Is Tennessee a "CFB Blue Blood"? - Twitter Poll

#80
#80
The term is overly used and poorly defined. What does it matter, though? Kids today are not impressed. They just want cash, development, and to win. In that order.

The only people it matters to are fans who need something more to argue about when they don't win championships.
 
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#81
#81
Brave Volunteer said:
I'm just saying, mainstream media outlets will NEVER see us as equals to the likes of Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, etc. Many of.them hate us! Plus you don't see blue blood fanbases hurling mustard bottles and golf balls at referees lol!
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Youve OBVIOUSLY never been to Bama pre-saban.
 
#82
#82
VolBricks said:
any school who is historically in the top 10 in wins has to be a blue blood or in our case an Orange Blood.
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You have to be careful with all time wins. Teams like Michigan have a 30 year head start on others. I don’t think Michigan should be listed with those other top 5 or do schools. Their last consensus title prior to this year was 1948. Overrated.
 
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#83
#83
ftsandersvol said:
Historically, we are an 8 win a season team that occasionally has years where all the pieces fit together perfectly resulting in a conference and national championship. I think that would classify as a blue-blood program.
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Historical 8 win seasons back when only 10 games were played was pretty good.
 
#85
#85
I'd say Bama, OSU, Michigan, ND, OU, and USC are

I'd say both UTs, LSU, Clemson, Georgia, Florida are slightly right behind that group.

A lot of being a blue blood is media treatment. It's why this 3/6 are MW teams..
 
#86
#86
BigOrangeMojo said:
I'd say Bama, OSU, Michigan, ND, OU, and USC are

I'd say both UTs, LSU, Clemson, Georgia, Florida are slightly right behind that group.

A lot of being a blue blood is media treatment. It's why this 3/6 are MW teams..
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Mojo, I think anyone mentioning Florida in any "blue blood" discussion is showing that they don't know college football history that well.

Florida was Mississippi State level for decades and decades, until Steve Spurrier arrived. Roughly 100 of their 130 years, they were nobody.

They're new money, and far from blue bloods.


EDIT: here, watch this -- pay attention to where Florida is, throughout.

public.flourish.studio

SEC - Wins over Time

A Flourish data visualisation by JP
public.flourish.studio
 
#87
#87
Who really cares? Its like scoring a gymnastics meet. Too subjective. Give REAL critieria and see if they qualify. Other than that... its all silly. Just like Johnny Majors not being eligible for the NCAA HOF as a coach. Because of a couple tenths of a point too low winning percentage. Ridiculous? Yes. But thems the rules.
 
#88
#88
VFL-82-JP said:
Mojo, I think anyone mentioning Florida in any "blue blood" discussion is showing that they don't know college football history that well.

Florida was Mississippi State level for decades and decades, until Steve Spurrier arrived. Roughly 100 of their 130 years, they were nobody.

They're new money, and far from blue bloods.


EDIT: here, watch this -- pay attention to where Florida is, throughout.

public.flourish.studio

SEC - Wins over Time

A Flourish data visualisation by JP
public.flourish.studio
Click to expand...

Florida sucked pre-integration but since then, they've been a Top 8-10 program. And we aren't going back to integrated football...

They are like UConn in basketball, a great 30 year run, and set up for long term success with the right coach
 
#91
#91
Blue Bloods are essentially noble elite, aristocrats that enjoy and benefit from the distinct advantages that decades-centuries of accumulating wealth and power has afforded them. Blue Bloods are essentially the vampires of society. They have all of the power they could ever want, they take what they want and leave nothing but scraps for the commoners.

In my opinion, there are may be a handful of college football programs that truly fit this description.

Alabama- They are favored to win titles every year. They essentially own the SEC officials. The damn offices of the SEC are in Alabama. They cheat and always get away with it because the system runs through them. We’ve seen time after time the whole system bend to their will.

Ohio State and Michigan- I group the two because they jointly control everything in the Big10. They hold all of the cards and all the power every year and it’s virtually always been that way. They own their conference and it always comes down to the two at the end of every season.

There have been other programs in the past that could be argued as having long established, aristocratic advantages however they lost their advantages. I would have argued USC and Texas however they are abandoning what I believe to be their biggest advantage - conference control. They are about to be just one of many… Big mistake in my opinion.

To answer your question. Tennessee is an old program with great tradition but I don’t think we’ve ever had the advantages or power that these vampires enjoy.
 
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#92
#92
In the last 53 years since 1970 we’ve had one good 15 year run from 1989-2004 with only a modest amount of hardware to show for it. The other 38 years we had mediocre to bad years with only one SEC championship thanks to Florida being on probation. I wouldn’t call that a Blue Blood.
 
#93
#93
The blue blood thing is overrated. Some of the past is nice, but any program can turn it around in the future.
 
#94
#94
JBVolunteer said:
Blue Bloods are essentially noble elite, aristocrats that enjoy and benefit from the distinct advantages that decades-centuries of accumulating wealth and power has afforded them. Blue Bloods are essentially the vampires of society. They have all of the power they could ever want, they take what they want and leave nothing but scraps for the commoners.

In my opinion, there are may be a handful of college football programs that truly fit this description.

Alabama- They are favored to win titles every year. They essentially own the SEC officials. The damn offices of the SEC are in Alabama. They cheat and always get away with it because the system runs through them. We’ve seen time after time the whole system bend to their will.

Ohio State and Michigan- I group the two because they jointly control everything in the Big10. They hold all of the cards and all the power every year and it’s virtually always been that way. They own their conference and it always comes down to the two at the end of every season.

There have been other programs in the past that could be argued as having long established, aristocratic advantages however they lost their advantages. I would have argued USC and Texas however they are abandoning what I believe to be their biggest advantage - conference control. They are about to be just one of many… Big mistake in my opinion.

To answer your question. Tennessee is an old program with great tradition but I don’t think we’ve ever had the advantages or power that these vampires enjoy.
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Well, JB, that's a very class-oriented, proletariat-versus-landowners take on "blue blood."

In football, of course, it has nothing to do with land ownership or ownership of the means of production.

Instead, it is more about reputation. Those programs whose reputation echoes down through the decades, and continues to resonate today.

The first part is why a johnny-come-lately like Florida isn't a blue blood. The last part is why Harvard and Princeton aren't.

Now, within that definition, you can draw the string as tight as you wish. Or leave it more open. Folks who pull the string super tight might only include three teams, as you have. A little less tight, and you throw in Notre Dame and Oklahoma. A bit looser still, and you add USCw, Tennessee, Penn State, Texas. A bit wider, and perhaps you bring in Nebraska, LSU, and Georgia.

And so on.

There's no right answer here. But there are some wrong answers, like failing to understand and apply the term.

And of course, any answer that doesn't include the Volunteers is punishable by walking the plank. Heh.

Go Vols!
 
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#95
#95
Volizona said:
You have to be careful with all time wins. Teams like Michigan have a 30 year head start on others. I don’t think Michigan should be listed with those other top 5 or do schools. Their last consensus title prior to this year was 1948. Overrated.
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Not really 30 years.

Michigan played its first game in 1879. Tennessee played for the first time just over a decade later, in 1891. Twelve years.

It kinda breaks out this way:

~1870 - first college games, mostly in the northeast (think Ivy League and schools like Rutgers)
~1880 - football spreads into the Midwest; here's where Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State jump aboard.
~1890 - football expands nationwide, conferences start to form (between 1890 and 1893, the core of the future SEC comes into being--Vandy, then Tennessee, Kentucky, Bama, Georgia, Auburn, Ole Miss, and LSU)

That's the 20-year span where football went from a niche game played in the Northeast to a legitimate intercollegiate sport. And Michigan only existed for about the last half of it.

Also, in that decade Michigan started ahead of us (and many other programs), they only played about 3 or 4 games a year, on average, and only won about 2 average. So it's not like they were amassing a 100-victory lead.

Go Vols!
 
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#96
#96
BigOrangeMojo said:
Florida sucked pre-integration but since then, they've been a Top 8-10 program. And we aren't going back to integrated football...

They are like UConn in basketball, a great 30 year run, and set up for long term success with the right coach
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You're wrong, friend. It's not about race.

And it's not about air conditioning, the other "Florida really took off" dog whistle.

Air conditioning began to appear in homes in the 1950s.

Integration took place mostly in the 1960s.

Florida didn't emerge as a force to be reckoned with until Steve Spurrier arrived, in 1990. First ever conference championship: 1991. First national title in program history: 1996.

And their "30-year run" was really just 20 years: the Spurrier - Meyer era. 1990 to 2010. The decade and a half since Meyer left, they've been back to mediocre. We just didn't pick up on it because we were busy being even worse for most of that time.
 
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#97
#97
If you listed the top 12-15 programs 55 years ago, it would include 2 teams from the SE: Tennessee and Alabama

If you do that today, it includes the 3 FL schools, Clemson, UGA, LSU, Tennessee, and Alabama.

It's not solely because of air conditioning....

The Midwest all of a sudden didn't forget how to play football in 1968....

ND and Michigan are considered bluebloods largely for what they accomplished in an integrated sport.
 
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