SMQ: Are we really seeing more blowouts in bowl games in 2017?

(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
(Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
(Photo by David Becker/Getty Images) /

1944-1945 bowl season (Avg. MOV: 22.2 points over 5 games)

The postseason that wrapped up the 1944 season in college football featured four games that were decided by at least a two-score deficit and one nailbiter. Duke took down an Alabama team that finished third in the SEC with a late comeback to win 29-26 in the Sugar Bowl. The newspaper reporters assigned to the game got an exciting tale of Hugh Morrow’s 78-yard interception return in the the fourth quarter to put the Crimson Tide up 26-20, and the meticulous comeback capped by George Clark’s 20-yard touchdown run.

The other games, however, proved to be blowouts. The SEC went 0-3, as conference champion Georgia Tech lost 26-12 to Tulsa in the Orange Bowl and conference runner-up Tennessee fell 25-0 to USC in the Rose Bowl. Missouri Valley Conference champion Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) blew out Southwest Conference king TCU 34-0 in the Cotton Bowl.

And, showing the exhibition nature of bowl games especially in this period, the Sun Bowl in El Paso featured independent Southwestern University against a team from UNAM in Mexico City. The Pirates of Southwestern routed the Pumas 35-0 to win a second straight Sun Bowl.

What explains the blowouts?

A few things could explain the wide margin of victory. First and foremost, there were only five games played. The exclusive nature of the postseason back in the wartime era meant that some teams simply missed out on the postseason. As a result, the polls concluded their voting after the regular season, and the stakes were pride and victory alone.

With both Army and Navy sitting out the postseason as the war effort on multiple fronts precluded playing additional games, it was a diluted field to be sure. Undefeated Big Ten champion Ohio State also sat out the bowl season. And that is even before one of the five bowls turned its game into a full-fledged exhibition.

That only partially explains the anomaly, though. The previous five seasons before the New Year’s Day 1945 slate of slaughters featured equivalently sized postseasons that featured similar games and much smaller margins. The 1944-1945 postseason was an outlier spike in the historical chart of average margins.