a final play that shouldn\u2019t have been allowed.<\/p>\n The officiating crew and scoreboard indicated it was third down when quarterback Charles S. Johnson spiked the ball to stop the clock. It was really fourth down after Colorado had run three previous plays from the Missouri 3-yard line, including another spiked ball to stop the clock on first down. Missouri was set to win, 31-27, if the game ended there.<\/p>\n But if the quarterback had known it was really fourth down instead of third, he wouldn\u2019t have spiked the ball to surrender the game on downs. He instead would have tried to win as he did on the next play \u2212 a 1-yard touchdown run on \u201cfifth down\u201d as time expired.<\/p>\n The confusion stemmed from when game officials had failed to change the down marker from \u201c2\u201d to \u201c3\u201d after 2-yard gain on second down.<\/p>\n Then-Missouri coach Bob Stull<\/a> was a voter in the final poll back then, too. He told USA TODAY Sports he doesn\u2019t remember how he voted. The Tigers were also Big Eight members with Nebraska and Colorado.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t bitter on the (fifth-down) thing, so I don\u2019t know if it carried at all,\u201d Stull said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got your conference you\u2019re trying to vote for too, you know. I can\u2019t tell you how I did, but that wouldn\u2019t have come into play for me.\u201d<\/p>\n In previous voting to end the regular season in December 1990, the Coaches Poll had Colorado ranked No. 1 by a margin of 38-7 over Georgia Tech in first-place votes, plus two first-place votes for Miami, Fla. That’s 47 votes total out of a panel of 59 coaches, meaning 12 coaches didn\u2019t vote in that previous poll, according to archives.<\/p>\n But then in the final poll on Jan. 2, 1991, all 59 coaches voted, including 30 first-place votes for Georgia Tech, 27 for Colorado and two for Miami (Fla.).<\/p>\n Shain said sometimes some coaches were simply hard to track down for their ballots because they were on the road recruiting and didn\u2019t have cell phones then.<\/p>\n \u201cVoting is not high on their priority list,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Many coaches who voted back then have died or said they don\u2019t remember how they voted. McCartney of Colorado voted his team No. 1 and Georgia Tech No. 2, according to Plati. Then-Georgia Tech coach Bobby Ross<\/a> told USA TODAY Sports recently he also voted his own team No. 1.<\/p>\n In Colorado\u2019s case, there were other issues \u2013 the fifth-down win and a controversial clipping penalty against Notre Dame that nullified a last-minute punt return for a touchdown in the Orange Bowl by the Fighting Irish. Add them both together and coaches might have felt Colorado didn\u2019t deserve it.<\/p>\n Georgia Tech looked good in comparison. The Yellow Jackets finished the season undefeated<\/a> with one tie against North Carolina, including wins against then-No. 1 Virginia and then-No. 13 Nebraska<\/p>\n Ross also brought up the fifth-down win by Colorado but said he didn\u2019t remember where he voted the Buffs.<\/p>\n \u201cColorado won one game on a fifth down that was given to them,\u201d Ross told USA TODAY Sports. \u201cThat was, to me, was another thing that would have worked against them.\u00a0 I know they were an outstanding team. I think we were too at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n In today\u2019s game, members of the committee that vote for the 12 teams in the College Football Playoff are required to recuse themselves from voting if there is a conflict of interest, including if they work for the school in question.<\/p>\n But back then, these coaches decided part of the national title. And they not only voted for their own teams but also could possibly penalize others to their advantage in their secret balloting.<\/p>\n What was to stop Ross from putting Colorado a little further down his list than where he thought they belonged?<\/p>\n \u201cI would have Colorado where I think they should have been,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n It’s not known if Ross or any coach sought to influence the final result this way. It is known that at least one coach voted Georgia Tech multiple places behind Colorado because the Yellow Jackets finished with three more first-place votes but only had a one-point winning margin.<\/p>\n Others had reason to vote for teams in their own conference to enhance their league media exposure. Ironically, then-Nebraska athletic director Bob Devaney raised a stink<\/a> about some Big Eight coaches voting Virginia No. 1 earlier in the 1990 season instead of Nebraska.<\/p>\n Osborne ultimately didn\u2019t follow Devaney\u2019s Big Eight loyalty beliefs, nor was he required to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cGeorgia Tech beat us by a bigger margin than Colorado, and then there was that little bit of a controversial thing with Colorado,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cSo I thought I Georgia Tech deserved at that point to be No. 1. You make a judgment. That\u2019s the basis of my judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer<\/a>. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n
What happened with the Coaches Poll voting?<\/h2>\n
Who was the final vote in the Coaches Poll?<\/h2>\n
Swing in final voting for Georgia Tech<\/h2>\n
Why did Tom Osborne vote for Georgia Tech?<\/h2>\n
Why was the Colorado fifth-down game an issue?<\/h2>\n
Major voting change in final Coaches Poll<\/h2>\n
Why did Colorado lose support in that poll?<\/h2>\n
Poll conflicts and loyalty tests<\/h2>\n