1976 college football season The 1976 college football season ended with a championship for the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh . Coached by Johnny Majors ( voted the AFCA Coach of the Year ) , the Pitt Panthers brought a college football championship to the home of the defending pro football champions , the Steelers . Pitt also had the Heisman Trophy winner , Tony Dorsett . At the beginning of the season , the Panthers had been ranked # 9 in the AP poll . During the 20th Century , the NCAA had no playoff for the college football teams that would later be described as " Division I - A " . The NCAA Football Guide , however , did note an " unofficial national champion " based on the top ranked teams in the " wire service " ( AP and UPI ) polls . The " writers ' poll " by Associated Press ( AP ) was the most popular , followed by the " coaches ' poll " by United Press International ) ( UPI ) . The AP poll consisted of the votes of as many as 62 writers , though not all voted in each poll , and the UPI poll was taken of a 25 member board of coaches . September . In the preseason poll released on September 7 , 1976 , the AP ranked Nebraska # 1 , followed by # 2 Michigan , # 3 Arizona State ( the highest preseason ranking for a WAC team ) , # 4 Ohio State and # 5 Oklahoma . September 11 # 1 Nebraska failed to win its opening game , being tied 6 - 6 by LSU in Baton Rouge , escaping with the stalemate only after the Bayou Bengals missed a 44 - yard field goal attempt in the closing seconds . # 2 Michigan beat Wisconsin , 40 - 27 . # 3 Arizona State lost its home opener to # 17 UCLA , 28 - 10 , and dropped to 18th , then out of the Top 20 entirely . # 4 Ohio State beat Michigan State , 49 - 21 . # 5 Oklahoma won at Vanderbilt , 24 - 3 . After a 31 - 10 win at # 11 Notre Dame , # 9 Pittsburgh rose to third . With Nebraska and Arizona State dropping to 8th and 18th , and Pitt and UCLA moving up , the Top Five was : 1 . Michigan 2 . Ohio State 3 . Pittsburgh 4 . Oklahoma 5 . UCLA . September 18 # 1 Michigan beat Stanford 51 - 0 . # 2 Ohio State won at # 7 Penn State , 12 - 7 # 3 Pittsburgh went to Atlanta , beating Georgia Tech 42 - 14 . # 4 Oklahoma beat California , 28 - 17 # 5 UCLA beat Arizona , 37 - 9 . The poll remained unchanged : 1 . Michigan 2 . Ohio State 3 . Pittsburgh 4 . Oklahoma 5 . UCLA . September 25 # 1 Michigan crushed Navy , 70 - 14 # 2 Ohio State lost a close game to Missouri , 22 - 21 , and fell to 6th place . # 3 Pittsburgh beat the visiting ( from Philadelphia ) Temple Owls , 21 - 7 . # 4 Oklahoma beat Florida State , 24 - 9 # 5 UCLA beat Air Force , 40 - 7 . # 6 Nebraska , which beat TCU 64 - 10 , returned to the Top 5 : 1 . Michigan 2 . Pittsburgh 3 . Oklahoma 4 . UCLA and 5 . Nebraska October . October 2 # 1 Michigan beat Wake Forest , 31 - 0 . # 2 Pittsburgh won at Duke , 44 - 31 . # 3 Oklahoma won at Iowa State , 24 - 10 . # 4 UCLA traveled to Columbus and played # 6 Ohio State to a 10 - 10 tie . # 5 Nebraska beat the Miami Hurricanes , 17 - 9 , but dropped to 6th . # 6 Georgia shut out # 10 Alabama , 21 - 0 and moved up to 4th . the Top Five was : 1 . Michigan 2 . Pittsburgh 3 . Oklahoma 4 . Georgia 5 . UCLA October 9 # 1 Michigan defeated Michigan State 42 - 10 . # 2 Pittsburgh beat Louisville , 27 - 6 . # 3 Oklahoma played its annual game against ( # 16 ) Texas in Dallas , to a 6 - 6 tie . # 4 Georgia was upset by Mississippi in Oxford , MS , 21 - 17 . # 5 UCLA beat Stanford , 38 - 20 # 6 Nebraska won at Colorado , 24 - 12 , and rose to third . # 7 Maryland , which beat NC State 16 - 6 , rose to fifth the Top Five was : 1 . Michigan 2 . Pittsburgh 3 . Nebraska 4 . UCLA 5 . Maryland October 16 After playing its first five games at home , # 1 Michigan traveled to Evanston and defeated Northwestern , 38 - 7 . The # 2 Pittsburgh Panthers beat visit the visiting Miami Hurricanes , 36 - 19 . # 3 Nebraska shut out Kansas State , 51 - 0 . # 4 UCLA beat Washington State 62 - 3 # 5 Maryland narrowly beat Wake Forest , 17 - 15 , and fell to 6th . # 6 Oklahoma returned to the Top Five after a 28 - 10 win at # 15 Kansas . the Top Five was : 1 . Michigan 2 . Pittsburgh 3 . Nebraska 4 . UCLA 5 . Oklahoma October 23 # 1 Michigan won at Indiana , 35 - 0 , while # 2 Pittsburgh won at Navy , 45 - 0 . # 3 Nebraska lost to # 17 Missouri , 34 - 24 . Though the Missouri Tigers would finish the 1976 season with a 6 - 5 - 0 record , they had upset USC and Ohio State as well . # 4 UCLA won at California 35 - 19 # 5 Oklahoma lost at home to Oklahoma State , 31 - 24 . # 6 Maryland won at Duke , 30 - 3 , to reach 7 - 0 - 0 . # 7 USC ( which had lost its opener to Missouri , then won four , beat Oregon State 56 - 0 , and crashed the Top 5 : 1 . Michigan 2 . Pittsburgh 3 . UCLA 4 . USC 5 . Maryland October 30 # 1 Michigan beat Minnesota , 45 - 0 and # 2 Pittsburgh beat Syracuse , 23 - 13 , as both teams reached 8 - 0 - 0 . # 3 UCLA won at Washington , 30 - 21 # 4 USC beat California 20 - 6 . # 5 Maryland beat Kentucky , 24 - 14 , but fell back to 6th place in the polls , trading places with # 6 Texas Tech , which had beaten # 15 Texas 31 - 28 . The Top Five was : 1 . Michigan 2 . Pittsburgh 3 . UCLA 4 . USC 5 . Texas Tech November . November 6 In West Lafayette , Indiana , # 1 Michigan narrowly lost to Purdue , 16 - 14 , and fell from the top spot . # 2 Pittsburgh ' s 37 - 7 win over visiting Army allowed it to take over the top spot . # 3 UCLA beat Oregon , 46 - 0 # 4 USC won at Stanford , 48 - 24 . # 5 Texas Tech won at TCU 14 - 10 . the Top Five was : 1 . Pittsburgh 2 . UCLA 3 . USC 4 . Michigan 5 . Texas Tech November 13 # 1 Pittsburgh beat West Virginia 24 - 16 . # 2 UCLA won at Oregon State to extend its record to 9 - 0 - 1 . # 3 USC beat Washington , 20 - 3 . # 4 Michigan beat Illinois 38 - 7 . # 5 Texas Tech beat SMU 34 - 7 to reach 8 - 0 - 0 . The Top Five was unchanged : 1 . Pittsburgh 2 . UCLA 3 . USC 4 . Michigan 5 . Texas Tech November 20 While # 1 Pittsburgh was idle , three conference championships were determined on the same day . In Pac 8 conference play , # 2 UCLA ( 7 - 0 ) and # 3 USC ( 6 - 0 ) were both unbeaten , so their crosstown L . A . game determined not just the conference title , but who would go to the Rose Bowl . UCLA suffered its first loss of the season , falling to the Trojans 24 - 14 . The same day in Columbus , Ohio , the Big Ten ' s two best teams were meeting to determine the other berth in the Rose Bowl . In conference play # 4 Michigan ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) was second to # 8 Ohio State ( 7 - 0 ) . In the bicentennial year Schembechler - Hayes meeting , it was no contest as Michigan won 22 - 0 over the Buckeyes . The Southwest Conference title and a trip to Cotton Bowl came down to a meeting between # 5 Texas Tech and # 9 Houston , 6 - 0 - 0 and 5 - 1 - 0 in conference play , respectively . Visiting Houston handed the Red Raiders their first loss , 27 - 19 . # 6 Maryland closed an 11 - 0 - 0 regular season with a 28 - 0 win at Virginia , and the ACC champion was invited to meet SWC champion Houston in the Cotton Bowl . Pittsburgh was invited to play in the Sugar Bowl after the players took a vote and made it clear that they would prefer to play SEC champion # 5 Georgia there rather than face lower ranked Big 8 co - champion Colorado in the Orange Bowl . The Orange Bowl then controversially selected Big 10 runner up Ohio State to play Colorado over Pac - 8 runner up UCLA , even though UCLA had a better record and higher ranking than Ohio State . It was believed that Ohio State would bring more fans to Miami for the warm weather than UCLA would , and Orange Bowl officials did not like the prospect of a UCLA - Colorado matchup as it would be two schools from the west playing back east . The Top Five was : 1 . Pittsburgh 2 . USC 3 . Michigan 4 . Maryland 5 . Georgia November 27 # 1 Pittsburgh moved its game against Penn State from its campus to Three Rivers Stadium . Pitt had not beaten the Nittany Lions in its last ten meetings , and on the day after Thanksgiving , cruised to a 24 - 7 win . Tony Dorsett , who rushed for 224 yards and scored two of Pitt ' s touchdowns , breaking the record for yards in a season ( 1 , 948 ) and becoming the first college player to reach 6 , 000 yards rushing in a career , closing with 6 , 082 . USC maintained its # 2 ranking with a 21 - 13 win over Notre Dame . The final regular season poll was 1 . Pittsburgh 2 . USC 3 . Michigan 4 . Maryland and 5 . Georgia . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings : Bowl Games . At the Sugar Bowl , Pitt quarterback Matt Cavanaugh passed for 192 yards , and Dorsett had 32 carries for 202 yards , overcoming Georgia ' s heralded " Junkyard Dogs " defense . After taking a 21 - 0 lead at halftime , the Panthers cemented their number one status with a 27 - 3 win over Georgia . In the Cotton Bowl , # 6 Houston beat # 4 Maryland 30 - 21 , and in the Rose Bowl , # 2 USC beat # 3 Michigan 14 - 6 . Finally , Ohio State justified their Orange Bowl invitation by crushing Colorado , 27 - 10 . Pittsburgh received 59 of the 62 first place votes cast to win the AP Trophy , and was ranked # 1 by UPI as well , followed by 2 . USC 3 . Michigan 4 . Houston and 5 . Oklahoma . The other Division I unbeaten team , Rutgers ( 11 - 0 - 0 ) , was ranked 17th in the final poll . Other bowls :