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Northwestern won multiple conference championships in the late 90s and 2000. Wake won a conference championship 5 years ago. Duke has 3 wins...
I'm just trying to show how this isn't a new trend...at all. Some of the best examples of the "rise" of the private schools are 3 teams with a combined record of 15-18, that just doesn't make sense to me.
If trading NC contenders for teams that go .500 is progress then maybe I am wrong.
SMU and TCU? Really? I would have to step in the way back machine for SMU - Doak Walker days. SMU, TCU and Rice were the whipping boys of the SWC.
You are forgetting the days of Eric Dickerson and Craig James (early 80s). SMU was easily a top 5 team in several of those years. The wiki says from 1980-1984 their record was 45-5-1, the best in D1 over that period.
The "death penalty" was devastating to the program and only recently have they returned to a reasonable level of D1 play.
SMU is a little iffy, or maybe a little early. If they win some conference championships maybe.
Look my vantage point is that, the 90s was a new age for the game what with scholle limits and balooning tv money and exposure. I count the 90s to now as one period that's still moving. Probably the new period after that is when the super conferences officially come into play.
None of the team's I mentioned (Duke, WF, NW) are dregs anymore, they are competitive now, they actually give their fans something to look forward to. As opposed to previous decades.
Is it a golden age, no. But I don't think I said that. Duke's golden age was with Wallace Wade in the 50s.
You are forgetting the days of Eric Dickerson and Craig James (early 80s). SMU was easily a top 5 team in several of those years. The wiki says from 1980-1984 their record was 45-5-1, the best in D1 over that period.
The "death penalty" was devastating to the program and only recently have they returned to a reasonable level of D1 play.
Oh yeah, that's when they were a pro team. Top 5, really? In the nation or their conference, or the metroplex? And now they are making their way back to "reasonable play."
as the OP, I never suggested that the private universities were anything like being on par with the publics; they're not.
and what some of you may have seen as "high praise" on my part for certain programs was not either; i merely was noting where they have become more competitive.
i'm merely asking if you think the stock of private universities has risen, based on the observations I made about a good percentage of them.
I live in the Chicago area. Although I like both Iowa and Illinois, my favorite school in college football is Northwestern. Northwestern had some absolutely awful teams throughout much of the 70's and 80's, dreadful ones where 0-10 seasons were not unheard of and being blown out 64-0 was not unexpected.
NU turned things around with Gary Barnett in the mid-90's, winning outright (1) or sharing (2) B10 titles since then. And since those bad days, they have been a fairly competitive team in the B10, being bowl eligible this year for the fifth straight (albeit with a horrible, winless record in those bowls).
Is Northwestern great? Of course not. But it is a team that shows it well belongs in the conference, something that would not have been said 2 or 3 decades ago.
I offer up NU because I don't think they are alone in this category. I really do see more private schools showing improvement in this current era.
And that's really I was talking about. If you choose to treat this as me being the OP with the idea that the privates have become powerhouses, that's fine; but you'd be putting words in my mouth.
All I've said....whether it be right or wrong.....is that the privates have improved their relative position vis-a-vis the publics, closed the gap a bit; that's all.
as the OP, I never suggested that the private universities were anything like being on par with the publics; they're not.
and what some of you may have seen as "high praise" on my part for certain programs was not either; i merely was noting where they have become more competitive.
i'm merely asking if you think the stock of private universities has risen, based on the observations I made about a good percentage of them.
I live in the Chicago area. Although I like both Iowa and Illinois, my favorite school in college football is Northwestern. Northwestern had some absolutely awful teams throughout much of the 70's and 80's, dreadful ones where 0-10 seasons were not unheard of and being blown out 64-0 was not unexpected.
NU turned things around with Gary Barnett in the mid-90's, winning outright (1) or sharing (2) B10 titles since then. And since those bad days, they have been a fairly competitive team in the B10, being bowl eligible this year for the fifth straight (albeit with a horrible, winless record in those bowls).
Is Northwestern great? Of course not. But it is a team that shows it well belongs in the conference, something that would not have been said 2 or 3 decades ago.
I offer up NU because I don't think they are alone in this category. I really do see more private schools showing improvement in this current era.
And that's really I was talking about. If you choose to treat this as me being the OP with the idea that the privates have become powerhouses, that's fine; but you'd be putting words in my mouth.
All I've said....whether it be right or wrong.....is that the privates have improved their relative position vis-a-vis the publics, closed the gap a bit; that's all.
Don't take any of the back and forth too seriously, we just like football and talking about it, especially SMACK - this is Texas, afterall. (and I am a Naperville transplant.) TCU's entrance into the Big 12 is significant. I was hoping A&M would stay in the Big 12, started to look like the old SWC. That'd be fun, maintaining old rivalries - even within families, ah good times, good times.
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Top 5, really? In the nation or their conference, or the metroplex? And now they are making their way back to "reasonable play."
