TCU's win over the powerful Big Ten opponent Wisconsin should have showed the world that they belonged in the group with what many commentators refer to as "the big boys". But their final ranking of #2 with a perfect season is not an uncommon occurrence. I am going to take just one school with one coach who has had 5 perfect seasons, with only 2 national championships to show for it. Considering that one championship was NOT a perfect season, examining those non-championship perfect seasons may reveal how things have changed and how they've remained the same.
JOE PATERNO
Joe Pa has lived through both ways of determining national champions, the old opinion polls and the current BCS system. If anyone could be consulted who could give a more objective view of what the best way to determine a national champion is, he could.
His Penn State Nittany Lion teams have had 5 undefeated seasons. Yet, he has only 2 national championships. Oddly enough, one of those national championship teams (1982) did not go undefeated. They ended up the season 11-1. Their only loss came at the expense of the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide 42-21 in the fourth game of the season.
Another team that year,Nebraska, finished 12-1, their only loss coming at the Nittany Lions' expense, 27-24. It seems the pollsters felt Penn State should be #1 because they beat the Huskers in the 3rd game of the season. That game saw Nebraska ahead with 1:18 to play 24-21. Penn State scored with 4 seconds on the clock to win it. Perhaps the down-to-the-wire finish caused their letdown to the Crimson Tide the following week.
I want to go back to Joe Pa's 3rd year of head coaching, his first perfect season. He went undefeated with an 11-0 record. One would think that this may have qualified them for the national championship. They were an independent then. Let's look at a big factor involved in the polls 40 years back--strength of schedule and how it kept Penn State from winning the national title.
1968-Penn State was ranked 8 in the pre-season AP poll. Their strength of schedule was probably why they never reached #1. Of their 11 victories, only 3 teams were ever in the Top 20--UCLA, Miami, FL, and Kansas. UCLA dropped out of the poll the week of October 5th and ended up 3-7. Miami rose to #9 but dropped out the week of October 26th, losing 4 of their next 5, finishing 5-5. Kansas was the only team that remained, rising as high as #5 and finishing 9-1. Only 5 of Penn State's victories were against teams who finished above .500. The best team was Kansas, who lost only to Penn State in the Orange Bowl and was the only ranked team after the bowl season. The next best records were both 7-3, West Virginia and Army. There were 3 teams with fewer than 4 wins amongst the rest.
National Champion Ohio State played one less game than Penn State. They had 6 victories against teams .500 or better when you consider a 5-5 record a winning season. At the end of the bowl season, Penn State had only beaten one ranked team, Ohio State had beaten four, Michigan, Purdue, Southern Methodist and Southern Cal.
It should be noted that Southern Cal was undefeated going into the Rose Bowl before losing to Ohio State. Their record was 9-0-1, the tie coming against Notre Dame. If a BCS-type championship had existed back then, one would hope it would have pitted Ohio State and Penn State. Their records had no ties in them. Southern Cal's one tie would have exempted them in my opinion.
NOTE: I will examine Penn State's 2nd undefeated season which happened to be the following 1969 season in which they also were 11-0 in my next blog. I will then examine the 1973 season when they went 12-0. Let's see if strength of schedule changed any during those five years.
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