Yesterday on Boneyard Banter, someone posed the question of where ECU ranks among the Group of Five teams on wins against current Power 5 members over the past 50 years.

So out of curiosity, I wanted see where the Pirates stacked up against the rest of the AAC. I wasn't about to go through every G5 school. I didn't have the time. The answer was pretty much what I expected, somewhere in the middle.

My source for this research was https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/

I didn't go through and double check each one. So I apologize up front if the numbers are off by one or two. Anyway this is what I learned.

#1. Houston - 107 wins
Houston was pretty much a bad ass back in 1970's-80's. They regularly stomped other Texas schools and consistently traded blows with the SEC schools.

#2. SMU - 79 wins
Mostly in the 1970's and early 80's - What can I say?? Pony Express

#3. Tulane - 74 wins
Yes Tulane. They were good too back then. Vandy hated playing them.

#4. #5. Tie - Cincinnati and Navy - 69 wins
Navy has been pretty consistent throughout the years with a few lulls here and there.
Cincinnati has been tops since 2000 in the conference with about 40 wins. But if you removed Rutgers and Louisville from their win totals it would probably reduce it by a third or half.

#6. #7. Tie - ECU and Memphis - 55 wins
Probably half of ECU wins come from NC schools.
Memphis was decent a long time ago and kind of sucked in the middle but are enjoying an obvious resurgence now.

Edit***
#8. Temple 51 wins (rechecked and total is correct) Rutgers and old Big East schools were most of their wins. But not just during the Big East years. Spread throughout the years. Data starts 1971 though. Break in program from early 1950’s to 1970.

#9 Tulsa 37 wins - I think their wins were mostly from 1970-2000

#10 USF* - 36 wins - Impressive 2nd best in total since 2000.
*Only 20 years of data

#11 UCF* - 12 wins - Bit of a shocker here. I was expecting 20-25. But no one else can claim back to back undefeated seasons.
*Data goes back to only 1996.

Note: Wichita State 1970 - 1986 - 4 wins

The UCF record shows that this list really means nothing without context. And I mean nothing:-)

(08-23-2020 10:58 AM)Tigers2B1 Wrote:  The UCF record shows that this list really means nothing without context. And I mean nothing:-)

(08-23-2020 10:50 AM)NoQuarterBrigade Wrote:  #11 UCF* - 12 wins - Bit of a shocker here. I was expecting 20-25. But no one else can claim back to back undefeated seasons.
*Data goes back to only 1996.

Context: Since '96, we had 29!

Yeah, this list really doesn't mean anything considering Houston, SMU, Cincinnati, Temple, and USF spent a big chunk of time in power conferences. I think you would have to consider only non-conference games during the SWC/Big East years for those teams to make a fair comparison.

Who'd they schedule? How many losses? Which P5's were you playing? Etc. Also P's tend to duck you when you're playing well.

(08-23-2020 08:05 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  Yeah, this list really doesn't mean anything considering Houston, SMU, Cincinnati, Temple, and USF spent a big chunk of time in power conferences. I think you would have to consider only non-conference games during the SWC/Big East years for those teams to make a fair comparison.

You are correct Sir. Definitely saw an upward tick in the numbers for those years with those teams. But Houston was seemingly putting it on everybody in the 1970’s.

(08-23-2020 08:05 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  Yeah, this list really doesn't mean anything considering Houston, SMU, Cincinnati, Temple, and USF spent a big chunk of time in power conferences. I think you would have to consider only non-conference games during the SWC/Big East years for those teams to make a fair comparison.

Houston was an independent from 1960 - 1975 which clearly provides the OP's point so ofcourse these games should count.


Independent
1960–1975)

Southwest 
(1976–1995)

C-USA 
(1996–2012)

AAC
(2013 - Present)

(08-23-2020 08:26 PM)BigHouston Wrote:  

(08-23-2020 08:05 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  Yeah, this list really doesn't mean anything considering Houston, SMU, Cincinnati, Temple, and USF spent a big chunk of time in power conferences. I think you would have to consider only non-conference games during the SWC/Big East years for those teams to make a fair comparison.

Houston was an independent from 1960 - 1975 which clearly provides the OP's point so ofcourse these games should count.


Independent
1960–1975)

Southwest 
(1976–1995)

C-USA 
(1996–2012)

AAC
(2013 - Present)

We top this list and we top the list of most wins against P5 teams since the beginning of the playoff era. Whats more most of our P5 wins have come against winning teams. There's nothing noteworthy about notching a win against Kansas. Beating one ranked team is worth a dozen of those wins.

(08-23-2020 08:42 PM)WhoseHouse? Wrote:  

(08-23-2020 08:26 PM)BigHouston Wrote:  

(08-23-2020 08:05 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  Yeah, this list really doesn't mean anything considering Houston, SMU, Cincinnati, Temple, and USF spent a big chunk of time in power conferences. I think you would have to consider only non-conference games during the SWC/Big East years for those teams to make a fair comparison.

Houston was an independent from 1960 - 1975 which clearly provides the OP's point so ofcourse these games should count.


Independent
1960–1975)

Southwest 
(1976–1995)

C-USA 
(1996–2012)

AAC
(2013 - Present)

We top this list and we top the list of most wins against P5 teams since the beginning of the playoff era. Whats more most of our P5 wins have come against winning teams. There's nothing noteworthy about notching a win against Kansas. Beating one ranked team is worth a dozen of those wins.

UH having 2 top 5 wins in 2016 is one of if not the most impressive accomplishment in the BCS-playoff era. Don't think it has been done by another Non P5.

(08-23-2020 10:50 AM)NoQuarterBrigade Wrote:  #8. Temple 51 wins - I think Rutgers and Louisville were most of their wins too. Hell everyone just about has beat up on Louisville

It's not a difficult thing to look up. We are 3-4 against Louisville.

15 wins Rutgers
12 wins WVU
10 wins Syracuse
7 wins BC
7 wins Pitt

That's it that's 5+

(08-23-2020 10:00 PM)CougarPoop Wrote:  

(08-23-2020 08:42 PM)WhoseHouse? Wrote:  

(08-23-2020 08:26 PM)BigHouston Wrote:  

(08-23-2020 08:05 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  Yeah, this list really doesn't mean anything considering Houston, SMU, Cincinnati, Temple, and USF spent a big chunk of time in power conferences. I think you would have to consider only non-conference games during the SWC/Big East years for those teams to make a fair comparison.

Houston was an independent from 1960 - 1975 which clearly provides the OP's point so ofcourse these games should count.


Independent
1960–1975)

Southwest 
(1976–1995)

C-USA 
(1996–2012)

AAC
(2013 - Present)

We top this list and we top the list of most wins against P5 teams since the beginning of the playoff era. Whats more most of our P5 wins have come against winning teams. There's nothing noteworthy about notching a win against Kansas. Beating one ranked team is worth a dozen of those wins.

UH having 2 top 5 wins in 2016 is one of if not the most impressive accomplishment in the BCS-playoff era. Don't think it has been done by another Non P5.

Impressive. In that same vein, ECU had a notable accomplishment during that era as well. ECU is the only C-USA school to defeat 3 consecutive ranked opponents. ECU beat #21 BSU, then #15 VT, before downing #8 WVU in 2008. That's a record that will never be broken because all the good teams have left C-USA and C-USA teams will never have the opportunity to play 3 consecutive ranked teams much less have the fire power to beat all 3 moving forward.

Additionally in 2016 – With a 33-30 victory over rival North Carolina State on September 9, 2016, ECU became the first "Non-Power" program to defeat a single "Power Conference" (vs. ACC) six-consecutive times from 2013–16, thereby breaking a four-way tie with TCU (vs. BIG XII), Boise State (vs. PAC-12), and BYU (vs. PAC-12) all of which each had previously established five-game winning streaks against a single "Power Conference." ECU defeated regional rivals Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and North Carolina State two-consecutive times each respectively during the Pirates' six-game winning streak against the ACC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Carol...AA_records

What makes ECU's win total vs current P5s impressive is the fact that ECU has never been in a power conference so all those wins had to come in limited OOC games.

(08-23-2020 11:24 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  

(08-23-2020 10:50 AM)NoQuarterBrigade Wrote:  #8. Temple 51 wins - I think Rutgers and Louisville were most of their wins too. Hell everyone just about has beat up on Louisville

It's not a difficult thing to look up. We are 3-4 against Louisville.

15 wins Rutgers
12 wins WVU
10 wins Syracuse
7 wins BC
7 wins Pitt

That's it that's 5+

Sorry about that. I did say I think. And apologized up front if the numbers were off slightly. It’s hard to remember every team and who they played. I will recheck it and adjust. The only one I double checked was UCF because it seemed so low.

Edit****
Updated original post. So remember this is a check over the last 50 years. Anything prior to that was not counted for this. But you were right about Louisville. Only counted 3 wins against them in that span.

For a relatively young program, these are pretty good wins. How many can say they knocked off Alabama?

1 Alabama
1 Georgia (bowl game)
1 Auburn (NY6 bowl)
1 Penn State
1 Stanford
1 Baylor (NY6 bowl)
1 Maryland
1 Rutgers
1 Pittsburgh
1 Boston College
1 Louisville
1 NC State

Many of you guys were in the same conference as current P5 schools. UCF doesn’t have SWC or a long tenure in the Big East to lean on. Others have the benefit of local P5 matchups. We rarely get those and when we do its like a title contention year.

0-5 vs Florida P5:
‘95 FSU (went on to win the ACC championship, #4 final AP)
‘96 UF (went on to win the SEC and claimed National Championship, #1 final AP)
‘06 UF (went on to win the SEC and won BCS National Championship, #1 final AP)
‘08 Miami (no excuses, winnable game)
‘09 Miami (no excuses, winnable game, #19 final AP)

This list is STUPID!! It doesn't take into consideration that some of the wins are against teams that were not considered major at the time and/or are not considered major now, but were back then. Especially given that SMU and Houston were in the Southwest Conference, it gave them more opportunities at those wins. Same with Cincy and USF in the Big East. I get the idea of what you're doing here, but to me it's like most statistics, in that it's meant to fabricate and doesn't tell the whole story.

(08-25-2020 04:59 PM)PAAcocahesAssociation Wrote:  This list is STUPID!! It doesn't take into consideration that some of the wins are against teams that were not considered major at the time and/or are not considered major now, but were back then. Especially given that SMU and Houston were in the Southwest Conference, it gave them more opportunities at those wins. Same with Cincy and USF in the Big East. I get the idea of what you're doing here, but to me it's like most statistics, in that it's meant to fabricate and doesn't tell the whole story.

It is what it is. Take it whichever you want. It clearly states that it’s win totals against current Power 5 schools over the past 50 years

You are correct in your assessment though. It really means nothing in the grand scheme of things since the schools histories vary considerably. It may say 12 total for UCF, but I doubt anyone on this board would argue that it means anything.

I shared the totals as merely a talking point, a source of discussion. Nothing more.

Edit*** BTW, I had to put something on here to distract from all the negative threads posted about ECU.

BYU has 99 with 1 Tie (vs #7 Iowa in the 1991 Holiday Bowl) and has never been in a power conference.

A few of the notables:

Texas (x4)
Oklahoma (x2)
Notre Dame (x2)
USC
Penn State
Nebraska
#1 Miami
Michigan
Washington (x4)
Texas A&M (x2)
Michigan State
Oregon (x3)
Tennessee
UCLA (x3)
Wisconsin (x2)
Georgia Tech (x3)

(08-23-2020 08:05 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  Yeah, this list really doesn't mean anything considering Houston, SMU, Cincinnati, Temple, and USF spent a big chunk of time in power conferences. I think you would have to consider only non-conference games during the SWC/Big East years for those teams to make a fair comparison.

Or, at least, win % needs to be used instead of total wins. It will likely move us down the list, but would give UCF a fair shake.