The School That Broke College Football Scheduling

in the college football playoff air teams are playing more games than ever before well it's actually not entirely true around the turn of the 20th century schools were just doing whatever the hell they felt like it in terms of scheduling that is why the University of Chicago appeared in 22 games in 1894 since basically pre-World War I though there's been a certain uniformity when it came to college football schedules by the 1930s the season would begin the Saturday before Labor Day most schools would play anywhere between 9 and 11 contests each year pre-1940s Independence would sometimes play seven or eight games it all sort of depended on what they could schedule universities lucky enough to receive a bowl invitation could then get a 12th game on their schedule for the most part up until 1983 a team could play no more than 12 games in any given campaign that of course would change in 1983 with the Advent of what would later be known as week zero at the time back then they just called it preseason games but the game still counted toward a team's record in that year it's all a bit messy but the takeaway is this any team allowed to start their season a week earlier in the pre- Labor Day matchup could have themselves an extra game on their schedule for that year so in essence a 12th game around the same time this is when the quote unquote Hawaii rule went into effect the regulation stipulated that any School playing a regular season contest in Hawaii Alaska Puerto Rico or basically outside the continental United States could have 12 games in their season instead of 11 this was done to give those universities an extra home game which would offset the cost involved with traveling to these places and while it could have been used for any school wanting to play a game in Alaska or Puerto Rico it was only ever invoked four schools visiting Hawaii rip Aloha Stadium naturally Western athletic conference schools would be the ones most likely to take advantage of this exemption what the Hawaii rule did not address was what would happen if a school also received a week zero waiver in the same season this would be a loophole that would be exploited rather quickly in the 80s the 1985 BYU Cougars just happened to have a road game in Hawaii on their schedule meaning they were within their rights to play a 12th game having won the National Championship in 1984 this meant the Cougars were also invited to play in the third ual kickoff classic the week zero Clash played at The Meadowlands this unlikely sequence of events saw BYU play 13 times during college football's regular season they even received a 14th fixture a losing effort in the Citrus Bowl to Ohio State by my own research which admittedly may be incorrect this was the first time since 1913 that a school had played 14 times during a single college football season safe to say a lot had certainly changed since Pop Warner was coaching at Carlile side the NCAA opted not to intervene seeing this matter is nothing more than a coincidence they would be right for the most part it would not happen again until 1994 when Fresno State backo their way into 13 regular season games they though did not qualify for the postseason meaning they did not get the bowl game or game 14 and once again the issue just quietly went away however something happened in 1992 that would soon impact the number of games a team could play in a single Le season the conference Championship Game the Southeastern Conference launched their championship game but it would be the only one in place until 1996 that is when the Big 12 and Western Athletic Conference decided to join in on the fun this is where we find a BYU program on the ascendency legendary head coach LVL Edwards and offensive coordinator Norm Chow had found a quarterback to execute their highflying Ambitions in Steve sarkeesian as a junior he led the team to a 7 and4 record but the team had a lot more on its plate in 1996 the Cougars were about to embark on the longest ever schedule concocted in modern football up until that point every loophole every additional game every way possible to Nerf a schedule was to be carried out you can't quite say these plans were completely intentional because there was just a lot of stuff outside of the Cougar's control you can say though they were semi intentional BYU loaded up its schedule with as many games as as possible hoping that it would unlock the opportunity to play more games down the line we start their Journey with the 1996 pig skin classic and a showdown against number 13 Texas A&M in Provo this was a hell of a game albeit not exactly one that was great to watch on television that's because fans arms and heads keep getting into the hard cams line of sight when it comes to the old days of college football there's a lot of stuff I miss but this certainly is not one of them anyway this was not the cleanest game ever played Texas A&M fumbled five times losing two of them and BYU missed two extra points in a field goal the Aggies rushed out to a 20 to6 lead in the second quarter but the Cougars managed to close that deficit and these scores were level at halftime they traded scores in the second half and then with a minute left in the game Sark throws a peach to KO K laui to clench the upset for BYU a week later and BYU had no issues easily dispatching a newly independent Arkansas state that Victory would see them move up to number 14 in the national rankings after a byee they found themselves heading to Seattle for a showdown against the Washington team that was just I don't even know how to describe this team you have Corey Dylan at running back future IWGP heavyweight champion in Japanese music sensation Bob sap is actually a team captain for this husky side it's just such an odd collection of players here udub was also not fancied heading into the matchup having lost to Arizona State in their season open opener BYU on the other hand well you could probably say they were a bit overconfident in fact there were even reports in the media that the team was bickering over what color socks they wanted to wear on this National broadcast game being shown on ABC the color of their socks would be the last thing that mattered as the Cougars had their asses handed to them on this day they were down 217 at halftime Sark was sacked eight times they actually allowed Washington to rush for almost 300 yards in what was a comprehensive defeat the underwhelming performance carried over to game number four for the Cougars as they came out flat against a very much unheralded New Mexico team with a young Gary Patterson as defensive coordinator In fairness the Lobos entered this match up 3-0 but it was a program that had long been mired in mediocrity BYU would Trail at various points in this game before eventually taking a 1714 lead that would hold up as the final score another home game the following week opened with BYU once again falling behind this time to SMU 30 cougar fans at this point were probably just wondering what the hell was going on with their team then finally the flip switch the Cougars Blitz the Mustang scoring 31 straight points in the first half and Cruis to a 313 Victory the team was 4- one and firmly back inside the top 25 next up was a trip to Logan and a rivalry game a battle for the Old Wagon Wheel one of the more underrated college football trophies they had no issues with Utah State in this Friday night Clash the following week they returned home and hung 63 points against the winless UNLV side from this point the Cougars just continued on their role they would push their winning streak to seven games all told beating the likes of Tulsa TCU and UTEP along the way a 490 shellacking of rice would see BYU enter the top 10 a few days later next up was that trip to Hawaii for what was game number 12 on their schedule and this again was another blowout victory for the Cougars this set up a huge Clash against Utah in the holy war the winner would claim The Wack Mountain division crown and with that came an appearance in the first ever wack Championship Game on paper the youths were good they had been ranked as high as 20th during that season the team had also suffered some pretty bad losses to Utah State and rice along the way for BYU this was just another day in The Wack office they rushed out to a 20 lead early on and just simply coasted the remainder of the contest the Cougars wrapped up their regular season 12-1 and found themselves sitting sixth in the AP pole but as every infomercial pitchman is fond of saying that's not all a trip to the inaugural wack championship game would see BYU tie the record it set for number of games played in a single season it also had the opport opportunity to tie the school's single season record for victories standing in their way was a 10 and one Wyoming team that was ranked 20th in the country they were led by soon to be Fred bnov award-winning wide receiver Marcus Harris this game though wasn't simply about winning a wag Championship there were a lot of bowl game Shenanigans at play The Wack itself had two bowl tians there was the Holiday Bowl and the copper bowl the ladder made it known they were taking BYU if the Cougars lost and if the Cougars won they wanted Utah even with 10 wins the copper bowl had let it be known Wyoming was not welcome to the party basically this meant they had to win The Wack Conference Championship game and secure the conference's official tie-in with the Holiday Bowl to play in the postseason for BYU it had something at stake as well there was a chance of victory in the wack Conference Championship Game me it would finally play in one of the so-called Alliance bowls with the Fiesta Bowl even being mentioned by players the stakes were high and the game certainly delivered one of the best games in wack history probably one of the better games in the history of college football out west BYU took a 13-0 lead into halftime but a brutal injury to all American tight end itula m in the first half had a profound impact on the team he was a team leader he was really just a huge part of what BYU did on offense and players have since said lose losing him just a caused them to loss Focus as they went into the second half Wyoming scored 17 straight points to take the lead in the fourth quarter BYU responded with a sarkeesian touchdown pass to go up by three with less than 10 minutes remaining Wyoming went ahead once more and intact on just about the luckiest two-point conversion you will ever see a botch snap Min kicker Cory Weedle picked up the ball and lobbed a prayer to a wideopen David sarif with the cowboy somehow gaining a five-point Advantage with this coming off completely wild the thing is things are about to get even Wilder from this point on with time winding down Wyoming head coach Joe tiller opts for the intentional safety instead of punting the ball from his own End Zone this isn't even one of those moves you look back on in hindsight and say that was bad at the time given the scor gami involved this decision to take a safety made no sense by tiller BYU actually had a chance to win the game in regulation but a sark check down pass almost these time run out instead the Cougars thankfully got a timeout in before time did run out and they would kick a game tying field goal they went on to do the exact same thing in overtime after Wyman couldn't score on its possession and this clenched a 133 in1 season and a chance to make history spare a thought here though for those Wyoming Cowboys who were absolutely screwed out of a postseason bull bid in 1996 Utah did get that copper bowl invite despite an 8 and4 record and not being ranked in the top 25 even after losing the wack championship game Wyoming retained a place in the top 25 and with a 10 and two record you would have thought this would have been a natural selection for some Bowl somewhere in America alas it was not to be now the school did have some drama around it with Joe teller heading to purdo but this is just a patently unfair decision on the school BYU would also find itself disappointed when the bowl Alliance passed on them in favor of a two- lost Nebraska team that had lost to Texas in the first ever Big 12 Championship Game oh yeah somehow pin State the third ranked team in the Big 10 also found itself in an alliance B biu for its part had more wins fewer losses and was ranked higher than both participants in the Fiesta Bowl suffice to say it was all pretty stupid however they did not have time to R what could have been because the Cougars had a date with history after some cajoling in back room dealings BYU would receive an invite from The cottonball Who traded their Pack 12 slot to the Holiday Bowl which would see that conference's second place team who was ironically Washington the only School managed to beat BYU play there at the cotton ball Kansas State stood between BYU and becoming the first team in 93 years to have won 14 games in a single college football season better yet they would be the first program to have won for 14 games without needing to play high schools that's right Minnesota won 14 games in 1903 but three of their games against local high schools counted in the official records good job Golden Gophers you show those high schoolers who Boss look I know 1903 was a different time in college football but still these games should not count in official records but I digress the Cougars started the cotton ball the same way they ended regulation in the wag championship game by scoring Five Points seriously what are the odds of that happening Kansas State then went on to score 15 unanswered points with the game going into halftime with the very odd 15 to5 score line Steve sarkeesian led the team on two touchdown drives in the second half and BYU went on to win the conon ball and their 14th game of the 1996 season in an ironic Twist of fake Kansas state would be the next side to actually play 15 games in a single college football season that took place with a few schedule and quirks that year allowing it to happen the Wildcats though could only muster 11 victories unlike BYU though Kate did get that elusive Fiesta Bowl invite by winning the Big 12 returning our attention to BYU in 1996 what a wonderfully wild season it was just it's a bit silly it's one of those unconventional not necessarily wellth thought out things that could only have happened in college football it was a historic campaign for any number of reasons and one we probably don't talk about enough to to this day on the field they were definitely a little cocky especially in those first few games that lost to Washington by the way cost them a chance to be in contention for a national championship towards Year's End I mean with Florida and Florida State canceling each other out a 15-0 cougars team would have been hard to deny especially if they got a play in the Fiesta Bowl to secure win number 15 alas it'll always be one of those great college football hypotheticals we can always wonder about what is not a hypothetical though is BYU's place in the history books in 1996 this side is the only School in the 20th century to play 15 games against D1 opponents in a single season and the only one to have won 14 division one games no one daa opponents none of that Shenanigans none of that funny business they did it the right way of course all of this seems far less impressive in the college football playoff air when teams are playing 15 games and soon they're going to be playing 16 and 17 games in a season now we may look back on it and not necessarily appreciate what BYU did in 1996 but at a time when it took a bull bid for most sides to reach 12 games and something out of the ordinary to play in 13 BYU managed to well and truly Nerf college football scheduling thank you for watching this video if you'd like to learn more about the BYU fullback who became a legendary NFL tight end despite not ever wanting to play tight end video upper right hand corner of your screen and for the story of how a hurricane and the Miami Hurricanes cost the University of Central Florida its first ever Bowl invitation video lower right hand corner until next time I am Chey and Hollis this is the Touchback and as always hasht take it out to the 25