SMU 1982 - BCS

[AusTxPony]

Wonder what our BCS standing would have been in 1982. Would we have played for the National Championship? After the bowl games we were ranked #2.

Schedule
Date Opponent# Rank# Site Result Attendance
1982-09-11 Tulane* #8 Texas Stadium • Irving, TX W 51-7 33,814
1982-09-18 at Texas-El Paso* #6 Sun Bowl Stadium • El Paso, TX W 31-10 33,509
1982-09-25 Texas Christian #6 Texas Stadium • Irving, TX W 16-13 43,321
1982-10-02 North Texas State* #7 Texas Stadium • Irving, TX W 38-10 30,118
1982-10-09 at Baylor #6 Floyd Casey Stadium • Waco, TX W 22-19 30,000
1982-10-16 Houston #5 Texas Stadium • Irving, TX W 20-14 31,817
1982-10-23 at #19 Texas #4 Texas Memorial Stadium • Austin, TX W 30-17 80,157
1982-10-30 Texas A&M #4 Texas Stadium • Irving, TX W 47-9 50,008
1982-11-06 at Rice #2 Rice Stadium • Houston, TX W 41-14 25,000
1982-11-13 at Texas Tech #2 Jones Stadium • Lubbock, TX W 34-27 45,954
1982-11-20 #9 Arkansas #2 Texas Stadium • Irving, TX T 17-17 65,101
1983-01-01 vs. #6 Pittsburgh #4 Cotton Bowl • Dallas, TX (Cotton Bowl Classic) W 7-3 60,359
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from AP Poll.

Note: We drew a crowd of over 30, 000 for Tulane and over 50,000 for A&M. 65,000 for Arkansas. Ah those were the days when we won and played in a BCS type league.

[AusTxPony]

Looked it up and I guess we would not have been in the Champ game.

Sugar Bowl: #2 Penn St. 27, #1 Georgia 23
Orange Bowl: #3 Nebraska 21, #13 LSU 20
Cotton Bowl Classic: #4 SMU 7, #6 Pittsburgh 3
Rose Bowl: #5 UCLA 24, #19 Michigan 14

[Pony ^]

Wish we still had that schedule every yr..

[SMU2007]

But those teams are too hard!

[SoCal_Pony]

Looked it up and I guess we would not have been in the Champ game.

Sugar Bowl: #2 Penn St. 27, #1 Georgia 23
Orange Bowl: #3 Nebraska 21, #13 LSU 20
Cotton Bowl Classic: #4 SMU 7, #6 Pittsburgh 3
Rose Bowl: #5 UCLA 24, #19 Michigan 14

I don't know about that. Besides Georgia, we were the only team without a loss entering the bowl season so you never know.

I do remember that against both UT and Ark that season, both teams only had 1 loss when we played them.

It would actually be very interesting to see how the BCS formula would have graded us.

[Digetydog]

We were ranked #2 going into the bowl game. Georgia was #1. Because of bowl tie ins, Georgia got #3 Penn State. We got stuck with Pitt in bad weather.

[mrydel]

Do not believe we were 2 going into the bowls. Seems I recall there being no real way we could get to #1 due to the match ups even though we would end up the only un beaten team. But then again my memory is very old and tired.

[Digetydog]

Do not believe we were 2 going into the bowls. Seems I recall there being no real way we could get to #1 due to the match ups even though we would end up the only un beaten team. But then again my memory is very old and tired.

Undefeated Georgia was #1. Because of the SEC tie in to the Sugar Bowl, they went there.
Undefeated, but 1 tie - SMU was #2 - because of the SWC tie in to the Cotton Bowl, we went there.
1 loss Penn State was #3. (I think they were an independant at the time.) They were able to go to the Sugar Bowl and play Georgia.
Because of other bowl tie ins (Big 10 and Pac 10 to Rose and Big 8 to Orange), the best team the Cotton Bowl could attract was a decent, but not great Pitt team. SInce Penn State had just beaten Pitt, that game was "discounted" by the media. Plus, the weather was poor making it impossible for SMU to "show off" our talent.

The Eastern Media wanted to promote the Sugar Bowl (featuring Heisman Winner H. Walker and Joe Pervterno) as the national title game. Their excuse was that SMU had a weak schedule (not true) and had lucked into some victores (true). But, Penn State's schedule wasn't all that unless you count Georgia. IMHO - one of the primary reasons Perv State one was b/c Pervterno ran a "clean" program that the media liked.

[Treadway21]

^ This is my recollection of the bowl scenario. Perhaps Stallion will way in. He has a good memory for these sorts of questions.

[Grant Carter]

^ This is my recollection of the bowl scenario. Perhaps Stallion will way in. He has a good memory for these sorts of questions.

I was only 8 at the time and I agree that this is how it happened. I have hated Paterno and Penn State ever since. I would also add that my understanding that a lot of people thought Paterno was nearing retirement so they wanted to give him a championship.

[SoCal_Pony]

My vote is with Myrdel.

I attended that game as a student and I 'think' the only way we could have possibly become NCs is if Georgia and Penn St tied and we simply blew Pitt away.

[Caballo]

SMU was #2 when we played Arkansas. The Hogs came into the game at #9 with an 8-1 record. When we tied we fell back to #4 with Penn State and Georgia ahead of us. There was no way we could win the NC based upon our ranking at the time.

http://www.smumustangs.com/sports/m-foo ... ts-09.html

[Digetydog]

If we were #4, who was number 3?

[MustangStealth]

http://www.collegepollarchive.com/footb ... pollid=555

We were indeed #4, behind Georgia, Nebraska and Penn State.

[MustangStealth]

You can also see our progression through the season.

http://www.collegepollarchive.com/footb ... &teamid=19