Blown Me Away Stat of the Century

Submitted by Ziff72 on

On Rittenberg's blog he has Nebraska's series record against the Big Ten and I saw that Indiana has a winning record against Nebraska (9-7-3).  Who would have put money on that?  That is one of the most absurb stats I have ever heard.  Was Indiana once a football school? I know power shifts over years,  but is there a team with less tradition in football than Indiana?   Upon further analysis I found other similar stats.

Northwestern leads Kentucky all time in basketball

Vanderbilt holds a slight edge over Alabama all time in football

The Detroit Lions have a winning record against the Green Bay Packers

Antelopes kill Cheetahs more often than Cheetahs kill antelopes.

Freakin Crazy....

 

 

 

 

MGoDC

June 15th, 2010 at 1:32 PM ^

That would blow me away except that everybody knows Sparty likes to live in the shadow of at least one school. If they win the Big Ten that puts them in the spotlight, and Sparty doesnt have the sunscreen for that.

MGoDC

June 15th, 2010 at 1:31 PM ^

The "blown me away stat of the century" is "0 vs. 500" as in:

The number of anti-D'antonio articles written about recruiting/keeping convicted criminals on his team by the local papers.

vs.

The number of anti-Rodriguez articles written by local papers about recruiting a kid out of high school with a chequered past who will, as it turns out, never don the winged helmet.

Tater

June 15th, 2010 at 1:33 PM ^

The Lions dominated the 1950's while the Packers were a bad team.  It wasn't until Vince Lombardi arrived with the first mandatory weightlifting program in major professional sports that the Packers became dominant. 

After getting pushed around by the Packers running "student body left" and "student body right" for a few years, the rest of the league finally stopped buying into the "conventional wisdom" of the time which said that weightlifting made a person "muscle-bound" and didn't improve sports performance; soon, every team had mandatory weightlifting.  This negated the Packers' advantage over the rest of the league, Lombardi eventually left, and the Packers subsequently had a few more lean years in the aftermath. 

I find it sorta sad that Lombardi gets so much credit for coaching, but so little credit for being the person who ignored widespread criticism, did what he knew was correct, and introduced weightlifting into sports conditioning.  

Back to the original subject, the Packers were great with Lombardi as coach and Bart Starr as a QB, and very good with Brett Favre.  The rest of their history isn't all that great.   IIRC, the Packers had a very Millen-ian era for awhile, too; unfortunately, part of it was when Starr was their coach. 

 

mgovictors23

June 15th, 2010 at 1:39 PM ^

My favorite is that the University of Chicago has more Big Ten titles than Michigan State. I know this was already mentioned but it's such a great statistic.

BigBlue02

June 15th, 2010 at 2:09 PM ^

It wasn't just mentioned, it was the exact same post as yours except you changed MSU to Michigan State. Although the change really brought out the meaning in the post. Kudos.

befuggled

June 15th, 2010 at 1:46 PM ^

I didn't realize that Fontes went to MSU, either.

Edit: pro-football-reference.com says he was a DB, too, which, uh, let's just say I always thought he was an ex-lineman.

Ziff72

June 15th, 2010 at 1:41 PM ^

I was writing off the cuff, I knew th Lions won the 50's and the Packers took the 60's and the 70's and 80's weren't much for either team, but since we haven't won in Lambeau for forever I felt pretty safe the Pack were in the lead and I wouldn't be shocked twice in 1 day with a stat.   You're right probably not the best example though.   The Lions seemed like a safe choice when I started typing, but other than conference games the schedule is so haphazard they could lead the Steelers who were terrible for a while.  

I needed more time to research or try to keep my job, I chose the latter...just barely though.

M-Wolverine

June 15th, 2010 at 1:46 PM ^

Completely couldn't figure what era they were playing in that those were the results.

So I looked it up.  Apparently the 40's were kind to Indiana...or mean to Nebraska-

Nebraska is (7-9-3) against Indiana

Average score: Nebraska 16.7 - Indiana 19.3

Per decade
W L T PFPG PAPG
1970's 4 0 0 47.5 10.8
1960's 0 0 0 0 0
1950's 0 2 1 13.7 20.7
1940's 1 7 0 7.5 30.8
1930's 2 0 2 6.8 4.0

All games
1978/09/30 Nebraska 69 - Indiana 17 W
1977/10/01 Nebraska 31 - Indiana 13 W
1976/09/18 Nebraska 45 - Indiana 13 W
1975/09/20 Nebraska 45 - Indiana 0 W
1959/10/17 Nebraska 7 - Indiana 23 L
1956/10/20 Nebraska 14 - Indiana 19 L
1950/09/30 Nebraska 20 - Indiana 20 T
1947/09/27 Nebraska 0 - Indiana 17 L
1946/10/26 Nebraska 7 - Indiana 27 L
1945/10/13 Nebraska 14 - Indiana 54 L
1944/10/14 Nebraska 0 - Indiana 54 L
1943/10/09 Nebraska 13 - Indiana 54 L
1942/10/10 Nebraska 0 - Indiana 12 L
1941/10/18 Nebraska 13 - Indiana 21 L
1940/10/12 Nebraska 13 - Indiana 7 W
1939/09/30 Nebraska 7 - Indiana 7 T
1938/10/15 Nebraska 0 - Indiana 0 T
1937/10/30 Nebraska 7 - Indiana 0 W
1936/10/17 Nebraska 13 - Indiana 9 W

Ziff72

June 15th, 2010 at 2:56 PM ^

I think we know why the series ended abruptly in the 70's.   Nebraska trying to rectify the war era debacle is just pummeling them into submission looking to score 100 on Lee Corso and Indiana sensing they could lose the advantage they built up just pulls the chute........"uh sorry Nebraska our fans are clamoring for us to play Ball St more we can't fit you into the schedule"

WolverineHistorian

June 15th, 2010 at 2:03 PM ^

Indiana was O.K. in the the 1940's.  Not great but O.K.  That's where they managed 7 wins against some really crappy Husker teams...

Indiana's record vs. Nebraska:

 

Date   Opponent (record) Result Score Site
9/30/1978 vs. Nebraska (9-3) L 17 69
10/1/1977 @ Nebraska (9-3) L 13 31
9/18/1976 vs. Nebraska (9-3-1) L 13 45
9/20/1975 @ Nebraska (10-2) L 0 45
10/17/1959 @ Nebraska (4-6) W 23 7
10/20/1956 @ Nebraska (4-6) W 19 14
9/30/1950 @ Nebraska (6-2-1) T 20 20
9/27/1947 @ Nebraska (2-7) W 17 0
10/26/1946 @ Nebraska (3-6) W 27 7
10/13/1945 vs. Nebraska (4-5) W 54 14
10/14/1944 vs. Nebraska (2-6) W 54 0
10/9/1943 @ Nebraska (2-6) W 54 13
10/10/1942 @ Nebraska (3-7) W 12 0
10/18/1941 @ Nebraska (4-5) W 21 13
10/12/1940 @ Nebraska (8-2) L 7 13
9/30/1939 vs. Nebraska (7-1-1) T 7 7
10/15/1938 @ Nebraska (3-5-1) T 0 0
10/30/1937 @ Nebraska (6-1-2) L 0 7
10/17/1936 @ Nebraska (7-2) L 9 13

And just for fun, Indiana's record against us:

 

Date   Opponent (record) Result Score Site
9/26/2009 @ *Michigan (5-7) L 33 36
11/11/2006 vs. *Michigan (11-2) L 3 34
11/12/2005 @ *Michigan (7-5) L 14 41
10/2/2004 vs. *Michigan (9-3) L 14 35
9/27/2003 @ *Michigan (10-3) L 17 31
10/14/2000 @ *Michigan (9-3) L 0 58
10/30/1999 vs. *Michigan (10-2) L 31 34
10/24/1998 @ *Michigan (10-3) L 10 21
10/4/1997 vs. *Michigan (12-0) L 0 37
10/19/1996 @ *Michigan (8-4) L 20 27
10/21/1995 vs. *Michigan (9-4) L 17 34
10/17/1992 vs. *Michigan (9-0-3) L 3 31
10/19/1991 @ *Michigan (10-2) L 16 24
10/27/1990 vs. *Michigan (9-3) L 19 45
10/28/1989 @ *Michigan (10-2) L 10 38
10/22/1988 @ *Michigan (9-2-1) L 6 31
10/24/1987 vs. *Michigan (8-4) W 14 10
10/25/1986 vs. *Michigan (11-2) L 14 38
10/26/1985 @ *Michigan (10-1-1) L 15 42
9/29/1984 vs. *Michigan (6-6) L 6 14
10/1/1983 @ *Michigan (9-3) L 18 43
10/2/1982 @ *Michigan (8-4) L 10 24
10/3/1981 vs. *Michigan (9-3) L 17 38
11/1/1980 vs. *Michigan (10-2) L 0 35
10/27/1979 @ *Michigan (8-4) L 21 27
10/23/1976 vs. *Michigan (10-2) L 0 35
10/25/1975 @ *Michigan (8-2-2) L 7 55
11/2/1974 vs. *Michigan (10-1) L 7 21
11/3/1973 @ *Michigan (10-0-1) L 13 49
11/4/1972 vs. *Michigan (10-1) L 7 21
10/30/1971 @ *Michigan (11-1) L 7 61
10/19/1968 vs. *Michigan (8-2) L 22 27
10/21/1967 @ *Michigan (4-6) W 27 20
11/12/1960 @ *Michigan (5-4) L 7 29
11/14/1959 vs. *Michigan (4-5) W 26 7
11/15/1958 @ *Michigan (2-6-1) W 8 6
11/16/1957 @ *Michigan (5-3-1) L 13 27
11/17/1956 @ *Michigan (7-2) L 26 49
11/12/1955 @ *Michigan (7-2) L 0 30
10/30/1954 @ *Michigan (6-3) W 13 9
10/11/1952 @ *Michigan (5-4) L 13 28
10/13/1951 @ *Michigan (4-5) L 14 33
11/11/1950 @ *Michigan (6-3-1) L 7 20
11/12/1949 @ *Michigan (6-2-1) L 7 20
11/13/1948 @ *Michigan (9-0) L 0 54
11/8/1947 @ *Michigan (10-0) L 0 35
9/28/1946 @ *Michigan (6-2-1) L 0 21
9/22/1945 @ *Michigan (7-3) W 13 7
9/30/1944 @ *Michigan (8-2) W 20 0
11/6/1943 @ *Michigan (8-1) L 6 23
10/10/1936 @ *Michigan (1-7) W 14 3
10/12/1935 @ *Michigan (4-4) L 0 7
11/5/1932 vs. *Michigan (8-0) L 0 7
11/7/1931 @ *Michigan (8-1-1) L 0 22
10/13/1928 @ *Michigan (3-4-1) W 6 0
10/10/1925 @ *Michigan (7-1) L 0 63
10/17/1903 @ *Michigan (11-0-1) L 0 51
10/11/1902 @ *Michigan (11-0) L 0 60
10/12/1901 @ *Michigan (11-0) L 0 33
11/3/1900 @ *Michigan (7-2-1) L 0 12

jmblue

June 15th, 2010 at 3:33 PM ^

How can Vanderbilt have a winning record against Alabama?  That's the most shocking on the list.  What's the series record?

Tim Waymen

June 15th, 2010 at 3:48 PM ^

Vanderbilt holds a slight edge over Alabama all time in football.

When you say football, do you mean it in the same way that people in other countries say football when they really should be saying soccer*?  Because here are the numbers for American CFB (not to be a snarky prick):

  • Vanderbilt ranks 51st among all current FBS teams in total wins with an overal record of 556-557-50.  Alabama, by contrast, ranks 8th all time at 792-316-43.
  • Do you mean head-to-head?  Well, Vandy is 19-59-4 against Alabama.

*Yeah, you read right, FISA.