Your pace argument is pretty interesting, but assumes a lot. It was rare enough for Williams and Dayne to play four years, and the focus on star players is much greater today than when they played. I see all of the above guys leaving early, for huge money based on hype, deserved or not.

While they're quality players (play for Dallas, please!), if either Rice or Johnson run for 6500 yards against such poor defenses, the record will be devalued.

Also, if I remember correctly, Williams' title game and bowl rushing totals did not count in his record. Then the NCAA changed the rule.

A fine article, but with one glaring omission- the entire piece was written without a single mention of the man who currently starrs at the school where Dayne once set the hallowed mark- PJ Hill. If you want to talk pace, no one has a better chance of shattering the rushing mark than Hill, after his 1,569-yard freshman campaign. Even if he doesn't get better (even though you assumed McFadden/Slaton/Rice/Johnson would accumulate significantly more yards in the future) that would still put Hill at 6,276 career yards, already better than McFadden and Johnson, and less than a hundred behind Slaton. When are the Badgers- and Hill- gonna get some love???

Ron Dayne's bowl yardage is not included in his rushing total, if it was he would have over 7,000 yards. Nowadays those yards are counted giving the running backs even more of an advantage.

PS - Go Badgers!

The Badgers will get some love when they beat a team with a pulse.

If Ricky Williams' record doesnt include bowl games...does Dayne's? And if they both don't...then would it really be eclipsing the record if Ray Rice did it with four extra (bowl) games?

Seems the last two years the Badgers beat two pretty good teams out of "the nations top conference"....pretty sure they had heart beats.

Not only did Dayne and Ricky have totals that did not include bowl games, but they also played an 11 game schedule.

So, if a great back were ever to play 4 years, they would have 8 extra games to their advantage (2 games per year).

The real record should go to the back with the best per game average (and let's say minimum 24 games).

No mention of the great Barry Sanders season rushing record of 2,628 yards? = O Come on, Stuart, that's the one which is going to be the toughest to break even though most of the stud RBs are going to leave college one year early which will make it tough to break Dayne's mark....

Barry Sanders' single season records for touchdowns and rushing yards will never be broken. It's hard enough to break them on video games.

Dayne holding the record is a joke. He rushed for about 200 yards total against Michigan in his 4 years of college. However, it will probably be a while before someone breaks that record. The good running backs don't stay 4 years.

Yea, but what about the ALIENS that have been playing NCAA Football for years!!! HUH??? What about that?!?!

That would be all time rushing leader in Division IA. Why is there no mention of Texas A&I (now Texas A&M - Kingsville) Johnny Bailey who shattered Dorsett's record in the late 80s. (As an aside, this is the same school that produced Darrell Green). R.J. Bowers of Grove City College then did one better in 2000 rushing for more than 6,999, breaking the record of Brian Shay of Division II Emporia State, who run for 6,958 yards from 1995-98. The point of this post is that there are a lot of people ahead of Dwayne on the "all-time" list, and none of the current crop of running backs you have on this list will come anywhere close to these marks.

How can you not mention current Wisconsin RB PJ Hill, who amassed 1,569 yards as a freshman! Surely at that pace he has a chance to break the Badger record for career yards.

Before anyone gets too worked up about this, consider this:

-Only 3 players in the history of NCAA D1-A football have ever had three seasons of 1,500 rushing yards.

-Only 4 players in the history of NCAA D1-A football have ever had four seasons of 1,000+ rushing yards.

-Only one player, Tony Dorsett, is on both these lists.

Steve Slaton, Ray Rice, and Darren McFadden could join Tony on both lists and still come up short. Ian Johnson could only join the first list because he only had 663 yards in 2005; he has to work even harder than the others.

One last thing: Ron Dayne's rushing record (actually 6,397 according to NCAA) does not include bowl games and the statistics provided for the current stud players do include bowl games. Including bowl games, Ron Dayne had over 3500 yards in his first two seasons--600 yards better than the nearest current competitor--and finished with 7,125 total.

And if you grant past RBs their bowl yards and the record still falls, you can always say we play more games now (12), even though some of these players had 12 game seasons on occasion (and then a bowl)... AND they played more games than past players in the 9 game seasons.

I believe Rutgers had a ball carrier in 1876's storied 3 game season who averaged 353 yards a game.. is he the all-time leader?

Are we to take into account how bad some of the conference and OOC teams were for each of these players?

How about the tendency to run up the score for the polls.. back when that counted more?

How about we take into account the new balance and competitiveness in recruiting and on the field and say, no matter who you play it is harder now to accumulate huge rushing totals.

How about we take into account the rule changes that stole 10 offensive plays or so from each team for each game last year?

Or how about we take into account the development of pass happy offenses, making it harder for running backs to get touches on straight running plays?

My advice is to just accept the fact that if one of these guys breaks the record, just assume it is a well earned title and honor the guy. Forget everything else.

Terry Grant at Alabama yeaaaahhhh baby. Bout time yall give us some recognition weak Big 10 aint got nothin on us. Mark my words and yall remember this, let it ring out through your brains. Terry Grant will destroy our SEC competition next year.

wolverine2000 makes the type of point you expect from a good Michigan fan. Yes, Dayne ran for less than 200 yards against Michigan in his 4 years of college. Could that be because of Michigan's stellar defenses, or is it because Ron Dayne is garbage, as wolverine2000 seems to think? Myself, I believe the key factor is the fact that he only played against Michigan TWICE in those 4 years.

Ron Dayne is the MAN. He was a great running back at Wisconsin. If they counted the bowl games, his numbers would have sky rocketed. Nobody would be close to him.

GO BADGERS GO BADGERS GO BADGERS

GO BADGERS GO BADGERS GO BADGERS

I hear you Wolverine fan. The University of Georgia held Dayne to 38 yards in the 1998 Outback Bowl in a blowout. Oh wait, Mandel doesn't allow facts when it comes to UGA...especially I'm sure when it has to do with his Big 10.

Ron Dayne actually played Michigan three times, never eclipsing the 100 yard mark. Back to back years Michigan spoiled Wisconsin's chance at an undefeated Big Ten season.

It is, however crap that bowl games count now, but not retroactively. I forget, did Ricky's Big XII championship stats add to his total?

Ron Dayne didn't have a great Outback Bowl if I remember...

Eric... as someone who loves D3 football (Trinity U., TX), I think reality is that most of the country only cares about D1-A football.

And while Ron Dayne is far from the best or most explosive back in NCAAA history, lets remember he holds the record because he remained relatively healthy, his longevity, and he was consistent. Keep in mind that Dayne ran for more than 2100 yards (including bowls) as a freshman while not starting until the 5th game; it's basically double what any of these guys did.

Ekesher... you pointed out a fact that I was tempted to add before, but you're not completely correct. Dayne actually went down in the 1st quarter of his second game against Michigan and sat out the rest of the game. So, I'm pretty sure Wolverine2000 overestimated Dayne, but I'll take 4-quarters and 200 yards against Michigan.

More perspective:

-Dayne is 5th all-time for yards/game for players with more than 2500 rushing yards in their college careers. He 1,000+ yards more than anyone ahead of him.

-Marshall Faulk is 6th!

-He set the record in the same number of games as Dorsett (8th in yds per game) and three games less than Ricky Williams (12th)

To mgbode:

I’ve got your man. He averaged 159 yards per game in 33 contests while scoring 52 touchdowns. The three-time consensus All-American pick rushed for 5,259 yards. He rushed for an NCAA freshman record of 1,616 yards (including a school-record 283 in his sixth game) along with most 200-yard games by a freshman (4) (and no he’s not Adrian Peterson). He led his team to a perfect 12-0 record and a national championship his freshman year. His team compiled a 32-1 regular-season record in his three years. He won the Heisman as a junior. Based on his 3-year average of 1,753 yards/yr, he would have eclipsed 7,000 yards for his career. His name: Herschel Walker.

God Bless you Karl...If only Herschel had stayed 4 years. This wouldn't even be a topic!