re: all time records? "modern era" of football? what's relevant?

quote:

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Post 1945


on what basis?

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The general logic of this basis is usually 3 fold.

1) Prior to the end of WW2 and during, often travelling teams existed or technical schools fielded football programs; the playing field, in that sense, didn't really resemble the modern one until the 'others' faded away.

2) The Great Organizing Time: The major conference were mostly organized on a stable basis by 1945. One of the important things that has helped define the era of major college football, is recognizable formatting; a team was associated with its conference, and you could generally count on it still being the same 15-20 years later. Bowl tie-ins became more permanent across the board. Large scale athletic departments with permanent, expansive facilities became the norm; specialized football-only coaching started to emerge as the dominant trend in the sport. Specialization became a thing.

3) The forward pass became much more standardized, so the game as played became much more recognizable, and comparable between seasons.

Now, there are arguments about whether or not segregated football is really a good comp, or whether or not the changes in rules make the game a truly comparable product, but there is little question that what came after the war, was much more like now, than even what it was like two decades before.