"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli
One of the hottest off-season topics in the blogosphere is out of conference scheduling. We've certainly flogged that deceased equine and will continue to do so because it's an interesting topic. Rather than a wishlist of opponents or a pissing contest between conferences though, I wanted to simply look at who we played over the last 25 years and how we fared against them. The following is a year by year look at who we played and who won the game. Opponents we met in bowl games are in brackets. I've tabulated a bunch of statistics from this list and will post those throughout the rest of the week (and there will be graphs and charts!!) As I'm sure you can imagine, there was ample opportunity for making errors when compiling this list, so if you find a mistake, let me know and I'll correct it. Here's the list:
2006: Hawai'i (W); Louisiana-Monroe (W); Duke (W); FIU (W); [Oklahoma St (L)]
2005: Middle Tennessee St. (W); Southern Miss (W); Utah State (W) [Texas Tech (W)]
2004: Utah State (W); Western Carolina (W); Southern Miss (W); [Minnesota (L)]
2003: USF (W); Oklahoma (L); Northern Illinois (L); Southern Miss (W); Hawai'i (L)
2002: Middle Tennessee St. (W); Oklahoma (L); North Texas (W); Southern Miss (W); Hawai'i (W)
2001: UCLA (L); UTEP (W); Southern Miss (W); [Iowa State (W)]
2000: UCLA (L); Southern Miss (L); UCF (L)
1999: Houston (W); Louisiana Tech (L); Southern Miss (W); [Michigan (L)]
1998: BYU (W); East Carolina (W); Southern Miss (W); [Virginia Tech (L)]
1997: Houston (W); Southern Miss (W); Louisiana Tech (L)
1996: Bowling Green (W); Southern Miss (W); NC State (W); [Michigan (W)]
1995: Southern Miss (W); NC State (W); North Texas (W)
1994: UT-Chattanooga (W); Tulane (W); Southern Miss (W); [Ohio State (W)]
1993: Tulane (W); Louisiana Tech (W); Southern Miss (W); [North Carolina (W)]
1992: Southern Miss (W); Louisiana Tech (W); Tulane (W); [Miami (W)]
1991: Temple (W); UT-Chattanooga (W); Tulane (W); Memphis St (W); [Colorado (W)]
1990: Southern Miss (L); SW Louisiana (W); Penn State (L); Cincinnati (W); [Louisville (L)]
1989: Memphis St. (W); SW Louisiana (W); Penn State (W); Southern Miss (W); [Miami (L)]
1988: Temple (W); Penn State (W); SW Louisiana (W); Texas A&M (W); [Army (W)]
1987: Southern Miss (W); Penn State (W); SW Louisiana (W); Memphis St. (L) Notre Dame (L); [Michigan (L)]
1986: Ohio State (W); Southern Miss (W); Notre Dame (W); Memphis St. (W); Penn State (L); Temple (W); [Washington (W)]
1985: Texas A&M (W); Cincinnati (W); Penn State (L); Memphis State (W); Southern Miss (W); [USC (W)]
1984: Boston College (L); Georgia Tech (L); SW Louisiana (W); Penn State (W); Cincinnati (W)
1983: Georgia Tech (W); Memphis St. (W); Penn State (L); Southern Miss (W) Boston College (L); [SMU (W)]
1982: Georgia Tech (W); Arkansas St. (W); Penn State (W); Cincinnati (W); Southern Miss (L); [Illinois (W)]
Over the last 25 years Alabama has posted a record of 88-28 (.759) against out of conference opponents (including bowl games.)
click to enlarge
Only Mike DuBose managed to lose all out of conference games in a single season (2000) and I think we'd all like to forget the fact that year even existed as far as what happened on the football field.
From 1991 to 1996, Alabama posted a 24-0 record against OOC opponents. That streak included wins over top tier teams like Miami, Ohio State and Michigan as well as other major conference teams like Colorado and NC State.
As I said earlier, I've broken this list down in a plethora of ways and will post my "findings" throughout the week. Enjoy....