Pre/post Black 14 series statistical realities

[GOWYO]

Every Wyoming fan knows the Black 14 incident destroyed the once-proud football program. We can debate the ethics, judgment, etc. of those involved, but there's no debate about how it completely reversed the rivalry in terms of status and wins/losses.

Wyoming and BYU first played one another in 1922, and have played each other 77 times since, but not since 2010.

BYU has the edge overall 44-30 with 3 ties, winning 57% of the games.

Before Black 14, Wyoming played BYU 40 times, and won 23 of them (58%) The day Lloyd Eaton kicked the 14 African American players off the team, Wyoming was ranked 12th in the country. From 1949 until 1970, BYU only beat Wyoming once. ONCE in two decades!

Wyoming only won 7 times after Black 14 in 37 games, just 19%, fewer than 1 in 5 tries.

Before Black 14 Wyoming attended five bowl games and won 4, losing only to LSU in the Sugar Bowl.
Wyoming has only won 2 of the 8 bowl games it has attended in the years since Black 17

Before Black 14 BYU had never been to a bowl game. Since, they have been 34 of 37 years, winning 13. BYU has not won a bowl game since the 2012 Poinsettia Bowl over SDSU.

It took nearly nine years after Black 14 for the LDS church to reverse it's ban of men of African descent from the priesthood. Similar protests at San Jose State did not result in any player dismissals.

 

[pokefanchaz7]

It's pretty wild how that one event became a turning point for the cowboys football team.

I don't know what else changed at that point but that was a turning point for consistent success for sure


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[ragtimejoe1]

Two things I've always disagreed with 1) byu was responsible (we chose how to respond) and 2) the Black 14 situation sent our program in a tailspin.

Certainly a blemish in our history that shouldn't be ignored but a changing CFB landscape which places great emphasis on our "weaknesses" is what killed our program.

In the 70's utep, sdsu, csu and ? came aboard the way. At that time it was also the beginning of the separation based on size and money versus region. AZ and AZ State bolted for the PAC.

Even more significant was the TV ruling in 84 that sent the ivy league packing and started the conference arms race. CFB became about packaging markets and revenue. It was the beginning of the end which culminated in the formation of the bcs in the late 90s.

byu was able to buffer themselves by the Mormon revenue machine (i.e. church subsidies; member donations, Mormon owned corporate support, etc.). They also had a lds recruiting pool which helped. More importantly they had a damn good coach who hit on several QBS.

IMO, Black 14 is something that occurred prior to our descent but had very little contribution to that slide.

 

[GOWYO]

ragtime, I'm sure you're right. I'm kind of a more emotional fan than analytical, in general. I agree that the blame does not lie with BYU, per se, because decisions made by the players, staff, administration, courts, etc. were the real factors. But you can't deny that we were undefeated and ranked 12th in the country the day this happened, and would have had far more success in the 70's at least which might have led to more success down the road as well. Winning usually equals more winning. I always feel that Boise State is a great example of what would have been possible for us, but I don't have a sophisticated enough point of view on college football to know if this is actually true. I just like to go to some games and yell.