Fifth Down Game (1990) - National Championship

National Championship

See also: NCAA Division I-A national football championship

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) governs American football as played by the teams representing the largest universities in the United States, termed Division I-A (Changed in 2006 to FBS — Football Bowl Subdivision). Although smaller schools participate in formal NCAA tournaments to determine the national college football championships in Divisions I-AA, II, and III, Division I-A lacks such a tournament.

The "mythical national championship" of Division I-A is determined by polls of coaches and/or sportswriters. In the early 1990s, two such polls were regarded as authoritative: A poll of sportswriters conducted by the Associated Press (AP) called the AP Poll, and a poll of college football coaches conducted by the American Football Coaches Association called the Coaches Poll. These polls are conducted weekly during the football season, and the final polls (in January, after all bowl games) determine the championship.

Because 1990 was a year in which no single college football team was dominant, the Fifth Down controversy played a role in determining the Division I-A national champion for the 1990 season. The Missouri game caused Colorado's ranking to decline to 14th. However, most of the top teams lost in subsequent weeks, while the Buffaloes won their remaining games, including a 27-12 victory in Lincoln over highly-rated Nebraska and a squeaker over Notre Dame. The Orange Bowl victory over Notre Dame was considered very controversial as well, due to a disputed clipping call on Notre Dame on a punt return touchdown late in the game by Raghib Ismail when Colorado held a 10-9 lead, which would be the final score after Notre Dame was assessed the penalty. A blocked Extra point by Colorado turned out to be the winning margin.

Colorado finished the 1990 season with a record of 11–1–1 (eleven wins, one loss and one tie), while the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets' record was 11–0–1, (eleven wins, no losses and one tie). No Division I-A team had an unblemished record, and only Georgia Tech finished without a loss.

Observers favoring Colorado for the national championship noted that they had played a more difficult schedule than Georgia Tech. Those favoring Georgia Tech pointed to the Yellow Jackets' undefeated status and to the tainted victory achieved by Colorado at Missouri in the "Fifth Down" game, not to mention the Orange Bowl controversy. With a loss at Missouri, the Colorado record would have been 10–2–1, and the Buffaloes may not have been as strongly considered for the national title with that record. No team has ever been voted National Champion in either the Associated Press Poll or the Coaches' Poll following a season in which they participated in three or more games that they did not win.

After the conclusion of the 1990 season in January 1991, the AP Poll voted Colorado national champions. The Coaches Poll voted the championship to Georgia Tech. Both universities therefore claim the 1990 championship. More recently, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was established to create a National Championship Game for major college football featuring the top two teams in the BCS Ranking (which takes into account both human polls and six computer rankings). However, the BCS has not been without controversy, nor has it eliminated split championships. For instance, in 2003, LSU (the winner of the BCS National Championship Game) was voted number one in the Coaches Poll while USC was voted atop the AP Poll and the two teams therefore split the national championship.

Missouri ended the 1990 season with a record of 4-7 (four wins, seven losses). The Tigers would not have another winning season until 1997 under Larry Smith, and did not return to consistent contender status until the middle of the 2000s under Gary Pinkel. The surface at Faurot Field was changed to natural grass in 1995, and in 2003 to FieldTurf, a rubber-infilled artificial turf which closely simulates grass.

The Colorado-Missouri series went dormant after the Buffaloes left the Big 12 for the Pacific-12 Conference on July 1, 2011. The Tigers departed the Big 12 on July 1, 2012 to join the Southeastern Conference.