Program

James Madison

All-time winning %

0.7900

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

2022-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

4 Trips to FCS Championship splitting those visits



Appalachian State

All-time winning %

0.6100

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

1972-1981; 2014-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

B2B2B 3 Peat FCS National Champions; Beats 9-4 Mich in thriller; beats 5-7 A&M with game control from start to finish; Tenn and Penn St snatch victory from the jaws of defeat



Coastal Carolina

All-time winning %

0.6000

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

2017-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

A Louisiana cancellation away from a CV19 Access Bowl Championship; embarrasses KU twice



Troy

All-time winning %

0.5600

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

2001-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

Beats LSU and Nebraska; an App State hail mary away from a hypothetical access bowl win



Southern Mississippi

All-time winning %

0.5400

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

1963-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

104 wins against teams that are now P4 UCF, UH, Cinci included(it doesn't matter how many games were played)



Georgia Southern

All-time winning %

0.5200

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

2014-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

8 Trips to FCS Championship taking a decisive 6 of those; Beats Nebraska and has Georgia on ropes in OT



Marshall

All-time winning %

0.4800

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

1962-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

6 Trips to FCS Championship; 31 current P4 wins (UCF, UH, Cinci Included); beats 9-4 Notre Dame



University of Louisiana at Lafayette

All-time winning %

0.4600

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

1973-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

B2B Top 16 AP finishes



Arkansas State

All-time winning %

0.4400

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

1974-1981; 1990-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

Beats A&M, Kansas St



Old Dominion

All-time winning %

0.4100

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

2014-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

Held 17-0 lead against Wake at home into the locker room



South Alabama

All-time winning %

0.4100

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

2012-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

Throttles 10-4 OKST and finishes 7-6; beats the 6-7 cowbells



Georgia State

All-time winning %

0.3800

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

2013-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

Beats 8-5 Tenn and finishes 7-6



University of Louisiana at Monroe

All-time winning %

0.3500

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

1975-1981; 1994-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

Beats 7-6 Alabama, 4-8 Arkansas, has several P5s on ropes



Texas State

All-time winning %

0.3300

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

2012-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

Beats 3-9 Baylor on the road after 8 losing seasons; 2 B2B D2 Nattys 4 decades ago

If Marshall's 7-year stretch when we went 80-13, won 6 conference titles, won 5 bowl games, had 2 Heisman Finalists and was one place away from a third, a Top 10 BCS ranking, finished the season ranked 4 times, defeated a ranked MWC Champion in a bowl game, beat Clemson and USC on their home field, and then followed that up by hanging the only regular season loss on the 2003 Big 12 champ doesn't qualify as its Peak Program Highlights, then it's probably going to be written fairly poorly.

(04-25-2024 05:50 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  If Marshall's 7-year stretch when we went 80-13, won 6 conference titles, won 5 bowl games, had 2 Heisman Finalists and was one place away from a third, a Top 10 BCS ranking, finished the season ranked 4 times, defeated a ranked MWC Champion in a bowl game, beat Clemson and USC on their home field, and then followed that up by hanging the only regular season loss on the 2003 Big 12 champ doesn't qualify as its Peak Program Highlights, then it's probably going to be written fairly poorly.

Didn't we have 3 Heisman finalists with two going to New York? And 5 championships...'97,'98,'99,'00, and '02. Unless counting SoCon in '96. Toledo won 2001, Miami won the East in 2003 with Rapistburger, and I don't know who won in '04 but it wasn't us.

(04-25-2024 07:34 PM)MUther Wrote:  Didn't we have 3 Heisman finalists with two going to New York? And 5 championships...'97,'98,'99,'00, and '02. Unless counting SoCon in '96. Toledo won 2001, Miami won the East in 2003 with Rapistburger, and I don't know who won in '04 but it wasn't us.

No, only Moss and Pennington were official finalists. Leftwich finished 6th in voting in 2002, but only 5 were invited that year to New York as finalists. He likely would have been if he hadn't suffered his leg injury in November.

The stats provided was 96-02, the first 7 seasons of the Pruett era.

(04-25-2024 09:18 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(04-25-2024 07:34 PM)MUther Wrote:  Didn't we have 3 Heisman finalists with two going to New York? And 5 championships...'97,'98,'99,'00, and '02. Unless counting SoCon in '96. Toledo won 2001, Miami won the East in 2003 with Rapistburger, and I don't know who won in '04 but it wasn't us.

No, only Moss and Pennington were official finalists. Leftwich finished 6th in voting in 2002, but only 5 were invited that year to New York as finalists. He likely would have been if he hadn't suffered his leg injury in November.

The stats provided was 96-02, the first 7 seasons of the Pruett era.

Well if we're including '96 might as well mention the National Championship and 2 undefeated seasons during that span. I thought you were just talking FBS stuff, but thanks for the clarification. So much going on in those years it's tough to keep it all straight.

If I had a time machine gong back and watching Randy play here would be on the list. Never got to see him play for the Herd in person. I had a pretty good excuse, living in Alaska at the time. But it was hard seeing the stats and not the games. I was fortunate I got back in '99 to see that season. Last game I saw before that was losing to Youngstown in '91 for the NC in Statesboro. That was a long busride home. I missed a lot of our best years in the 90s. They didn't have 15 ESPN channels back then so finding games was tough just to see them at all, plus the 4 hour time change.

(04-26-2024 08:06 AM)MUther Wrote:  

(04-25-2024 09:18 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(04-25-2024 07:34 PM)MUther Wrote:  Didn't we have 3 Heisman finalists with two going to New York? And 5 championships...'97,'98,'99,'00, and '02. Unless counting SoCon in '96. Toledo won 2001, Miami won the East in 2003 with Rapistburger, and I don't know who won in '04 but it wasn't us.

No, only Moss and Pennington were official finalists. Leftwich finished 6th in voting in 2002, but only 5 were invited that year to New York as finalists. He likely would have been if he hadn't suffered his leg injury in November.

The stats provided was 96-02, the first 7 seasons of the Pruett era.

Well if we're including '96 might as well mention the National Championship and 2 undefeated seasons during that span. I thought you were just talking FBS stuff, but thanks for the clarification. So much going on in those years it's tough to keep it all straight.

If I had a time machine gong back and watching Randy play here would be on the list. Never got to see him play for the Herd in person. I had a pretty good excuse, living in Alaska at the time. But it was hard seeing the stats and not the games. I was fortunate I got back in '99 to see that season. Last game I saw before that was losing to Youngstown in '91 for the NC in Statesboro. That was a long busride home. I missed a lot of our best years in the 90s. They didn't have 15 ESPN channels back then so finding games was tough just to see them at all, plus the 4 hour time change.

2 undefeated seasons, 2 1-AA Nattys, and don't forget beating #6 Kansas State in Manhattan.

bravo...nice work here! thanks for the good laugh

Who is the best FBS football program of all time that has current SBC membership? Is it USM or Marshall?

For Troy...

3 National Titles. 8 SBC titles since 2006. Ranked wins over LSU / Missouri / UTSA. Wins over Oklahoma State, Nebraska, and Mississippi State (2x) since becoming FBS in 2001.

(04-26-2024 12:45 PM)Johnnychimpo Wrote:  Who is the best FBS football program of all time that has current SBC membership? Is it USM or Marshall?

Has to be USM. For more than 20 years, USM would play anyone, anywhere, anytime and beat several P5 programs. In the 70's and 80's they had quite a name as an independent.

Marshall didn't become FBS until 1997.

(04-26-2024 12:45 PM)TroyFootball05 Wrote:  For Troy...

3 National Titles. 8 SBC titles since 2006. Ranked wins over LSU / Missouri / UTSA. Wins over Oklahoma State, Nebraska, and Mississippi State (2x) since becoming FBS in 2001.

Troy has a solid program. Happy to share a conference with y'all.

(04-26-2024 08:06 AM)MUther Wrote:  

(04-25-2024 09:18 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(04-25-2024 07:34 PM)MUther Wrote:  Didn't we have 3 Heisman finalists with two going to New York? And 5 championships...'97,'98,'99,'00, and '02. Unless counting SoCon in '96. Toledo won 2001, Miami won the East in 2003 with Rapistburger, and I don't know who won in '04 but it wasn't us.

No, only Moss and Pennington were official finalists. Leftwich finished 6th in voting in 2002, but only 5 were invited that year to New York as finalists. He likely would have been if he hadn't suffered his leg injury in November.

The stats provided was 96-02, the first 7 seasons of the Pruett era.

Well if we're including '96 might as well mention the National Championship and 2 undefeated seasons during that span. I thought you were just talking FBS stuff, but thanks for the clarification. So much going on in those years it's tough to keep it all straight.

If I had a time machine gong back and watching Randy play here would be on the list. Never got to see him play for the Herd in person. I had a pretty good excuse, living in Alaska at the time. But it was hard seeing the stats and not the games. I was fortunate I got back in '99 to see that season. Last game I saw before that was losing to Youngstown in '91 for the NC in Statesboro. That was a long busride home. I missed a lot of our best years in the 90s. They didn't have 15 ESPN channels back then so finding games was tough just to see them at all, plus the 4 hour time change.

Don't forget the most wins by a Division 1 program in the 1990's, with Florida State coming in second.

(04-25-2024 05:07 PM)Johnnychimpo Wrote:  Program


Arkansas State

All-time winning %

0.4400

Recognized Years for record (per Sports Reference)

1974-1981; 1990-2023

Peak Program Highlights at any level

Beats A&M, Kansas St

A-State's first year at the top level was 1975. 11-0. Still hold record for combined block kicks last I looked with 11. Allowed 8.x points per game. 12 or so players on that team signed/played in NFL/CFL. Tied with ND for 21st in final AP poll I think.

For some it will be NIL killed me.

(04-27-2024 07:53 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  For some it will be NIL killed me.

My first thought was along those lines:

Southern Miss football passed on from this life after a decades-long battle with college sports becoming a money grab, the effects of which were exacerbated by poor decisions.

(04-27-2024 10:48 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(04-27-2024 07:53 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  For some it will be NIL killed me.

My first thought was along those lines:

Southern Miss football passed on from this life after a decades-long battle with college sports becoming a money grab, the effects of which were exacerbated by poor decisions.

addendum: "Anyone Anytime Anywhere" was one helluva ride on the emotional roller coaster riding 'more with less'. (yeah, they screwed up the order in the original)

from triple A to TTT ...

We all have the same obit.

We had some great times and some tragic times, but in the end we all died from individualism overtaking a team sport.

The days of great decades for G5 programs are over, happy we had one when we did. You don’t become great without tradition,’one class passing it on to the next. When you replace 40-50 players a year and are lucky to have a handful of players with 4-5 in the program, an occasional good year is about all you can hope for and that’s mainly because everybody else will be bad too. You just hope to be less bad. Individual talent doesn’t make great teams, great teamwork makes great teams.

I would think ODUs 2 victories over Virginia Tech, the Bahamas bowl victory, top 10 FCS rankings or CAA championship would all be higher "peaks" than blowing a 17 pt lead to WF.

(04-30-2024 11:12 AM)monarx Wrote:  would all be higher "peaks" than blowing a 17 pt lead to WF.

When you have a short football history like Texas State (didn’t move up to FCS until 87 and didn’t do anything notable until 2004) top 5 of 10 program moments can easily be defined by national exposure.

In TXST’s case it is so limited a top moment can be taking a 17 point lead into half at UH as a transition team and preserving that lead.
Or it can be scoring 55 points on LT (9-1 top 25) and still coming up short.
Or holding a 15 point lead on 6-6 Illinois 1 min before half only to come out in the 2nd half and throw an INT returned for 50 yards for Ill to ice the comeback.

Or a 14 point lead on 6-5 BC just seconds before the end of the 3rd quarter just to squander it away. Program highlights can be boringsome to normal programs.

I feel like our administration already wrote it a year or two ago and is just waiting to send it out for publication.

"2019, 2020, and 2021 were awesome seasons...now our work here is done. No more need to fret and worry, we can lay peacefully forever in eternity." - Martin Hall & The Athletic Department