College football's season by the numbers

By Mike Bushnell

Published Dec. 7, 2007

Sports Editor

In a season where two running backs ran for more than 2,000 yards and didn't get to even look at the Heisman Trophy and where the three quarterbacks who threw for the most yards didn't either, nothing really made sense.

It was the highest scoring season ever, with seven teams, including Missouri, averaging more than 40 points per game. Yet the No. 1- and No. 3-ranked defenses in Louisiana State and Ohio State will be playing in New Orleans on Jan. 7 for the national championship.

Three times this season, the teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 lost on the same weekend, including last Saturday when MU and West Virginia both fell.

The No. 2-ranked team in the country lost seven times, including six times to unranked teams. Kansas was the only team to lose as No. 2 to a ranked team, when they lost to the Tigers in Kansas City.

LSU was the only team ranked No. 2 that never lost in that ranking. They waited to become No. 1 before they lost.

In fact, they lost as the No. 1 team in the country twice; once at Kentucky, once at home to Arkansas, both times in triple overtime.

Thirteen teams ranked in the top five lost this season, including MU, who lost the final game of the college football regular season to Oklahoma.

Notre Dame, long considered the most prestigious program in college football, went 3-9, including a loss to Navy, the first time the Fighting Irish lost to the Midshipmen in 44 years.

In just over a month, both South Florida and California went from No. 2 to unranked in all the polls. It took Oregon just three weeks to fall that far.

Appalachian State, a Division I-AA team, had one win over a Big Ten team. So did North Dakota State, another I-AA team. Minnesota, a real Big Ten team, had zero.

One team, Hawaii, went undefeated. No team went winless this season, but five went 1-11. Three of those teams, Idaho, Minnesota and Southern Methodist, all won on Sept. 8 and then never again.