Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

[sois]

Has a "six star" program ever gone down hill? Do teams go from elite to crappy?

Why I ask is because maybe this whole NCAA progression is not actually a problem. If a team like North Texas suddenly gets good and becomes a "four star program", will they ever regress in real life back to oblivion?

Once a team is good and has a nice following, do they ever go back to their sorry state?

I am not a major college football historian, so I don't know if this is possible. My own team in real life has maintained 3-4 star status for as long as I can remember so I really don't know.

I guess maybe the Aggies are a good example, if they keep being terrible, what happens? Is it possible for a team to ever get down to 1 star level if they've ever tasted glory?

Remember, this is all in regards to real life. I'd like to figure out how this should be working before I think of how to apply this to NCAA.

Thanks.

[lonewolf371]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

Minnesota and Illinois both used to be a lot better. Best example is probably SMU. Also, there's Army. Just to name a few schools that used to be perennial national title contenders.

[DOSMedia4SC]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

Even schools like USC go threw bad times. Look at Notre Dame. They have been awful in recent years.
Hell SC was pretty much mediocre from the late 80s up until the Pete Carroll era started in 01.
Tons of teams jump up and down. Look at Washington state. They are now the worst team in the pac 10 (yes UW is 5 times better even though they lost in the apple cup last year), but it was only 5 years ago Washington State was a top 10 team and in contention of winning the pac 10. They won it in 02. Brings up another great example, Washington. Washington has tons of history and is one of the more prestigious football programs out west, but it just hasnt been there since the 90s.
As for mid majors, look at Fresno. They used to be the ones on the top of everyones BCS buster list and now they are struggling for .500. Teams dont get to the top and stay at the top. Never really happens. Miami is another example. Florida State as well. Miami more so then florida state. Look at Auburn. It wasnt too long ago they went 13-0, and what were they last year? Like 4-8? Its actually hard to argue SEC teams because they automatically get 4 wins a year, so ill shy away from that.
Oh another great example is BYU. They wont a national championship back in the 80s and have never really been close to winning one since. SMU used to be fairly prestigious. I know something went on there, but I dont exactly remember what it was. All I think I remember is that they didnt have a football team for a while.
If you really want to see a stunning fact, go look up how much SMU pays June Jones right now.

This list goes on. Didnt Syracuse used to be a good team? I remember reading somewhere they went like 11-1 in 91.

[kingkilla56]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

In my dynasties I have seen auburn Tennessee michigan miami and texas tech fall off the radar. And florida fell to 3stars but came back up.

[MBFranchise]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

It works the other way too. South Florida just begun their football program something like 15 years ago and was ranked as high as #2.

I think the progression problem is overblown.

[Tovarich]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

SMU was a power of CFB until they got the death penalty. 20 years later, they still haven't recovered. The traditional powers have some bad years, but they almost always bounce back.

[20Smash]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

In my dynasties I have seen auburn Tennessee michigan miami and texas tech fall off the radar. And florida fell to 3stars but came back up.

I remember doing a dynasty on NCAA 07 (PS2) a couple years ago. What was crazy was that after 6 or 7 years, I decided to 'test' the market and, lo and behold, there was Nebraska as a 1-star program.

[doctorhay53]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

Look up 'SMU football scandal' on google.

[yankeesgiants]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

SMU was a power of CFB until they got the death penalty. 20 years later, they still haven't recovered.

To this day I think the NCAA regrets decision to give them the death penalty. What happened there was criminal and should never ever happen and people should have gone to jail in some cases. They were awful from the time Doak Walker left 1949 until the early 80's. The "Pony Express" revived the program for a few years and thats no excuse for what happened but the penalties they received were over and beyond.


The full list of penalties:

• The 1987 season was canceled; only conditioning drills would be permitted during the 1987 calendar year.
• All home games in 1988 were canceled. SMU was allowed to play their seven regularly scheduled away games so that other institutions would not be financially affected.
• The team's existing probation was extended until 1990. Its existing ban from bowl games and live television was extended to 1989.
• SMU lost 55 new scholarship positions over 4 years.
• SMU was required to ensure that Owen and eight other boosters previously banned from contact with the program were in fact banned, or else face further punishment.
• The team was only allowed to hire five full-time assistant coaches, instead of the typical nine.
• No off-campus recruiting would be permitted until August 1988, and no paid visits could be made to campus by would-be recruits until the start of the 1988-89 school year.

The story for those to young to remember or where not born yet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Methodist_University_football_scandal

[TNT]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

I think it's common for elite (6-star type) teams to drop into the land of mediocrity (i.e. 3 or 4-star type, probably more commonly 4). Will USC, Michigan, or Texas drop into the realm of nearly complete irrelevance (2 or 1-star)? Probably not, but each of these schools has recently or will likely experience(d) a drop to the realm of 4-star(ish) prestige.

I think the answer to having a reasonably realistic ebb and flow of programs (which is nearly nonexistent now) is a greater emphasis on the coaches that would take into account things like age, coaching skill, and possibly coaching loyalty ratings that would give the effect of the game of musical chairs that goes on pretty much every year in major college football. Oh, and a return of the probation system wouldn't hurt either (you know, the one we had on last gen that somehow manages to remain omitted from our new, technologically "advanced" game). Just my 2 cents...

[AnybodyKilla]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

Syracuse used to be an elite football program. It's so hard these days lol

[JAYMO76]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

I remember doing a dynasty on NCAA 07 (PS2) a couple years ago. What was crazy was that after 6 or 7 years, I decided to 'test' the market and, lo and behold, there was Nebraska as a 1-star program.

Yeah in 06 after seven seasons at Arizona State I decided to take over the worst team in the FBS. No it wasn't Idaho or FAU or any of the small programmes... it was the ONE STAR Michigan St. programme? They were on a 20+ game losing streak. Within four seasons we were back to five star.

Man I miss 06

[bufordbuckeye]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

They definitely do go up an down in real life, but not as quickly the game does it. Teams go through bad stretches at times but that won't immediately effect team prestige and teams that do well for a while will be a little higher prestige.

Michigan is still a top tier program (5-6*) even though they have been bad for a couple of years but it would take about 4 or 5 more years of being bad before they really took a hit on their prestige.

Notre Dame is still considered to be a fairly prestigious program. Although I think they are starting to get a little tarnish on their golden helmets Prestige has a lot to do with a programs history.

It really takes something like the SMU scandal or decades of mediocrity like Army to fall by the way. In the game you have one bad season and you start losing prestige. In reality it will take a few in a row for that to happen.

[sois]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

Good discussion here guys.

I would probably toss out the SMU stuff. That wasn't natural progression from good to crappy.

So it seems there is a mild ebb and flow to who is good and who is bad and a handful of teams make the ascent/descent to greatness/the gutter. Wow what a terrible sentence!

Thanks!

[jhawkmike]

Re: Real life NCAA ?: Do programs ever go from high prestige to very low prestige?

Kansas State went from being the worst program in the history of college football, to a perennial top 10 team, and then back to being a crap team, all in a span of 20 years.

San Diego State is currently a 1 star program in the game, but they had some decent seasons back when Marshall Faulk was there.