House Of Pain

The list of the 50 most painful outcomes in the history of college football is more sobering than a pot of firehouse coffee. You may begin to read with the urge to rubberneck at the carnage. But the pain is wearying, if for no reason other than the realization that it has been there all along, hiding in plain sight.

To assemble this list, we graded by four standards: the stakes of the game, the importance of the rivalry, the degree of humiliation -- take a bow, Stanford band -- and the length of time it took for the pain to fade.

If the pain becomes too much, take solace in the fact that the 2010 season begins in one month. Unbridled optimism is just around the corner.

-- Ivan Maisel