Mississippi State held Arkansas' Darren McFadden to 88 yards on 28 carries. Held Matt Forte, Tulane's 2,000-yard rusher, to 47 yards on 14 carries. Held West Virginia stud Steve Slaton to 127 yards on 23 carries.
So I think Sanders' record might survive this latest assault. But it shouldn't even be a possibility.
Sanders actually gained 2,850 yards in his spectacular 1988 season at Oklahoma State, but the NCAA then did not count bowl statistics. Bowl games now are included, but not retroactively, according to a new policy voted upon for the 2003 season.
Which is nonsense. If the 2002 Gator Bowl stats count, the 2003 Gator Bowl stats should count.
Smith's 2007 rushing totals already count 13 games, since Central Florida played in the Conference USA championship game. Now he gets 14 games to pad his total. Sanders got 11.
Jim Wright, director of NCAA statistics, said, "We did not go back and retroactively change previous records.Assuming we could even find all the bowl game stats, that would mean that some national statistical champions might change, and we did not feel that would be right to tell someone 20-30 years after the fact that they no longer were the national punting leader, as an example.”
Well, I don't want to go around bursting the bubble of 50-year-old men, but statistics and records don't exist to make has-beens feel better about themselves. They exist to accurately reflect what happened.
The NCAA is a huge organization with access to all kinds of resources. With help from each school, the records easily could be updated.
OSU has not updated its school records to count bowl games, which is a mistake. Oklahoma State media relations director Kevin Klintworth, who has been on the job barely a year, said that task is on his to-do list but is not a priority, since it would make no difference in the NCAA record book.
Other schools have updated their records to count bowl games. For instance, Billy Sims jumped Joe Washington as the leading rusher in Oklahoma history.
Klintworth said he thinks bowl games should count but should be retroactive. An NCAA official told Klintworth that even if Smith busts 2,628 (Sanders' pre-bowl total), Sanders would be noted in the record book for his 11-game total.
"Now what you have is a record book full of asterisks,” Klintworth said.
Maybe the Liberty Bowl will make this discussion moot. But Barry Sanders shouldn't have to rely on Mississippi State.
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Josh and Tim, I would like to see your references on what makes you think that we are giddy about Kevin breaking this record. Yes, it is exciting, but I don't think anyone here is saying Kevin is better than Barry or anything. We do, however, say that Kevin is good and are proud to have such an athlete play for our school. I bet though, that even if you were to trash him, our coach wouldn't cry like a little girl on TV.
Get used to this, OSU fans. UCF fans have this sense of entitlement. Despite the fact that they are 2-38 against BCS teams, they act like they are destined to be one of the nation's top teams. If you dare question their greatness, you will feel their full wrath. They are giddy at the prospect of "breaking" Barry Sander's record. They don't care that Kevin Smith is getting 3 extra games to do it, or that he has to carry the ball 30-40 times per game to pad his stats. Remember, you're dealing with a coach who is known to lie to get what he wants.
I've seen both Barry Sanders and Kevin Smith play in person. Although both are smallish, they have very different running styles. Sanders was the ultimate jitterbug; Smith combines juking, speed, and power (ask the poor TU defenders who tried to tackle him in two games). Sanders is a proven Hall of Famer; Smith may get there in time. Richard's idea of compiling rushing averages is a good one. OSU fans can take pride in what Barry did; UCF fans can take pride in what Kevin has and will do on the field. Both are great in their respective eras.
I was never privileged enough to see Barry play in college, but I have seen Kevin Smith. We can debate the records, but you can't debate that this guy is amazing. Also, it seems the only one who truly cares about this record being broken is Oklahomans. I can assure you that Kevin just wants to win the game and do whatever he can to make that happen. And Record or not, UCF will be proud of our star. I can't help but wonder though, that if the record were to have been broken in 11 games, would the debate then have turned to "he doesn't play against good enough teams?" Trust me, we UCF fans have done all kinds of analysis.
I was going to school at OSU when Barry and Thurman were there. No one, even the coaches, knew what Barry was capabale of the year prior to his Heisman year. It was like pull out Thurman and who is the little guy that just ran for 30 yards. But in Barry's year I remember going to watch them play Texas A&M (this was still Big 8 then) and was amazed that OSU could keep up with a strong Southwest Conference team. But OSU had them beat big time in the first half and Barry sat out most of the second half and still had over 150 yards rushing. This was before any Heisman hype came up. And so were a few of his other games early in the year. If Pat Jones would have let him go (as if Barry would have wanted to) he could have gone for at least another 500 yards that year. Enough said Barry was and still is the best College Running Back EVER
Okay, they don't want to go back and change the stats because it will distort the past record holders. Then why in the Wide World of Sports did they decide to include bowl stats in the first place as it distorts and is truly unfair to the players of the past? I am a Sooner fan and Barry Sanders record should stand - he was truly unbelievable.
Bob, I completely agree. However, nothing anyone does to this point will ever diminish what Barry accomplished on the field. His 1988 season is the best season by a collegiate running back in history. He is the "BEST RUNNER" to ever lace up a pair of cleats. Whether he is the "GREATEST RUNNING BACK" though is up for debate. There is a difference. In my opinion, he is both. His professional career qualifies his collegiate career. 1988 was no fluke. He put up enormous numbers, and based upon his professional career, it would be ludicrous to believe anything other than he could have put up those same numbers against any collegiate team, any conference, any era. In time, Kevin Smith may have the same argument.
In this computer age, the argument that it would be too much trouble to go back and adjust the statistics for bowl games from 1937 forward is just ridiculous. As a software developer and business owner for many years, I had many occasions to hire clerical help to input large amounts of data for similar kinds of data-intensive projects. Very minimal cost, minimal training, and the software to actuall do the adjustments? Very trivial...nothing more that simple additions. If they are going to count extra games, do it retroactively or don't do it at all.
Barry did it in 11 games. Until someone rushes for 2,600+ yards in 11 games, Barry's the record holder. The idea that Kevin Smith could be touted as the "NCAA rushing record holder" is assinine.
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OSU running back Barry Sanders currently holds the NCAA single-season rushing record with 2,628 yards, but Central Florida's Kevin Smith could break it with 181 yards in his bowl game. by Jim Argo The Oklahoman Archive
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