Ranking the 30 Greatest National Championship Games

8. 1979 Sugar Bowl

#2 Alabama d. #1 Penn State 14-7

BEFORE THE GAME

It was almost a manufactured 1-vs-2 championship that falls flat in the retelling. USC, champions of the newly expanded Pac-10, were locked into the Rose Bowl against Michigan. The Trojans had gone to Alabama and knocked off the Crimson Tide at Legion Field in Birmingham, but they had zero chance of playing Penn State. That head-to-head win would prove critical in the final voting, as the two human polls deciding on different national champions.

Penn State held all the cards heading into the postseason. The Nittany Lions were the only team to finish the regular season undefeated, and as an independent they were not locked into a particular destination. Joe Paterno’s offense, led by quarterback Chuck Fusina and a multifaceted running game, averaged just under 30 points per game. The defense was holding opponents to nine points per game, though they had also done so against a schedule that ranked outside the 30 toughest of that season.

The Nittany Lions were originally looking to face off against Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, but Bear Bryant lobbied to bring them to New Orleans instead. The previous year Bryant’s team had missed out on a national championship when Notre Dame passed Alabama to move from fifth to first in the final polls after a win over top-ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl. He wanted to make sure that would not happen again, and the result was the first 1-vs-2 showdown in New Orleans at the new Superdome.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Alabama’s elephant mascot Big Al officially debuted at this bowl game for the AP national championship, and Tide fans in attendance had plenty to celebrate. They witnessed a defensive battle in which the Penn State offense was held completely in check through the first half. Bryant’s team had little success moving the ball as well, finally breaking the scoreless deadlock eight seconds before halftime as Bruce Bolton dove for a 30-yard Jeff Rutledge strike in the endzone. Bama took a 7-0 lead into the locker room.

Penn State came out in the second half and looked at least a little more competent on offense. Fusina tied the game in the third quarter with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Scott Fitzkee. Later in the period, though, PSU’s special teams gave up a 62-yard punt return to set up Alabama’s go-ahead touchdown. Penn State missed several chances to tie the game, as Fusina threw for just 163 yards with four picks. Yet the Nittany Lions still had a shot to win in the closing moments, with the ball on the Tide 1 and three chances to punch it in.

Bryant’s defense held firm, preventing Paterno’s charges from tying the contest. But even after engineering the 1-vs-2 matchup, Alabama had to settle for only a share of the national title. The Coaches poll, remembering the head-to-head win by the Trojans on the road in the Yellowhammer State, crowned the Rose Bowl victors the national champions over the Sugar Bowl winners.