The most infamously bad college football team may win its first national title in 63 years

CNN
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If you were to ask a sports fan of a certain age, who is the worst in college football? a popular answer would probably be the Columbia Lions. After all, Columbia went on an infamous 44-game (and subsequently record-setting) losing streak in the 1980s that captured national attention.

Fans took down the goalposts as the Lions finally won one game.

To say the least, Columbia is not Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame or USC in the pantheon of college football greats.

And yet the Lions are on the brink of winning their first league title in more than six decades and only their second ever.

All that needs to happen Saturday is for Columbia to beat the Cornell Big Red at home in Manhattan and the Harvard Crimson to lose to the Yale Bulldogs in Massachusetts.

If both events occur, Columbia will tie Harvard for a share of the Ivy League title.

It's so very different from what college football has become with its extensive playoff system. It's like something from a bygone era.

You see, in the Ivy League there are no tiebreakers and no league championship. None of the league's eight members participate in playoffs. If you are bound, you are bound. That's it.

Indeed, that is exactly what Columbia would be if it won a national title. Something from a bygone era, like when Columbia won the Rose Bowl in 1934.

You might be wondering why I know Columbia won that Rose Bowl. It's because my father never stopped talking about it. He was one of the biggest Lions fans in the world, especially for someone who didn't go to school.

My father started following the team during one of the rare winning streaks of the late 1920s through the mid-1900s. He then took me to see the games when they were, for the most part, downright terrible in the 1990s and 2000s.

My father is no longer there, but my love for the Lions remains (and no, I didn't study there either).

To me, Columbia winning a share of the Ivy League title would be its own mini version of the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl. Those who know me know that I do not take these words lightly.

The Lions have actually played much worse than the Bills in recent history. Over the last half century, the Lions haven't been bad during the four-year period listed at the top. What Columbia specializes in is being bad every time.

Since 1974, the Lions have won more games than they have lost in six seasons. They have lost 42 more games than they have won. One season they had as many wins as losses. In other words, they've had six times as many losing seasons as winning seasons over the past half-century.

Just a decade ago, this writer noted that a matchup between Columbia and Cornell was the worst college football game in the worst college football town.

In 2014, an 0-8 Columbia took on an 0-8 Cornell team. It's no surprise that the Lions lost that game and lost the following week to finish 0-10.

Columbia was in the midst of another losing streak of more than 20 games.

This year, things are so much different on both sides of the ball than they were in 2014. Instead of being in the bottom ten of all-time college football championship points allowed, Columbia is in the top ten.

The attack is also considerably better. Instead of ranking last in rushing yards per game, Columbia is actually in the top half of the college football championship division. And instead of being in the bottom five in passer efficiency, which takes into account pass attempts, completions, interceptions, touchdowns and yards, the Lions are in the top half.

The bottom line is that no matter how you look at it, Columbia is just much, much better. Remarkably, they've done it behind a rookie head coach (Jon Poppe) who wasn't even alive when the Lions began their 44-game losing streak in the 1980s.

So on Saturday I'll be in northern Manhattan cheering on Columbia at a stadium five miles from the university's campus. The Lions might just win their first title since 1961.