College Football: Rematch of AP Ranked Teams

Championship Saturday will consist of two rematches of AP ranked teams.  No. 5 Virginia Tech will try to avenge their earlier season loss to No. 21 Clemson.  Meanwhile No. 15 Wisconsin will try to forget the Hail Mary pass, that No. 11 Michigan State defeated them with back in October.

In the history of the AP poll, there have been 19 other instances of two ranked teams meeting each other twice in the same season.  Checkout the list below.

Year	Date	Rk	Won/Tie		Rk	Lost/Tie	Score
1959	10/31/1959	1	LSU	vs	3	Mississippi	7-3
	1/1/1960	2	Mississippi	n	3	LSU	21-0
1975	10/4/1975	2	Ohio St	at	13	UCLA	41-20
	1/1/1976	11	UCLA	n	1	Ohio St	23-10
1978	11/11/1978	4	Nebraska	vs	1	Oklahoma	17-14
	1/1/1979	4	Oklahoma	n	6	Nebraska	31-24
1982	9/25/1982	12	UCLA	at	20	Michigan	31-27
	1/1/1983	5	UCLA	n	19	Michigan	24-14
1994	11/26/1994	4	Florida	vs	7	Florida St	31-31
	1/2/1995	7	Florida St	n	5	Florida	23-17
1996	11/30/1996	2	Florida St	vs	1	Florida	24-21
	1/2/1997	3	Florida	n	1	Florida St	52-20
1999	10/2/1999	21	Alabama	at	3	Florida	40-39
	12/4/1999	7	Alabama	n	5	Florida	34-7
1999	10/23/1999	18	Texas	vs	3	Nebraska	24-20
	12/4/1999	3	Nebraska	n	12	Texas	22-6
Year	Date	Rk	Won		Rk	Lost	Score
2000	10/14/2000	10	Florida	vs	19	Auburn	38-7
	12/2/2000	7	Florida	n	18	Auburn	28-6
2000	10/14/2000	8	Oklahoma	at	2	Kansas St	41-31
	12/2/2000	1	Oklahoma	n	8	Kansas St	27-24
2001	9/29/2001	7	Tennessee	vs	14	LSU	26-18
	12/8/2001	21	LSU	n	2	Tennessee	31-20
2001	10/20/2001	9	Texas	vs	14	Colorado	41-7
	12/1/2001	9	Colorado	n	3	Texas	39-37
2002	11/2/2002	2	Oklahoma	vs	13	Colorado	27-11
	12/7/2002	8	Oklahoma	n	12	Colorado	29-7
2003	9/20/2003	11	LSU	vs	7	Georgia	17-10
	12/6/2003	3	LSU	n	5	Georgia	34-13
2003	10/11/2003	2	Miami FL	at	5	Florida St	22-14
	1/1/2004	10	Miami FL	n	9	Florida St	16-14
Year	Date	Rk	Won		Rk	Lost	Score
2004	10/2/2004	8	Auburn	at	10	Tennessee	34-10
	12/4/2004	3	Auburn	n	15	Tennessee	38-28
2007	10/13/2007	6	Oklahoma	vs	11	Missouri	41-31
	12/1/2007	9	Oklahoma	n	1	Missouri	38-17
2007	10/25/2007	2	Boston College	at	8	Virginia Tech	14-10
	12/1/2007	6	Virginia Tech	n	12	Boston College	30-16
2010	9/25/2010	17	Auburn	vs	12	South Carolina	35-27
	12/4/2010	2	Auburn	n	18	South Carolina	56-17
2011	10/1/2011	13	Clemson	at	11	Virginia Tech	23-3
	12/3/2011	5	Virginia Tech ?	n	21	Clemson ?	?
2011	10/22/2011	15	Michigan St	vs	4	Wisconsin	37-31
	12/3/2011	11	Michigan St ?	n	15	Wisconsin ?	?

 

Teams that have won the first game in a two-game season series between AP ranked teams, have a 10-9 record in the rematch game.  In conference championship games, that record goes to 8-4.

Teams that were upset in the first game of a two-game season series (defeated by a team with a worst ranking), have a record of 3-4 in the rematch.  Three out of those four losses came when their opponent had the better ranking the second time around; thus no longer an “upset” victory”.

It’s the first time in their school’s histories, that Clemson, Michigan State, and Wisconsin will play in a in-season ranked rematch game.  It’s the second time for Virginia Tech.  Back in 2007, they went 1-1 against Boston College; winning the ranked rematch game in the ACC Championship Game.

All signs are pointing to an LSU-Alabama rematch in the BCS Championship Game.  If this does occur, it will be the first time there have ever been three ranked rematch games in one season.

 

Reference: College Football at Sports-Reference.com, College Poll Archive