CFB Most Influential Programs
#32 Pennsylvania Quakers
School: Pennsylvania Quakers
First Game: November 11th, 1878
Winning Percentage: .627
Appearances in AP/Rank: 89 (68th)
Average AP Ranking: 11.2
National Titles: 7
Claim to Fame: Penn was the first program to have a nationally televised deal outside of the NCAA. Their 1951 contract would not prove successful long term but was a foreshadowing of things to come.
Why I have them in my Collection: Penn, like many of the Ivy League schools, has been an integral part of college football since its inception. They won all of their national championships prior to 1925 but continued to play a large role in the sport throughout the 1950s.
As mentioned above, they were the first team to challenge the NCAA on the ability to sell their own gaming rights. The argument against it was that putting games on TV would harm in game attendance and revenue. TV would be the end of college football as they knew it. Sound familiar?
Penn would have their only contract with ABC for their 1951 season, but they were also then dubbed a NCAA institution not in good standing. With this bad mark, they would have had a pretty much impossible time of scheduling opponents moving forward.
They would eventually cave to the NCAA, but their first step is one that many other bigger programs would stand on their shoulders 3 decades later. It is also not too crazy to conclude that the insane TV contracts we see now for conferences are a direct result of Penn laying the groundwork for how college football, and athletics in general, should view the value of their products.
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