Parity Reigns Supreme In College Football
posted by Scott Hood, Tuesday, October 02, 2007
As in, any team can beat any other team on any given day.
Parity has officially arrived in college football.
It’s been moving steadily in that direction for several years before culminating three days ago in a string of results that one can only describe as indescribable.
Someone called it “Insanity Saturday.” I agree wholeheartedly with that assessment.
If you want an excellent example of how things have equalized in college football, look no further than the two combatants in Thursday’s clash at Williams-Brice Stadium.
What kind of odds could you have gotten before the season that South Carolina and Kentucky would both be ranked among the top 11 teams in the nation nearly midway through the 2007 season?
Considering the tortured histories of both schools when it comes to football, seeing just one of the teams in the Top 11 is significant enough. But both? Unbelievable.
But in a season that began with a Div. I-AA school from the mountains of North Carolina slaying the winningest program in history on its home field, anything is possible.
The Gamecocks and Wildcats are both ranked higher this week in the AP poll than traditional powerhouses Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas.
The word ‘traditional’ is italicized for a reason. Why? Because the definition of a ‘powerhouse’ college football program in the 21st century has changed dramatically.
Scholarship limitations, practice constraints and recruiting restrictions have combined to spread the talent more evenly throughout the 119 Division I programs.
In 2003, USC (5-7) and Kentucky (4-8) were a combined 9-15 and barely caused a ripple within the league. Their annual meetings on the gridiron were hardly noticed in an old-school league like the SEC where a winning tradition supposedly counts for a lot.
Now, Thursday’s contest will be viewed by millions of people eager for a glimpse of Steve Spurrier in USC garb or to find out if upstart Kentucky is for real.
Four years after each team finished below .500, they’re two of the football programs carrying the SEC’s mantle when it comes to the league’s ferocious battle with other conferences for supremacy.
One rule more than anything helped changed the face of college football - the rule limiting scholarships to 85 on the roster at any one time.
It might be the best rule ever passed by the NCAA, a bureaucratic organization known for making far too many bone-headed decisions.
It also raised an interesting question: how would former legendary coaches like Bear Bryant have fared if they had to coach their teams back then with the same limitations that today’s coaches have to deal with?
My best guess: I don’t think Alabama would be bragging on the Bear so much. Would he still have won a lot of football games? Sure. Just not as many as he actually did.
Is that a bad thing? No. But that’s just the reality of major college football in the 21st century.
Everybody can beat everybody else.
Back in Bryant’s heyday of the 1960’s, there existed a select few national programs that dominated college football every year – Alabama, Southern California, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Notre Dame.
The national title was typically won by one of those teams.
Today, we have California (No. 3) South Florida (No. 6), Boston College (No. 7) and Kentucky (No. 8) all situated in the Top 10 with South Carolina (No. 11) knocking on the door.
Problem is, many fans of some of those so-called traditional powers (I’m talking to you, Crimson Tide followers) still think 10 wins every year is a birthright, even with all the rules currently in place to make sure it doesn't happen.
It’s a 1960‘s mentality trapped in a 21st century world.
That was then and this is now. Thursday night, we have USC and Kentucky battling on national TV for sole possession of first place in the SEC East.
That’s why we love college football.
Parity forever.
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After watching all those remarkable upsets last weekend, I’m beginning to believe college football is morphing into the NFL.
As in, any team can beat any other team on any given day.
Parity has officially arrived in college football.
It’s been moving steadily in that direction for several years before culminating three days ago in a string of results that one can only describe as indescribable.
Someone called it “Insanity Saturday.” I agree wholeheartedly with that assessment.
If you want an excellent example of how things have equalized in college football, look no further than the two combatants in Thursday’s clash at Williams-Brice Stadium.
What kind of odds could you have gotten before the season that South Carolina and Kentucky would both be ranked among the top 11 teams in the nation nearly midway through the 2007 season?
Considering the tortured histories of both schools when it comes to football, seeing just one of the teams in the Top 11 is significant enough. But both? Unbelievable.
But in a season that began with a Div. I-AA school from the mountains of North Carolina slaying the winningest program in history on its home field, anything is possible.
The Gamecocks and Wildcats are both ranked higher this week in the AP poll than traditional powerhouses Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas.
The word ‘traditional’ is italicized for a reason. Why? Because the definition of a ‘powerhouse’ college football program in the 21st century has changed dramatically.
Scholarship limitations, practice constraints and recruiting restrictions have combined to spread the talent more evenly throughout the 119 Division I programs.
In 2003, USC (5-7) and Kentucky (4-8) were a combined 9-15 and barely caused a ripple within the league. Their annual meetings on the gridiron were hardly noticed in an old-school league like the SEC where a winning tradition supposedly counts for a lot.
Now, Thursday’s contest will be viewed by millions of people eager for a glimpse of Steve Spurrier in USC garb or to find out if upstart Kentucky is for real.
Four years after each team finished below .500, they’re two of the football programs carrying the SEC’s mantle when it comes to the league’s ferocious battle with other conferences for supremacy.
One rule more than anything helped changed the face of college football - the rule limiting scholarships to 85 on the roster at any one time.
It might be the best rule ever passed by the NCAA, a bureaucratic organization known for making far too many bone-headed decisions.
It also raised an interesting question: how would former legendary coaches like Bear Bryant have fared if they had to coach their teams back then with the same limitations that today’s coaches have to deal with?
My best guess: I don’t think Alabama would be bragging on the Bear so much. Would he still have won a lot of football games? Sure. Just not as many as he actually did.
Is that a bad thing? No. But that’s just the reality of major college football in the 21st century.
Everybody can beat everybody else.
Back in Bryant’s heyday of the 1960’s, there existed a select few national programs that dominated college football every year – Alabama, Southern California, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Notre Dame.
The national title was typically won by one of those teams.
Today, we have California (No. 3) South Florida (No. 6), Boston College (No. 7) and Kentucky (No. 8) all situated in the Top 10 with South Carolina (No. 11) knocking on the door.
Problem is, many fans of some of those so-called traditional powers (I’m talking to you, Crimson Tide followers) still think 10 wins every year is a birthright, even with all the rules currently in place to make sure it doesn't happen.
It’s a 1960‘s mentality trapped in a 21st century world.
That was then and this is now. Thursday night, we have USC and Kentucky battling on national TV for sole possession of first place in the SEC East.
That’s why we love college football.
Parity forever.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.