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Home What's Included? Conferences and Schools Included Introduction: A Brief History of College Football
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![]() 2004 Season SummarySouthern California's defending national co-champions left no doubt as to whom the college football champion was in 2004. The 12-0 Trojans led both major polls throughout the regular season, then trounced unbeaten No. 2 Oklahoma 55-19 in the FedEx Orange Bowl on Jan. 4 for their 13th victory. Junior quarterback Matt Leinart, winner of both the Heisman Trophy and the Walter Camp Award, passed for 332 yards and an Orange Bowl record five touchdowns as USC won its 22nd consecutive game and confirmed its 10th national title. Auburn fans were disappointed that the Tigers (12-0 in regular season), winner of the SEC and victor over Virginia Tech 16-13 in the Nokia Sugar Bowl, had to settle for a final No. 3 ranking behind USC and Oklahoma. Utah fans, however, were delighted to see their Utes (11-0 in regular season) not only make it to a BCS bowl but clobber Pittsburgh 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl. The Mountain West champions finished with a No. 5 national ranking. The nation's other major unbeaten team, Western Athletic Conference champion Boise State (11-0), fell to Louisville (10-1 in regular season) 44-40 in the highest-scoring Liberty Bowl game ever. The Cardinals, in their last year in Conference USA before heading to the Big East, had led the nation with a 49.8 scoring average, while Boise State had averaged 49.7. Utah and Auburn shared the national Coach of the Year awards, Urban Meyer of Utah winning the Football Writers award and Tommy Tuberville of Auburn taking the Football Coaches award. Oklahoma may have finished with a disappointing loss in the Orange Bowl, but quarterback Jason White, the 2003 Heisman Trophy winner, won the 2004 Maxwell Award as well as the Davey O'Brien and Johnny Unitas quarterback awards. The Outland Trophy went to another Oklahoma player, offensive tackle Jamaal Brown, while defensive end David Pollack of Georgia won the Vince Lombardi/Rotary Award along with the Chuck Bednarik Award. Other notable 2004 season events included:
College Football FansYou can get extensive information on the records and traditions of these and other major college teams from their very first year of play through the 2001 season in the 4th edition of College Football Encyclopedia, now available on CD-ROM. A 4th edition of the Encyclopedia, which first appeared in print in 1994 and then in expanded, updated CD-ROM format in 1999 and 2000, is now available in CD-ROM format. The 4th edition has been updated through the 2001 season to give fans unprecedented coverage of 92 Division I-A teams plus William & Mary of Division I-AA. Dr.Robert M. Ours, professor emeritus of journalism at West Virginia University, has compiled information for each school that includes year-by-year scores of every game played, star players yearly, conference titles won, complete bowl records, coaching records, Top 25 national rankings, highest scores for and against each school, consensus All-Americans, Academic All-Americans, and much more. Also included are introductions to each of 9 major conferences, plus independents, including information on when the conference was formed, national championship teams and major individual award winners from that conference, plus anecdotal material involving members of the conference. More than 1,000 photos of past stars, representing each school listed, are included in the Encyclopedia. A special Appendix lists annual major individual award winners since 1935, team national champions since 1936, top coaching records, and team and individual single-season leaders in more than 20 categories.
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History of College Football Bowl Games now available! ![]() For more information, see: "In Bowl Games: College Football's Greatest Tradition, author and historian Robert M. Ours provides a complete history of bowl games . . . . included are game highlights, scores, attendance figures and rationale for the birth and demise of new bowl games throughout the years. . . . the book serves as an outstanding reference for collegiate football collectors, . . . (and) is resplendent with period photographs."
"Bowl Games is the first work to focus solely and comprehensively on the history of college bowl games . . . Organized chronologically, the book presents information in both chapter and tabular format . . . The author writes well . . . The tabular data is easy to follow and contains the teams, records, results, and attendance for each bowl contest from 1902 to 2004. Also included are lists of overall team bowl records, bowl game performance records, and other useful data. This is a book for comprehensive sports reference collections." (Choice, April 2005) |