1984 Holiday Bowl - Aftermath

Aftermath

Michigan finished the 1984 season with a mediocre 6-6 overall record following their Holiday Bowl loss. However, Brigham Young's 2-year spanning win-streak, their position as the lone undefeated team in the nation that year, and their ability to defeat a traditional powerhouse in a bowl game was enough to sway the voters. The Cougars were at the top of both the AP and UPI/Coaches' polls, though they had to wait nearly a week for the final results. The reason for the wait was because the 1984 Holiday Bowl marked the only time in college football history that the eventual national champion played its bowl game in December.

Controversy continued after the bowl season among supporters of the Washington Huskies who believed that they had been deprived of a national championship. As a result BYU would be pitted against a formidable opponent in the Kickoff Classic to open the 1985 season. They would face the Boston College Eagles, who had finished the previous season ranked 4th and 5th in the UPI and AP polls, respectively. Brigham Young won the Kickoff Classic over Boston College, who had lost their QB Doug Flutie and finished with a 5-8 record that season, by a score of 28-14. Two weeks later they would also face the Washington Huskies, who had finished the previous season ranked immediately behind Brigham Young at #2 in both major polls, and had been one of the more vocal detractors of the previous years official outcome. Brigham Young would also go on to win that match-up by a lop-sided score of 31-3. The Brigham Young Cougars 25-game winning streak which had begun on September 17, 1983 came to an end against UCLA on September 7, 1985, when they lost 27-24 to the Bruins.