College Football Victory Chain Linker Version 1.0

Background

My first exposure to "victory chains" came many years ago while reading one of those Crazy but true Sports Stories books. It detailed how one sportswriter had handled the national championship controversey of 1936. He backtracked across scores for the 1936 season and found a victory chain that linked Slippery Rock University to Pittsburgh and Minnesota, the two teams that split the 1936 national championship. His point was to prove that college football is not transitive. Nonetheless, it's still fun to link even the lowliest of college football teams to the Division 1-A national champions!

"Victory Chains" came into the national spotlight once again in December 2003 during yet another national championship controversey. Three 1-loss teams (USC, Oklahoma and LSU) were in contention for two spots in the national title game. On the December 9^th, edition of his radio program, Dan Patrick announced a victory chain that linked NAIA McPherson College to USC, Oklahoma, and LSU.

As was later found out, the chain Dan Patrick announced on his show was not even valid, as the Bethel he referred to as beating Whitworth was not the same Bethel that lost to Kansas Wesleyan. Thankfully, a valid chain can be found on this website for McPherson-USC, McPherson-Oklahoma, and McPherson-LSU.

I'll conclude by saying this. Victory chains are not meant to "prove" anything, and should not be taken seriously!