This week on MNC Wednesday, we’re taking the college-football time machine back to the 1908 season. Where were you then? Yes, probably the same place we were. This was the tail end of the Teddy Roosevelt presidency, for example, and the Chicago Cubs won the World Series—the last time they would do so until 2016, in fact. So that’s what people tend to remember about sports for that annual date. Ironically, we’re going to Wrigley Field ourselves tonight, so the timing here is impeccably curious.

The 1908 MNC: Pennsylvania (Helms, NCF-tie) & LSU (NCF-tie); Chicago (DMP)

We had another split decision this year from the so-called “experts” with the Pennsylvania Quakers (11-0-1) and the LSU Tigers (10-0) each “earning” a share of the retro mythical national title. As far as we can tell, the powers that be just looked at some win totals and decided, “Yeah, that there’s our winner!” We all know that all records are not created equal, and neither of these schools finished atop the sabermetric SRS rankings, so that leaves us with our usual task of sorting through all teams under consideration:

  • Chicago (5-0-1): No. 1 SRS, No. 2 SOS (out of 67 big-time college programs)
  • LSU (10-0): No. 2 SRS, No. 62 SOS
  • Carlisle (10-2-1): No. 4 SRS, No. 4 SOS
  • Pennsylvania (11-0-1): No. 5 SRS, No. 35 SOS
  • Navy (9-2-1): No. 6 SRS, No. 15 SOS
  • North Carolina State (6-1): No. 7 SRS, No. 43 SOS
  • Yale (7-1-1): No. 8 SRS, No. 12 SOS
  • Denver (7-1): No. 9 SRS, No. 23 SOS
  • Virginia (7-0-1): No. 10 SRS, No. 32 SOS
  • George Washington (8-1-1): No. 11 SRS, No. 60 SOS

Well, well, well … look what the cat dragged in. The Tigers have no business in this discussion with that schedule strength. In fact, LSU played four cupcakes among its 10 opponents, and while the team gave up just six points overall in its other six games, you just can’t have a “national champion” playing the sixth-easiest schedule in the country, leaving its home state just twice on top of that. As for the Quakers, their SOS is better—but not even average, really. They played four small schools and two road games.

Both the teams are out of our analysis, therefore. The Maroons only played six games, which isn’t great, but the SOS is top notch, of course: five Western Conference (eventual B1G) rivals and No. 33 Cornell. However, Chicago played a single road game, against Wisconsin. Now, we do realize travel was a much harder thing to do at this time, but usually each game featured a team that did travel somewhere, so … the Maroons tentatively have our attention, but their profile does have some serious flaws, too.

What about Carlisle? The Indians played two small schools and a whopping 10 games away from home—the final 10 contests of the year, actually. The SRS and the SOS are there. So who did they lose to? They tied Penn on the road; they lost to No. 13 Harvard on the road; and they lost to No. 31 Minnesota on the road. It’s crazy to think the Indians had to travel so much, but considering sociopolitical scenario at the time, that does not surprise us. The team acquitted itself quite well all things measured.

Navy played three cupcakes and only left Annapolis twice; the Midshipmen cannot overcome Carlisle’s SOS advantage. The Wolfpack played only one small school while finishing its schedule with four straight matchups away from home. But the SOS overall is not there at all. The Bulldogs lost to Harvard as well, while facing three small-college squads and leaving home just twice. We will keep them in the comparison for now. The Pioneers lost to Carlisle at home, so we have to eliminated them.

The Cavaliers played three cupcakes and only left town twice; that SOS won’t cut it, either, at barely better than average. Finally, the Colonials’ SOS is a disgrace. So that leaves us with a Top 3 group of Chicago, Carlisle, and Yale. In truth, no one can top the Maroons’ sabermetric profile here, but they played just six games. Is that enough to warrant an MNC? We’re not sure. And again, Chicago left just once, going north to Madison, WI, in the final contest of the season. Plus, that tie isn’t a good one in home play.

But the Indians cannot overtake the Maroons with the two losses and the lower SOS, despite all the obstacles. And the Bulldogs cannot, either. Then there is the actual sabermetric projection for head-to-head matchups here: Chicago would have been a 6.01-point favorite over Carlisle on a neutral field—and a 7.51-point favorite over Yale on a neutral field. Those are serious edges that cannot be ignored, and even if the Maroons played fewer games, the quality of their opponents cannot be matched in this analysis.

For the record, too, the Indians lost to the Golden Gophers, who in turn got blasted by Chicago, 29-0. Transitive scores are contextual, of course, but still? That is hard to ignore. So, there we have it: the Chicago Maroons are our MNC pick for 1908. This is the first such designation for the school/team—which famously dropped football in 1939 and left the B1G in 1946 for ethical and moral reasons. Congratulations, Chicago!