What if Michigan had played Ohio State in the BCS title game

Are Miami (OH) and marshall private schools? If so, I did not know that.

 

I'm pretty sure both Marshall and Miami of Ohio are partially funded public institutions, much like Purdue.

 

Other than 1994, the undefeated Penn State teams got that way by getting fat off of non-competitive Eastern schools. Aside from the Dorsett-led Pitt team in 71 (?) the usual PSU opponents (BC, Pitt, WV, Syracuse etc.) were "weak sisters" with no consistent success to speak of. The 1973 team was decent (they nudged LSU in the Orange Bowl), but to brag about all of those undefeated seasons is like a 49ers fan bragging about their dominance in a conference with the Saints, Atlanta and Tampa Bay teams of the 80s and 90s.

 

If you're gonna go with that historical logic, then you probably should throw in all the years that eastern, northern and western teams were matching up in bowl games, etc., while you guys were "shelling it out" only playing other southern "white" schools.

just a thought...

 

This is too funny... rapping on a team with the history of Penn State... too funny! (Oops, already said that).... but it's okay to hype Bama in the 60's and 70's....

Hell, Bama only lost 12 games in the 60's... five of their losses came when they ventured outside the conference...
The 70's, when they had the second best record in the country, they lost only 16 games:
70... lost to Southern Cal
71... 11-1... lost to Nebraska
72... 10-2... lost to Texas
73... 11-1... lost to Notre dame
74... 11-1... lost to Notre Dame
75... 11-1... lost to Missouri
76... 9-3.... lost to Notre Dame
77... 11-1... lost to Nebraska
78... 11-1... lost to Southern Cal
so nine of their 16 losses happened when they ventured outside the conference.

Yep, I think Penn State's history may deserve some scrutiny. It's just that they may not be alone in the process.

 

Would that be the Bama team that is 8-4 against penn St. Since Joe Pa showed up? Twice in the '70s (the decade is dicussion).

Maybe we're discussing the Penn St. team that went 2-6 against the SEC during the '70s. You know, the team whose only 2 SEC wins came in '75 and '78 against 2-8 Kentucky and 4-6 Kentucky respectively.

 

You mean those two 13-6 and 14-7 dominating blowouts by Bama? Bama did not fair well when they stepped outside the conference in the '60's and 70's... they could have had 6 more undefeated teams in the '70's if they had just stayed home.

That might suggest a depth of competition issue... just like the one being leveled against Penn State.

Was it really that much harder for a Bama player to catch Billy Cannon (back in the day) as it was for a Penn State guy to tackle Jim Brown or Ernie Nevers?

I guess we'll never know, will we?

 

Yes.. and this from the decade of the 1950's... which is as far back as the NCAA Records Book goes:

http://www.ncaa.org/library/records...s_book/2006/2006_d1_football_records_book.pdf
(page 73)

the 1950's
Oklahoma....93-10-2
Mississippi...80-21-5
Mich State..71-21-1
GT.............79-26-6
UCLA..........68-26-3
Ohio State...63-24-5
Tennessee...71-31-4
Penn State...62-28-4
Maryland......67-31-3
Syracuse.....62-29-2

So Penn State goes five decades back...
To me, simply amazing...

 

Well, I never said they dominated or blew out PSU, just pointed out that the 2 teams being discussed met head to head twice in the decade being discussed. Both games went Bama's way. Not blow-outs, but since it is the only gauge we have, I thought it should be mentioned.

Bama has a winning record all time against every other conference except Big XII (13-16). They can't seem to beat Texas (0-7-1). they also have only a .500 record against independants. Notre Dame seems to have owned them when they were playing each other in the '70s and '80s.

So it appears they have faired rather well all-time out of conference.

 

Penn State built their rep by dominating weak eastern teams for decades. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.