Relive BYU’s most epic season: Get an exclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship win with a special edition commemorative magazine. Learn more at Deseret.com/1984.

Can underdogs still win a national title? Or are Big Ten and SEC schools the only ones who have a shot? BYU did it in 1984. Will it be done again?

Ethan Bauer writes: Santa Claus parachuted onto the field before the 1984 Holiday Bowl kicked off, with more than 60,000 fans — then a record at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium — roaring and chanting. “This game has been billed as the national championship game,” an ESPN announcer bellowed, “primarily because of this man: Robbie Bosco.”

The camera panned to No. 6 in a royal blue jersey, tossing a ball back and forth with someone outside the frame. Bosco had waited his turn. He’d sat behind legends Jim McMahon and Steve Young, and now, in his first year as BYU’s starting quarterback, he’d positioned himself to become the most immortal of them all.

BYU entered the season unranked but had defeated No. 3 Pittsburgh on the road, on national TV, in its season opener. That rocketed the Cougars to No. 13 in the polls and, far from the view of national cameras, they just kept winning.

Read more about the year the underdogs won and what it would take to see anything like it in college football today. 

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FROM OUR SPONSOR SUTHERLAND INSTITUTE

Sutherland Institute released new research covering policy recommendations to boost parent engagement and provide teacher incentives in schools

In its new research, Sutherland Institute highlights the impacts of parental engagement on student outcomes and development, along with the need for an incentive program for teachers who are going above and beyond to make classroom materials accessible to parents. Read the research here.

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