I believe they were the only other team though, so hes almost right. I'm sure a few teams did it with a loss and a tie (Colorado in 1990 comes to mind most recently), but a tie doesn't really equal a second loss.
If LSU wins the national championship this year, they will be the only 2-loss team to be awarded a NC by a major poll (at least those polls to be considered major polls by Wikipedia's list of college football national champions, which you can see here). But, if LSU wins the NC this year, LSU will definitely be the first two-loss team that is crowned the #1 team by one or both of the two most widely accepted polls in use today -- the AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll. Yes, 1960 Minnesota was awarded the NC by the AP and the UPI (the predecessor of the Coach's Poll), but at that time in history, the AP and the UPI voted on the NC at the end of the regular season, before the bowl games took place. When the AP and the UPI both voted to award Minnesota the #1 spot in their final polls, Minnesota was 8-1, not 8-2. Minnesota (the Big Ten champs) didn't become 8-2 until they went to the Rose Bowl and lost 7-17 to #6 Washington (the champs of what is now the Pac-10). In other words, Minnesota was a one-loss team at the time it was given the national championship by the AP and the UPI, not a two-loss team.
That's a great point. Here are the teams that won the AP or Coach's national championship with a loss and a tie during the regular season: 1990 Colorado (11-1-1) -- beat ND in the Orange Bowl 1974 USC (10-1-1) -- beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl 1965 Alabama (9-1-1) -- beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl
So technically there was no "championship" game back then. If that's the case, then that disqualifies them from this particular conversation all together.
Technically, there has never been a "championship" game (the NCAA has never held a championship game to determine the champion of its highest division, NCAA Division I, Football Bowl Subdivision). As a result, third party organizations began running their own polls to determine who was, by popular opinion, the best football team in the country. The two most respected polls are the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll. The BCS National Championship game is not the NCAA National Championship game. All the BCS does is determine who is going to win the Coaches Poll, not the AP Poll. The reason is because the voters in the Coaches Poll contractually agreed with the BCS to vote the winner of the BCS National Championship game to the #1 spot in their final poll, regardless if they honestly felt that team was really the #1 team or not. A good example was the controversial 2003 situation, when both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll honestly voted USC #1 at the end of the regular season. However, because the BCS system at that time didn't place enough emphasis on the human polls, #1 USC didn't get to play in the BCS National Championship. Instead, #2 LSU and #3 Oklahoma played in the BCS NCG, while #1 USC played #4 Michigan in the Rose Bowl. After USC and LSU won, the AP Poll voted USC #1. The Coaches Poll most probably would have voted USC as #1 as well, since that's where they had ranked them going into the bowl season. Fortunately for LSU, the voters in the Coaches Poll had already contractually agreed to vote the winner of the BCS NG to the #1 spot in their final poll, regardless of whether they honestly felt they were #1 or not. Anyway, the closest thing that college football has ever had to a "championship" game is when the same team happens to be #1 in both the AP and the Coaches at the end of the regular season, and this consensus #1 team happens to play the team that happens to be #2 in both the AP and the Coaches at the end of the regular season. In 2003, this didn't happen. USC was #1 in both the AP and the Coaches and LSU was #2 in both the AP and the Coaches. However, #1 USC and #2 LSU didn't play each other, so the BCS "National Championship Game" wasn't much of national championship game that year. Fortunately, they have updated the BCS to put more emphasis on the human polls, so this year we have a legit #1 vs. #2 game. The first for LSU this year, is that this is the first time in LSU's history that we will be playing in a legit #1 vs. #2 bowl-season game, which is the closest thing that college football has ever had to a "championship" game (in 1958, LSU was voted #1 by both the AP and the Coaches, but both of these polls conducted their final bowls before any bowl games took place. Fortunately, it didn't matter, because #1 LSU beat #12 Clemson in the Sugar Bowl anyway). These #1 vs #2 situations haven't come around much in the history of college football. For example, here are the only bowl games in history between AP #1 and AP #2 (I have no idea how these teams ranked in the Coaches)... Jan. 08, 2007 - No. 2 Florida 41, No. 1 Ohio St. 14 (BCS Championship) Jan. 04, 2006 - No. 2 Texas 41, No. 1 Southern California 38 (Rose) Jan. 04, 2005 - No. 1 Southern California 55, No. 2 Oklahoma 19 (Orange) Jan. 03, 2003 - No. 2 Ohio St. 31, No. 1 Miami 24, 2OT (Fiesta) Jan. 04, 2000 - No. 1 Florida St. 46, No. 2 Virginia Tech 29 (Sugar) ========================= Jan. 04, 1999 - No. 1 Tennessee 23, No. 2 Florida St. 16 (Fiesta) Jan. 02, 1996 - No. 1 Nebraska 62, No. 2 Florida 24 (Fiesta) Jan. 01, 1994 - No. 1 Florida St. 18, No. 2 Nebraska 16 (Orange) Jan. 01, 1993 - No. 2 Alabama 34, No. 1 Miami 13 (Sugar) ========================= Jan. 01, 1988 - No. 2 Miami 20, No. 1 Oklahoma 14 (Orange) Jan. 02, 1987 - No. 2 Penn St. 14, No. 1 Miami 10 (Fiesta) Jan. 01, 1983 - No. 2 Penn St. 27, No. 1 Georgia 23 (Sugar) ========================= Jan. 01, 1979 - No. 2 Alabama 14, No. 1 Penn St. 7 (Sugar) Jan. 01, 1972 - No. 1 Nebraska 38, No. 2 Alabama 6 (Orange) ========================= Jan. 01, 1969 - No. 1 Ohio State 27, No. 2 Southern California 16 (Rose) Jan. 01, 1964 - No. 1 Texas 28, No. 2 Navy 6 (Cotton) Jan. 01, 1963 - No. 1 Southern California 42, No. 2 Wisconsin 37 (Rose)
Technically there is a NC game now and that is the game LSU and OSU will be squaring off in. I understand what you're saying, but the whole college football world, whether they like it or not, recognizes the game on the 7th as the game for "all the marbles". There was no such game back in the day.
This was the exact point I was trying to make in my previous post. There is no doubt that this game on the 7th is for "all the marbles," because you have the team that is #1 in the AP and #1 in the Coaches playing the team that is #2 in the AP and #2 in the Coaches. Like I showed in my previous post, this hasn't happened much in history. This will go down as one of the greatest games in college football history.
LOL. I was thinking the same thing after I wrote what I wrote. Since the AP Poll was created 73 years ago, there have only been 17 bowl-season games between the AP #1 and the AP #2... games that were for "all the marbles." Since there haven't been a lot of games like this in history, that's why I was saying that this game on Jan 7 would be one of the greatest games in history. However, when I was looking back at that list I posted of all the bowl-season games between AP #1 and AP #2 in history, sure, I realized that my most memorable "championship" games -- like the 1/1/93 Sugar Bowl between #2 Alabama (12-0) and #1 Miami (11-0) -- were those when both the teams were undefeated heading into the game "for all the marbles." That's what really made those games so great. Unfortunately, LSU has two losses and OSU has one loss, so this game isn't going to be as great from a national perspective as those bowl-season games between undefeated AP #1 and AP #2 teams. However, I am still much more excited about this game, then I was for our last BCS Championship game, when we were ranked #2, but had to play the #3 team instead of the #1 team. That was lame compared to the game we have coming up on the 7th.
