The Pesci Bowl

[SWC75]

Besides keeping track of the current contenders for the college football play, for the last couple of years I have been imagining something I call the Pesci Bowl- a bowl game between the two best teams who were unable to make the playoff besides excellent records because their schedules were not considered “big time”. In current parlance, that would mean teams that aren’t in the “Power Five” conferences. (For my estimation of who might have played in previous “Pesci Bowls” – see below). I’ve named the fictional event after actor Joe Pesci, a vertically challenged but feisty actor we’ve seen in many films, especially “Goodfellas” and “Casino”.

I’ve listed the non-power Five teams with no or one loss with the teams they have left to play on their schedules that are also on the list.

BOISE STATE is 5-0 and will be playing:
At Air Force (4-1) on 11/25

WESTERN MICHIGAN is 6-0 and will be playing:
Toledo (4-1) on 11/25 at home

HOUSTON is 5-1 and will be playing:
Tulsa (4-1) on 10/15 at home
(They also play Louisville on 11/17 at home)
At Memphis (4-1) on 11/25

SOUTH FLORIDA is 5-1 and will be playing:
Navy (4-1) on 10/28 at home
At Memphis (4-1) on 11/12

NAVY is 4-1 and will be playing:
Memphis (4-1) on 10/22 at home
At South Florida (5-1) on 10/28
Tulsa (4-1) on 11/12 at home

MEMPHIS is 4-1 and will be playing:
At Navy (4-1) on 10/22
Tulsa (4-1) on 10/29 at home
South Florida (5-1) on 11/12 at home
Houston (5-1) on 11/25 at home

TULSA is 4-1 and will be playing:
At Houston (5-1) on 10/15
At Memphis (4-1) on 10/29
At Navy (4-1) on 11/12

TOLEDO is 4-1 and will be playing:
At Western Michigan (6-0) on 11/25

AIR FORCE is 4-1 and will be playing:
Boise State 6-0 on 11/25 at home

SAN DIEGO STATE is 4-1 and will be playing no one on this list.

MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE is 4-1 and will be playing no one on this list.

TROY is 4-1 and will be playing no one on this list.

Comments: I think Boise State, Houston, Navy and South Florida are the best teams on this list Boise state has the easiest road the rest of the way although the flyboys will be primed for an upset. Memphis and Tulsa are the least likely teams to remain on this list: Memphis has four big games left and all three of Tulsa’s are on the road. Don’t under-estimate Western Michigan, who could very well run the table. .

 

[SWC75]

The History of the Pesci Bowl

I decided to start with the post-war era, largely because the distinctions between levels of competition among major colleges were less apparent in the pre-war era, when college football was more like college basketball today when many schools can have good teams because you don’t need so many players to be good, (pre-war ball was exclusively one platoon football).


The first thing I’ll look at is numerical record, which is the number of losses and ties. It’s not the number of wins because teams don’t always play the same number of games. A 9-1 game is a 10-1 team that just played 10 games instead of 11. It’s better than a 10-2 team because they have only one loss instead of 2. I there is a tie, the next thing I will look at is head-head confrontations. I don’t want rematches if there is a team with a similar record who hasn’t played the winner yet. If I still need a tie-breaker, it’s going to be point differential. I’m not going to try to determine if the MAC was better than the WAC in a particular year. The first team listed is the team with the best record or, if that’s tie, the greatest average point differential. (They will get to wear their dark jerseys.) Again, I’m using the current names of the teams. Texas Western is now Texas-El Paso, for example.

1946 Hardin-Simmons 10-0-0 (30-5) vs. Yale 7-1-1 (30-8)
1947 Pennsylvania 7-0-1 (27-4) vs. Rutgers 8-1 (29-11)
1948 Cornell 8-1-0 (25-12) vs. Utah 8-1-1 (22-10)
1949 Cornell 8-1-0 (32-12) vs. Wyoming 9-1-0 (38-6)
(The Cowboys squeaked by Northern Colorado 103-0)
1950 Wyoming 9-0-0 (38-7) vs. Princeton 9-0-0 (39-10)
1951 Princeton 9-0-0 (34-9) vs. San Francisco 9-0-0 (32-8)
(Princeton had Heisman Trophy winner Dick Kazmaier but USF had future Pro Football Hall of Famers Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti and Bob St. Clair. The school gave up football- on a high note- after 1951)
1952 Princeton 8-1-0 (33-8) vs. Tulsa 8-1-1 (33-18)
1953 Texas Tech 11-1-0 (39-14) vs. West Virginia 8-1-0 (32-12)
1954 Virginia Tech 8-0-1 (23-8) vs. Denver 9-1-0 (30-10)
(The Denver Bears had a respectable program until they gave up football in 1960)
1955 Miami University 9-0-0 (25-5) vs. West Virginia 8-2-0 (28.5-10)
(Miami- of Ohio- was actually not listed on the website above as major college until 1962. But they were ranked: #15 by the writers and #20 by the coaches so I included them. Their coach: Ara Parseghian)
1956 Wyoming 10-0-0 (25-11) vs. Texas-El Paso 9-1-0 (30.5-6.5)
(Wyoming’s coach was Bob Devaney, who alter turned Nebraska into a superpower.)
1957 Arizona State 10-0-0 (40-7) vs. Virginia Military 9-0-1 (20-10)
(The Sun Devils were coached by Dan Devine, who then took the job at Missouri, leaving assistant Frank Kush in charge in Tempe, a job he kept for the next 22 years)
1958 Air Force 9-0-1 (22.5-9) vs. Rutgers 8-1-0 (33-9)
1959 Wyoming 9-1-0 (29-6) vs. North Texas State 9-1-0 (29.5-7.5)
1960 New Mexico St. 10-0-0 (37-10) vs. Yale 9-0-0 (28-8)
1961 Rutgers 9-0-0 (27-11) vs. Utah State 9-0-1 (39-8)
1962 Dartmouth 9-0-0 (26-6) vs. Memphis 8-1-0 (29-7)
1963 Memphis 9-0-1 (20-5) vs. Arizona State 8-1-0 (28-14)
1964 Princeton 9-0-0 (24-6) vs. Bowling Green 9-1-0 (27.5-9)
1965 Dartmouth 9-0-0 (30-8) vs. East Carolina 8-1-0 (30-9)
1966 Wyoming 9-1-0 (33-7) vs. Harvard 8-1-0 (26-7)
1967 Wyoming 10-0-0 (28-10) vs. Toledo 9-1-0 (27-8)
(The Cowboys were actually invited to the Sugar Bowl were they almost beat LSU)
1968 Ohio U. 10-0-0 (38-18) vs. Yale 8-0-1 (35-16)
(The Bobcats went 10-0 in 1960, 0-10 in 1965 and 10-0 in 1968.)
1969 San Diego State 10-0-0 (46-19) vs. Toledo 10-0-0 (33-13)
1970 Dartmouth 9-0-0 (35-5) vs. Toledo 11-0-0 (31-7)
1971 Toledo 11-0-0 (32-8) vs. Arizona State 10-1-0 (38-15)
1972 Louisville 9-1-0 (31-9) vs. San Diego State 10-1-0 (24-13)
1973 Miami University 10-0-0 (21-7) vs. Arizona State 10-1-0 (45-15)
1974 Miami University 9-0-1 (28-8) vs. Yale 8-1-0 (25-7)
1975 Arkansas State 11-0-0 (32-7) vs. Arizona State 11-0-0 (30-10)
1976 Rutgers 11-0-0 (26-7) vs. Yale 8-1-0 (22-9)
1977 Grambling 10-1-0 (42-16) vs. San Diego State 10-1-0 (32-15)
1978 Ball State 10-1-0 (23-7) vs. North Texas State 9-2-0 (25-14)
1979 Brigham Young 11-0-0 (41-15) vs. McNeese State 11-0-0 (21-9)
1980 Brigham Young 11-1-0 (47-11) vs. Furman 9-1-1 (26-16)
1981 Yale 9-1-0 (28.5-15) vs. Drake 10-1-0 (22-18)
(After 1981, the Ivy league and the Southern Conference dropped down to Division 1AA-FCS- and their schools thus dropped out of contention for the Pesci Bowl.)
1982 Fresno State 11-1-0 (32-18) vs. New Mexico 10-1-0 (34-20)
1983 Brigham Young 10-1-0 (44-21) vs. Virginia Tech 9-2-0 (27-8)
(These are the pre-Beamer, pre-Big East Hokies who played mostly former Southern Conference foes. Howell lists Southern Illinois, 13-1 as a major college but they won the FCS championship that year so I can’t include them in the Pesci Bowl.)
1984 Fullerton State 11-1-0 (28-18) vs. Nevada-Las Vegas 10-2-0 (30-20)
(I had to exclude 12-0 Brigham Young because they were improbably, and, in the view of many, including me, voted national champion. They’re out of the Pesci Bowl from this point on.)
1985 Bowling Green 11-0-0 (32-16) vs. Fresno State 10-0-1 (39-18)
(This game actually took place in the California Bowl and Fresno State won big, 51-7.)
1986 San Jose State 9-2-0 (33-20) vs. Fresno State 9-2-0 (27-14)
(This is a rematch of a 45-41 regular season game.)
1987 San Jose State 10-1-0 (35-18) vs. Wyoming 10-2-0 (34-21)
1988 Wyoming 11-1-0 (41-18) vs. Fresno State 9-2-0 (33-13)
1989 Fresno State 11-1-0 (38-19) vs. Northern Illinois 9-2-0 (31-24)
1990 Louisville 9-1-1 (28-13) vs. Brigham Young 10-2-0 (42.5-24)
1991 Fresno State 10-1-0 (44-19) vs. East Carolina 10-1-0 (34-22)
1992 Hawaii 10-2 (33-25) vs. Bowling Green 9-2 (26-18)
1993 Ball State 8-2-1 (24-20) vs. Fresno State 8-3 (40-28)
1994 Colorado State 10-1 (35-22) vs. Bowling Green 9-2- (36-16)
1995 Toledo 10-0-1 (34-19) vs. Nevada-Reno 9-2 (40-31)
(This game actually took place in the Las Vegas Bowl and Toledo, coached by Gary Pinkel, won 40-37)
1996 Army 10-1 (32-17) vs. Wyoming 10-2 (39-24)
1997 Colorado State 10-2 (37-15) vs. Marshall 10-2 (38-19)
1998 Tulane 11-0 (45-24) vs. Air Force 11-1 (35-13)
1999 Marshall 12-0 (37-11) vs. East Carolina 9-2 (29-18)
2000 Texas Christian 10-1 (37-10) vs. Toledo 10-1 (36-11)
2001 Fresno State 11-2 (40-23) vs. Toledo 9-2 (35-26)
2002 Boise State 11-1 (47-19) vs. South Florida 9-2 (31-19)
2003 Boise State 12-1 (44-16) vs. Miami University 12-1 (43-19)
2004 Boise State 11-0 (50-24) vs. Utah 11-0 (46-21)
2005 Texas Christian 10-1 (34-18) vs. Toledo 8-3 (35-23)
2006 Boise State 12-0 (39-16) vs. Texas Christian 10-2 (29-13)
2007 Hawaii 12-0 (46-24) vs. Boise State 10-2 (43-20)
The Rainbow Warriors beat the Broncos in the regular season 39-27 but no other lower major was as good so we get a rematch.
2008 Boise State 12-0 (39-12) vs. Utah 12-0 (37-17)
2009 Texas Christian 12-0 (41-13) vs. Boise State 13-0 (44-18)
2010 Texas Christian 12-0 (43-11) vs. Nevada-Reno 12-1 (43-22)
2011 Houston 12-1 (51-23) vs. Boise State 11-1 (43-18)
2012 Northern Illinois 12-1 (41-19) vs. Utah State 10-2 (34-15)
2013 Northern Illinois 12-1 (42-25) vs. Fresno State 11-1 (45-29)
2014 Marshall 12-1 (45-21) vs. Boise State 11-2 (40-27)
2015 Houston 12-1 (41-20) vs. Western Kentucky 11-2 (44-25)