I was a student at Rutgers in 1976. No one I knew on campus disagreed with the decision to refuse the bowl bid. We were ranked well above a number of teams who were in major bowls (including the big New Year's bowls). Knowing that, to be asked to play McNeese State in the first ever Independence bowl was insulting to the team and the school.

@Goawaykidyoubotherme

6 ай бұрын

Come on. You ran up your record on 1-aa teams. Cornell? UMass? Lehigh?

@williamsimpson716

6 ай бұрын

@@Goawaykidyoubotherme Not denying that. But the rankings were what they were. And those doing the rankings were well aware of the teams Rutgers played that year.

@ADGarvey1

6 ай бұрын

McNeese would have whipped that ass. We know why they declined. 😁

@jackrifleman562

6 ай бұрын

@@williamsimpson716 Bowl bids are driven by other factors such as how well the fan base travels and TV ratings. Strength of schedule could factor in as well. Not uncommon to see teams with a lot of wins get bids that aren't as good as "name" teams with worse records but who put a lot of butts in seats and draw better viewership. That's why you could get strange match-ups like an undefeated Brigham Young team playing a 6-5 Michigan team several years later. Not a knock on Rutgers, just how the bowl system worked.

@Pystdammit

6 ай бұрын

Because Mcneese would have beat them and they knew it.

Army turned down games during the W W 2 years, and they were national Champions. Back to back Heisman winners,Blanchard and Davis.In the mid and late 60's Army also turned down bowl games. So did Notre Dame. 1966 Undefeated National Champions did not go Bowling.

Don't forget Slippery Rock!!

Most of the teams on the schedule at the time were schools that Rutgers had been playing for decades.

Amazing how many empty seats are at how many bowl games these days... It's all about TV these days, with the Insignificant Bowl competing with the Neverheardofthenamedsponsor Bowl

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular (and college football fan)

This was a very good video. Really happy that the algorithm but it my feed

Nice. I had not realized that those “non major” programs were all D2 in 1976. They all became I-AA when that classification came into being in 1978 and the Ivy League was reclassified to that group in the early 1980s (along with some other conferences I believe). One note, prior to 1973, the NCAA had University (now D1) and College (which was split into D2 for those with scholarships and D3 for non-scholarship schools).

@thetouchback

7 ай бұрын

As you note, the time between 1973 and the early 1980s was pretty crazy in college football. When the DI and D2 were launched, the latter introduced the playoffs to determine a champion and, of course, when those D2 programs became 1-AA, they brought the playoffs with them.

@jschreck2

6 ай бұрын

​@@thetouchbackwhen did the 1-AA playoffs start?

@billdawson9253

6 ай бұрын

ND got forced to play Texas in a bowl in 1969-70. People had enough of their crap. The Horns held them off and won the title.

@thetouchback

6 ай бұрын

@@jschreck2 The first season of 1-AA was 1978 and featured a four-team playoff. However, DII and DIII had playoffs starting in 1973.

@mikebronicki8264

6 ай бұрын

​@@billdawson9253"ND got forced to play a bowl game in 1969." Yes, they traditionally refused bowl games until, beginning in 1968, the AP started taking their final poll AFTER the bowl season. I should note that the Coach's Poll (UPI at the time) still took their final poll at the end of the regular season in 1973 which is how Alabama earned a shared natty despite losing the Sugar Bowl to ND. The UPI switched to post-bowl champions the next season.

11:27: That was their second game of the season at Giants Stadium. Their own stadium only had a capacity of about 20,000 and as the team started winning games, this limited capacity may have become an issue. Their 7th game was played at Giants Stadium against Columbia and drew a crowd of 42,000. The end of season game against Colgate drew 33,000 and this may have been limited as it was a holiday weekend.

Notre Dame used to always dodge the bowls and claim championships. Then they would make movies about how great they were.

@user-xp6qd4sk1j

6 ай бұрын

LSU got snubbed out of a chance to play for the national title in '69. Tigers were lined up to play the horns in the cotton bowl for the championship. LSU was 9-1, only loss was to ole miss/archie manning. Tigers had best defense in the country. That's the year nd broke its self imposed bowl ban. irish took bowl invite for the cotton. LSU declined a lesser bowl invite

@RB-pm2ni

6 ай бұрын

They should get snubbed every year til they join a conference

@jasonv2323

6 ай бұрын

@@RB-pm2niwhy?

@CharlesFreck

5 ай бұрын

...You know it didn't matter if Notre Dame dodged those games or not right? They would've won the championships no matter what, championships were decided pre-bowl games until 1968. Notre Dame would've been taking all those championships anyway.

@jasonv2323

5 ай бұрын

You must not have any knowledge of how national championships worked and were given back then! Smh 🤦‍♂️

From the 1926 until 1969, Notre Dame had a policy of never playing in bowl games. This was especially highlighted in 1966 when the 1966 9-0-1 team ( the tie being a 10-10 tie in the "Game of the Century" with Michigan State) did not play a bowl game and won the National Title even though an 11-0 Alabama team did play a bowl game and beat Nebraska.

Rutgers was the greatest football team in college football's 1st year

@Diesel257

7 ай бұрын

Does that mean Princeton was the worst? 😂

@robertjack4329

6 ай бұрын

I thought the first season was a split national title. As silly as that sounds. Both teams 1-1.

@mmoney416

6 ай бұрын

@@robertjack4329 Princeton changed the rules in the 2nd game which they won. I don't consider that to be a "great team"

In Brooklyn, 20 yrs old, I knew nothing about this other than a sports page editorial cartoon in the New York Daily News by famed sports cartoonist Bill Gallo. A big broad-shouldered smiling football jock walking arm-in arm with a girl in an evening gown wearing a sash with something like "major bowl games" written on it, while a scrawny Cinderella-looking football player in the background representing Rutgers looked on. "Unbeaten, Untied, Uninvited" was the cartoon's tagline.

@lucasmembrane4763

6 ай бұрын

Rutgers at least had an invite to disregard. Back in 1932, IIRC, Colgate went unbeaten, untied, unscored-upon and uninvited.

The Rutgers-Princeton rivalry is a snapshot of American history. It gives an insight into how colleges function and why they have football teams. It proves the power of television. And it illustratess what makes the Ivy league different from other schools, at least in terms of how they generate revenue. As for the 1976 Rutgers teams, I'd bet a years salary they don't go undefeated if they had played in the big 10. Good video. Unfortunately modern bowl games are slightly more relevant than NFL preseason games. They should have kept everything the way it was and just have a one off National title after the New Years bowl games are played. The bowl games would make final judgements over which really are the 2 best teams. NO matter what it will always be a bell curve and one team will always be left out.

@sirbobloblaws

6 ай бұрын

Calling Rutgers-Princeton 1869 the first college football game is highly debatable. Descriptions of the game they played sound a lot more like soccer than any form of gridiron football.

@evenbet9603

6 ай бұрын

With a twelve team play off there's plenty of spots for the real contenders and a few pretenders. The first team that complains about not getting in should be banned for a year.

In modern times, Rutgers would give it’s right eye to play in the independence bowl.

@thetouchback

6 ай бұрын

Ironically, 5-7 Rutgers were happy to take up one of those APR bowl bids handed out to sub .500 teams in 2021.

good video- nicely presented- glad your channel found me :)

@thetouchback

7 ай бұрын

I appreciate the kind words!

Interesting story, thanks for sharing.

good video - interesting story.... On the plus side, Rudgers 1976 basketball team went 31-2 and made the NCAA Final Four. FYI, based on the title of your video, I thought it was going to be about the 1951 University of San Francisco Dons. I'm sure a fellow Cal Bear like you knows their story. If not, you can get information about it. After all, their Sports Information Officer was Pete Rozelle.

@thetouchback

6 ай бұрын

The Dons story is incredible and there was a documentary put out a few years back that did a really good job of covering those events. Similarly, Pete Rozelle going from Compton Community College student SID assistant to USF SID department to Rams GM to NFL Commissioner via a few other jobs along the way is absolutely wild.

@NiktoonsTV

6 ай бұрын

Only to run into the last undefeated team in basketball history, tough.

"It's national championship game or nothing"

Good video

Most outstanding!!!

Rutgers ran up a record on the little sister's of the poor and thought they were Alabama or something

UCF would raise a National Champions banner if they were in Rutgers’ shoes 🙄

@user-wp6zs2gk6l

6 ай бұрын

Good one. LMFAO

@RonD937

6 ай бұрын

UCF did declare themselves national champions.

@andrewalden8364

6 ай бұрын

@@RonD937 Yeah, that’s the joke

@chadmonk-po5yj

6 ай бұрын

​@@andrewalden8364They did get a trophy from that poll though

In 2003 Northern Illinois went 10-2 beat Alabama, beat Iowa State, beat Maryland and did not get invited to a bowl game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

@crazyanimegamer5667

7 ай бұрын

The fuck? How?!

@sirbobloblaws

6 ай бұрын

@@crazyanimegamer5667 This was before ESPN Bowl Week (really two weeks) became what it is now. With fewer bowls back then, there were fewer MAC bowl tie-ins. Two conference losses put NIU on the outside looking in.

@crazyanimegamer5667

6 ай бұрын

@@sirbobloblaws Not every single 10-2 mid major is worse than a 6-6 power 5. Hell Bosie State won a new years six while going 10-2. Most of the big boys are just afraid.

@sirbobloblaws

6 ай бұрын

@@crazyanimegamer5667 I was describing how the system was a bit different back then. Current bowl matchups (most are G5 v G5 and P5 v P5) have little to do with fear, but what makes the most money.

@crazyanimegamer5667

6 ай бұрын

@@sirbobloblaws True. Also I should have been more specific. It's definitely mostly about money. But personally I think the NCAA is afraid of a older more established program losing to a younger program that hasn't been good for very long. It's BS. The best should get their shot, not the average just because they'd make more money.

Well stay home, make no money, get no eyeballs for recruiting. What a wonderful idea.

You know, I'd rather see an undefeated team reject the invitation and stay home instead of Florida State starting all their bench warmers and getting absolutely crushed on primetime national TV in the Orange Bowl as some sort of half-assed "protest" 🙄

@CharlesFreck

5 ай бұрын

It wasn't a protest. None of the starting line up wanted to play. They only had third string players, no one else wanted to play. Why risk injury when you're looking at the NFL draft/staying healthy for another season? Makes zero sense to play a nothing game and be crippled and never be able to play football again.

Its good that college football finally has a 12 team playoff system

@johnbradbury8610

6 ай бұрын

Only college football would decide a bowl before the last game of the season. I prefer the NFL

FSU should've declined their bowl bid lol. They couldve been quitters witthout getting stomped on national tv too.

@jasonv2323

6 ай бұрын

Getting stomped proved the committee was right

In 1961 Ohio State went 8-0-1, was ranked second nationally and declined an invitation to play in the Rose Bowl.

@williamford9564

6 ай бұрын

That was a very interesting story and resulted from a battle within the university over how much university money was being used for athletics ( versus academics). The head of the OSU alumni association had been railing for years about an "overemphasis" on football. Apparently the school's Faculty Council had to agree to any participation in a bowl game ( The Rose Bowl) and in that year, that alum convinced enough members of the council to vote no so that the motion failed on a 28 no to 25 yes vote. It was also thought to be a backlash against the growing power of Woody Hayes. The school president declined to overturn the verdict. The backlash from the student body and the local media was severe and in 1962 and thereafter any votes to take part in bowl games was approved.

A better story is the 1951 University of San Francisco football team that had 3 hall of famers and went undefeated , then rejected the bid for the national championship game.

@twilafan

6 ай бұрын

There were two Black players on that team who wanted to play in the Orange Bowl but were denied for Jim Crow reasons. As a result, USF not only turned down the game but, adding insult to injury, killed football.

@lancezenner6177

6 ай бұрын

@@twilafan My father attended USF from 1952 -1956 and played ball with Bill Russell. It was just the year before his freshman year that the Dons had such a great Football Team. K.C. Jones was a very good Football player who was granted his only college scholarship by the Dons. He accepted and then they decided to drop the program for financial reasons. I had the pleasure of meeting Burl Toler and Ollie Matson from that team. Mr. Toler was a very sweet and charming man. Very humble and was the first Black NFL referee. Asked to become a referee after he suffered a career ending injury in an unfortunate preseason game just before he would have undoubtedly been drafted. Ollie Matson went on to have a great professional career with the 49ers. That was a special team. All players on that team stood for being known as equals both on and off the field of play. I believe that small all boys Catholic Jesuit college lead the way in Sports for how the attitudes needed to change for the times.

@lancezenner6177

6 ай бұрын

@@twilafan correction, they had I believe 4 black players but two that were highly recruited to move on to the NFL. They had I think 3 or 4 future Hall of Fame players.

@twilafan

6 ай бұрын

​@@lancezenner6177Thanks for clarifying.

If you’ve ever driven through Shreveport/Bossier City, you’d see why teams don’t want to go there. Stadium looks like an erector set and unless you like Casinos or drinking a lot of booze not much is there.

@PCSPounder

6 ай бұрын

There was kind of a reference in the video to a lack of payment Rutgers wasn’t going to receive by going to the Independence. Truth is, the Independence is kind of a pay-to-play bowl. They’ll “pay” a guarantee, but they want a minimum ticket purchase in order to participate. So it’s probably no surprise several schools passed up on that bowl back then. That was a standard practice for a lot of these lesser bowls 10-15 years ago… if someone’s really trying to pull that off now, given how the bowls are now devalued, that’s definitely on them. Not to say that Shreveport sucks or not… in fact, that guaranteed ticket purchase indicates that the locals don’t really consider that game. Then again, I know I got a handful of free tickets to the Boise bowl game because they simply didn’t sell enough on the merits of the invitees unless Boise State was selected.

@user-wp6zs2gk6l

6 ай бұрын

I like Shreveport/Bossier City. I think it's a nice area. My cousin and her family live there and I like to sometimes go there to visit them.

@thetouchback

6 ай бұрын

Boise State and, in another time, Idaho.

@bigglilwayne7050

6 ай бұрын

One of the greatest bowl games ever was the Independence Snow Bowl

Denying the bowl game does what for the team and players? Did proving a point and robbing your seniors help anything? Smh

You may want to take a dna test and reach out to Hugh Freeze.

Isn't cheaper pick it up

"Scamdemik" season.

The team that Should have rejected a bowl bid this year was the Florida Seminole s !

Rutgers schedule was so weak it is funny. They are not a force in any sport - Weak programs

What is this, FSU copium 2 days early? 63-3 is still the worst bowl performance in history, especially for a bunch of crybabies who are now 11-1.

@connorjordan3551

7 ай бұрын

FSU should have declined and stayed undefeated. That shit we saw was half a team with no QB.

@user-wp6zs2gk6l

6 ай бұрын

FSU would've just been better off declining the invitation to the Orange Bowl instead of being embarrassed on national television.

@demiller74

6 ай бұрын

@@user-wp6zs2gk6l who cares! My school lost their bowl game, I’m not bitching!

@user-wp6zs2gk6l

6 ай бұрын

@@demiller74 I am not bitching. I am not even an FSU fan. I was just saying that they could have done themselves a favor by declining the bowl bid and not getting embarrassed on national television. My school actually won their bowl game today, as I am actually a Tennessee Vol.

@mrlaw711

6 ай бұрын

FSU missing lost of players, and for multiple reasons. Arguably, FSU stuck it to the bowl committee.

He said it right, political, as same as today. Division 1 should only play Division 1 teams. It's a joke where Alabama & most teams play very low college teams.

Mentioning Florida State because using actual talent to get attention by staying on the topic of the video must be terrifying. Fantastic, lames

Why is it that every country in the world that plays proper football competes for a cup but as usual America has to be different and compete for a bowl?

@thetouchback

6 ай бұрын

Bowls don't actually refer to the prize but the shape of the stadium (i.e., Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl). And, of course, by the 1960s, the term had become so synonymous with big football games that we got the Super Bowl where the winner gets a trophy.

The college bowl system was and is a joke. Just got worse over the decades.

No one watches 99% of the bowl games. The top players wont even play in them unless they are in the playoffs. Bowl games are a joke. Id rather watch the fcs playoffs then a worthless bowl game.