The 1982 NCAA Division I-A football season saw Paul "Bear" Bryant retire as head coach at Alabama with 323 career victories in 38 seasons.
The Penn State Nittany Lions won their first consensus national championship, closing out an 11-1 season by defeating Georgia and Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker in the Sugar Bowl 27-23, and edging out undefeated SMU for the National Championship. It was Joe Paterno's first national championship, after three undefeated non-championship seasons.
UCLA moved from the LA Coliseum to the Rose Bowl and fulfilled a promise made by coach Terry Donahue by closing out their season there as well, beating Michigan in the post-season Rose Bowl game, 24-14.
It is also the year of “The Play”, a near impossible finish to the annual rivalry game between Cal and Stanford.
The Aloha Bowl premiered in Honolulu, Hawaii.
This was the first season the Ivy League competed at the I-AA (FCS) level. Through the 2009 season, the Ivy League has yet to participate in the post-season tournament, despite an automatic bid, citing academic concerns.
Read more about 1982 NCAA Division I-A Football Season: Conference Standings, Notable Rivalry Games, September, October, November, #1 and #2 Progress, Bowl Games, Final AP Poll, Final Coaches Poll, Other Major Awards
Famous quotes containing the words division, football and/or season:
“Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capitalism is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“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)
“Business by no means forbids pleasures; on the contrary, they reciprocally season each other; and I will venture to affirm that no man enjoys either in perfection that does not join both.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)