Pipelines to the NFL

I realize that with the start of the Free Agency period yesterday this is a fluid situation, but SOD took a look at every NFL Team’s active roster to see if there was any evidence of a “pipeline” of sorts from one college team to one NFL Team. What we found is not too surprising.

Most NFL teams, of course, have a pretty diverse mixture of players from all over the place. Atlanta, Baltimore, and Cleveland, in fact, had no more than 2 players from the same school listed on their active roster on 3/10/2015. Fourteen other teams had no more than three players from the same school listed as part of their player profile. But, 1 team had 7 players who played on the same college team in their collegiate career; can you guess which NFL Team and which college has this connection?

Think of a NFL Team with a head coach who recently came over from a successful college program. That’s right – the Philadelphia Eagles have 7 players on their active roster who played college ball at Oregon. Like I said, not surprising.

No other team has any more than 5 players from the same school. Cincinnati has 5 players each from Alabama and Georgia – could make for a fun locker room following a certain SEC football game. Dallas lists 5 players from Oklahoma State on its roster; Arizona has 5 former Clemson players on its roster; and, with Russell Wilson listing the Badgers as his collegiate tie, Seattle has 5 from Wisconsin.

Colleges that have placed 4 players on the same NFL team include: Utah with 4 players at Miami; Illinois and Rutgers each have 4 players on New England’s roster; Stanford has 4 Cardinal currently listed on Indianapolis’ roster; there are 4 players from Miami-FL playing for Jacksonville – makes sense; there are currently 4 players from Tennessee playing for Kansas City; 4 Orange from Syracuse are listed as New York Giants; Notre Dame has 4 each with Minnesota and Detroit; USC also has 4 players with the Vikings; the Crimson Tide has 4 ex-Alabama players listed on Green Bay’s active roster; and, 4 players from Auburn are currently getting paid to play for St. Louis.

Based on the high numbers of players some of the big-time schools have playing in the NFL, you would expect to see some clumping on NFL Teams just through the law of averages, but, for the most part, they are pretty evenly spread throughout the league. The further Chip Kelly gets removed from his personal ties with the players from Oregon, you might expect to see that one existing, prominent “pipeline” start to dwindle.

So, no real surprises, but it was fun looking into it.

Trivia Tuesday – Football and Basketball Championships

March Madness is now upon us and SOD gets just as caught up in the basketball hysteria as many others of you. I, too, will fill out a bracket that gets all busted before the end of the 1st weekend. It’s a yearly tradition in our house; my wife, who doesn’t follow the game very closely, and I, who watches intently all season long, will each fill out brackets and track our results. She has about a 15 year winning streak going on me – she always kicks my football lov’n backside. But, this is a College Football Blog and it is Trivia Tuesday; so, today’s trivia will focus on Football and Basketball.

QUESTION #1. You probably heard in the build up to the National Championship game the coincidence that Ohio State and Oregon also played in the first ever NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. The then called Webfoots from Oregon beat Ohio State, 46 – 33 in that game. But, do you know what other two teams made up the first Final Four?

QUESTION #2. This one is pretty easy. SOD looked to see how many times the same school was the reigning Football Champion and Basketball Champion. It has only happened once and that was pretty recently. What is the only school to be both Football Champions and Basketball Champions in the same off season? (It gets weird because the Football Champion is listed as the previous year – but, they would both be Champions over the same summer.) Not only that, but they achieved this feat by beating the same school in the championship for each sport.

QUESTION #3. Now here’s the tougher one. To make what the team that is the answer to Question #2 did so remarkable, there are only 10 schools that have ever won at least 1 of each national championships over all the years. Name the 10 schools that have at least 1 National Football Championship and 1 National Basketball Championship.

THE BUFFER ZONE

ANSWER #1. In the semi-finals of that first ever NCAA Championship Tournament, Ohio State defeated Villanova, 53 – 36 in the East Bracket and Oregon defeated Oklahoma, 55 – 37 in the West. The entire tournament consisted of only 8 teams and was played on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanstown, IL.

ANSWER #2. The Florida Gators won the BCS Championship Game over Ohio State to conclude the 2006 season and then won the 2007 NCAA Basketball Championship by beating the Buckeyes again on the hardwood.

ANSWER #3. The 10 schools to have at least 1 National Football Championship and 1 NCAA Basketball Championship are:

Arkansas – Football Co-Champs in 1964 (with Alabama and Notre Dame); Basketball Champs in 1994

California – Football: 1920, 1921 (with Cornell), 1922 (with Cornell); Basketball: 1959

Florida – Football: 1996, 2006, 2008; Basketball: 2006, 2007

Maryland – Football: 1953; Basketball: 2002

Michigan – Football: 1901, 1903 (with Princeton), 1904 (with Pennsylvania), 1918 (with Pittsburgh), 1923 (with Illinois), 1933, 1948, 1997 (with Nebraska); Basketball: 1989

Michigan State – Football: 1952, 1965 (with Alabama), 1966 (with Notre Dame); Basketball: 1979, 2000

Ohio State – Football: 1942, 1954 (with UCLA), 1957 (with Auburn), 1961 (with Alabama), 1968, 1970 (with Nebraska and Texas), 2002, 2014; Basketball: 1960

Stanford – Football: 1926 (with Alabama); Basketball: 1942

Syracuse – Football: 1959; Basketball: 2003

UCLA – Football 1954 (with Ohio State); Basketball: 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1995

NOTE: This information is from the NCAA List of recognized champions. SOD did not look at NIT Champions for the years that this was the premier end-of-season basketball championship.

Trivia Tuesday – Power 5 Conferences

In recent years, there has been a lot of shuffling of College Football Conferences. And, if you believe Some Other Dude, there is more yet to come as we advance upon the age of the Mega-Conferences. But, SOD wonders, how well do you know the history of the current Power 5 Conferences?

THE TRIVIA CHALLENGE

Name the original teams in each of the current Power 5 Conferences.

THE BUFFER ZONE

THE ANSWERS

The Atlantic Coast Conference.  Even though we appear to be headed to 16 team Mega-Conferences, back in history there was an even mega-er conference; the Southern Conference.  The Southern Conference, at one time, consisted of 23 teams and eventually splintered into other, smaller conferences.  One of those splinter conferences was the ACC which officially formed as a conference in 1953.  The 7 charter members of the ACC were: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina and Wake Forest.  Only South Carolina no longer calls the ACC home as they eventually joined the other splinter conference with former Southern Conference brethren.  Link to information source.

The Big 12.  The history of the Big 12 is a little more convoluted than that of the other conferences.  The Big 12 itself wasn’t formed until 1994 when teams from the Big 8 merged with teams from the Southwest Conference.  The Big 8 Conference was originally chartered in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and eventually became known as the Big 6 and then grew up to become the Big 8.  The original members of this conference were: Iowa (two-timing with the Big Ten), Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Washington University in St. Louis.  Only Kansas remains as a current member of The Big 12.  Link to information source.  The Southwest Conference was first formed in 1912, consisting of: Arkansas, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Rice, Texas and Texas A&M.  Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas remain as current members of the Big 12.  Link to information source.

The Big Ten.  The name “The Big Ten” was actually not officially incorporated until 1987, but the conference referred to as the Big Ten has been around since 1905.  The original conference was made up of 7 teams in what was known as the “Intercollegiate Conference Athletic Association”.  In 1917, when the conference had expanded to 10 teams, it was labeled the “Big Ten” by members of the media.  The original members of this so-called Big Ten Conference were: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, University of Chicago and Wisconsin.  Only the University of Chicago is not a member of that conference today.  Link to information source.

The Pac 12.  The Pac 12 Conference started off as a little seedling conference that eventually grew up into the Pac 12.  Forming in 1916 as the Pacific Coast Conference, its original members stood at only 4 schools: California, Oregon, Oregon Agricultural College (later known as Oregon State) and Washington.  All four schools still remain in the conference today.  Interestingly, Idaho and Montana were one time members of this conference and the conference was disbanded and re-assembled in 1959 due to a pay-for-play scandal.  The re-formed conference was called the Athletic Association of Western Universities, commonly known as the Big 5. After growing once again, the conference started being referred to as the Pacific 8 in 1964 and officially became the Pacific 8 in 1968, the Pac 10 in 1978 and the Pac 12 in 2011.  Link to information source.

The SEC.  The SEC preceded the ACC in splintering away from the huge Southern Conference when 13 schools left in 1932 to form their own conference.  The 13 schools that made up the first version of the Southeastern Conference were: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Sewanee (University of the South), Tennessee, Tulane and Vanderbilt.  Georgia Tech now resides in the ACC; Tulane, although still an FBS school is no longer a member of a Power 5 Conference; and, Sewanee, after having decided to de-emphasize sports in 1940, currently competes in Division III athletics.  Link to information source.

Greatest College Football Games Never Played

As we sit in the off season and wait for August to roll around again, SOD likes to look ahead at the upcoming schedules. In so doing, I was wondering, “What are some great football match-ups that haven’t yet occurred?” What are the greatest games never played?

To answer this question, SOD looked at the schools with the all-time winningest records and identified which of these schools have never played each other.

Like all of SOD’s, unscientific research, the results are only as good as my internet search skills allow – so, my findings may contain some erroneous data, but, the following table lists those match-ups of current FBS schools listed in the top 30 of all-time winningest programs that have not matched up against each other, as best as I could discover.

Many of these unplayed games make geographic sense, but a few of them are surprising and, almost all of them, would make great match-ups in future schedules.

A few observations:

Probably the most surprising games not yet played are: Tennessee v West Virginia and Penn State v Virginia Tech. It is also surprising to see that Oklahoma has never played Georgia and Arkansas has never gone up against Clemson. All of these non-games should be played!

The one team that shows up most often on this list is Washington. The Huskies have not yet matched up against 8 of the 23 other teams on top of the list of winningest programs. I know that the Dawgs are tucked away in the Pacific Northwest corner of the US and many of these teams are Eastern and Southern schools, but, come on Dawgs, you need to get out more!

SOD looked over this list and tried to determine which game would most likely be a National Championship Game? I’d probably have to go with Oklahoma v Georgia.

As we venture deeper into the new world order of the FBS playoff and schedule strength starts to play a bigger and bigger role in who gets selected to participate in the playoffs, SOD believes that we will see fewer and fewer cupcakes on FBS teams’ schedules. As a result, the list of unplayed games shown above would be a great place to start in finding non-conference games to play. Really – which one of those games would you not want to see played and have your team go up against some patsy instead?

Oh well, a guy can dream can’t he?

Black History Month – The College Football Edition

In honor of Black History month, SOD decided to take a look at some of the early black pioneers in college football – especially those young men who played outside of Historically Black Colleges and helped integrate football in traditionally “white” conferences.

William Henry Lewis was the first black football player to be honored as an All-American while playing center at Harvard in 1893. Lewis had also played football at Amherst College as early as 1889 before moving on to Harvard in 1892. Lewis was elected captain of the football teams at both Amherst and Harvard, marking the first time that an African-American was so named at either school. After graduating from Harvard, Lewis stayed on as a paid coach for the Harvard football team for 11 years. Lewis also published a “Primer of College Football” in 1896.

William H. Lewis’ college football career however, as historically significant as it was, paled in comparison to other achievements this remarkable man reached in his lifetime as a successful lawyer and politician.

Joining Lewis on the Amherst football teams was another young, black football player named William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson. These two men are recognized as the first black football players on white teams when they played for Amherst in 1889. There is not as much historical data on the young Mr. Jackson. This photograph of the 1891 Amherst squad shows Jackson in the back row with Lewis immediately in front of him, holding the football.

Meanwhile, in 1890, at the University of Michigan, a young black man by the name of George Jewett was the starting halfback/fullback and field goal kicker for the Wolverines in 1890 and 1892. Jewett was the first black football letterman for any Big 10 school. He later transferred from Michigan to Northwestern and became the first black football player for the Wildcats, as well.

In an earlier blog post, SOD recognized Jack Trice, from Iowa, as the only black man to have an FBS Stadium named after him. You can read that story here.

In 1961, Ernie Davis, RB, Syracuse, became the first black man to be awarded the Heisman Trophy. Ernie’s life was tragically cut short after being diagnosed with leukemia before starting an NFL career. Ernie Davis died on May 18, 1963 at the young age of 23.

In 1979, Willie Jeffries became the first black man to be named head coach at a predominantly white school when hired to that position at Wichita State. Jeffries was followed by Dennis Green who coached at Northwestern from 1981 – 1985.

As we celebrate Black History in the United States throughout the month of February (although as part of our history, it should be celebrated every time we pick up a history book) we need not overlook the role these pioneers played in the great sport of college football. Some of the history has been buried, but the stories behind these young men are remarkable and worth the effort to discover.

Conference Changes 2015 – The Eye of the Storm

Over the past few years the landscape of college football, with regards to conference membership, has been in flux. You practically needed a Playbill in recent years as a reminder of changes in the cast.

SOD is still trying to get used to Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and, as of this past year, Louisville playing in the ACC (somehow, Miami seems a natural fit). Missouri still seems odd showing up so many times on SEC football fields – and who suspected the Tigers to be winning the SEC East every year? And, although they had way better than expected seasons in their first year in the B1G Ten, Maryland and Rutgers seems out of place amongst the Ohio States, Michigans and Wisconsins of the football world. Heck, SOD is still trying to get used to Big Red in the B1G Ten.

What with the Big 12 being left out of the playoff party in 2014, with some pointing to their lack of a conference championship, at least somewhat, contributing to that decision and the visions SOD has of a future world of Mega Conferences (see yesterday’s blog article), it would not be surprising to see more flux down the road. As such, the 2015 football season appears to be the eye of the storm. Just a few minor adjustments to two mid-major conferences are in store for this coming year, nothing too confusing and nothing to get too excited about.

As of 2015, the Midshipmen from Navy leave the ranks of Independent football teams and will be participating in the American Athletic Conference (AAC). This looked like a more promising move a few years back when it was still the Big East, but, SOD believes, a good move for Navy nonetheless. Navy should be competitive in this league and, being a conference member should ease scheduling concerns that mid-major Independents have to deal with. With 8 conference games on the schedule each year, and the other two military academies, Navy only needs to secure 2 other games each season – much easier than finding 10 schools to compete against each year (the 2 academies are a given).

The only other conference changes occur in Conference USA which loses one team and gains another. SOD is sorry to see the University of Alabama–Birmingham fold the football tents. Although the past few years have not been kind to the Blazers, UAB does have a history of successful football campaigns to look back upon. Besides that, losing UAB loses one of the best football logos for FBS. Although the move of adding UNC-Charlotte to the league was not intended to be a replacement for anybody, that is, in effect, what happens. As the league bids good-bye to the Blazers, the 49ers move up from the FCS to start a new chapter in their football lore in C-USA. This could be a rather difficult challenge for the 49ers to start off. Charlotte had a tough enough time with a very manageable FCS schedule in 2014, finishing 5 – 6. Things will only get tougher in the C-USA. But, brick by brick, as they say. We will see if the 49ers can start to compete in years to come.

So, that’s it. Minor adjustments. Which is fine for now, as far as SOD is concerned. Another year to get used to Rutgers and Maryland in the B1G Ten. Another year for the Big 12 to plan their next move – they just have to grow large enough to host a Conference Championship Game, don’t you think? And, another year for SOD’s crystal ball vision to start to clear up. BYU and Notre Dame need to find a conference to call home and Boise State needs a big boy conference to play in.

Just the eye of the storm, my friends; the winds of change are just on the other side.