Ronnie Harmon, running back for the University of Iowa,threw the 1986 Rose Bowl 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.
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).
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