Why Joe Paterno Really is the Winningest Division I-A Coach

The biggest draw in the Orange Bowl this year is to see the first head to head matchup between NCAA Division I-A's two winningest coaches since 1990 (the Blockbuster Bowl, which FSU won). In light of this, let's examine the quality of the wins, and I'll support my thesis that Bobby Bowden should currently be a distant (by 15 games) second to Joe Paterno.

Joe Paterno's head coaching career has occurred at one team, and one team only: Penn State. JoePa has picked up 353 wins in the 40 seasons he's been the head coach at Penn State. During that time, Penn State has never been classified as anything other than a Division I-A school, or, prior to 1973 when the divisions were added, a Major College in the NCAA University Division (from 1937 to 1973). Moreover, among those 353 wins include two, and only two, wins against teams that are now or were at the time Division I-AA teams: Brown and William and Mary. Both games were played within 3 years of the teams switching from the highest level of NCAA football, which leads me to the speculation that the games were scheduled when the teams were at the highest level. Speculation aside, though, that means JoePa has had 351 wins against Division I-A opponents during his career.

Bobby Bowden, however, follows a different path. He notched 42 wins at West Virginia, before moving over to FSU and racking up 286 wins. He has a total of 359, which leaves him 21 short right now. Where did those wins happen? At what is currently Samford, a Division I-AA school. But wait, you might ask? Was not Samford (or Howard College, as it was known then), in the upper level of NCAA football, much like Brown and William and Mary had been? Not exactly. In referencing the College Football Data Warehouse (www.cfbdatawarehouse.com), it shows a distinct N/A when asked about what NCAA division Samford played in during Bobby Bowden's tenure (1959-1962). So we must look at the nature of the competition that Bobby played while there. Sewanee. Tennessee-Martin. Troy State. West Alabama. Gordon Junior College. Furman. Wofford. University of Mexico. Clearly, Samford was not a Division I-A caliber school, as evidenced by the fact that in 1973, when the NCAA did introduce divisions, Samford began as a Division III school. Bobby has a similar record to JoePa, at FSU and WVU, with him winning 11 games against Division I-AA opponents at WVU and 7 at FSU. Of those 18 wins, 12 of them came against teams that were still at the top level of NCAA football or had very recently left that top level.

Look, I don't want to take anything away from Bobby Bowden. He's a great coach, and he almost singlehandily created Florida State football from scratch. But it's a punch in the gut that the wins he got at Samford are counted in his total, so far as counting toward being the winningest Division I-A coach of all time. If Eddie Robinson of Grambling had coached one season at Division I-A, instead of retiring in Division I-AA, should he be the winningest I-A coach, instead of just the winningest Division I coach? What about John Gagliardi at St. John's in Minnesota? He's the winningest NCAA coach ever - give him a I-A season, and he'll get the record. Or, as we should do with Bobby, we should only count the wins gotten as a coach of a Division I-A team? The NCAA complicates things, by not having a clear divisional system prior to 1973, but every indication is that the Samford of 1959-1962 was not a major college/Division I-A team, nor did Samford play that caliber of opposition.

Come on, NCAA - do the right thing. Count Bobby's wins at Samford toward his overall total, but slash those 21 wins from his Division I-A record and recognize the fact that JoePa is the winningest coach ever in Division I-A football history (not that it will matter much if FSU keeps sliding and PSU keeps winning, but still - it's the principle of the matter).