Things college football teams should NEVER do

I would like to see some research done on that.

I've always kind of maintained that if you are a TRUE national title contender, you will win that game. And that you shouldn't kick yourself for losing it, because if you weren't good enough to beat Syracuse in Week 1, well, you really don't deserve a national title, do you?

Are there any concrete examples out their where a team lost an intersectional road game early, then ran roughshod over everyone else, went 11-1 and was denied a chance to play for the title because of that one loss?

My memory is fuzzy, but the times I remember a team not winning one of those games (Colorado vs. Tennessee, 1990; Florida State at Notre Dame, 1993) they would up winning a national title anyway.

 

By recent, do you mean 12 years ago (w/r/t UCLA)?

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores100/100246/100246425.htm


When did Oklahoma host Alabama? I am legitimately asking, I don't know.

 

Fixed ...


Bottom line ... Don't diddle kids. Period.

That's bad mmm'kay.

 

2002.

And Alabama also has neutral site games with West Virginia (2013) and Virginia Tech (2014) coming up, plus a home-and-home with Michigan State in 2016 and 2017.

 

Technically 11 (the return game was in 2001) but yeah you got me. Was trying to keep it to the last decade and got off track by a year. Bama has also played at Hawaii and Duke during that stretch, but I hardly count that in their favor.

The Tide went to Norman in 2002 (Franchione started the game with an onside kick and nearly upset a far better OU team) and the return game was in 03, a Mike Shula "gosh we're close" special.

 

The BCS results for the SEC and Alabama truly speak for themselves, so you always have 'scoreboard!'. But please don't defend the OOC schedules of Alabama.

 

If you had Week 2 in the "No one from the SEC schedules tough OOC games" debate pool on SJ, you win!

 

Don't play such a big game right off the bat. Yes, you can recover from an early loss, but it's a lot harder than when you just run the table.

 

Nah, Alabama does a good job -- they follow a pretty traditional format of scheduling an A (marquee), B (decent name but a team they handle easily) and C (bodybag game) in their OOC. I can't think of a year when they didn't play somebody with a reasonable rep and an expectation of a good game.

 

I was going to keep my mouth shut until I read that a game from September 2, 2000 was considered "recent". When games played while Bill Clinton was still president are listed as "recent" I can't help but post.

 

I didn't say it was a tough game, because Minnesota has consistently sucked since firing Cal Stoll. But it does count as an intersectional game, something SC has never shied away from playing.

Of course there's a winner every year, since the SEC generally gives no reason to end the contest.