| 1976 Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42nd Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | January 1, 1976 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1975 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Orange Bowl | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Miami, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Steve Davis (Oklahoma QB) Lee Roy Selmon (Oklahoma DT) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Oklahoma by 6 points[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | R. Pete Williams (SEC) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 80,307 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Jim Simpson, John Brodie | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 27.9 | ||||||||||||||||||||
The 1976 Orange Bowl was the 42nd edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on Thursday, January 1. Part of the 1975–76 bowl game season, it matched the fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines of the Big Ten Conference and the #3 Oklahoma Sooners of the Big Eight Conference.[1][2] In the first meeting between these two teams, favored Oklahoma won 14–6.[3][4]
This was the sixth and final Orange Bowl played on artificial turf; Poly-Turf, similar to AstroTurf, was installed before the 1970 season and two versions lasted six seasons. It was removed in early 1976, following Super Bowl X, and replaced with natural grass.
This was the first time the Orange Bowl used officials from a neutral conference (in this instance, the Southeastern). In previous years, a split crew consisting of officials from each team's conference (the Big Ten when independent Notre Dame participated) were put together.