It's the College Football thread!

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

In my opinion, making a limit of 5 is kinda whacked, either they're a storied program or they're not.

Michigan, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Alabama are definitely storied programs and are often referred to as such in many media outlets (sports articles, movies, etc.)

USC, OSU, and Miami are IMHO storied programs (not so much Miami as Miami is kinda young on the scene) but they don't seem to have the nostalgia factor the other ones generate. I'd also probably through in Texas, Florida, Florida State, UCLA, Auburn, Penn State, and maybe LSU.

[JohnT]

Sorry, but Florida schools are "storied" only if you're talking post-1980. Against the broad sweep of college football history, they're an anomalous blip. Tennessee and Georgia have more storied traditions, hell, even GA Tech featured the coaching of one John Heisman.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by DanS
To be fair, "storied" would seem to imply an inclusion of at least some national titles before 1950. Admittedly, I have a hard time including all of the Yale and Princeton national titles, so the dividing line is somewhat arbitrary. But making the line 1950 is especially unfair to Michigan and the Irish.

I would say that the line between "ancient" and "modern" college football is 1912. This was the year that the governing body

1. Allowed the forward pass in its modern form
2. Forced teams to line up 6 men each across the newly-determined "neutral zone" prior to each play
3. Made a touchdown worth 6 points
4. Added a fourth down
5. Banned interlocking (rugby-esque) formations

This still might be a bit late for Michigan Fan, who will protest that Fielding Yost's early years shouldn't be overlooked. But at the time the man didn't pass, and if he didn't pass, he wasn't playing football.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Originally posted by JohnT
Sorry, but Florida schools are "storied" only if you're talking post-1980. Against the broad sweep of college football history, they're an anomalous blip. Tennessee and Georgia have more storied traditions, hell, even GA Tech featured the coaching of one John Heisman.

I do agree with you, I had to list them as Bowden and Florida State do have something of a nostalgia feel to them and Florida is considered the top coaching job in college football according to a poll they did with coaches a few years ago (which kinda suprised me).

So, I'm all for knocking off Miami and Florida and inserting Tennessee and Georgia.

They would give us the storied list:
Michigan
Notre Dame
Nebraska
Oklahoma,
Alabama
USC
OSU
Florida State
UCLA
Auburn
Penn State
Tennessee
Georgia

Maybe:
LSU

What defines a storied team though? To me its not just National Championships although that's part of it. Domination of a conference or era, a high victory percentage over a period. A nostalgia feel of tradition. There are a lot of elements the way I look at it.

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by JohnT


I would say that the line between "ancient" and "modern" college football is 1912. This was the year that the governing body

1. Allowed the forward pass in its modern form
2. Forced teams to line up 6 men each across the newly-determined "neutral zone" prior to each play
3. Made a touchdown worth 6 points
4. Added a fourth down
5. Banned interlocking (rugby-esque) formations

This still might be a bit late for Michigan Fan, who will protest that Fielding Yost's early years shouldn't be overlooked. But at the time the man didn't pass, and if he didn't pass, he wasn't playing football.

So? Bo never passed either.

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by DanS
It's novel and interesting because the Irish and Buckeyes had no prospect of playing each other before this Fiesta Bowl, and this is sort of like Quinn's own personal challenge on his way to being the first player since Archie Griffin to win back-to-back Heisman trophies (planning ahead ). Also, it's a story that hasn't been told yet.

Besides, I wanna see Quinn pass like crazy against Carpenter, who is from my home town.

Just give it a chance, Ebeneezer.

Don't get me wrong, the OSU-Notre Dame story is great, and I look forward to the game in large part because of the lack of field history between the two. The pee wee and high school stories are worth, at best, a single timely mention, though. Hopefully all the other stories will relegate that part to that one timely mention, but I'm not confident.

[DanS]

Here's a very good article about the bias in votes. I think it's a good thing that we can see these votes.

The real BCS controversy
Want evidence of bias? Just look at coaches' votes

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/stewart_mandel/12/07/mailbag/

[Solomwi]

I can see Weis, Tuberville and even Coker voting as they did. After all, you put the undefeateds in, then the remaining reputable one-loss team, and are faced with a bevy of two-loss teams that, for the most part, didn't play each other. Why not slot yourself at the head of the pack? What I hate to see is the deliberate downgrading of another team just because it will materially benefit your own.

[Drake Tungsten]

I try to start a flame war and you guys end up turning it into a civil discussion...

[DanS]

Everybody just was taking pity on you, knowing full well that Nebraska's football history is rather pathetically short.

(Better?)

[DanS]

On another subject, now that college football is moving to 13 regular season games, it seems unlikely that we will have such neat undefeated 1-2 BCS matchups in future years.

[Drake Tungsten]

Everybody just was taking pity on you, knowing full well that Nebraska's football history is rather pathetically short.

It's funny cuz it's true. We do have a short history. A short, glorious history...

[Guynemer]

Doesn't Nebraska have something like the 4th most victories all-time?

[Drake Tungsten]

Yeah, but we weren't a national power until the 60's. That's a short history when compared to schools like Michigan and Notre Dame.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

But Oklahoma-Nebraska was one of the top rivalries of all time. Sad it had to die.