The 1981 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the Clemson Tigers, unbeaten and untied, taking the mythical national championship after a victory over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. This was also the first year of the California Bowl, played in Fresno, California; this game fancied itself as a "junior" version of the Rose Bowl as it pitted the Big West champion vs. the MAC champion.
This was the final season in which the Ivy League competed in Division I-A.; the league was lowered to Division I-AA (FCS) for 1982. Through 2009 season, the Ivy League has yet to participate in the post-season tournament, despite an automatic bid, citing academic concerns.
Read more about 1981 NCAA Division I-A Football Season: Rule Changes, Octoberfest, September, October, November, Important Game, Conference Standings, Notable Rivalry Games, Orange Bowl, #1 and #2 Progress, Bowl Games, Final AP Poll, Heisman Trophy, Award Winners
Famous quotes containing the words division, football and/or season:
“Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears;
Yet slower yet, oh faintly gentle springs:
List to the heavy part the music bears,
“Woe weeps out her division when she sings.”
Droop herbs and flowers;
Fall grief in showers;
“Our beauties are not ours”:
Oh, I could still,
Like melting snow upon some craggy hill,
Drop, drop, drop, drop,
Since nature’s pride is, now, a withered daffodil.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)
“Methoughts a legion of foul fiends
Environed me, and howled in mine ears
Such hideous cries that with the very noise
I trembling waked, and for a season after
Could not believe but that I was in hell,
Such terrible impression made my dream.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)