by selmaborntidefan
June 26, 2020
This information will piggyback on the previous thread regarding whether P5 conferences NOWADAYS are one-team races sans the Big Ten and SEC. (In general, they are). Since I already compiled a lot of the data for Bo Schembechler and Paul Bryant on that thread, I will bring the data over here and add to it each day or so. If you have a P5 that you want me to run then let me know. After the data for Michigan and Alabama is posted, I plan on doing (most immediate) Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USC, Ohio St, Nebraska, and Penn State for starters.
A few rules:
1) This is one of those search missions upon which I embark; I have NO IDEA what the data will actually show before compiling it. Sometimes they affirm my assumptions, sometimes they overturn it. For those who are unaware, I have made this basic assertion before (so nobody misunderstands me): while in no way do I disparage Coach Bryant or Alabama, a quick overview has shown that MOST YEARS Alabama:
a) did not have an overly challenging schedule; and
b) the SEC AS A WHOLE in the 1970s was not the monster conference of 1954-1966 or 1980-onwards.
IN NO WAY am I impugning the great coach. Indeed, I suspect (and the research on Bo sort of proved it) that while Alabama may not have played a powerhouse schedule every year during the 1970s, neither did hardly anyone else (my presumed exceptions at this time are Notre Dame and USC – and the Irish played a horrible schedule in 1973 as I’ve said on this board many times).
CONTINUE READING
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