# Sports Conspiracy Theories

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [June 5, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094 "2014-06-05T04:41:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 10

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/181 "2015-04-07T17:18:09Z")

</div>

Ronnie Harmon, running back for the University of Iowa,[threw the 1986 Rose Bow](http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2002/31/20020801-archive795.html)l according to a LOT of Hawkeye fans.

_Harmon, who had fumbled just once all season, coughed up the ball four times in the first half alone and also dropped what appeared to be a sure touchdown catch in the 48-25 loss to underdog UCLA._

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/182 "2015-04-07T22:50:56Z")

</div>

> [@bump](#):
>
> The Big-12 refereeing in conference games involving Nebraska in 2010 was particularly sketchy, considering that they’d already announced that they were moving to the Big Ten the next season. Same thing happened to Texas A&M the next season, although maybe not quite as blatantly as for Nebraska.

Another conspiracy deals with the Nebraska’s split 1997 national championship. Both Michigan and Nebraska went unbeaten, UM winning the AP poll, NU winning the coaches poll. The coaches somehow banded together to give Tom Osborne a “gold watch” to let him retire with a title (which he already recently won in both 1994 and 1995).

[ul]  
[li]Nebraska had the tougher schedule: Nebraska had 5 opponents in the final rankings (2 in the top 10), while Michigan only had 3 (none in the top 10). [/li]  
[li]Versus that tougher slate, NU’s average score was 47-16 (31 point margin), while Michigan was 27-10 (17 point margin). [/li]  
[li]In their showcase bowl game, NU beat #3 by 25 and UM beat #8 by 5 (pre-BCS, they could not play each other). [/li][/ul]

Besides their 0-loss records, the two teams were clearly not equal. However, they ended up sharing a title, with NU, not Michigan, being the more controversial pick (yeah, I know).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094/183 "2015-04-08T14:28:26Z")

</div>

> [@Fleetwood](#):
>
> It makes sense? You must know nothing about football. Poodle Pete or his Offensive Coordinator made a bad call, figuring only a TD or drop would be the outcome of the play. I’ve never liked the Poodle, but can’t see him making that call just to keep Lynch from the MVP. They play to win (especially the Superbowl).

The theory behind the conspiracy theory, that the NFL wants a TV/family friendly Russ Wilson as their MVP and not the hoodrat thug of Lynch, makes sense…the fact that it IS a conspiracy theory and it was played out that way doesn’t make sense.

I didn’t really make that clear in my post

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-conspiracy-theories/690094.md?page=9)