worst single season teams in 1-A history

[Screw_Michigan]

let's see here:

06 Michigan State
96 Ball State
06 Temple
04 Buffalo
05 Syracuse
New Mexico State in the past few years
any USC season pre-carroll
the last 20 years of Eastern Michigan flag football
04 Washington

and to be fair: 04 Western Michigan

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

I'd swap out this year's Temple team for the '05 team on your list. This year's team has actually won a game (and convincingly too, over BGSU).

Last year's team went 0-11, including a loss to that same BGSU team, who hung 70 on 'em.

[GrizBearStare]

If you're talkin' worst all time, you're talkin' about Kansas State football circa 1986, 1987 & 1988.

[Q, West Coast Style]

Oregon State, 1971-1998.

End of discussion.

[Dinsdale]

Oregon State, 1971-1998.

End of discussion.

Not even open for debate.


How Joe Avazano parlayed part of that era into some Super Bowl rings is certainly one of the great feats of the 20th Century.

[King Crimson]

1996 Oklahoma Sooners.

Just as a reminder, this team was so incompetent that players had to take numbers before they went on the field so they didn't draw 12-man penalties.

This is a team that lost to Tulsa. At home.

This is a team that not only lost to a bad Cal team, they lost to a bad San Diego State team.

They lost to Oklahoma State.

They needed a superhuman effort from James Allen to avoid losing to Baylor.

On the other hand, they did beat Texas.

that team did not even win a game in Norman. i thought the special team "innovations" were't until year 2 or 3 of the Blake reign?

[Screw_Michigan]

^^^ that was the year they lost to NW at home opening weekend right?

[King Crimson]

^^^ that was the year they lost to NW at home opening weekend right?

No. OU lost to Northwestern in Chicago at Soldier Field to start the 1997 season, but it wasn't a home-and-home.

If I recall correctly, OU lost to TCU in the home opener in 1996.

after that Northwestern game, Sportsfan Radio Network host Bob Kemp said on air that having been at that game....Oklahoma was the "worst coached team he'd ever seen".

yup, 20-7 loss to TCU in Norman.

[Mikey]

2006 Stanford. No contest, unless you don't consider them 1-A.

[MuchoBulls]

04 Buffalo

If you're putting them on the list, then you have to also include the 2004 UCF team which ended up 0-11 and lost to Buffalo.

[Mikey]

In all of their Pac-10 games, except a 20-7 home loss to ninth-place Arizona on Oct. 14, the Cardinal have lost by at least 21 points and given up more than 30 each time. Stanford is coming off a 38-3 defeat at Arizona State on Oct. 21.

Stanford has totaled just 197 yards in its last two games, and rank last in the Pac-10 in passing offense, total offense, rushing defense, passing defense and total defense. The Cardinal have scored only 83 points in their eight games.

[Screw_Michigan]

04 Buffalo

If you're putting them on the list, then you have to also include the 2004 UCF team which ended up 0-11 and lost to Buffalo.

of course, how could i forget about the 04 UCF team, the one which proclaimed it was just "temporarily" joining the MAC and said that nothing less than a conference championship would be acceptable.

mucho, maybe you could fill me in on this: one of my favorite all time melts was when UCF completely crashed and burned at the end of the 03 season. golden boy quarterback brian schneider (sp) gets kicked off the team and then a week later, coach mike kruzchev gets canned, the same coach who made the declaration at mac media day.

never got the full story on this, but i remember seeing it as i was scanning headlines at a journalism convention in dallas that year. holy shit was all i could think.

[MuchoBulls]

UCF's President mistakenly called the MAC the Midwest Conference and then proceeded to say that they were only going to be there until something better came along. THeir fist MAC game was against Marshall in Huntington, WV and UCF took out a newspaper ad there proclaiming their arrival. I know Marshall won that game and UCF ended up something like 3-8.

They have been a comedy of errors the last few years. They snuck up on a bad C-USA last season and now they are having an awful seaosn in which many of the pundits had them winning C-USA. Their new stadium should help them a bit, but they are going to be in so much debt when they have trouble drawing fans.

[the_ouskull]

^^^ that was the year they lost to NW at home opening weekend right?

No. OU lost to Northwestern in Chicago at Soldier Field to start the 1997 season, but it wasn't a home-and-home.

If I recall correctly, OU lost to TCU in the home opener in 1996.

You DO recall correctly.

I'm going to have to go with the K-State of the 1980's though. At one point, they weren't even wearing cleats, they were wearing purple Chucks. A Division-1 team wearing freakin' Chucks. I'd say that that's about as low as it gets.

the_ouskull

[King Crimson]

OU won the toss and instead of saying "we defer" they said "we'll kick off."

unbelievable. except, not really unbelievable at all i guess.

[L45B]

'97 Northern Illinois was a real shitty team. 0-11, and held the nation's longest losing streak for at least a season and a half. What's great about them now, is they have the same coach (Joe Novak) and have been contenders in their conference for a few seasons. Something you rarely see anymore in the 'what-have-you-done-for-me-lately' world of football.

[Jimmy Medalions]

any USC season pre-carroll

I never figured you to be the dumbfuck variety. Guess you learn something every day.

[Vito Corleone]

Hands down the year SMU came off of the death penalty they were the worse team ever. I guarantee that there were high school teams that would have beaten them. This is not banter either, if I remember correctly they had to play Notre Dame and after Lou got up by so many points he literally forbid any player no matter what the circumstances to cross the goal line. And believe me they could have easily broke 100 by half time.

[Terry in Crapchester]

any USC season pre-carroll

I never figured you to be the dumbfuck variety. Guess you learn something every day.

I think there was just a tad bit of hyperbole thrown into his original post at various points. Including this year's Michigan State team on that list out front should have told you so. The example you cited is, of course, another example.

Having said that, there was a considerable down era in USC football between the end of John Robinson's first coaching stint and the arrival of the Poodle (although, of course, not ranking among the worst in NCAA history). Two words: Ted Tollner.

[Shoalzie]

State is an utter joke but they do have 4 wins and one of them was at Pittsburgh, a decent Big East team. They've suffered some of their worst losses in recent memory but the few wins they have prevent this from being deemed one of the worst seasons in Division-IA.

[Jimmy Medalions]

Get back to us when you have a point, Terry.

[Terry in Crapchester]

Get back to us when you have a point, Terry.

Says the guy who confused hyperbole for dumbfuckery. KYOA much?

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

Screw was attempting to bait several people with that post.

edit: half "attempt" at baiting, the other half were just his idiotic oversights.

[Screw_Michigan]

any USC season pre-carroll

I never figured you to be the dumbfuck variety. Guess you learn something every day.

i threw that nugget in there because i knew you'd take the bait, cum chugger. learn that, bitch.

[Q, West Coast Style]

Oregon State, 1971-1998.

End of discussion.

Not even open for debate.


How Joe Avazano parlayed part of that era into some Super Bowl rings is certainly one of the great feats of the 20th Century.

Not to mention getting more live-game on-air face time than any special teams coach in NFL history. Always showing him clapping his hands together or patting his guys on the back as they run off the field. Dude's musta had friends in the truck all these years.

[Degenerate]

I think it was Avezzano who pioneered the "I'm a special teams coach, so i gotta look like a crazy muthafucka" schtick. Either him or Bobby April.

He just got all that face time because he looks like Christopher Lloyd's character in Back to the Future.

[See You Next Wednesday]

Any list such as this must include the winless 1981 Northwestern team that was outscored something like 500 - 80.

[Mustang]

Anyone seen all the wins Duke has racked up the last few years? I haven't looked but I'd guess they've won maybe six games in the last five years. Yeesh. Oh, then there's the school with my namesake. Vito ain't kidding about SMU. That game in in '89 at South Bend was a holdover on the schedule made years before. ND's coming off a national championship and we're coming off the freaking death penalty. Lovely. That's the kind of game you tell the Irish, "Mmmmm.....thanks.... but I think we'll try to re-schedule Richland Junior College instead." Anyhow, we've pretty much sucked ever since, with occasional upsets vs. the Hogs and many instances of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, usually at A&M. Uh....nice win last night vs. UAB. Notice how the cameras stayed low so as not to show how many fans weren't there?

[Vito Corleone]

Anyone seen all the wins Duke has racked up the last few years? I haven't looked but I'd guess they've won maybe six games in the last five years. Yeesh. Oh, then there's the school with my namesake. Vito ain't kidding about SMU. That game in in '89 at South Bend was a holdover on the schedule made years before. ND's coming off a national championship and we're coming off the freaking death penalty. Lovely. That's the kind of game you tell the Irish, "Mmmmm.....thanks.... but I think we'll try to re-schedule Richland Junior College instead." Anyhow, we've pretty much sucked ever since, with occasional upsets vs. the Hogs and many instances of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, usually at A&M. Uh....nice win last night vs. UAB. Notice how the cameras stayed low so as not to show how many fans weren't there?

Yea but your still a bunch of rich boys so no one is going to feel sorry for you. :P

Two of my highschool teammates were on the football team when they got the death penalty. One transfered to Tulane and the other to LSU. The guy who went to Tulane played a few years in the NFL his name is Mitchell Price.

BTW welcome to the CFB Mustang, I hope you stick around.

[King Crimson]

Notice how the cameras stayed low so as not to show how many fans weren't there?

i actually DID notice that, but i'm a vet of camera tricks since i live in Boulder and go to about 5-6 Colorado basketball games a year.

they do that too.

[Screw_Michigan]

'stang, obviously they aren't in the same league anymore, but how the fuck does smu not play tcu every year? that would be like strawberry faggot college not playing the tree every year.

[Vito Corleone]

'stang, obviously they aren't in the same league anymore, but how the fuck does smu not play tcu every year? that would be like strawberry faggot college not playing the tree every year.

M2, has turned everyone against Kal. :D

[Terry in Crapchester]

Back to the topic at hand . . .

04 Buffalo

Since that season is over, I suppose I can now disclose this little tidbit. At the time, Buffalo's opponent was my one and only guaranteed pick in the Pick'Em. I'm pretty sure I didn't lose more than 1 or 2 games all season doing that -- against the spread.

Oregon State, 1971-1998.

End of discussion.

Not even open for debate.

Dins, you and I have had this discussion before. Buffalo didn't become a 1-A program until 1999. So while they have a long way to go yet to match the longevity of Oregon State's suckitude, they're certainly off to a very good start.

Not to mention that Oregon State at least played in a major conference during that time. It's one thing to string together an endless stretch of 1-10 seasons in the Pac-8/10, quite another to do it in the MAC.

But fear not, UB fan. Tom Golisano, the guy who saved the Sabres from extinction and has been mentioned as a possible future owner of the Bills, has a plan for UB football. He's going to donate a pile of money for the football program just as soon as the school changes its name to New York State University and dumps the MAC for the Big East Conference.

The former demand might be feasible, although it would require action by the State Board of Regents and a complete reversal of their policy thus far. The latter, however, is ROFLMAO material. Buffalo might be a good fit for the Big East, geographically speaking, given its relative proximity to both Syracuse and Pittsburgh. But that's the extent to which it would be a good fit for the Big East. Athletically, it would be a horrible fit right now, and the Big East knows that. If Buffalo's a bottom-feeder in the MAC, how would anyone expect it to improve in the Big East? The only possible way the Big East would consider Buffalo is if Buffalo gets a whole lot better before joining the Big East. Golisano has the order ass-backwards.

[Mustang]

Anyone seen all the wins Duke has racked up the last few years? I haven't looked but I'd guess they've won maybe six games in the last five years. Yeesh. Oh, then there's the school with my namesake. Vito ain't kidding about SMU. That game in in '89 at South Bend was a holdover on the schedule made years before. ND's coming off a national championship and we're coming off the freaking death penalty. Lovely. That's the kind of game you tell the Irish, "Mmmmm.....thanks.... but I think we'll try to re-schedule Richland Junior College instead." Anyhow, we've pretty much sucked ever since, with occasional upsets vs. the Hogs and many instances of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, usually at A&M. Uh....nice win last night vs. UAB. Notice how the cameras stayed low so as not to show how many fans weren't there?

Yea but your still a bunch of rich boys so no one is going to feel sorry for you. :P

Two of my highschool teammates were on the football team when they got the death penalty. One transfered to Tulane and the other to LSU. The guy who went to Tulane played a few years in the NFL his name is Mitchell Price.

BTW welcome to the CFB Mustang, I hope you stick around.

Thanks, V. Mitchell played some with the Bengals. Not sure if he went anywhere else. I knew a couple of girls on the basketball team and he'd show up there on occasion. Who was the other guy you knew? I was there from '83 to '87.....saw the whole thing unravel.....so I knew a few of those guys.

SMU vs. TCU? They used to play every year till this year. I guess the contract ran out. Pretty stupid not to play each other. We picked up North Texas this year instead..........and lost. Go figure. On a brighter note, we dealt the Frogs their ONLY loss last season. Heh, heh...... And we're actually 5-4 right now with two more games at home and a roadie at Rice. Dare I say post season game? TCU a possible opponent in the Ft. Worth Bowl.

[Screw_Michigan]

Since that season is over, I suppose I can now disclose this little tidbit. At the time, Buffalo's opponent was my one and only guaranteed pick in the Pick'Em. I'm pretty sure I didn't lose more than 1 or 2 games all season doing that -- against the spread.

thank you very much. while we all appreciate indyfrisco's efforts to put together the pick 'em every week, i have been clamoring for the return of the mac games to the pick 'em for a few weeks now. mostly for my own selfish reasons being a mac fan, but as terry said, mac games can be absolute fucking gold (jerry) for bettors. you might not watch the games or even give a shit about the league, but there are wins to be picked, and with mac games being omitted from the pick 'em (again), we have a smaller slate and less opportunities for wins. mac games can be tough to pick head to head, but if you follow the lines and stick to your guns, well, you can be successful.

back to the topic, i'd like to add kent state in 00 and 05 as two horrible horrible squads. i believe in 00 they lost most of their games by at least three touchdowns and only won once.

[Vito Corleone]

Anyone seen all the wins Duke has racked up the last few years? I haven't looked but I'd guess they've won maybe six games in the last five years. Yeesh. Oh, then there's the school with my namesake. Vito ain't kidding about SMU. That game in in '89 at South Bend was a holdover on the schedule made years before. ND's coming off a national championship and we're coming off the freaking death penalty. Lovely. That's the kind of game you tell the Irish, "Mmmmm.....thanks.... but I think we'll try to re-schedule Richland Junior College instead." Anyhow, we've pretty much sucked ever since, with occasional upsets vs. the Hogs and many instances of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, usually at A&M. Uh....nice win last night vs. UAB. Notice how the cameras stayed low so as not to show how many fans weren't there?

Yea but your still a bunch of rich boys so no one is going to feel sorry for you. :P

Two of my highschool teammates were on the football team when they got the death penalty. One transfered to Tulane and the other to LSU. The guy who went to Tulane played a few years in the NFL his name is Mitchell Price.

BTW welcome to the CFB Mustang, I hope you stick around.

Thanks, V. Mitchell played some with the Bengals. Not sure if he went anywhere else. I knew a couple of girls on the basketball team and he'd show up there on occasion. Who was the other guy you knew? I was there from '83 to '87.....saw the whole thing unravel.....so I knew a few of those guys.

SMU vs. TCU? They used to play every year till this year. I guess the contract ran out. Pretty stupid not to play each other. We picked up North Texas this year instead..........and lost. Go figure. On a brighter note, we dealt the Frogs their ONLY loss last season. Heh, heh...... And we're actually 5-4 right now with two more games at home and a roadie at Rice. Dare I say post season game? TCU a possible opponent in the Ft. Worth Bowl.

The other guy was Jimmy Young, both went to SA Madison and signed with SMU. They both had pretty promising careers at SMU before the Death Penalty. Mitch was a class act from start to finish, he put in about 4 years in the league, I know he also played with the Cardnals, might have played with the Saints as well.