1954 McMNC: Ohio State Buckeyes

AP Top 10: Final Record -- Key Bowl Results

1. Ohio State: 10-0-0 -- W, Rose, 20-7
2. UCLA: 9-0-0 -- None
3. Oklahoma: 10-0-0 -- None
4. Notre Dame: 9-1-0 -- None
5. Navy: 8-2-0 -- W, Sugar, 21-0
6. Mississippi: 9-2-0 -- L, Sugar, 0-21
7. Army: 7-2-0 -- None
8. Maryland: 7-2-1 -- None
9. Wisconsin: 7-2-0 -- None
10. Arkansas: 8-3-0 -- L, Cotton, 6-14

Okay, so basically, we have four options here: Ohio State ran the table and won a bowl game, UCLA ran the table but was prevented from the Rose Bowl because of the "no repeat" rules in effect, Oklahoma ran the table but was prevented from the Orange Bowl for the same reason, and Notre Dame almost ran the table.

It's interesting to note that NAVY played in the Sugar Bowl. If Navy was taking bowl bids, why the heck wasn't Notre Dame?!

But I digress ...

Let's start with the Irish: their SOS rating is 51%, and the game they lost was at home, to 5-3-1 Purdue, by 13 points. Not a bad loss, but certainly not a close loss, either. Plus, since it was at home, it's worse. In general, this loss will probably eliminate the Irish from consideration here, especially since the Boilermakers lost at home to Ohio State by 22 points. Transitive score believer or not, that's not a good comparison for Notre Dame at all. And, of course, they didn't play in a bowl. Imagine if Notre Dame has beaten Mississippi in the Sugar Bowl instead of Navy, though. Then we'd be talking about a whole new comparison here.

Oklahoma ran the table, but their SOS rating was weak at 46% ... they played 7-3 Kansas State, 7-2-1 Colorado, 6-5 Nebraska, and 5-4-1 Oklahoma A&M/State. They didn;t play a ranked team all season, in fact. To their credit, they did play six road games, including a jaunt to Berkeley (to face the 5-5 Golden Bears). But in general, this wasn't a strong schedule, and of course, they didn't play in a bowl game. Maybe they were lucky not to?

UCLA played an even weaker schedule than Oklahoma did, playing to a 41% SOS rating. Hello?! Their first game, a 67-0 shellacking over "San Diego Navy", was the only game that opponent played all year, so this 41% could have been a lot worse. They did, however, beat #8 Maryland at home by a 12-7 score, so at least they played a ranked team (unlike Oklahoma). They beat Stanford, 72-0, at home, and the Indians were 4-6 in 1954 -- hardly terrible. They beat 6-4 Oregon, 41-0, at home, and they beat #17 USC (8-4-0), 34-0, at home, too. Clearly UCLA was a good team, as they handled ranked teams, middling teams and poor teams alike. But an overall 41% SOS rating is just lame.

Ohio State won the Rose Bowl over USC, 20-7. That comparative score pales big-time to UCLA's whitewashing of the Trojans. The Buckeyes have a better SOS rating than the Bruins do (49%), albeit still not "good". Crazy how the Top 3 teams in the AP poll all played weak schedules, eh? Ohio State beat 5-4 Iowa at home by six points; they beat #9 Wisconsin (7-2) at home, 31-14; as noted above, they beat 5-3-1 Purdue on the road, and they beat both #15 Michigan (6-3) at home by 14 points and #17 USC in the Rose Bowl. They have wins over three ranked teams, and they won a bowl game to go undefeated and untied.

If UCLA had played in a bowl game, they would have played Ohio State. It's sad to think the nation was deprived of a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in the Granddaddy in 1954, but that's the way it goes. UCLA suffered because of a dumb rule that would eventually be revoked, but oh well ... that's the breaks. Of course, the Bruins lost the Rose Bowl in 1953 and 1955, anyway, so they probably would have lost this one, too.

Way to go, Woody ... you've won your first McMNC.

McMNC Revisions
1. Ohio State
2. UCLA
3. Oklahoma
4. Notre Dame
5. Mississippi

RUNNING SCORECARD:
Tennessee: +1938, +1942, +1950, -1951
Georgia Tech: +1952
Illinois: +1951
Michigan: +1947, =1948
Georgia: +1946
Alabama: +1945
Purdue: +1943
Stanford: +1940
California: +1937
Oklahoma: +1949, -1950
Pittsburgh: +1936, -1937
Texas A&M: =1939
Michigan State: -1952, +1953
Ohio State: -1942, +1944, =1954
TCU: -1938
Maryland: -1953
Army: -1944, -1945
Minnesota: -1936, -1940, =1941
Notre Dame: -1943, -1946, -1947, -1949