The 1976 NCAA Division I football season ended with a championship for the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh.
Led by head coach 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; the Panthers had been ranked ninth in the preseason AP poll.
During the 20th century, the NCAA had no playoff for major college football teams, which became Division I-A in 1978.
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.
In the preseason poll released on September 7, the AP ranked Nebraska first, followed by Michigan, Arizona State (the highest preseason ranking for a WAC team), Ohio State, and Oklahoma.
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.
17 UCLA; after an undefeated season in 1975, the Sun Devils would finish just 4−7 this year.
9 Pittsburgh to make a big jump in the next poll, and the Panthers came through with a 31–10 win at No.
With Nebraska and Arizona State dropping to 8th and 18th, the next AP Poll featured No.
2 Ohio State lost 22–21 to Missouri and fell to eighth in the next poll.
5 Nebraska beat Miami (FL) 17–9, but dropped to sixth in the next poll.
5 Maryland narrowly beat Wake Forest 17–15 and fell to sixth.
17 Missouri, which would finish with a 6–5 record despite their victories over USC and Ohio State as well as the Cornhuskers.
7 USC, which had won four in a row after losing its opener to Missouri, beat Oregon State 56–0 and returned to the Top Five: No.
3 USC were both unbeaten in the Pac-8, so their crosstown game determined the conference title for the Rose Bowl berth.
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 each of the last four years, a loss or tie to Ohio State had denied Michigan the Big Ten title.
Nevertheless, this installment of "The Ten Year War" was no contest as Michigan won 22–0 over the Buckeyes and earned the conference championship.
The visiting Cougars, in their very first year of SWC membership, beat the previously undefeated Red Raiders 27–19 to take over first place in the conference; they would win their remaining games to earn a spot in the Cotton Bowl.
6 Maryland, which closed an 11–0 regular season with a 28–0 win at Virginia to earn the outright ACC championship.
Top-ranked 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 Georgia there rather than face lower-ranked Big 8 co-champion Colorado in the Orange Bowl.
[2] The Orange Bowl then controversially selected Big 10 runner-up Ohio State to play Colorado over Pac-8 runner-up UCLA, even though the Bruins had a better record and higher ranking than the Buckeyes.
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.
Pitt had not beaten the Nittany Lions in its last ten meetings, but this time the Panthers cruised to a 24–7 win on the night after Thanksgiving.
Saturday, January 1, 1977 At the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans, 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.
At the nightcap in Miami, 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 No.
The other Division I unbeaten team, Rutgers (11–0), was ranked 17th in the final poll.