Follow the Dotted Lines: Florida and Oklahoma Have Already Lost to Real National Champs

It's a good thing the transitive property doesn't work in football. You might remember that property from a math class somewhere in your past. What the transitive property states is, if a > b and b > c, then a > c. It's a good thing that doesn't work in football, because if it did, tonight's BCS Championship Game wouldn't matter. Both Florida and Oklahoma have already been transitively defeated by the champions of

Division I-AA

the Football Championship Subdivision, Division II, Division III, and the NAIA. I kid you not. Fasten your seat belts, Chuckles; this is going to get strange.

We'll start with the FCS champions, the Richmond Spiders. The Spiders beat Montana, who beat Cal Poly, who beat San Diego State, who beat Wyoming, who beat Tennessee, who beat Vanderbilt, who beat Ole Miss, who beat Texas Tech, who beat Texas, who beat Oklahoma. And, of course, Ole Miss beat Florida outright. So we've established that as long as we can get to Cal Poly from a given team, they've transitively defeated both the Sooners and the Gators. Do you still doubt that all the other national champs who won the playoffs we can't have beat them? See you after the jump.

The Division II title was won by Minnesota-Duluth, who beat North Alabama, who beat Valdosta State, who beat Newberry, who beat Wingate, who beat UNC-Pembroke, who beat Jacksonville, who beat Dayton, who beat San Diego, who beat UC-Davis, who beat Portland State, who beat Eastern Washington, who beat Weber State, who beat Cal Poly, and thus the Minnesota-Dulth Bulldogs have also transitively defeated both participants in tonight's game.

Gotta be harder for Division III, right? Not really. Mount Union beat Wisconsin-Whitewater, who beat Mary Hardin-Baylor, who beat Sul Ross State, who beat Southwest Assemblies of God, who beat Austin College, who beat Birmingham Southern, who beat Campbell, who beat Carthage, who beat Illinois Wesleyan, who beat Elmhurst, who beat Wheaton, who beat Franklin, who beat Butler, who beat Morehead State, who beat Dayton, and if you follow the Division II line above, then Mount Union has also transitively defeated both Florida and Oklahoma.

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Thus, the Gators and Sooners have transitively lost to every other NCAA football champion. But sure they couldn't lose to the NAIA champ, right?

Wrong. Look at the Division III line again. Southwestern Assemblies of God is an NAIA school. If we can get to them from the NAIA champion Sioux Falls Cougars, we're home free. That's not hard at all. The Cougars beat Langston University, who beat Southwestern Assemblies of God, and from there, it's already established. So I don't see what's so great about tonight's game. How can any team be a true national champion if they've already been transitively defeated by the champions of every other NCAA division plus the NAIA?

(Thanks to Chris Bellomy, a proud alumnus of Austin College, who did much of the legwork for this post.)

Follow the Dotted Lines: Florida and Oklahoma Have Already Lost to Real National Champs originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:46:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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