A national football championship for Brigham Young? Even if it's only been six years since its last one? Even if there is no such thing?
It is possible, maybe even probable, because when it comes to the game of winning the mythical national football championship - the one that is decided at the end of the season by the AP poll, the UPI poll, the Football Writers Association, and the National Football Foundation - BYU is one of the most subtle yet powerful players with a chair pulled up to the table.A lot of people thought it was a feat of seismic proportions in 1984 when BYU rocked the football establishment and won its national title; that the stars crossed perfectly; that for it to happen again would be too much for even the Cougar Club to ask for.
But as is proved year in and year out, there is a basic formula for securing the national title, and it is this: First, jump into the polls early; Second, win all your games.
To accomplish the first part you have to qualify as one of the nation's pre-eminent programs that are perennially ranked in the early polls no matter how good or bad they might be.
(If you're a terrific program but basically a social register outcast, then you can go ahead and win all your games, or almost all your games, and still have as much chance of being the mythical national champion as a flag football team. Fresno State was a good example of this last year, when the Bulldogs ran off 10 straight victories in a row and still, even by November, couldn't crack anyone's top 20).
BYU qualifies in the early-poll category this year. The Cougars are ranked in virtually every preseason poll known to magazine stands, as well as in the important AP and UPI and USA Today/CNN polls.
The second part of the formula is the harder part.
Winning all your games isn't easy no matter who you are or who you play. Most seasons see no more than two undefeated teams, some a lot less. Last year there weren't any. In 1988 there were two. In 1984, when BYU won the title, there were only the Cougars.
Which is the point. Any time a bona fide, poll-regular team goes undefeated, like BYU in '84, it wins the national title. There was Penn State in '86. There was Miami in '87. There was Notre Dame in '88. In 1980 there was Georgia, in '81 Clemson.
An undefeated team always prevails in the final polls over a team that has one loss, all things being relatively equal. Strength of schedule does not come into play. You can look it up.
In fact, strength of schedule is one of the myths of college football. Few teams play a truly strong schedule. And when a team does happen to play a schedule that is honestly tough, like Notre Dame's this season, you have to wonder what the Irish are thinking. It's a suicide agenda. One loss and you're almost gone. Two losses and you can count on it.
Which brings us back to BYU's situation this season.
The Cougars, already ranked to start with, play a smart schedule. They're at UTEP, Oregon, Air Force, Wyoming, Utah and Hawaii and they host Miami, Washington State, San Diego State, Colorado State, New Mexico and Utah State in Provo.
If the schedule has a familiar ring, it's because it is a lot like the 1984 schedule - when the Cougars played at Pittsburgh, Hawaii, Colorado State, Air Force, New Mexico and Utah and hosted Baylor, Tulsa, Wyoming, UTEP, San Diego State and Utah State in Provo.
Like Miami this year, Pittsburgh was a top-3 ranked team when the Cougars played the Panthers in '84. Like Oregon and Washington State this year, Baylor and Tulsa were so-so schools with decent but not spectacular reputations in '84. The rest of the opponents are the same in 1990 as in 1984 - the eight WAC schools and Utah State. None were powerhouses then. None are powerhouses now.
Once BYU beat Pittsburgh, Baylor and Tulsa early in the '84 season, it was on an undefeated roll that didn't end until the final polls came out in the Cougars' favor.
It might not happen again, but it could. If the Cougars win the second game of the season, against Miami in Provo, they could prove very hard to stop.
BYU is in an enviable position of being one of about 15 teams in the country with a realistic chance of winning the 1990 mythical national title.
It's a weird system, no question, and it should be changed so that every one of the 106 teams in Div. I-A could start every season thinking it had a chance to rule the nation. But until the system is changed, BYU figures to be an annual opportunist. Especially this year, with a healthy Ty Detmer at quarterback and a schedule that has a deja vu resemblance to '84.