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The Last Time Anyone Lost to a Non-BCS Team

A couple of weeks ago, I looked at when the last time each SEC team lost to a non-BCS team was. I decided later to look at when all of the BCS conference teams (and Notre Dame) fell to a non-BCS team.

I thought then that it was strange that only a third of the SEC has managed to avoid such a loss in the last decade. Turns out, that's not too bad. The entire list is after the jump, but here's all the BCS teams that have avoided a loss to a non-BCS program in the last 10 years:

  1. Florida, lost to Memphis 10/8/88.
  2. FSU, lost to Southern Miss 9/2/89.
  3. Ohio State, lost to Air Force 12/27/90.
  4. Auburn, lost to Southern Miss 10/5/91.
  5. Texas, lost to Louisville 9/25/93.
  6. Georgia, lost to Southern Miss 8/31/96.
  7. Boston College, lost to Navy 10/24/98.
  8. South Carolina, lost to East Carolina 9/18/99
  9. Miami, lost to East Carolina 9/25/99.

Without a non-BCS loss this season, we'll see LSU, Arkansas, and Penn State added to this list.

The conference with the most wins of this type is the MWC with 18, followed by CUSA with 16 and the MAC with 12. East Carolina and Southern Miss are tied for the greatest number of most-recent-non-BCS-losses with five apiece, followed by Fresno State, Navy, Toledo, UNLV, and Utah with four each.

The SEC is easily the best conference overall at avoiding non-BCS losses. The average amount of time between the teams' last losses and the recent national title game comes out to 2,852.5 days (second place is the ACC with an average of 1,695), and the median was 2,613.5 (second place is the Big Ten with 782 days).

The full list with the season records of each team at the time and sites is after the jump.

Star-divide

The conferences reflect where teams are now, except in rare circumstances (like Louisville in '93, which was independent then but in the Big East now). A favorable neutral site game was a regular season game played much closer to the BCS conference school than its opponent; an unfavorable neutral site game is the opposite.

South Florida is listed at the bottom with all hyphens because it has not yet lost to a non-BCS school since joining the Big East.

ConferenceTeamRecordConferenceOpponentRecordDateSite
SEC Florida 7-5 CUSA Memphis 6-5 10/8/1988 Home
ACC Florida St. 10-2 CUSA Southern Miss 5-6 9/2/1989 Neutral-Favorable
Big Ten Ohio St. 7-4-1 MWC Air Force 7-5 12/27/1990 Bowl-Liberty
SEC Auburn 5-6 CUSA Southern Miss 4-7 10/5/1991 Home
Big 12 Texas 5-5-1 Independent Louisville 9-3 9/25/1993 Road
SEC Georgia 5-6 CUSA Southern Miss 8-3 8/31/1996 Home
ACC Boston College 4-7 Independent Navy 3-8 10/24/1998 Home
SEC South Carolina 0-11 CUSA East Carolina 9-3 9/18/1999 Home
ACC Miami (FL) 9-4 CUSA East Carolina 9-3 9/25/1999 Neutral-Unfavorable
Big Ten Penn St. 5-7 MAC Toledo 10-1 9/2/2000 Home
SEC LSU 8-4 CUSA UAB 7-4 9/23/2000 Home
SEC Arkansas 6-6 MWC UNLV 8-5 12/21/2000 Bowl-Las Vegas
Pac-10 Southern California 6-6 MWC Utah 8-4 12/25/2001 Bowl-Las Vegas
Big Ten Wisconsin 7-6 MWC UNLV 6-6 9/13/2003 Home
Big 12 Nebraska 5-6 CUSA Southern Miss 7-5 9/11/2004 Home
SEC Kentucky 2-9 MAC Ohio 4-7 10/2/2004 Home
Big 12 Missouri 7-5 MWC New Mexico 6-5 9/10/2005 Home
SEC Mississippi 3-8 MWC Wyoming 4-7 9/24/2005 Home
Big East Cincinnati 4-7 MAC Miami (OH) 7-4 9/28/2005 Road
Big 12 Kansas 6-6 MAC Toledo 5-7 9/15/2006 Road
Big Ten Northwestern 4-8 WAC Nevada 8-5 9/22/2006 Road
Big East Connecticut 4-8 Independent Navy 9-4 9/30/2006 Home
Big 12 Baylor 3-9 MWC TCU 8-5 9/1/2007 Road
ACC North Carolina St. 5-7 CUSA UCF 10-4 9/1/2007 Home
ACC North Carolina 4-8 CUSA East Carolina 8-5 9/8/2007 Road
Big Ten Minnesota 1-11 I-AA North Dakota St. - 10/20/2007 Home
Big Ten Iowa 6-6 MAC Western Mich. 5-7 11/17/2007 Home
ACC Georgia Tech 7-6 WAC Fresno St. 9-4 12/31/2007 Bowl-Humanitarian
Big 12 Texas A&M 4-8 Sun Belt Arkansas St. 6-6 8/30/2008 Home
Big East Pittsburgh 6-6 MAC Bowling Green 6-6 8/30/2008 Home
ACC Virginia Tech 10-4 CUSA East Carolina 9-5 8/30/2008 Neutral
Big East Rutgers 8-5 WAC Fresno St. 7-6 9/1/2008 Home
Big East Syracuse 3-9 MAC Akron 5-7 9/6/2008 Home
Pac-10 Washington 0-12 MWC BYU 10-3 9/6/2008 Home
Big East West Virginia 9-4 CUSA East Carolina 9-5 9/6/2008 Road
Pac-10 Arizona 8-5 MWC New Mexico 4-8 9/13/2008 Road
Pac-10 Stanford 5-7 MWC TCU 11-2 9/13/2008 Road
Pac-10 Arizona St. 5-7 MWC UNLV 5-7 9/13/2008 Home
Big 12 Iowa St. 2-10 MWC UNLV 5-7 9/20/2008 Road
Pac-10 UCLA 4-8 WAC Fresno St. 7-6 9/27/2008 Home
Big Ten Michigan 3-9 MAC Toledo 3-9 10/11/2008 Home
Big Ten Indiana 3-9 MAC Central Mich. 8-5 11/1/2008 Home
SEC Tennessee 5-7 MWC Wyoming 4-8 11/8/2008 Home
SEC Alabama 12-2 MWC Utah 13-0 1/2/2009 Bowl-Sugar
Pac-10 Oregon 10-3 WAC Boise St. 14-0 9/3/2009 Road
Big 12 Oklahoma 8-5 MWC BYU 11-2 9/5/2009 Neutral-Favorable
ACC Duke 5-7 I-AA Richmond - 9/5/2009 Home
Big 12 Colorado 3-9 MAC Toledo 5-7 9/11/2009 Road
Big Ten Michigan St. 6-7 MAC Central Mich. 12-2 9/12/2009 Home
Pac-10 Washington St. 1-11 WAC Hawaii 6-7 9/12/2009 Home
Big 12 Oklahoma St. 9-4 CUSA Houston 10-4 9/12/2009 Home
Big 12 Kansas St. 6-6 Sun Belt La.-Lafayette 6-6 9/12/2009 Road
ACC Maryland 2-10 Sun Belt Middle Tenn. 10-3 9/19/2009 Home
Big Ten Purdue 5-7 MAC Northern Ill. 7-6 9/19/2009 Home
ACC Virginia 3-9 CUSA Southern Miss 7-6 9/19/2009 Road
Big 12 Texas Tech 9-4 CUSA Houston 10-4 9/26/2009 Road
Big East Louisville 4-8 MWC Utah 10-3 9/26/2009 Road
SEC Vanderbilt 2-10 Independent Army 5-7 10/10/2009 Road
SEC Mississippi St. 5-7 CUSA Houston 10-4 10/10/2009 Home
ACC Wake Forest 5-7 Independent Navy 10-4 10/24/2009 Road
Independent Notre Dame 6-6 Independent Navy 10-4 11/7/2009 Home
Big Ten Illinois 3-9 WAC Fresno St. 8-5 12/5/2009 Home
Pac-10 Oregon St. 8-5 MWC BYU 11-2 12/22/2009 Bowl-Las Vegas
Pac-10 California 8-5 MWC Utah 10-3 12/23/2009 Bowl-Poinsettia
Big East South Fla. - - - - - -

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you forgot

Michigan’s loss th APP. St. :-l

...in dixie land i'll take my stand to root for Atlanta

by southman on Jun 2, 2010 6:26 PM EDT reply actions  

The loss to Toledo was more recent, and I was only looking at the last time teams lost to non-BCS opponents.

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SBNation's SEC Blog

by Year2 on Jun 2, 2010 9:18 PM EDT up reply actions  

Great data

One note… Missouri lost to Navy last year

Longest Atlanta Falcons winning-seasons streak: 2008 - current
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by Jason Kirk on Jun 3, 2010 7:32 PM EDT reply actions  

Another thing that is noteworthy:

ten of the SEC teams lost to non-BCS opponents in down to very down years.

The exceptions are an 8-4 LSU (to UAB) and 10-2 Alabama (to undefeated Utah). Good SEC teams apparently do not lose to non-BCS foes. That may be typical for the other conferences too. I only checked out the SEC teams’ season record.

by GwinnettGamecock on Jun 4, 2010 12:24 AM EDT reply actions  

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