NCAA Gridiron Football « billsportsmaps.com

December 2, 2008

2008 BCS Standings for week 14.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football — admin @ 7:22 am

Full BCS Standings, and Polls {Click here}.

Alabama and Florida will meet for the SEC Title, on Saturday, in Atlanta, Georgia. {CBS College FB page, Click here.} Alabama is #1 in both the BCS Standings, and the AP Poll; Florida is #4 in the BCS, and #2 in the AP Poll. 2008 SEC Championship Game page, on Wikipedia, Click here.

The winner will be in the BCS Championship game. In the current BCS format, there are 5 games considered ‘BCS Bowl Games’: the BCS National Championship Game, the Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA), the Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, LA), the Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, AZ), and the Orange Bowl (Miami, FL) {see this}.

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November 26, 2008

NCAA Division I-A / Football Bowl Subdivision, the Big East: Team Profiles and Attendance Map (2007 figures).

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb-Big East — admin @ 7:08 am

The Big East’s football conference began play in 1991. I wrote a bit about the conference last November {see this}.

The Big East’s football conference combines a few schools with storied pasts: Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and West Virginia, with some schools that never really had football programs to brag about, but are now improving: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Rutgers, and South Florida. Louisville is the other school in the conference, and is sort of in both categories.

Friday, the 101st edition of the Backyard Brawl will take place, as the West Virginia Mountaineers visit the Pitt Panthers (who are #25 in the BCS) {see this}. Here is an article from USA Today on the 100th Backyard Brawl {Click here}.

South Florida has seen their average attendance rise from 30,222 in 2006; to 53,170 last season. That rise of nearly 23,000 vaulted them from 76th highest to 38th highest. The nascent USF football program has only been in existence since 1997.

Thanks to http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/database/index.h. Thanks to the contributors to the Big East football pages on Wikipedia. Thanks to AP Poll Archive {Click here}.

Thanks to http://gobearcats.cstv.com/. Thanks to http://www.scarletknights.com/football/history/first-game.asp (Click on it and check out the nice illustration of what the first college football game looked like, in 1869: Princeton vs. Rutgers.) Thanks to Ask-ville {Click here}. Thanks to The Sports Fanattic Shop {Click here}.

Thanks to Helmet Hut {Click here}; The Helmet Project {Click here}; Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page {Click here}.; Logo Server {Click here}; Logo Shak {Click here}.

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November 20, 2008

NCAA Division I-A / Football Bowl Subdivision, the Big 12: Team Profiles and Attendance Map (2007 figures).

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb-Big 12 — admin @ 10:02 am

The Big 12 was formed in 1994, when the Big 8 merged with 4 schools from Texas that had come from the just-disbanded Southwest Conference. The first season of Big 12 football was in 1996.

The Big 8 has it’s origins in the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which began football competition in 1907. Founding schools were the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KA), the University of Missouri (Columbia, MO), the University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE), and Washington University (St. Louis, MO). The next year, 1908, Drake University (Des Moines, IA) and Iowa State (Ames, IA) joined. Kansas State (Manhattan, KA) joined in 1913. Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA) joined in 1919. The University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK) joined in 1920. Oklahoma A & M (Stillwater, OK) joined in 1925; this school is now called Oklahoma State.

Three years later, though, Oklahoma A & M left the conference, along with the smaller schools, to form the Missouri Valley Conference (the MVC).

The other large schools remained together as the MVIAA; the conference began to become popularly known as the Big 6…Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

The Big 6 remained stable throughout the 1930s and World War II. In 1948, the University of Colorado (Boulder, CO) joined, and the conference became known as the Big 7.

A decade later, Oklahoma State rejoined, and began play for football in 1960. The conference then became known as the Big 8.

The conference remained the same throughout the sixties, seventies, eighties, and early 1990s. During this time 2 of the schools in the Big 8 emerged as national powerhouses…the Oklahoma Sooners and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Both of these teams currently draw over 80,000 per game. Oklahoma has won 7 National Titles (the last in 2000), Nebraska has won 5 National Titles (the last in 1997).

Since the merger with the four Texas teams from the SWC, the conference has seen their national exposure only grow, as the football programs of the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A & M Aggies similarly draw over 80,ooo per game. Texas has won 3 National Titles (the last in 2005); Texas A & M won their only National Title in 1939. The only other team in the Big 12 that has won a National Title is Colorado, in 1990. The Buffaloes draw around 50,000 per game.

In recent years, the Big 12 has seen the emergence of the football programs of Kansas State, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas Tech. For around 40 years, Kansas State was one of the worst Division I-A teams in the country…it was 69 years between conference titles for the Wildcats (1934, 2003). The Kansas Jayhawks were a mediocre-to-poor football team for around 35 years, but last year achieved a #7 AP ranking and an Orange Bowl victory. The Missouri Tigers, while not as historically bad as the two Kansas teams, still had not done much to brag about since 1965 (#4), but in the last few years have emerged as a real threat. Last year the Tigers made it to the Big 12 Championship Game (which they lost to Oklahoma), and won the Cotton Bowl. At 12-2, Missouri was ranked #4 in the AP Poll in 2007.

Finally, there is Texas Tech {team profile, from CBS Sports site, Click here; Wikipedia page here}. The Red Raiders are from Lubbock (metro population of around 261,000), {Visit Lubbock site here}., in a region referred to as the South Plains (comprising the Texas panhandle {see this}, plus the area to the immediate south).

For 25 years (1932-’56), Texas Tech played in the obscurity of the old Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association (which was composed of football teams from schools in Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas). In 1960, Texas Tech joined the SWC. They have won 9 BIAA Titles (the last in 1955), and 2 SWC Titles (the last in 1994, when they were only 6-6, but managed a share of the conference title, with Texas).

Though Texas Tech has not won a Big 12 Conference Title, they are the only team to have maintained a winning record in every season of the Big 12.

Mike Leach inherited the Texas Tech football program from Spike Dykes (13 years, 82 wins) after the 1999 season. The team has gone to a Bowl game every year during the innovative Leach’s tenure, and have won at least 8 games for 7 straight years. Raised in Cody, Wyoming, Leach grew up a fan of the relatively near-by Brigham Young University football team, whose high-flying offense (which won BYU a National Title in 1984) can be now seen as a harbinger of the current college game. Leach graduated from BYU, then earned a Law Degree at Princeton.

Mike Leach did not play football at the college level (unusual for Division I coaches, although another of the six coaches in this category is also in the Big 12: Mark Mangino of Kansas). Leach’s trademark is the prolific, passing-oriented offense, which is known as the spread offense, for the way it spreads the defense out, revealing weaknesses exploited by the multiple wide reciever/ wing-back formations. Leach was offensive coordinator at Valdosta, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. He came to Texas Tech in the same role, and became head coach in 2000.

This season, the mighty Texas Tech offense continues to roll (they average 47.9 points per game). Their next test is Saturday, when they travel across the state-line to play #5 Oklahoma. #2 Texas Tech has a real shot at the championship. If they can beat the Sooners, Tech finishes the regular season against perennial pushovers Baylor. If they win that too, Texas Tech will be in the BCS Championship Game, opponent, of course, TBD.

Thanks to nationalchamps.net/ All-Time Database {Click here}. Thanks to the College Football Data Warehouse {Click here}. Thanks to the contributors to the pages of the Big 12, Big 8, the SWC, and the BIAA, on Wikipedia. Thanks to the writers at Sports Illustrated August 11, 2008 print edition, including Austin Murphy {si.com, Click here}.

Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page {Click here}. Thanks to Logo Shak {Click here}. Thanks to Logo Server {Click here}.

Thanks to Helmet Hut {Click here}.

Thanks to the Helmet Project {Click here}.

Thanks to MG’s Helmets {Click here}.

Thanks to Sports Logos and Screen Savers {Click here}. Thanks to FootballFanatics.com {Click here}.

AP Poll, and BCS Standings {Click here}.

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November 18, 2008

Origins of the Big 12 Football Conference.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb-Big 12 — admin @ 5:29 pm

Origins of the Big 12 map…Click on title: origins-of-the-big12_c.gif.

Thanks to MG’s Helmets {Click here}. Thanks to College Football Data Warehouse {Click here}. Thanks to Army Corps of Engineers site {Click here}.

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November 13, 2008

NCAA Division I-A / Football Bowl Subdivision, the Pac-10: Attendance map (2007 figures) and Team Profiles.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb-Pac 10 & Pac-12 — admin @ 6:11 am

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The Pac-10 was formed in 1959. Its roots are in the Pacific Coast Conference, which began play for football in 1916, and existed to 1959. Founding schools in the PCC were California (of Berkeley, CA), Washington (of Seattle, WA), Oregon (of Salem, OR), and Oregon State (of Corvallis, OR). The following year, 1917, Washington State (of Pullman, WA) joined. Stanford (of Palo Alto, CA) joined the next year, 1918.

In 1922, the conference expanded to 8 teams with the addition of Southern California [ie, USC] (of Los Angeles, CA), and Idaho (of Moscow, ID). Montana (of Missoula, MT) joined in 1924. The PCC swelled to 10 teams when UCLA (of Los Angeles, CA) joined in 1928. Montana left the PCC in 1950, to join the Mountain States Conference.

The dominant schools in PCC football were the four California schools. UCLA won 12 Conference Titles, both USC and California won 11 Titles, and Stanford won 8 Titles. The 6 other schools won a total of 14 Titles, the highest being Oregon with 5. The two Rocky Mountain schools, Idaho and Montana, never won a football title.

The divide between the California schools and the other 6 schools was also evident in another way. Many university leaders in the California schools considered the Northwest schools academically inferior, and advocated a split to form a separate California conference, for schools that held a higher standard of the student athlete.

So it is ironic that the split-up of the Pacific Coast Conference came about after a scandal involving illegal payments to players on the UCLA and USC teams. UCLA officials and coaches eventually admitted to widespread payments to players, and in turn blew the whistle on phony USC programs that paid players. 3 of the 4 California schools (but not Stanford), as well as Washington, were eventually implicated in the pay-for-play scandal, and the PCC disbanded in 1959.

In July, 1959, the Athletic Association of Western Universities was formed, comprising California, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington. This in spite of the fact that many at Stanford had wanted UCLA to be expelled for their part in the pay-for-play/ slush fund scandal. For its first few years, 1960-’62, the AAWU was popularly known as the Big Five. The Northwest schools were initially blocked from joining, but Washington State was able to join in 1962, and it became known as the Big Six.

Oregon and Oregon State were finally able to join in 1964. Idaho was never invited, and stayed independent until joining the Big Sky Conference in 1963.

In 1968, the AAWU changed its name to the Pacific 8 Conference, aka the Pac-8.

In 1978, the conference added two schools from the Western Athletic conference: Arizona State (Tempe, AZ), and Arizona (Tuscon, AZ), and changed its name to the Pacific-10 Conference, aka the Pac-10.

Thanks to the contibutors to the Wikipedia pages on the PCC {Click here} and the Pac-10 {Click here}. Thanks to the College Football Data Warehouse site {Click here}. Thanks to the College Football All-Time Database (http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/database/index.htm). Thanks to the College Football History site…I have set he link to the Oregon Ducks page, which talks about the origins of their mascot and how Oregon officials were able to secure rights for use of the Donald Duck character (but only on merchandise sold in-state) {Click here}.

Thanks to Helmet Hut {Click here}. Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page {Click here}. Thanks to the Helmet Project site {Click here}.

Thanks to MG’s Helmets. This is a site I have just come across, which has beautiful computer aided illustrsations of football helmets in most every league and conference. I also like it because the site has a very comprehensive set of old NFL helmets (but alas, no old college helmets…for that you have to go to the Helmet Project site). MG’s Helmets is the best site out there for throwback NFL helmets. {Click here, for MG’s Helmets.}

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November 9, 2008

NCAA Division I-A/ Football Bowl Subdivision, the Big Ten: Attendance Map (2007 figures) and Team Profiles.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb-Big Ten — admin @ 7:28 am

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The Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives was founded on February 8, 1896. The conference became popularly known as the Western Conference. Its original schools were Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin. Indiana and Iowa joined in 1899, and the conference became popularly known as the Big Nine.

Michigan left the conference in 1908 (for a time); Ohio State joined in 1913. When Michigan re-joined in November 1917, the conference started to be known as the Big Ten.

The University of Chicago decided to de-emphasize athletics, and their football team left the conference in 1939. By 1946, that school’s athletic program was out of the conference entirely, and the conference once again became known as the Big Nine. Three years later, 1949, Michigan State joined, and it was the Big Ten again.

It is interesting to note that throughout this whole time, the conference was officially known as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives. The conference did not shed this anachronistic name until 1987, when the Big Ten was incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation. Three years later, Penn State joined, but it was decided to keep the name Big Ten (after all, it’s foolish to mess with an established brand name}. The conference slyly acknowledges their 11 schools, though, by having a logo which shows the number 11, in the spaces to either side of the T in Ten.

On the team profiles chart on the right, in most cases I have concentrated on showing the evolution of the teams’ headgear design, rather than load up on alternate logos. It’s interesting to note that two teams won national titles in the 1960s in the first season after changing their helmets. In 1965, Michigan State first introduced a logo on their green helmet, a Spartan warrior’s head in profile. The team went on to win the consensus national title, with a 10-1 record. Ohio State, in 1968, adopted the iconic style they use to this day, a silver helmet with red, white, and black stripes, accented with buckeye-leaf decals (awarded to players for stand-out play). Coach Woody Hayes won his last National Title that season, as the Buckeyes were undefeated, and were the undisputed national champions.

This time, I have used photos (instead of illustrations) of each teams helmet logo and/ or design, in the rectangles to the immediate left of the teams’ names. The Ohio State design was perplexing, because it was difficult to tell if the decals are black, or green. They do sell green decals on the internet, but it appears these are not authentic. And there are illustrations of Ohio State helmets out there that depict green buckeye-leaf decals {see this}, but they appear to be inaccurate. From this Ohio State fan site message board thread, it seems the case is solidly made that they are are black {see this, a thread from the Buckeyes Planet site}. But on Ohio State coach Jim Tressel’s site, he uses green icons to chart the player’s decal-award tally {see this}. Still, the photo on that site certainly shows black leaves.

The Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan has an excellent site. I have set the following link to the Michigan Stadium Story page, but there are lots of pages to peruse {Click here}. Here is the Michigan versus Ohio State rivalry section, set at the two team’s stadiums comparison {Click here}; and art of UM vs. OSU football program covers {Click here}.

Thanks to the invaluable College Football Data Warehouse site: {Click here}. Thanks to Helmet Hut {Click here}. Thanks to the College Football All-Time Database, at http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/database/index.htm .

Thanks to the contibutors to the Big Ten pages at Wikipedia {Click here}. Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page, at http://www.chriscreamer.com/ . Thanks to Logo Shak, at http://www.logoshak.com/ . Thanks to Logo Server, at http://www.logoserver.com/College.html . Thanks to the NCAA site, specifically for this list of college football National Champions {Click here}. Thanks to the College Football History site {Click here}.

Next up…the Pac-10, to be posted Thursday.

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November 2, 2008

NCAA Division I-A/ Football Bowl Subdivision, the SEC: Attendance map (2007 figures) and Team Profiles.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb-SEC — admin @ 6:30 am

I have decided to re-visit the College Football Conference Maps that I made last November and December. I have begun with the SEC, or Southeastern Conference, the home of the National Champions: the LSU Tigers.

Southeast Conference /Football site, with standings {Click here}.

BCS Standings and AP Poll (ESPN site) {Click here}.

Here is the list of SEC Conference Champions {Click here}.

At the top right of each team’s box, I listed pertinent information from last season, including final rankings and bowl outcomes (if applicable). At the top left of each team’s box, there is each team’s helmet logo (or in the case of Alabama, the typeface of the number on the helmet). Below that is a potted history of each school’s football program, starting with the school’s name, their current head coach, the date of the school’s establishment, and the school’s current enrollment. Then there are listed a few dates that were high points of the school’s football program. The final line lists Conference Titles (Southwest Conference Titles are listed for Arkansas; ACC Titles are listed for South Carolina…these two schools joined the SEC in 1992). Finally, in the bottom right hand side of each box, there are 2 or 3 throwback and/or alternate logos, or old football helmets, with dates.

In the map section, just below the 2007 attendance figures, is the list of SEC Titles, by team. I have made the list of Conference Titles only SEC-specific, as opposed to last year, when I included titles from the earlier conferences that these teams were in (that nobody really cares about). Those conferences were the Southern Intercollegiate Association (circa 1895-1921), and the old Southern Conference (circa 1922-1932). The SEC was formed in 1932, when 13 members of the Southern Conference, who were all located west and south of the Appalachian Mountains, left to form their own conference. The first season of SEC football was in 1933.

10 of those original 13 SEC teams are still in the conference. The schools that have since left are: Tulane (now in Conference USA), Georgia Tech (now in the ACC), and Suwanee (now in Division III). As mentioned above, in 1991, the SEC added 2 members, Arkansas and South Carolina, who both began play in 1992. Also in 1992, the SEC began the two-division set-up, which includes the SEC Championship Game {see this}. This conference championship game was the first of it’s kind in the American college football scene; since then, several other conferences have followed suit. Division I Conferences that now have a playoff final are: The Big 12, the ACC, the Big East, Conference USA, and the MAC. The SEC is the only college football conference with it’s own television contract, with CBS, and it has the most lucrative deal {see this}.

Here is a nice site I just came across, which has a page with 17 of the largest stadiums in college football; included are these SEC teams’ stadia: Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Auburn, and Alabama {Click here (the College Football By Charlie site) }.

Finally, as any regular viewer of this site knows, I am a fool for old and obscure logos and uniforms. Here are some nice old helmets of SEC teams, from the cool site Helmet Hut…Click on the following names (and then click on the date under each helmet): Alabama. Arkansas. Auburn. Florida. Georgia. LSU. Ole Miss. South Carolina. Tennessee. Helmet Hut rules.

Thanks to the nameless contibutors to the SEC conference and SEC football teams’ pages on Wikipedia {Click here}. Thanks to the Helmet Hut site {Click here}. Thanks to the NationalChamps.net site, and it’s all-time database section {Click here}. Thanks to the CBS Sports /College Football site {Click here}.

Thanks to The Helmet Project site {Click here}.

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October 27, 2008

NCAA Division I Football: Map- The 58 highest drawing teams (2007 attendance figures).

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb>attendance map — admin @ 4:48 am

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My last college football map featured the 44th-highest drawing teams (from 2007 attendance figures). I was able to get up to 58 teams for this one…so this map shows all NCAA Division I teams that drew over 40,000 per game in 2007.

[I can tell I am really pushing the limit on memory in the drawing program, because it took a long time to download the map, when I inserted it into this post. Plus, the whole configuration prevents the addition of any more teams...it would just become too crowded and hard to see each team. So I will put this type of map aside now, and return to posts featuring maps of NCAA Division I football Conferences (like I made last November and December). I will start with the SEC, next week.]

This map finally includes the teams that comprise pretty much all of the biggest rivalries in college football. This can be seen with the inclusion of teams like Oregon State (v. Oregon), Oklahoma State (v. Oklahoma), Iowa State (v. Iowa), Utah (v. BYU), Kansas and Kansas State, and Mississsippi and Mississippi State. Also, finally, there are actually some teams from the northeast…Rutgers and Boston College. The team closest to my hometown (of Rochester, NY), Syracuse, did not make the cut. Their program is really in the doldrums, with their head coach set for the axe, and they only drew 35,009 last season (62nd highest).

On the map, I wish I could have shown teams that have become recently successful, like Boise State and TCU, or that are high-flying upstarts like Ball State. But all these teams’ average gates fell short of 40,000, although Boise plays to capacity.

Boise State’s stadium only holds 30,000, and they played to 101% capacity last season. The Broncos are currently ranked #11; they were the 69th highest-drawing team last season, at 30,338 per game.

TCU, Texas Christian University, drew 30,018 per game in ’07 (68% capacity), the 77th highest. The Horned Frogs are currently ranked #12.

Ball State, of Muncie, Indiana, is most famous, it seems, for being David Letterman’s alma mater. In the first week of October, the Cardinals, powered by their potent offense, made it to the AP Poll for the first time ever, at #25. They currently are #18, and remain undefeated. Ball State averaged only 13,085 per game last season (115th in Division I, and I bet there were a few lower division teams that outdrew that figure).

Tulsa is a school better known for it’s very competitive basketball program. The Golden Hurricanes football team (currently ranked #19) drew 24,539 last season, at 69% capacity and the 86th highest in Division I.

So that’s all the teams in the current AP top 25 Poll {Click here} that didn’t make the map. For the record, the teams that just missed the map, drawing between 39,881 and 38,068 in 2007 were: Louisville, Stanford, Connecticut, and Air Force Academy.

2007 Division I attendance figures {Click here}.

Comments (10)

October 15, 2008

NCAA Division I Football: Map- The 44 highest drawing teams (from 2007 attendance figures).

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb>attendance map — admin @ 10:07 am

I wanted to keep on going to 66 teams. But my computer froze up and shut down, announcing that the drawing program did not have enough memory. I guess these photos of the helmets that I use take up lots of memory. This happened right as I was adding the 44th team. When I rebooted, I was able to finish that, but I decided to stop at 44…turns out that this was the cut-off point for teams averaging +50,000 per game. So I decided to take that as a sign, and stop there.

The Texas Longhorns are #1, supplanting the Oklahoma Sooners…{Click here}. AP College Football Poll, {Click here}.

For the complete list of Average Attendance of all 119 NCAA Division I Football teams (in a pdf file), {Click here}.

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September 30, 2008

NCAA Division I Football: Map- The 20 highest drawing teams (with 2007 attendance figures).

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb>attendance map — admin @ 5:11 pm

The Michigan Wolverines gridiron football team (and their fans) once again can boast of having the highest average attendance in all of American collegiate sports. The school is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is 44 miles west of Detroit, and has a population of around 114,000 (2000 census figure). The Ann Arbor campus has an enrollment of 42,042 (26,083 undergraduate students).

The Wolverines play in Michigan Stadium, which was built in 1927. It’s original capacity was 72,000; today it seats 107,501, and will be expanded to 110,000 by 2010. The stadium was standing room only last year… the Wolverines drew 110,264 per game in 2007, at 102.6% capacity.

Michigan played 8 games there last season, and were 5-3, the first loss coming to the tiny Appalachian State, Mountaineers, of Boone, North Carolina. Perhaps the Wolverines never fully recovered from that loss (one of the all-time biggest college football upsets. Below is a Sports Illustrated cover from last September- Click on the icon…

Michigan finished 9-4, and were ranked #18 in the final 2007 AP Poll.

Thanks to the NCAA site, for the attendance figures: {Click here for article; Click here for all 119 teams’ attendance figures (Note: numbers 120-138 on the list are from games teams played at alternate or secondary locations) [pdf file]}.

Thanks to CBS Sports site and Elite Deals site. Thanks to the [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania] Patriot-News site. Michigan map originally from Wikipedia.

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