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Why is it so much more difficult to go undefeated in CFB today than in the past?
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:14 pm
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:14 pm
From 1994-2002, there were undefeated national champions in eight out of those nine seasons. 1996 Florida was the only national champion over that time period who didn't finish the season undefeated. It was virtually impossible to win a NC if a team failed to finish the regular season undefeated. Bobby Bowden had eight seasons with one or fewer losses but he was only able to win two national championships.
On the flip side of the coin, there's been only three undefeated national champions (2009 Alabama, 2010 Auburn, 2013 Florida State) over the past ten seasons. There's been national champions who've had two losses (2007 LSU), failed to win their division (2011 Alabama) and lost by two TDs to an unranked team at home (2014 Ohio State). Urban Meyer and Nick Saban each have only one undefeated season during their entire coaching career. Why is it so much harder to go undefeated today than it was 15-20 years ago?
On the flip side of the coin, there's been only three undefeated national champions (2009 Alabama, 2010 Auburn, 2013 Florida State) over the past ten seasons. There's been national champions who've had two losses (2007 LSU), failed to win their division (2011 Alabama) and lost by two TDs to an unranked team at home (2014 Ohio State). Urban Meyer and Nick Saban each have only one undefeated season during their entire coaching career. Why is it so much harder to go undefeated today than it was 15-20 years ago?
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:16 pm to Bench McElroy
Scholarship limitations, more games, many more different offenses.
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:16 pm to Bench McElroy
There's more talent and more diverse systems around the Nation than ever before.
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:18 pm to Bench McElroy
More FBS schools to spread some talent around.
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:19 pm to Bench McElroy
11 to 12 to 15 games.
This post was edited on 9/22/16 at 11:24 pm
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:20 pm to bayoucracka
Those are the big reasons. Also the top programs have more early departures and more transfers than in the past, evening the playing field for the second tier.
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:25 pm to TheWalrus
I'll throw in HUNH offense also. You can have 11 NFL players on defense, but when they get worn out in the 2nd half they are just as useless as Cal's defense.
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:31 pm to Bench McElroy
Dude look at some of the schedules from the 60's and 70's and 80's.
Conference expansion, integration, etc. Bear Bryant in all his years had two undefeated seasons...one was against a bunch of whites dudes in 1961 and one was in 1979 where they played zero teams outside the South...no Big 10 teams, no Pac-10 teams.
That same year Bama won the SEC in 1979, the second place conference SEC team was Georgia at 5-1, they went 6-5 overall. SEC teams could dominate SEC teams but couldn't win out of conference.
Point is, people controlled their schedules...there wasn't this pressure to play other conferences and some didn't...you could create your reputation beating cupcakes...Bill Synder at KSU, Miami in their early days before the big title game...
I mean look at some schedules...the 1979 SEC schedule is one of the worst ever, the Pac-10 is better (goes to Texas the midwest), the Big8 is better.
But people learned that the key was to schedule nobody...you had two top dogs in each conference playing against mostly dogshite and they played 8-9 games and called it quits before the bowl game...and hope you got an opponent that was from your region.
That's the reality. I don't know why we romanticize the past...most everyone wasn't playing against any real good teams. 75% of the SEC and Big8 were total junk...same with the Big10. Same with the Pac-10.
You only lost if you were bold in scheduling...and some teams stayed home and some teams scheduled bold.
Conference expansion, integration, etc. Bear Bryant in all his years had two undefeated seasons...one was against a bunch of whites dudes in 1961 and one was in 1979 where they played zero teams outside the South...no Big 10 teams, no Pac-10 teams.
That same year Bama won the SEC in 1979, the second place conference SEC team was Georgia at 5-1, they went 6-5 overall. SEC teams could dominate SEC teams but couldn't win out of conference.
Point is, people controlled their schedules...there wasn't this pressure to play other conferences and some didn't...you could create your reputation beating cupcakes...Bill Synder at KSU, Miami in their early days before the big title game...
I mean look at some schedules...the 1979 SEC schedule is one of the worst ever, the Pac-10 is better (goes to Texas the midwest), the Big8 is better.
But people learned that the key was to schedule nobody...you had two top dogs in each conference playing against mostly dogshite and they played 8-9 games and called it quits before the bowl game...and hope you got an opponent that was from your region.
That's the reality. I don't know why we romanticize the past...most everyone wasn't playing against any real good teams. 75% of the SEC and Big8 were total junk...same with the Big10. Same with the Pac-10.
You only lost if you were bold in scheduling...and some teams stayed home and some teams scheduled bold.
This post was edited on 9/22/16 at 11:35 pm
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:39 pm to Bench McElroy
More Pressure.
Social Media, Internet, message boards.
Social Media, Internet, message boards.
Posted on 9/22/16 at 11:43 pm to mizzoubuckeyeiowa
quote:
Conference expansion, integration, etc. Bear Bryant in all his years had two undefeated seasons
Three undefeated seasons. He went 11-0 at Alabama in 1966.
And some of those schedules weren't easy. Yeah...the '79 schedule was a cupcake, but in the 70s Alabama generally scheduled regular season match-ups against the likes of Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Southern California.
Just take a look at the first five games Alabama played in 1978:
vs. #10 Nebraska
@ #11 Missouri
vs. #7 Southern California
vs. Vanderbilt
@ Washington
Posted on 9/23/16 at 1:07 am to Bench McElroy
Very good question in the OP. The scholarship limitations kicked-in in the early-to-mid 70's I think so it wasn't much of a factor for the '94-'02 time frame.
My best guess as to why this is would be the ascendancy of the SEC. From '94-'02 the SEC won 2 natty's (UF in '96 and UTenn in '98). From '03 through '15, the SEC has won 9 of the 12 (since USC's '04 was vacated). The SEC became so dominant nationally but also so competitive among itself.
My best guess as to why this is would be the ascendancy of the SEC. From '94-'02 the SEC won 2 natty's (UF in '96 and UTenn in '98). From '03 through '15, the SEC has won 9 of the 12 (since USC's '04 was vacated). The SEC became so dominant nationally but also so competitive among itself.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 1:33 am to Bench McElroy
Teams are worse now because of Early draft entries
Posted on 9/23/16 at 1:37 am to VerlanderBEAST
Yeah. Not sure how the draft was prior, but that could make a ton of sense if that's the case.
Even though some teams may have more talent, a lot of the talent may be leaving earlier.. and less experience could catch up to a team.. even versus a lesser talented team who may have much more experience playing together.
Athletes today may be getting better all around.. and dispersing all over.. coaching continues to get more creative all the time.
Idk, pretty interesting though.
Even though some teams may have more talent, a lot of the talent may be leaving earlier.. and less experience could catch up to a team.. even versus a lesser talented team who may have much more experience playing together.
Athletes today may be getting better all around.. and dispersing all over.. coaching continues to get more creative all the time.
Idk, pretty interesting though.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 2:51 am to Bench McElroy
1. Parity. There are many more great football teams these days.
2. More games. You used to play an 11 game regular season and then a bowl game (only the SEC and Big12 had conference title games for along time). Now you play 12, you play a conference title game, and in the CFP era up to 2 more games. It's a hell of a lot harder to go 14-0 or 15-0 than it is 12-0.
2. More games. You used to play an 11 game regular season and then a bowl game (only the SEC and Big12 had conference title games for along time). Now you play 12, you play a conference title game, and in the CFP era up to 2 more games. It's a hell of a lot harder to go 14-0 or 15-0 than it is 12-0.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 3:20 am to Bench McElroy
cause teams are better?
are you really this dense?
are you really this dense?
Posted on 9/23/16 at 3:30 am to mizzoubuckeyeiowa
quote:
Conference expansion, integration, etc. Bear Bryant in all his years had two undefeated seasons...one was against a bunch of whites dudes in 1961 and one was in 1979 where they played zero teams outside the South...no Big 10 teams, no Pac-10 teams
Integration should have happened sooner all over the country - and the overt resistance to integration in the south was obviously shameful. But I always wonder what the hell people are talking about when they ONLY talk about the southern teams. Many of the northern teams that were supposedly integrated had a very small number of black players - a number that was capped by the administrations to keep their teams mostly white.
And FWIW the criticism implies Bama ran up their record against white teams when one of the weird curiosities about his tenure is how poorly he typically fared against some of the all white Texas based teams. The average fan has probably heard about the television fictionalization of the Bama/USC game but it ignores both that Bama won a healthy majority of the games in that series and that they were on the road to integration when a great black player on the Tennessee team a year before performed so well.
And as to your other comment?!?
quote:
I mean look at some schedules...the 1979 SEC schedule is one of the worst ever
1979
Auburn - Kansas State, Wake Forest, NC State
Alabama - Baylor
UGA - Wake Forest, Clemson, Virginia
KY - Maryland, Indiana
LSU - Southern Cal, Wake Forest, Rice, Colorado
Tenn - Notre Dame
1979
Arizona - Texas Tech
WSU - Ohio State
Oregon State - KSU
Oregon - Colorado, MSU, Purdue
Cal - Michigan
UCLA - Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State
USC - Minnesota, Texas Tech, LSU, ND
Those numbers seem pretty similar - especially if you are talking about the 79 SEC schedule as one of the "worst ever". What's up with that? Whenever I look into one of your claims it seems to always be some half truth or near falsehood. Are you just trolling the whole time? Seems like a waste of time.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 5:45 am to Bench McElroy
1. more games
2. more talent and money
3. shorter games and rule changes
4. scholarships
2. more talent and money
3. shorter games and rule changes
4. scholarships
Posted on 9/23/16 at 7:42 am to molsusports
LSU also played also played Tulane who was 9-2 that year, 3-0 v SEC.
Posted on 9/23/16 at 7:56 am to Bench McElroy
and lets not forget, before the BCS started, those national champions didnt have a championship game, just a bowl game that could have a favorable matchup
so before the BCS, being undefeated was important to the beauty contest that was selecting national champions
so before the BCS, being undefeated was important to the beauty contest that was selecting national champions
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