Historic Beatdowns -- Conference Games Edition

There have been a few "biggest win since" and "worst loss since" pieces of info floating around, but to get some more specific answers I started doing my own research.

We know that this is Michigan's most points scored and largest margin of victory since an 85-0 win vs. Chicago in 1939.  And that Chicago dropped football after that season.  (Disturbingly, Michigan lost two weeks later to ... a mediocre Illinois team.)

For their part, Rutgers had their worst loss since an 82-0 loss to Princeton in '88.  As in, 1888. They did allow 80 to West Virginia in 2001 (RichRod's first year -- eventual 3-8 WaVoo) in a game where they turned the ball over 8 times.  However, the final score was 80-7, so the margin was *only* 73; *still* less than yesterday's game.

It's the most points scored by (and given up by) a Big Ten team since 2010 -- not too far back -- when Wisconsin beat Indiana 83-20.  Chris Ash was involved in that game as well, as an assistant for Wisconsin under Bret Bielema (who took it on the chins in his own game Saturday).

Before that, it appears you need to go back to 1950 when Ohio St beat Iowa 83-21 to see 78+ points scored in a Big Ten game.  (Minnesota lost 84-13 to Nebraska in 1984 in a non-conference game.)  There have been other big big scores outside the Big Ten, including Fresno St. 94, New Mexico 17 (in 1991) and Houston 95, SMU 21 (in 1989).  

Yet...

Margin of victory is another story -- particularly in a conference game. I haven't been able to find a Big Ten game with a 78+ point differential since the 1939 UM-Chicago game.  In fact, I haven't found many games at all since then that involved two FBS/I-A teams with as large a margin of victory/defeat.  Here is what I have:

1991: Penn St. 81, Cincinnati 0

1968: Houston 100, Tulsa 6 

1948: UTEP 92, New Mexico St. 7

1944: Second Air Force 89, New Mexico 6

That's it.  Of those, only the 1948 game was a conference matchup, in the "Border" Conference (a forerunner of the WAC).  (Also must be noted: not-yet-Dr. Phil McGraw was a starting linebacker on the Tulsa defense that gave up 100 points.  Perhaps the whole Rutgers team can be guests on his show and talk it through -- he truly feels their pain.)

So in addition to having the worst loss by an FBS team in 25 years, Rutgers has the worst loss by an at-the-time "Power 5" team since that 1939 game.  Meaning, of non-defunct Power 5 teams -- those that decided to keep playing football -- we need to go back further to find a worse loss.

(This is where the 2-point conversion is notable, as there are a couple of 77-point conference wins, like 77-0 by Oklahoma over Texas A&M in 2003 and over Missouri in 1986.)

(BTW that A&M team beat Baylor 73-10 the same year -- a 140-point in-conference transitive-differential.  I'm guessing that's a record, but I'm still hoping Rutgers can top it by winning 63-0 in East Lansing.)

Before 1925 or so, 100+ point games were very much the style at the time.  However, even most of these involved mysterious teams being victimized: Kingfisher, Regis, Phoenix Indians, Intermountain, Friends, Anaconda Anodes, Locust Grove, Lieutenants, Pennsylvania Railroad YMCA, and American Osteopath.  (Actually, I take that back -- American Osteopath wasn't bad.)

The most recent game I've found involving two current "Power 5" teams who were also major schools at the time that surpasses the 78-point margin was in 1918: Oklahoma 103, Arkansas 0.  This was a (SWC) Conference matchup.  I've only found one "conference" game that beats that: Michigan 107, Iowa 0, in 1902.  Both were members of the Western Conference, an embryonic version of the Big Ten.  

It appears, then, that Michigan may have 3 of the 4 largest margins of victory in games between two teams in the same major conference.

(To be thorough, there was a Rocky Mountain Conference game in 1923 where Utah beat Wyoming 79-0.  Sounds pretty mid-major to me, though.)

If anyone knows of something I missed, I'd love to know it.  Or if any websites have plumbed the records more thoroughly.  

...

It was hard to believe that just two years ago I was in New Jersey on a cold night, looking live at two mediocre teams, ending with a Hoke-led Michigan losing to (almost) the very same Rutgers.  On the same day Harbaugh evened Michigan's all-time record in Piscataway, Hoke's Oregon defense was allowing 70 -- his clapping-based defense proving ineffective -- which, likewise, sent me to the record books.  

It was Oregon's worst margin of defeat since losing 63-0 to Nebraska in 1985.  It was their worst loss at home since 54-0 in 1977, also to Washington.  

And it's only the second time in school history they've allowed 70 -- they lost to Texas, 71-7, in 1941.  (Perhaps Chris Petersen should have faked the last PAT and gone for two.)   But even that game was in Austin, not Autzen.  So yeah -- most points ever allowed in Eugene.  (Clap, clap.)