Most undeserving team to win a national title, college or pro...

I zapped to the end of this thread without reading it and I automatically say BYU '84. Sorry, but even 22 years ago, you don't win a national title in the FREAKING HOLIDAY BOWL by barely beating a 6-5 Michigan team by coming from behind.

But obviously BYU did.

Clearly nothing earth-shattering happened in the year 1984 in college football. No 5-foot-9 3/4 quarterback (in elevator shoes) ever did anything that year against a defending national champion to win a game. Clearly.

 

Good call. Pintor was a tough bastard - and a damn good fighter in his own right - but he had both eyes closed and could barely stand at the final bell.

Worst decision I ever saw was the one against Roy Jones at the Olympics.

Some other pro travesties of semi-recent vintage: Whitaker-Chavez, Whitaker-Ramirez, Hagler-Antuofermo I, Hearns-Leonard II.

 

Just seeing Vito Antuofermo's name reminded me of one of the great lines in boxing writing history. I wish I could remember where I read it -- probably SI -- but the writer described Vito's face, bleeding from every pore at fight's end, as looking like ``an infrared map of Hell.''

 

Evander Holyfield's disqualification in the Olympics was every bit as bad as the decision against Roy Jones. If I remember correctly, he threw one more punch after the ref said stop and they disqualified him for it.

Since the guy Holyfield beat was knocked out, by rule he could not go on to the gold medal match either. That gave the title to the other semifinal winner, who just happened to be from the same country as the ref that disqualified Holyfield. Hmmmm

 

Any team that won its championship by virtue of a poll or computer.

 

I remember that well. Holyfield was a monster at the Olympics. But at least that happened during the course of competition. As I recall Holyfield had New Zealand's Kevin Barry on the ropes and was firing a left hook at the exact second the referee yelled stop.

 

It's gotta be Ohio State 2002, because they lost that game. Well, until the refs threw that bogus, incredibly late "pass interference" flag for something that was nonexistent.

I'm still bitter about that game, and I hate Miami. But they won that game, and the refs literally took it away from them.

 

Except it was pass interference.
You could throw the flag as late as today, if you want.
But it still was interference.

 

Yeah, sounds about right. It was disgraceful and given that the decision handed a gold medal to a countryman of the ref, it should have been over-ruled and the referee should have been disciplined.

 

I agree with the pick of last year's Steelers.
Their struggles this year with a couple of key guys gone and the whole Rothlisberger issue IMO shows how close last year's team was to mediocrity.
It was a fluke one-season wonder. They are not the Patriots.
And yes, they did benefit from several big calls against the Seahawks.

 

1972 Soviet Olympic men's basketball team.

 

BC lost to Penn State and West Virginia that year. Neither team finished in the AP Top 25 that year. Nor did the mediocre Houston team that BC beat in the Cotton Bowl. The Eagles couldn't make a legitimate claim to be national champions, and I say that as someone who was a captivated, 8-year-old BC fan in '84.