Even without those 10 wins Bowden's win total was really not comparable to JoePa's. Being a SEC fan, I don't care for either of them.
By Bob Smizik |
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs ... bogus.aspxThe race between Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden for the most wins on the highest level of college football continues with word that Bowden has signed a one-year contract to coach another season at Florida State.
Bowden has 382 career victories, one fewer than Paterno.
But Bowden's record is bogus -- although legitimate under incredibly stupid NCAA rules.
Bowden won his first 31 games at Howard, his alma mater, which is now known as Samford. The NCAA did not have divisions at the time. Colleges were designated either as large schools or small schools. Howard was distinctly small.
The NCAA's mystifying explanation for why Bowden's small college wins count is this:
Once a coach has 10 years at a major [Division I-A] school, all wins at any four-year school at which he coached count on the all-time listing.
This convoluted thinking would be roughly the same as Major League Baseball counting the 20 home runs Barry Bonds hit in the minor leagues when tabulating the all-time leaders in that category.
In Bonds' case, at least those 20 homers came at the level closest to MLB. The same can't be said of Bowden's first 31 wins, from 1959-62, which included victories over SW Lynx, Millsaps, Maryville and Mississippi Delta, Memphis Navy, LA College and -- my favorite -- U. of Mexico.
The man with the most wins in college football is John Gagliardi with 461, almost all of which were accumulated at St. John's University in Minnesota. To show the folly of the NCAA thinking, if Gagliardi were hired by the University of Minnesota -- unlikely since he is 83 -- and coached there for 10 years, at the end of that span, regardless of his record, he'd be the all-time leader. For example, if Gagliardi went 1-119 at Minnesota in 10 years, he'd be the NCAA all-time leader with 462.
As is well known, Paterno has all of his wins at Penn State, and instead of being one victory ahead of Bowden he should be 32 ahead.
