Do you know who the best team in Varsity Football history is?
Yes, we all know that UP-Tuks have claimed three titles and their neighbours TUT are hot on their heels with two wins from the six tournaments to date. However, if you’ve ever wondered which varsity would top the table if you tallied up all the results since 2013 then you need not wonder anymore…
We have gone through our archives, number-crunched and come up with a Varsity Football All-Time Points Table which hands the bragging rights to… UP-Tuks – champions in 2013, 2014 and 2017.
“No surprise”, we hear you saying. Well, you should be because 2016 and 2018 champions TUT are actually level on overall points, 78, with them. What makes that even more significant is that TUT didn’t qualify for the 2015 edition while UP-Tuks have been ever-present (like UWC, and NWU if you include both their Mafikeng and Potchefstroom campuses).
UP-Tuks and TUT have the same wins (23) and draws (9), which equates for their 78 points but TUT have only been beaten three times in round-robin action – by VUT and UWC in 2015 and UJ last year – while UP-Tuks have lost on nine occasions.
All told, UP-Tuks claim top spot on the All-Time Points Table by virtue of them having a better goal difference (+45) to TUT’s (+39).
The two teams’ success means there’s quite a gap to third place and below. NWU Mafikeng sit third, on 60 points) which adds to their ‘nearly men’ status. They’ve reached the semi-finals three times (and lost to the eventual champions each time) and just missed the playoffs in the last two years.
UWC, the 2015 champions, claim fourth on the table while UJ sit fifth.
The Orange Army are perhaps the biggest oddity of Varsity Football. They’ve only played in four editions, having failed to qualify via the USSA National Championships for 2013 and 2015. However, they reached the 2014 and 2016 final, finished top-of-the-log last year (before failing in the semis) and have the best goals-per-match ratio of all the teams who’ve played in the competition – who knows where they could be with more all-year-round consistency…
See below where your favourite varsity sits on the Varsity Football All-Time Points Table.
by Carlo Jonkerman
