Fun Fact

[bulletguy]

Did some research hurrr....

Last Saturday the youngest BCS team (USF est. 1956) beat the Oldest BCS team (UNC est.1789)... How come ESPN didn't pick up on that?  

[Velcro]

wow, that is pretty good... nice find!

[BullDoug]

Thought Rutgers was the oldest BCS program?  They claim the birth of football happened at Rutgers.

[Economics_Nerd82]

I recall during the game ESPNU put that statistic up:

"USF: 10th year of program

UNC: 110th year of program."

Something to that affect

[bulletguy]

very good daniel-san...

but Rutgers was originally Queen's College and after a restructuring in 1825 it took on the Rutgers name.  

and before you mention Georgia...

Georgia was chartered in 1785 but classes did not begin until 1801.

I welcome all challengers

[E.T.]

Rutgers had the FIRST football game.

"The Birthplace of Football" or something like that.

[Greg Auman]

Good thread, bulletguy. And yes, Rutgers was in the first college football game in 1867. This got me researching as well ...

When universities were founded remains a somewhat contentious debate, with lots trying to argue they're older than they really are. Florida has had problems with this up in Gainesville, young a school as it is.

Anyway, here's a link, and while infoplease.com is hardly authoritative, it seems to show a few BCS schools -- Georgia in 1785, Pittsburgh in 1787, Tennessee in 1794 -- that were established before UNC.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0193904.html

however, looking here:

http://www.uga.edu/profile/history.html

shows that Georgia "became the first state to charter a state-supported university" in 1785. Again, Georgia wasn't established until 1801 and didn't graduate its first class until 1804, according to its own site ...

Pittsburgh was established in 1787 as "Pittsburgh Academy" ... was the "Western University of Pennsylvania" from 1819 until 1908, when it took its current name ...

Tennessee? It started in 1794 as "Blount College," but struggled enough later that it was closed from 1809-1820 and didn't take its current name until 1879 ...

So there's no easy answer, but you could argue that UNC is the oldest BCS university in continuous operation under the same name ...

[E.T.]

Tennessee? It started in 1794 as "Blount College,"

And wasn't Miami known as "Blunt" College.

[smiley=pimp.gif]

[72bull]

Pittsburgh was established in 1787 as "Pittsburgh Academy" ... was the "Western University of Pennsylvania" from 1819 until 1908, when it took its current name ...  

So Pittsburgh is a "directional" school!  ;D

[GetAHobby]

I recall during the game ESPNU put that statistic up:

"USF: 10th year of program

UNC: 110th year of program."

Something to that affect

According to a poster I viewed a lot in a bar in NC, UNC celabrated its 100th yr of football in 1988