1969 football season final rankings

Nixon hates LSU

National Championship at that time were awarded before Bowl games.

Bowl games were a reward for a good season.

This is why I still tell everyone the playoff system in college starts the first game of the season, every game counts in that system.

This is also why teams not winning their conference should not be in the playoffs under the old bcs and the new system.

69 was a hell of a defense. Hillman, a lefty, played a great game, but Archie drove them down the field, with short throws for the winning score.


Geaux to Hell Ole Miss, Geaux to Hell.

Geaux to Hell Notre Dame, Geaux to Hell.

When y'all get there, tell Nixon and Bear Bryant that I said GFY.

Don't get me started, I remember it like it was yesterday. If not for Archie Manning doing his "SuperManning" act, LSU goes 10-0! Then, at 9-1, LSU gets kicked to the curb because Noterfreaking Dame decides to end their self imposed bowl ban. Best team Cholly Mac ever had and they would've definitely beaten Texas in the Cotton Bowl. I'm still pissed.

lots of myths about that 1969 team. As for Texas being announced "National Champions" after the Arkansas game, that was for the UPI poll that continued to announce its champion prior to the bowls through the 1973 season.

At least Texas did play in a bowl. They only moved up to #1 two weeks earlier when then #1 Ohio State was upset by Michigan, 24-12 in their season finale. Because of some weird,archaic "no repeat" rule, had Ohio State won the Michigan game and completed its season unbeaten, they would NOT have been eligible for the Rose Bowl since they played in it the prior season as conference champion.

One problem that LSU team had was it was unable to surge in the polls. There was quite a list of "who's who" from that era that started the season ranked higher than LSU and never really faltered: Ohio State, Texas,Southern Cal, Penn State to name a few.

There were only 4 "major bowls" and the Rose Bowl had an exclusive tie in with the Pac-8 and the Big 10 representative. The Cotton Bowl had the SWC Champion as one of its teams. In mid-November it appeared Penn State would go unbeaten again and Texas' Darrell Royal talked to Joe Paterno encouraging him to choose the Cotton for a NC game of sorts. Paterno felt that Ohio State was invincible and chose a return trip to Miami for the Orange.

The Sugar Bowl offered LSU a bid,but LSU was under the impression they would go to the Cotton and told the Sugar they'd discuss it.(The Sugar was deemed sort of the 4th of the Major bowls as ABC's payout was less than NBC's for the Rose and Orange as well as CBS's for the Cotton.) Along the way Notre Dame announced it would entertain a bowl bid for the first time since a trip to the Rose Bowl in the 20's. Evidently whomever in Dallas representing the Cotton who was talking to LSU didn't have that much power and the Irish were chosen.

LSU went back to the Sugar but the Sugar said sorry,too late and chose Ole Miss and the Texas-Arkansas loser. The Sun and Bluebonnet offered LSU bids,but LSU declined.Ironically, two seasons earlier the Sugar selected LSU who was only 4-3-1 the day they were selected before finishing the '67 season 6-3-1.

Oddly enough LSU's #8 ranking was as high as a stay at #8 for the 1968 LSU team that finished 8-3.

I was 15 at the time and usually ABC only showed one game on Sat afternoon, occaisionally, a double-header. Those were rare with a Neb-OU or USC-UCLA late in the season. Now, LSU only played at night, of course, but their one game that year was an afternoon game in Jackson against Archie and friends. The lack of TV exposure, almost always night only football, hurt the Tigers in those days. The "elite" football press of that era were already done with thier stories of gridiron prowess for the day when LSU usually took the field. The Michigan's, the Ohio States, the ND, and the Penn State's of the world were already done playing with their noon start times and such. Heck, even USC and UCLA were done playing and stories filed by 7pm CST. So....who even knew LSU, except for an occaisional blip on the football screen during bowl season. Even when the tigers went to ND the next year they were portrayed in the press as this little school from the SEC coming to play Joe Theisman and the powerful Fightin Irish. There was no respect for the Tigers or anybody else except the "bear" and his bunch. I'm ranting, sorry.

One of the best Tiger teams ever.... the defense gave up like 600 yards rushing the whole season.... they were snubbed by the cotton bowl because Norte Dame decieded to end its bowl hiatus and the cotton bowl thought them against Texas would be a better game...... so LSU chose to just stay at home......

1970 Ole Miss came to LSU and lost 61-17 to LSU! Tommy Casanova and Craig Burns set a record that will probably never be broken running back 3 Punts for TD's. Casanova ran 2 and Burns ran 1 for TD's. Two of the greatest Punt Returners in History on the same team.