College Football SMQ: The greatest forfeit games in college football history

2004: No. 1 USC wins (forfeited) BCS national title over No. 2 Oklahoma

The top college football game that turned into a forfeit has to be the one that wiped out a national title. In 2003, a controversial decision matched undefeated Pac-10 champion USC and undefeated Big 12 champion Oklahoma against one another. Meanwhile, undefeated SEC champion Auburn was left out of the national championship picture.

A year earlier, the Trojans were awarded the national title by the AP despite missing the BCS championship game. This time, they were the team that got the benefit of the doubt. USC was in the midst of a three-year stretch of dominance at the height of the Pete Carroll era. This was the one season that ended undefeated.

But the biggest wins were vacated in the end. As part of the scandal surrounding Reggie Bush and payments while he was in school, USC was forced to vacate all their wins from the 2005 season. But the biggest forfeit came from the 2004 season, when the Trojans beat the Sooners in a BCS blowout for the crystal pigskin.

USC set an Orange Bowl record for scoring in a 55-19 rout. Matt Leinart threw five touchdown passes, with Steve Smith hauling in three of those scoring receptions. LenDale White ran for a pair of touchdowns. And none of it officially happened, thanks to two forfeited games at the end of the 2004 season.

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Of course, since this game was forfeited that means Ashlee Simpson’s halftime performance is also forfeit. So perhaps it isn’t all bad for those who tuned in for the BCS title performance that never officially happened.