1978 Cotton Bowl Classic

The 1978 Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic was the forty-second edition of the college football bowl game played January 2, 1978, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. The bowl game featured the Notre Dame Fighting Irish versus the Southwest Conference champion Texas Longhorns. According to Pregame.com, Texas was favored by 3-points. A record crowd turned up to see the coronation of the Longhorns championship season, but fifth-ranked Notre Dame spoiled everything as they dominated the Longhorns 38-10. The loss by the Longhorns resulted in complete chaos in the polls, with Notre Dame vaulting past Alabama to win the National Championship.

Aftermath
Texas' loss opened the door to the National Championship for several teams. However, second-ranked Oklahoma was beaten 31-6 by Arkansas in the Orange Bowl, and fourth-ranked Michigan was beaten 27-20 by Washington in the Rose Bowl. That left third-ranked Alabama and fifth-ranked Notre Dame as the teams left standing. Alabama felt that if they won, they would be champions due to the losses by Texas and Oklahoma, but the pollsters saw it differently. Notre Dame was voted number one in every poll. Perhaps the victory by fellow Southwest Conference member Arkansas in the Orange Bowl made the difference as it made Notre Dame's victory over Texas (who had beaten Arkansas 13-9 in October) even more impressive.