You know who I really want to play?

#1
VFL-82-JP

VFL-82-JP

Bleedin' Orange...
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Jan 17, 2015
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#1
You know which teams I want to play the most? The ones against whom we currently have a losing all-time record.

Tennessee has played football against 142 other schools over the past century and a half. Some just once or twice, others many times. Some of the schools we've played don't exist any more, or go by another name, or dropped football altogether.

But of all those 142 schools, there are only 17 against whom we have a losing record:

0-4 vs USC
0-3 vs Mizzou
0-2 vs Nebraska
0-2 vs Oregon
0-2 vs Pittsburgh
0-1 vs Baylor, Dartmouth, Kansas State, North Texas, Purdue, and VMI
1-2 vs Oklahoma (33%)
1-2 vs Texas (33%)
2-3 vs Penn State (40%)
19-25 vs Florida (43%)
38-52-7 VS 'Bama (43%)
21-28-3 vs Auburn (43%)

Those are the guys I want to play, so that we can change the % in our favor. It's really cool to note that we have the chance in the next eight years to balance the scales with Oklahoma, North Texas (both this year) and Pittsburgh (2021-2022), as well as SEC foes Mizzou and Florida. Okay, it would take more than eight years to even the series against 'Bama and Auburn, the latter because we don't get to play them that often, and the former because they've built up a 14-game lead.

Still, it's a reasonable goal, to try to get back on the calendar with all those non-SEC schools. Through bowls, maybe, or more home & home series, or season openers; just as long as we're looking for the opportunities.

Seen in this light, our game against North Texas this year, and the recently-scheduled home & home series vs Pitt, seem a little more coherent, don't they?


p.s. Easy to forget how storied our program really is. 142 opponents, only 17 of them have a winning record against us. Another 9 are tied with us, including: Georgia (21-21-2), Notre Dame (4-4), Cal (2-2), and FSU (1-1). That totals 26 ... leaving 116 teams against whom we have the advantage. It's great to be a Tennessee Vol. :)


EDIT: editing to correct an error concerning Penn State and the Sandusky scandal. PSU is in fact one of the schools we've lost more than won against. Thanks, Boca Vol! Also corrected Florida record from a typo, thanks 99Gator!
 
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#2
#2
In the late 90's Alabama was the only sec team that had a winning record against us. How the tide has changed. We have got to get back to winning on an elite level.
 
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#5
#5
I'd love to beat USC. I despise them, even before kiffin.
 
#6
#6
I think a series with Nebraska and Texas would be fun. If we ever go on a 9 game schedule I'd like to see Auburn added as a permanent opponent.
 
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#9
#9
Some weird math going on:

Tennessee's winning percentage against Bama is 39.2%, not 43%, and against Auburn it's 40.4%, not 43%.
 
#10
#10
bamawriter said:
Some weird math going on:

Tennessee's winning percentage against Bama is 39.2%, not 43%, and against Auburn it's 40.4%, not 43%.
Click to expand...

Calculate wins over wins+losses, rather than wins over wins+losses+ties. Usually leave ties out to get a "winning percentage" ... otherwise, you're de facto counting each tie as a loss.
 
#11
#11
VFL-82-JP said:
My source could be wrong. You using Vols official site? (which I should be using heh)
Click to expand...

I know UT beat Penn St. 2 times in Neyland in the 70's. They lost to Penn St. after the '91 (Fiesta), '93 (Citrus), and '06 (Outback) seasons.

As far as Iowa, UT lost to them in the Peach Bowl ('82 season) and beat them in '87 and this past bowl game.
 
#12
#12
Boca Vol said:
I know UT beat Penn St. 2 times in Neyland in the 70's. They lost to Penn St. after the '91 (Fiesta), '93 (Citrus), and '06 (Outback) seasons.

As far as Iowa, UT lost to them in the Peach Bowl ('82 season) and beat them in '87 and this past bowl game.
Click to expand...

Give me your source to check mine against...I'm really curious now how the two could be different on those two teams. Thanks!
 
#13
#13
Boca Vol said:
I know UT beat Penn St. 2 times in Neyland in the 70's. They lost to Penn St. after the '91 (Fiesta), '93 (Citrus), and '06 (Outback) seasons.

As far as Iowa, UT lost to them in the Peach Bowl ('82 season) and beat them in '87 and this past bowl game.
Click to expand...

Oh, I figured out the difference for Penn State -- my source only lists 2-2 because the '06 Penn State bowl victory was vacated by the NCAA during the Sandusky scandal. My site hasn't yet caught up with the NCAA restoring those PSU wins. So you're right, 2-3 it is ... adding a 17th school to the list!
 
#14
#14
VFL-82-JP said:
Calculate wins over wins+losses, rather than wins over wins+losses+ties. Usually leave ties out to get a "winning percentage" ... otherwise, you're de facto counting each tie as a loss.
Click to expand...

That's not how you calculate winning percentage. It's # of wins divided by # of games played. Ties are basically losses for both teams. UT's % + Bama's % will not equal 100% because of the ties.
 
#15
#15
VFL-82-JP said:
Oh, I figured out the difference for Penn State -- my source only lists 2-2 because the '06 Penn State bowl victory was vacated by the NCAA during the Sandusky scandal. My site hasn't yet caught up with the NCAA restoring those PSU wins. So you're right, 2-3 it is ... adding a 17th school to the list!
Click to expand...

Those sneaky vacated wins....
 
#19
#19
bamawriter said:
That's not how you calculate winning percentage. It's # of wins divided by # of games played. Ties are basically losses for both teams. UT's % + Bama's % will not equal 100% because of the ties.
Click to expand...


Not entirely accurate either. "The NCAA's official method of computing winning percentage is, in essence, to count a tie as half-a-win plus half-a-loss. If a team has W wins, L losses, and T ties, their winning percentage is defined by the NCAA as {(W+[T/2])/(W+L+T)}.

A record of 6-1-3 is therefore scored as "{(6+[3/2])/(6+1+3)}"... or as if it were 7.5 wins out of 10 games. Thus, a record of 6-1-3 is a winning percentage of 0.750 (7.5/10).

It is not 0.857 (6-1), as if ties were dropped from the computation entirely. It is not 0.600 (6-4), as if ties counted as losses" (FAQ on the database). If you want additional perspectives on the calculation of winning percentage, consult College Football Research: Winning Percentages.
 
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#20
#20
99gator said:
football.stassen.com

Great website
Click to expand...

Thanks, I just saved it as a new favorite. :)

And I figured out how mine was wrong...the site I was originally on is a derivative site which was, in turn, quoting another site. The other site, cfbdatawarehouse.com, had the correct (19-25) record. The derivative site just transcribed it wrong. In short, a typo. Correcting the OP, thanks.
 
#22
#22
Volosaurus rex said:
Not entirely accurate either. "The NCAA's official method of computing winning percentage is, in essence, to count a tie as half-a-win plus half-a-loss. If a team has W wins, L losses, and T ties, their winning percentage is defined by the NCAA as {(W+[T/2])/(W+L+T)}.

A record of 6-1-3 is therefore scored as "{(6+[3/2])/(6+1+3)}"... or as if it were 7.5 wins out of 10 games. Thus, a record of 6-1-3 is a winning percentage of 0.750 (7.5/10).

It is not 0.857 (6-1), as if ties were dropped from the computation entirely. It is not 0.600 (6-4), as if ties counted as losses" (FAQ on the database). If you want additional perspectives on the calculation of winning percentage, consult College Football Research: Winning Percentages.
Click to expand...

The NCAA's method has always bothered me, because it treats ties as if the games never occurred. And they do it because they want the numbers to equal 100%, probably because they assume that most fans are stupid and can't rationalize simple math, which I find infuriating. Every other sports organization records winning percentage as the percentage of games won. In a tie, no one won.
 
#24
#24
Someone can correct me here but isn't a tie counted as 50% win and 50% loss? So a 2-1-1 record against an opponent is 62.5% wins as opposed to throwing out the tie and having a win record of 66.7%. Correspondingly, the losing team has a winning record of 37.5% as opposed to 33.3%.

edit: Thanks Volosaurus rex.
 
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