15 Games That Changed the Scope of College Football

College football today is one of the biggest sports in America.

With 124 teams in just the top division, there are literally millions of fans attending games each and every week, and countless more millions watching on television.

But college football wasn't always the biggest or most important event of the American autumn. There have been some important milestones along the way, and we're going to take a quick peek at some games that helped bring college football to the lofty heights it occupies today with 15 games that changed the scope of college football.

Army vs. Navy, 1963

Considering Army and Navy have played 111 times over the years, it's difficult to select one game that stands above the rest, but the 1963 edition is hard to ignore.

In 1955, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation experimented with a replay of sorts. During a hockey game, a “wet film” of a goal was broadcast a few minutes after it occurred. While these not-quite-instant replays were expanded by the CBC and later ABC, it wasn't until 1963 that the first true “instant” replay was used—and college football propelled sports into a new era.

Despite constant problems throughout the broadcast, CBS eventually got it right, and was able to show the first instant replay in history using a videotape system of a touchdown scored by Army's Rollie Stichweh.

The event was so revolutionary that the commentator, Lindsey Nelson exclaimed, “Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!”

Since this great game (which Navy won, 21-15), televised instant replay has become a staple of modern sporting broadcasts.

Most of us could not possibly imagine a world without instantaneous replays during our favorite sporting events. Because of the future impact of instant replay (including altering the rules of every major sport in America), the 1963 Army-Navy Game earns the first spot on our list.

1902 Tournament East-West Football Game

The first “bowl” game in history, the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena decided to host an exhibition football game during the tournament on January 1 to boost attendance and revenues, as well as to showcase the sport that was quickly growing in popularity on college campuses.

Michigan beat Stanford, 49-0, after Stanford asked if they could quit with eight minutes left in the game.

The game was so one-sided, the Tournament would not host another football game until 1916.

The game also cemented Michigan as the national champion—the first team from outside the Ivy League's geographical area to win such a title.

Louisiana Tech vs. Western Kentucky, 1973

In what later became Division II, the NCAA “College Division” began deciding its football national champion with a playoff system.

The change was so “revolutionary,” it still hasn't been implemented in the FBS.

It's reasonable to claim, therefore, that Louisiana Tech is the first NCAA football national champion to have won its title “on the field,” beating Western Kentucky, 34-0.

The “College Division” was split into Divisions I-AA and II in 1978.

2005 Fiesta Bowl

For the first time since its inception, the BCS invited a team from a conference outside of the BCS formula to one of their bowl games.

The six “power” conferences—the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC—are all part of a group built into the Bowl Championship Series as “automatic qualifiers.” The rest of the FBS is left to fend for itself, and must rely on lofty rankings to earn a coveted BCS invitation.

At the end of the 2004 season, it had become impossible to ignore the Utah Utes from the non-AQ Mountain West Conference.

The Utes had put together a perfect 11-0 season, which included wins over Texas A&M and Arizona—two teams from AQ conferences.

Despite not having played any ranked team all season, the Utes rose to the No. 5 spot in the AP Poll, and was given a bid to play the No. 19 Pittsburgh Panthers, the Big East champions.

Utah built up a 14-0 halftime lead, and cruised to a 35-7 victory, proving that the “little guys” should be part of the BCS picture.

It's also interesting to note that since the BCS began, Georgia beating Hawaii in the 2008 Sugar Bowl remains the only time an AQ program has defeated a non-AQ program in a BCS bowl.

Southwest Missouri State vs. Oklahoma State, 1996

“Kissing your sister” is one of the most common expressions to illustrate the most unsatisfying result in sports: the tie.

In college football, ties weren't commonplace, but they weren't particularly rare, either. Most coaches with careers predating the introduction of overtime in college football have at least one tie on their record. Every college football rivalry series of any decent length has several sister-kissers on the books.

But in 1996, the NCAA introduced new rules to the game that did away with ties, once and for all.

The first overtime game officially sanctioned by the NCAA was played on August 31, 1996 when Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) traveled to Stillwater, Oklahoma to face the Cowboys of Oklahoma State.

Oklahoma State won, 23-20, and the era of ties in college football was gone—hopefully forever.

It's important to note that the Las Vegas Bowl instituted its own overtime rules prior to the NCAA adopting an overtime policy. In 1995, Toledo beat Nevada, 40-37 in overtime.

1999 Rose Bowl Game

The 1999 Rose Bowl Game is a milestone for college football not because of its participants (then-No. 9 Wisconsin and then-No. 5 UCLA), or its final score (Wisconsin 38, UCLA 31), or it's aftermath or lasting effect of the individual game.

What makes this game so special is the fact that it was the first game held under a new system called the Bowl Championship Seires.

The top division of college football is the only NCAA-sponsored sport in which there is no sanctioned national championship. The entire postseason, in what is now known as the FBS, has consisted of bowl games, and this led to problems in determining a national champion at season's end.

The problem came to a head in the 1990s. In 1991, both Washington and Miami (FL) finished undefeated, and were ranked as the top two teams in the nation by the major polls.

But Washington, as Pac-10 Champion, played in the Rose Bowl Game, while Miami played in the Orange Bowl. Both teams won by convincing margins, and split the national championship that season (Miami winning the AP Poll title and Washington taking the Coaches Poll title).

A group of conferences and bowl games decided to join forces, creating the Bowl Coalition. This group agreed to place the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation in the same bowl game at the end of the season.

But the Coalition had one fatal flaw: the Tournament of Roses refused to join, and the Big Ten and Pac-10 reiterated their commitment to the Rose Bowl Game.

In 1997, the “national championship” was again shared, this time between Michigan (from the non-Coalition Big Ten) and Nebraska.

Finally, the Bowl Coalition (now known as the Bowl Alliance) entered into intense negotiations with all the major conferences—including the Big Ten and Pac-10—for the formation of a new system for deciding a national champion.

The result was the Bowl Championship Series, and the BCS has been the system the college football world has used ever since, albeit with some alterations.

A few days after the 1999 Rose Bowl Game, Tennessee defeated Florida State in the 1999 Fiesta Bowl, claiming the first-ever BCS National Championship.

LSU vs. Havana, 1907

The 1907 meeting between Louisiana State University and Havana University (Universidad de La Habana) took place at La Tropical Stadium in Havana, Cuba.

In the first of what later became know as the Bacadi Bowl, the Tigers defeated the Cubans, 56-0.

This game was also the first college football game ever played outside of the United States. After the final installment of this particular bowl in 1946, the world wouldn't see another game played on foreign soil until a 1977 meeting between Grambling State and Temple in Japan.

While games played internationally are certainly not the norm, the International Bowl is played after each season in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The 2012 season will begin with an international flavor, as Notre Dame “hosts” Navy in its annual meeting, this time in Dublin, Ireland.

Michigan vs. Michigan State, 2001

The famous (if you're from East Lansing) or infamous (if you're from Ann Arbor) “Clock Game” inadvertently had a profound effect on college football that still reverberates today.

The game was close throughout, and Michigan State found itself with the ball, down by four points, with time winding down in the fourth quarter.

The Spartans drove down the field, but were stopped a yard short of the goal line with just seconds to spare and no timeouts. As MSU rushed to the line and spiked the ball, the Michigan radio announcer, Frank Beckman exclaiming, “They stopped the clock when they shouldn't have!” followed by “That's unbelievable!” and even, “That's criminal!”

The clock showed just one second remaining, and the Spartans would have one final play—that of course, ended in an MSU touchdown.

The Big Ten conducted an investigation afterward, and found no irregularities in the timing of the final two plays of the game, with Big Ten coordinator of officials stating, “We could find nothing that suggested there had been a mistake made.”

But, in order to avoid any angry reactions in the future (such as those made by Beckman, having stated the full name of every game official on the air, and assuring UM fans that the Big Ten would soon issue an apology to Michigan), the time-keeping procedures were changed so that a conference official—not a university employee—would keep the official game clock.

This game also led the Big Ten to begin toying with the idea of instituting instant replay, and in 2004, that became a reality.

Two years later, the NCAA as a whole adopted the Big Ten's instant replay rules (with a few minor changes), and it's now become a part of nearly every FBS game played.  So, in reality, the 2001 UM vs. MSU game earns a spot on two accounts: one for leading to the usage of instant replay, and two for the usage of neutral officials in keeping the game clock.

Michigan vs. Notre Dame, 1887

In what could be considered the first game now looked back upon as a rivalry game, the football team from the University of Michigan traveled to Notre Dame to teach the students there the game.

In these formative years of the game, Michigan and Notre Dame were on pretty friendly terms, and the football program at Notre Dame grew with active assistance from Michigan.

But in 1909, that all changed.

The Detroit Free Press published an account of the game in the November 7, 1909 edition, stating, “Eleven Fighting Irishmen wrecked the Yost machine this afternoon.” Thus began the nickname, “Fighting Irish.”

Michigan took its proverbial ball, and went home—and refused to play Notre Dame again until 1942.

In 1943, the then-No. 1 Irish beat the then-No. 2 Wolverines in Ann Arbor. Again, Michigan decided to refrain from playing Notre Dame for another 36 years.

Because of the two breaks of over 30-years each in the series, the rivalry is not anywhere close to being the most-played (with only 39 games). But it is, perhaps, the oldest college rivalry in existence, and laid the framework of so many others to come.

Fordham vs. Waynesburg, 1939

During the very early days of television, NBC used just one camera to broadcast a football game between Fordham University and Waynesburg University.

The game was the first football game ever televised, and reached an estimated 500 homes with early television sets in the greater New York area.

Fordham won, 34-7, and football would never be the same.

2007 Fiesta Bowl

While Boise State wasn't the first non-automatic qualifying team to earn a BCS bid, they were the first non-AQ underdog to defeat a highly ranked AQ conference champion in a BCS bowl.

Not only did Boise State defeat powerful Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, the Broncos did so in spectacular fashion, utilizing unconventional play-calling to outwit the Sooners in overtime.

While Boise State had been a powerful team outside of the BCS for years, this one victory not only signaled the Broncos' arrival on a national stage, it changed the college football landscape forever by proving that the “little guys” could not only be a successful part of the BCS (as Utah had shown in 2005), but could play with—and defeat—the best teams in the nation.

1952 Rose Bowl Game

The 1952 Rose Bowl Game between Illinois and Stanford is important for one reason, and one reason alone: it was the first college football game broadcast nationally.

Following in the footsteps of the 1952 Rose Bowl Game, today nearly every important game in every power conference is broadcast nationally by one of the major networks or their cable affiliates.

The Rose Bowl Game also became the first nationally broadcast game in color (1962), and the first college football game broadcast via satellite to Europe (1968).

Harvard vs. Tufts, 1875

The “first” college football game is generally recognized as the game that took place between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869.

But the 1869 football game was more akin to soccer than what we know as football in America today. The first true college football game as we would recognize it today was played in 1875 between Harvard and Tufts.

This alteration of rugby allowed players to advance the ball by picking it up with their hands and running with it. Advancing players were stopped by being knocked over.

While Rutgers claims the title of “Birthplace of College Football,” the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend displays a picture of the 1875 game between Harvard and Tufts as the first intercollegiate football game, mainly because the 1869 game only allowed players to kick the ball.

Michigan vs. Ohio State, 2006

There aren't many sports rivalries that are a carryover of animosity from a way, but the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is one of them.

While the “war” between the state of Ohio and the then-territory of Michigan resulted in no deaths and only one injury, the animosity between Ohioans and Michiganders remains.

In what has become one of, if not the most heated rivalries in all of sport, the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry reached new heights of importance in 2006.

Remarkably (given the great histories of both programs), the 2006 meeting was the first time the two teams had met with undefeated records and ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation.

The “Game of the Century” took place on November 18, 2006 at Ohio Stadium.

Despite mounting an impressive second-half comeback, Michigan fell just short in the final minutes, with Ohio State winning, 42-39.

The importance of this game is in its aftermath and affect on the BCS. Though many people had wanted a BCS Championship Game rematch of the two great teams who had fought a close and entertaining game, Michigan was denied a trip to the title game.

The reasons given were that Michigan “had its shot” and failed to win its own conference.

As it turned out, both Michigan and Ohio State lost their respective BCS bowls in January, but the precedent had been set by the pollsters and the BCS—a precedent that would only be overturned when the almighty SEC got involved.

LSU vs. Alabama, 2011

When then-No. 1 LSU and then-No. 2 Alabama stumbled, fumbled and bumbled their way to a yawn-inducing 6-6 tie at the end of regulation, the nation was treated to more field goal attempts in overtime.

LSU eventually won, 9-6, and went on to win the 2011 SEC Championship.

But unlike the 2006 Michigan-Ohio State aftermath, much of the nation's media immediately began talking about a BCS Championship Game rematch.

Despite all of the same issues that arose in 2006 (Michigan “had its chance” and failed to win its conference title), Alabama was given a reprieve. The Crimson Tide went on to beat LSU in the rematch, and the teams both finished with one-loss records (although LSU had 13 wins to Alabama's 12).

The end result of this situation will likely lead to the downfall of the BCS. With conference realignment and merger talks changing the face of college football, the LSU-Alabama controversy in 2011 may very well turn out to be the straw the broke the back of the BCS's camel.

Because of its potential to finally introduce the long-awaited playoff system to the FBS, we're giving the 2011 LSU vs. Alabama football game our top spot on the countdown of 15 games that changed the scope of college football.