The 1985 NCAA Division I-A football season saw the Oklahoma Sooners, led by head coach Barry Switzer, win the national championship.
Oklahoma finished the season 11-1, with their only loss to Miami at home, in a game future NFL star Troy Aikman was lost for the season. The Sooners regrouped and went undefeated the rest of the way, finishing the season with a win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl.
Michigan would finish #2, the highest finish of a Bo Schembechler led team. The team shined on defense, led by All-Americans Mike Hammerstein and Mark Messner.
Tennessee finished the season with a victory over #2 Miami in the Sugar Bowl. This team won the school's first SEC championship in 16 years and was nicknamed the Sugar Vols. The SEC title was the first of three for coach Johnny Majors.
Air Force Falcons, under Fisher DeBerry had what is considered their best season ever, defeating Texas in the Bluebonnet bowl and finishing #5.
This year's edition of the Iron Bowl is widely considered to be one of the greatest ever. Despite Auburn having Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson on its side, Alabama won this game with a last second field goal.
Read more about 1985 NCAA Division I-A Football Season: Conference Standings, AP Final Poll, Final Coaches Poll, Notable Rivalry Games, #1 and #2 Progress, Bowl Games, Heisman Trophy Voting, Other Annual Awards
Famous quotes containing the words division, football and/or season:
“That crazed girl improvising her music,
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,
Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling she knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship
Her knee-cap broken.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Let us have a good many maples and hickories and scarlet oaks, then, I say. Blaze away! Shall that dirty roll of bunting in the gun-house be all the colors a village can display? A village is not complete, unless it have these trees to mark the season in it. They are important, like the town clock. A village that has them not will not be found to work well. It has a screw loose, an essential part is wanting.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)