The Horned Frogs ran out of magic on Monday as TCU lost to Georgia 65-7.
Quarterback Max Duggan scored a touchdown in the first quarter to make it 10-7 in favor of Georgia and it looked like we might in fact have a game on our hands. But that was short-lived as Stetson Bennett and the Bulldogs bullied their way to a second straight national championship at SoFi Stadium.
But how rare is a 58-point loss point loss in the biggest game of the season?
Here’s a look at where TCU’s loss stands in the history books.
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What is the most points scored by a winning team in the national championship?
Record hunting in college football is a messy business, chock full of disputed national championships and changing methodology, dating back more than a century. But for the purposes of today’s record, we’ll look at games since the introduction of the BCS in 1998.
The record prior to Sunday’s routing was 55, set by USC back in 2005 when they beat Oklahoma by 36.
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Georgia had nearly matched that by the end of the third quarter.
While noteworthy for its historic nature, this impressive performance is par for the course in the era of the College Football Playoff. Since debuting in 2014, six of the nine national championship games have included at least one side that eclipsed 40 points. For perspective, that only happened five times in 16 years of the BCS.
Even looking beyond the national championship game era, Georgia’s historic effort still holds up. In 1996, Nebraska beat Florida 62-24 for the national championship. Georgia not only scored more points than the Cornhuskers but had a more dominant defensive performance.
What is the largest margin of victory in a national championship?
Oklahoma can officially expunge themselves from two unfortunate records.
Not only was the Sooners’ 2005 loss the most points allowed in a national championship, but 31 points was also the largest margin of victory. That is, until TCU came along.
The Horned Frogs’ 58-point loss is the worst in national championship game history.