Talk:List of NCAA major college football yearly passing leaders

Some pre-1937 cases
Hard to imagine anyone threw for more than Bill Spears in 1927, but cannot confirm. Interested to find some passing yards stats for Swede Oberlander in '25 too. Likely Oberlander or Benny Friedman's 760 yards led the league. Cake (talk) 18:59, 24 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Any number of yards for Gus Dorais will border on original research; however any account of the Army game or the season will have one sure of his name as 1913's leading passer. The 243 yards for the Army game is reported many, many places as one of the sport's great firsts. So, one imagines any of the games before Army involve possibly negligible passing. I found an account of the Texas game giving a clear total of 200 yards, so that makes it easier. Accounts of the Christian Brothers game I could find only mention Dorais running all over, but I didn't find a forward pass. That leaves Penn State. The only account I found detailed enough still seems vague on one of the passes, but on my reckoning is 3 passes for 67 yards (via a 25-yard pass,  40-yard pass, and a 2-yard pass). 243 + 200 + 67 is thus how I got the number of 510. Given Gipp's numbers, it seems fairly reasonable. One must figure Pudge Wyman is there soon after Dorais, but no account anywhere of his numbers yet. Also, this source on the 1930 Utah team leaves many tantalizing "they would be second in the NCAA that year." Any idea of who could've thrown for ~700 yards or more in passing in 1930? And I have to stomp my feet for just how many sources recall Oberlander's yardage against Cornell, or over his whole career, but won't leave any clues to figure out if he topped Friedman. Cake (talk) 23:24, 28 October 2015 (UTC)
 * One more thing. How come I cannot seem to get the yards to sort properly on any of the pre-1937 tables? And a note on Spears. He and Gerald Mann dominate the passing game that year. If one ever finds Mann's stats, it should be decisive.Cake (talk) 01:02, 29 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I think the inclusion of footnotes in the number column prevent accurate sorting. Cbl62 (talk) 05:28, 29 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I considered that but didn't try in the name column. Oops. Cake (talk) 05:47, 29 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Worked for all but the total offense column. Hmm. Cake (talk) 06:04, 29 October 2015 (UTC)