Let's Do It Again
I'm shocked as I peruse the morning articles about last night's Final Four games that I'm not reading more about the astonishing fact that this year's NCAA final is a rematch of the college football national championship game. I mean, sure, people are mentioning it here and there, but to me it deserves a little more than a mention. As soon as it was clear last night that Florida had the game in the bag, I started telling my girlfriend that I didn't even have to look it up, that I knew that no two teams had ever vied for both the football and basketball national championships in a single calendar year.
My girlfriend wasn't as interested in that as you might have thought. But it's her loss, because: 1. it's true, and 2. it's freaky-deeky. Of course, college football has only had a national championship game since the 1998 season, but that doesn't really matter - you can look back easily throughout history and see what the national championship game would have looked like. Hell, you can look at the top four teams in the year-end A.P. poll and still find that no two of them were in the basketball NCAA final that year.
Of course, it's Sunday morning, and I don't feel like doing that. So I'm going to go with an unscientific method, but one that I believe will still prove my point beyond a shadow of a doubt. I'm just going to go down the list of NCAA basketball title games over the years and eyeball the shit. It's that easy.
As far as the BCS era goes, only last year's basketball final and the 2000 final involved schools with elite football programs, and I think we're all aware that Florida and UCLA did not play in the BCS title game last year, and Florida and Michigan State did not play in that game in 2000.
In the 90's, the only remote possibility is UCLA/Arkansas in '95, and neither of those schools were in the A.P. top ten in football in '95. There is not a single viable candidate in the 80's, and in the 70's, only UCLA/Florida State from '72 raises the brow, but then one remembers that Florida State sucked then.
On to the 60's, a decade that I can't just look at and know right off the top of my head. I see two legitimate candidates - UCLA/Michigan in '65, and Ohio State/Cal in '60. But, of course, no and no - the Bruins were fifth in the A.P. football poll in '65, but Michigan wasn't in the top 20, and as for 1960, Ohio State was 8th and Cal was nowhere.
In the 50's and 40's there's absolutely nothing worth even investigating, unless Kentucky or Oklahoma A&M had some great football dynasties that I don't know about. Of course the first NCAA basketball final was in 1939, featuring Ohio State coincidentally, Ohio State and Oregon, and in case you were wondering, no.
So there you have it. As if you didn't know this already, Florida and Ohio State are the only two schools in history to play for both the college football and college basketball championships in a single year. And Florida has a chance to become the first school ever to hold both titles concurrently, which would be some serious bragging rights indeed.
My girlfriend wasn't as interested in that as you might have thought. But it's her loss, because: 1. it's true, and 2. it's freaky-deeky. Of course, college football has only had a national championship game since the 1998 season, but that doesn't really matter - you can look back easily throughout history and see what the national championship game would have looked like. Hell, you can look at the top four teams in the year-end A.P. poll and still find that no two of them were in the basketball NCAA final that year.
Of course, it's Sunday morning, and I don't feel like doing that. So I'm going to go with an unscientific method, but one that I believe will still prove my point beyond a shadow of a doubt. I'm just going to go down the list of NCAA basketball title games over the years and eyeball the shit. It's that easy.
As far as the BCS era goes, only last year's basketball final and the 2000 final involved schools with elite football programs, and I think we're all aware that Florida and UCLA did not play in the BCS title game last year, and Florida and Michigan State did not play in that game in 2000.In the 90's, the only remote possibility is UCLA/Arkansas in '95, and neither of those schools were in the A.P. top ten in football in '95. There is not a single viable candidate in the 80's, and in the 70's, only UCLA/Florida State from '72 raises the brow, but then one remembers that Florida State sucked then.
On to the 60's, a decade that I can't just look at and know right off the top of my head. I see two legitimate candidates - UCLA/Michigan in '65, and Ohio State/Cal in '60. But, of course, no and no - the Bruins were fifth in the A.P. football poll in '65, but Michigan wasn't in the top 20, and as for 1960, Ohio State was 8th and Cal was nowhere.In the 50's and 40's there's absolutely nothing worth even investigating, unless Kentucky or Oklahoma A&M had some great football dynasties that I don't know about. Of course the first NCAA basketball final was in 1939, featuring Ohio State coincidentally, Ohio State and Oregon, and in case you were wondering, no.
So there you have it. As if you didn't know this already, Florida and Ohio State are the only two schools in history to play for both the college football and college basketball championships in a single year. And Florida has a chance to become the first school ever to hold both titles concurrently, which would be some serious bragging rights indeed.
1 Comments:
im sure you can some how work charlie ward's name into this article !
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