1977 Final Rankings

In the off-season, we will be running our computer analysis of each of the previous seasons of college football moving backward through time as far as it makes sense to do so. 1977 was the final year before Division 1 split into Division 1-A and Division 1-AA. In anticipation of this, several teams (in fact entire conferences), such as Grambling State (to give one team as an example) moved up to compete for a single year at this highest division before joining the new Division 1-AA. As a result, the rankings list is particularly long this year, and it is possible that some teams who were very successful were really only playing a Division II (or I-AA) schedule against each other and not playing teams from conferences that truly were Division I-A, which is a problem for our system, because it does rely a great deal on non-conference games to help our adjustments for quality of competition be more accurate. Regardless, here are the final rankings from 1977:


1. Arkansas Razorbacks (11-1) - 1.8
2. Texas Longhorns (11-1) - 2.0
3. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11-1) - 2.4
4. Alabama Crimson Tide (11-1) - 3.8
5. Penn State Nittany Lions (11-1) - 5.4
6. Oklahoma Sooners (10-2) - 6.1
7. Pittsburgh Panthers (9-2-1) - 6.9
8. San Diego State Aztecs (10-1) - 9.0
9. Ohio State Buckeyes (9-3) - 9.2
10. Kentucky Wildcats (10-1) - 10.0
11. Michigan Wolverines (10-2) - 11.6
12. Florida State Seminoles (10-2) - 12.7
13. Grambling State Tigers (10-1) - 13.7
14. Nebraska Cornhuskers (9-3) - 14.2
15. Fresno State Bulldogs (9-2) - 15.4
16. USC Trojans (8-4) - 16.5
17. North Carolina Tar Heels (8-3-1) - 16.6
18. Tennessee State Tigers (8-1-1) - 19.0
19. North Texas Mean Green (9-2) - 19.5
20. Colgate Raiders (10-1) - 19.9
(tie) Washington Huskies (8-4) - 19.9
22. BYU Cougars (9-2) - 22.6
23. Texas A&M Aggies (8-4) - 23.9
24. Clemson Tigers (8-3-1) - 24.8
25. NC State Wolfpack (8-4) - 25.5
26. Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (9-1-2) - 25.9
27. Arizona State Sun Devils (9-3) - 26.3
28. Colorado State Rams (9-2-1) - 27.9
29. Ball State Cardinals (9-2) - 29.0
30. Maryland Terrapins (8-4) - 30.7
(tie) Miami University RedHawks (10-1) - 30.7
32. Central Michigan Chippewas (10-1) - 32.0
33. Colorado Buffaloes (7-3-1) - 32.4
34. UCLA Bruins (7-4) - 33.1
35. Yale Bulldogs (7-2) - 34.0
36. Michigan State Spartans (7-3-1) - 34.9
37. Stanford Cardinal (9-3) - 38.4
38. Washington State Cougars (6-5) - 40.0
39. ECU Pirates (8-3) - 40.8
40. California Golden Bears (7-4) - 40.9
41. LSU Tigers (8-4) - 41.1
42. Iowa State Cyclones (8-4) - 42.2
43. Mississippi State Bulldogs (5-6) - 43.0
44. Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-5) - 43.2
45. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (8-3) - 43.7
46. Brown Bears (7-2) - 45.6
47. Ole Miss Rebels (5-6) - 47.9
48. Duke Blue Devils (5-6) - 50.1
(tie) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (6-5) - 50.1
50. Houston Cougars (6-5) - 50.2
51. Minnesota Golden Gophers (7-5) - 51.2
52. Jackson State Tigers (8-3) - 52.1
53. Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns (6-4-2) - 52.4
54. Syracuse Orange (6-5) - 53.2
55. Florida Gators (6-4-1) - 54.6
(tie) South Carolina Gamecocks (5-7) - 54.6
57. Tennessee-Chattanooga Mocs (9-1-1) - 54.9
58. Memphis Tigers (6-5) - 58.5
59. Missouri Tigers (4-7) - 58.8
60. Baylor Bears (5-6) - 59.8
61. Navy Midshipmen (5-6) - 61.5
62. Auburn Tigers (5-6) - 62.6
63. West Virginia Mountaineers (5-6) - 63.3
64. Southern Miss Golden Eagles (6-6) - 65.1
65. Hawaii Warriors (5-6) - 65.2
66. Cincinnati Bearcats (5-4-2) - 68.6
67. William & Mary Tribe (6-5) - 68.9
68. Tennessee Volunteers (4-7) - 69.4
69. Arizona Wildcats (5-7) - 69.8
70. Army Black Knights (7-4) - 70.0
71. Temple Owls (5-5-1) - 70.3
72. Pacific Tigers (6-5) - 71.8
73. West Texas A&M Buffaloes (6-4-1) - 72.5
74. Georgia Bulldogs (5-6) - 74.2
75. Eastern Michigan Eagles (8-3) - 74.7
76. Dartmouth Big Green (6-3) - 76.6
77. Boston College Eagles (6-5) - 76.8
78. Princeton Tigers (3-6) - 77.2
79. Purdue Boilermakers (5-6) - 79.3
80. VMI Keydets (7-4) - 80.7
81. Indiana Hoosiers (5-5-1) - 81.3
82. SMU Mustangs (4-7) - 82.4
83. Louisville Cardinals (7-4-1) - 82.5
84. Texas-Arlington Mavericks (5-6) - 83.3
85. Iowa Hawkeyes (4-7) - 84.3
86. Northwestern State Demons (6-5) - 84.7
87. Kent State Golden Flashes (6-5) - 85.4
88. New Mexico Lobos (5-7) - 87.4
89. Virginia Tech Hokies (3-7-1) - 88.9
90. Pennsylvania Relays (5-4) - 90.3
91. Villanova Wildcats (4-7) - 90.8
92. Harvard Crimson (4-5) - 91.7
93. Oklahoma State Cowboys (4-7) - 92.9
94. Texas Southern Tigers (6-4-1) - 95.8
95. Wisconsin Badgers (5-6) - 95.9
96. McNeese State Cowboys (5-5-1) - 96.8
97. Western Michigan Broncos (4-7) - 97.7
98. Wyoming Cowboys (4-6-1) - 98.7
99. Miami Hurricanes (3-8) - 99.1
100. Bowling Green Falcons (5-7) - 99.4
101. San Jose State Spartans (4-7) - 99.8
102. Utah State Aggies (4-7) - 101.1
103. Arkansas State Red Wolves (7-4) - 101.4
104. Tulane Green Wave (3-8) - 102.7
105. Kansas Jayhawks (3-7-1) - 103.3
106. Furman Paladins (4-5-2) - 104.2
107. Long Beach State 49ers (4-6) - 105.7
108. Western Carolina Catamounts (6-4-1) - 106.7
109. Wichita State Shockers (5-6) - 108.5
110. Oregon State Beavers (2-9) - 110.1
111. Citadel Bulldogs (5-6) - 110.6
112. Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils (5-5) - 110.9
113. Illinois State Redbirds (3-7-1) - 111.8
114. New Mexico State Aggies (4-7) - 114.3
115. Utah Utes (3-8) - 115.7
116. Columbia Lions (2-7) - 116.4
117. Illinois Fighting Illini (3-8) - 117.6
118. Cal State Fullerton Titans (4-7) - 119.0
119. Richmond Spiders (3-8) - 119.2
120. Air Force Falcons (2-8-1) - 119.6
121. Kansas State Wildcats (1-10) - 121.2
122. Vanderbilt Commodores (2-9) - 123.3
123. Cornell Big Red (1-8) - 124.0
124. Northern Illinois Huskies (3-8) - 125.0
125. Lamar Cardinals (2-9) - 126.4
126. Oregon Ducks (2-9) - 127.6
127. Prairie View A&M Panthers (3-8) - 129.7
128. Alcorn State Braves (3-8) - 132.0
(tie) Wake Forest Demon Deacons (1-10) - 132.0
130. Appalachian State Mountaineers (2-9) - 132.4
131. Southern Jaguars (3-7-1) - 132.8
132. Virginia Cavaliers (1-9-1) - 133.0
133. TCU Horned Frogs (2-9) - 133.8
134. Southern Illinois Salukis (3-8) - 134.0
135. Indiana State Sycamores (3-7) - 134.1
136. Toledo Rockets (2-9) - 135.4
137. Tulsa Golden Hurricane (3-8) - 135.5
138. Ohio Bobcats (1-10) - 138.5
139. Holy Cross Crusaders (2-9) - 139.1
140. Drake Bulldogs (2-9) - 140.0
141. Northwestern Wildcats (1-10) - 140.6
142. Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (2-9) - 143.1
143. Rice Owls (1-10) - 144.3
(tie) UTEP Miners (1-10) - 144.3
145. Marshall Thundering Herd (2-9) - 145.5

Special acknowledgement and thanks to James Howell who provided the game score data used in this analysis on his website at http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/rsfc/history/howell/