Past SLI Ranking

[DrySwamp]

Hey Turbine,

You are good at past UL trivia and you talked about this game before. I did a little research on past UL records. Why wasn't SLI in the national rankings or top 20 in 1943 after winning the Oil Bowl (1944) and Texas (who turned down SLI to play in the Cotton Bowl) ranked I think 14 in the polls. SLI had a record of 5-0-1 and Texas 7-1-1 (Texas only tied a team in the Cotton Bowl that SLI had beat in their reg. season).
Was it because of the strength of schedules or SLI playing less games?
Thanks for any input. I am curious.

[Turbine]

Originally posted by DrySwamp
Hey Turbine,

Why wasn't SLI in the national rankings or top 20 in 1943 after winning the Oil Bowl (1944) and Texas (who turned down SLI to play in the Cotton Bowl) ranked I think 14 in the polls. SLI had a record of 5-0-1 and Texas 7-1-1 (Texas only tied a team in the Cotton Bowl that SLI had beat in their reg. season).
Was it because of the strength of schedules or SLI playing fewer games?

The invisible start to the season. The powers that be in the State Legislature had banned every school in Louisiana from playing football in 1943. I should say every school but LSU. It was believed early on that LSU would not be able to field a team due to loss of key players.

However this was not a problem when LSU ended up with more players that it initially thought it would have. For instance, when future NFL player Steve VanBuren failed his military physical he was free to play at LSU.

Back to SLI and why they were not ranked. With over 175 football lettermen on campus, it was a travesty that the state ban was causing no football to be played. When the 1943 football season was almost a third over, SLI began forming what I call a "League of its Own, on campus." It was going to be Texas varsity players vs. Louisiana varsity players. Mississippi players vs. Oklahoma players. Arkansas vs. . . .

To get around the States no football rule, the regular gate money was going to be used for war bonds. Even in a normal year all gate money went back to the State coffers. Ironically with the season half over the state lifted the ban yet the gate was still used for bonds and SLI raised more bond money than any school in the country.

Still the season was half over, and most schools had their schedule pretty much booked. Two schools that had openings were LSU and Notre Dame, yet they declined to play SLI. I have to believe they both knew how potent UL was that year. After the season finale the coach of UL declared the team could beat any team in the country, including Notre Dame.

The reason given for UL not being ranked that year was due in part to the late start and how many writers thought the 6 game season was not representative enough.

Ironically even though SLI had over 175 two-year starters, the teams they played had 70 and over 2-year varsity football players of their own from around the country.

What this meant is UL had one of the toughest tests in 1943 even though the schedule was shorter than normal. In fact UL defeated 3 bound bowl teams that year, a feat unmatched.

The lack of a ranking may have been due in part to some thinking there was an unfair advantage, though I must say this is just a gut feeling.

One team UL defeated was Randolph Field, a VERY good team, the next year the country took notice as they were ranked #3 in the final rankings. SLI disappeared due to the one year training stint of the V-12 program.

In my book, other than the low number of games I have seen no case presented as to why UL was not the best team in the country that year. Offsetting that arguement was the clear success against the toughest schedule in the country.

Here is another thread on the subject. UL 1943

[DrySwamp]

Thanks for your story. That explained a lot. Bad break for the school & team that year anyway they may well have had the best college football team in the nation.