Noticed when writing my Kansas/Jim Harbaugh thread how big the Jayhawks' lead in the Kansas State series was until Bill Snyder turned things around. Got me thinking of notable college football rivalries that at one point were competitive or even one-sided, then turned completely towards the losing program and has basically continued ever since. Any other examples?

KU/K-State: 64-50-5 KU overall; 60-25-5 through 1992 (Snyder's fourth season), 4-25 since. Clearly correlated with Snyder, and KU's ineptitude outside of a few Mangino seasons.
Michigan/Ohio State: 59-51-6; 56-34-6 through 2000 (after Jim Tressel took over), 3-17 since. Has been discussed ad nauseum on other threads and by pundits over time, though with Ryan Day entering year four I'm curious if he keeps OSU at such a high level now that all remnants of Urban Meyer are almost gone.
Miami/Cincinnati (ugh): 59-59-7 overall; 59-44-7 through 2005 (last season before Brian Kelly started at UC), 0-15 since. Turned around based on a combination of UC moving to the Big East, investing in the program, and having a few home run coaching hires, plus Miami admin mismanagement and some bad hires.
Idaho/Boise State: 17-22-1 overall; 17-10-1 through 1998 (three seasons after they both moved up to DI-A), 0-12 since. Clear correlation with their moves up, when BSU started kicking butt and UI fell from being a consistent DI-AA contender to FBS doormat. The series will presumably stay dormant from here.

Amazing how dominant OSU has been in the series. It’s not like Michigan has completely sucked the last 20 years.

First one that comes to mind is Alabama/Tennessee. I went to the Wikipedia page to figure it out…
Before Saban’s first year in 2007 the series was 43-38-7 in Alabama’s favor. Alabama has since reeled off 15 straight wins starting in that same season to take a 58-38-7 lead in the series. Of course if you count on the field results by removing the Tennessee “win” in 1993 where Alabama was forced to forfeit and add back the vacated game in 2005 it’d actually be 60-37-7 in Alabama’s favor.

Tulane/Georgia Tech played every year from 1943-1982. At one point Tulane led series 6-5. Now GA Tech leads 37-13

(04-30-2022 12:21 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  Amazing how dominant OSU has been in the series. It’s not like Michigan has completely sucked the last 20 years.

The key was Tressel. It's amazing how after the scandal that got him fired from Ohio State he just disappeared. But Tressel was arguably the most important single hire of the BCS era, even more than LSU hiring Nick Saban, because Saban at least was a coach of a P5 conference school when he was hired by LSU.

But Tressel was nothing when OSU hired him in 2001, coaching Youngstown State. Which is nothing.

Tressel almost immediately built Ohio State in to a national-title winning and contending team, and they remained that his 10 years there. That was the foundation that Urban Meyer inherited to continue that, and on up to the present day.

When you see the current OSU team on the field, where an 11-2 record and a Rose Bowl win is regarded as a ho-hum, kinda down year, thank or curse Tressel LOL.

Through 1952, UVa led the series with VT 15-13-4
Since then, VT has gone 47-18-1

(04-30-2022 12:29 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-30-2022 12:21 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  Amazing how dominant OSU has been in the series. It’s not like Michigan has completely sucked the last 20 years.

The key was Tressel. It's amazing how after the scandal that got him fired from Ohio State he just disappeared.

I thought for sure, given his dominance, we’d see him again as a coach. Instead he just went to be President at YSU never to be heard from again.

(04-30-2022 01:31 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(04-30-2022 12:29 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-30-2022 12:21 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  Amazing how dominant OSU has been in the series. It’s not like Michigan has completely sucked the last 20 years.

The key was Tressel. It's amazing how after the scandal that got him fired from Ohio State he just disappeared.

I thought for sure, given his dominance, we’d see him again as a coach. Instead he just went to be President at YSU never to be heard from again.

Tress was done coaching at that point. He was contemplating retirement anyway before the scandal broke. He is raising major dollars as president at YSU, getting all those northeast Ohio OSU fans showing up for fundraisers.

After 1981, Minnesota led Iowa 51-20-2.

Since 1982 Iowa has been 31-11 against Minny, including winning the last 7 in a row.

Minn now leads Iowa 62-51-2

On a much smaller scale, in 2014 after Bo Pelini's last game, Nebraska led Iowa 29-13-3. Since Pelini's firing, Iowa has won 7 straight to close the gap to 29-20-3.

Didn’t Trssel win FCS championships?

(04-30-2022 04:24 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Didn’t Trssel win FCS championships?

Yes, but to mainstream fans, FCS might as well be on Mars.

(04-30-2022 04:24 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Didn’t Trssel win FCS championships?

Yes. Tressel won four FCS championships.

Tressel was an Ohio guy, the son of a small college coach. Not many people outside of Ohio had heard of him, but he was well-regarded locally.

Ohio State has always done well. Unlike some other bluebloods, they don't have more than one dud season at a time. Their last consecutive losing seasons were in 1922-23-24.

At the time Tressel was hired, 8-3 was a bad year for them. But they were losing to Michigan too often, going to too many non-Rose Bowls. and John Cooper got the boot.

Now, in this era, going 11-2 and winning the Rose Bowl is a down year for them. They've stepped up their game, and Tressel was the coach that took them to the next level.

Over the last 20, OSU-Michigan and UC-Miami big turn arounds. I still remember those John Cooper shows on local TV, hey yeah number 42 right he is a good one. Didn't even know they players name.

(04-30-2022 04:24 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Didn’t Trssel win FCS championships?

Yes, outstanding head football coach.

TCU vs. Texas.

From 1962 through the end of the SWC: Texas 31-3-0.
Since TCU joined the Big 12: TCU 7-3.

Maybe not a notable rivalry for most, but the NDSU/UND rivalry has flipped a couple times. 114 total meetings.

1894-1964: 46-20-3 UND; UND dominates since NDSU doesn't put much emphasis on sports
1965-1992: 22-6-0 NDSU; NDSU commits resources to FB and the dominance flips; during this time NDSU switches to the veer option offense; Bison win eight national championships
1993-2003: 10-3-0 UND; UND builds a team to beat the veer option, but it has a problem winning championships; UND wins one national championship
2004-2014: no games played due to bad blood over the DI moves by both schools; four NDSU national championships, zero UND
2015-present: 4-0 NDSU; starting in 2020, the schools are once again in the same conference; five NDSU national championships, zero UND

Overall record: 62-49-3 UND
Record since 1965: 29-16-0 NDSU

(04-30-2022 05:20 PM)johnintx Wrote:  

(04-30-2022 04:24 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Didn’t Trssel win FCS championships?

Yes. Tressel won four FCS championships.

Tressel was an Ohio guy, the son of a small college coach. Not many people outside of Ohio had heard of him, but he was well-regarded locally.

Ohio State has always done well. Unlike some other bluebloods, they don't have more than one dud season at a time. Their last consecutive losing seasons were in 1922-23-24.

At the time Tressel was hired, 8-3 was a bad year for them. But they were losing to Michigan too often, going to too many non-Rose Bowls. and John Cooper got the boot.

Now, in this era, going 11-2 and winning the Rose Bowl is a down year for them. They've stepped up their game, and Tressel was the coach that took them to the next level.

Not sure if anyone remembers, but did Tressel ever seriously consider leaving Youngstown State before OSU opened up after the 2000 season? Looking at Wikipedia he took over a middle-of-the-pack DI-AA program and got them to a shared OVC title and the playoffs in year two, then a national title in year six. One would think he'd have gotten significant interest from open jobs across the Rust Belt and elsewhere throughout the 90s; who knows how differently the college football landscape would've been if he did something like go to Kent State in 1990, then Michigan State in 1994 instead of Saban.

This one hurts, Washington vs Oregon, 53-28-5 thru 1992 (Don James retirement), 7-20 since

(05-01-2022 10:54 AM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(04-30-2022 05:20 PM)johnintx Wrote:  

(04-30-2022 04:24 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Didn’t Trssel win FCS championships?

Yes. Tressel won four FCS championships.

Tressel was an Ohio guy, the son of a small college coach. Not many people outside of Ohio had heard of him, but he was well-regarded locally.

Ohio State has always done well. Unlike some other bluebloods, they don't have more than one dud season at a time. Their last consecutive losing seasons were in 1922-23-24.

At the time Tressel was hired, 8-3 was a bad year for them. But they were losing to Michigan too often, going to too many non-Rose Bowls. and John Cooper got the boot.

Now, in this era, going 11-2 and winning the Rose Bowl is a down year for them. They've stepped up their game, and Tressel was the coach that took them to the next level.

Not sure if anyone remembers, but did Tressel ever seriously consider leaving Youngstown State before OSU opened up after the 2000 season? Looking at Wikipedia he took over a middle-of-the-pack DI-AA program and got them to a shared OVC title and the playoffs in year two, then a national title in year six. One would think he'd have gotten significant interest from open jobs across the Rust Belt and elsewhere throughout the 90s; who knows how differently the college football landscape would've been if he did something like go to Kent State in 1990, then Michigan State in 1994 instead of Saban.

He was a finalist for the UC job in 1994. The AD went with Notre Dame DC Rick Minter instead. Oh what could have been.

Arkansas Tech vs that place down the road with the eyesore purple-gray striped field. We beat them in 1973 but that didn't happen again until 1998; tied in 1979 and not played in 1993 and 1994 (we were still NAIA, they had gone D2). I witnessed the last 14 losses. The 1998 victory started a 4-game ATU win streak and the series ended with them winning the last 4 games. Their win in the final game in 2005 gave them the series at 40-41-3. That's why I never refer to that place by name.