NCAA Football Teams That Return the Most and Least Starters in 2010

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, Fl)

Could this be the year of the perfect storm for Boise State? If you believe in trends and numbers, it could be. Boise State not only leads the nation in most returning starters with a total of 23, but those starters went undefeated last year and have the early polls in their favor for a legitimate shot at a national championship run this year.

Ball State won just two games last year, but lost seven games by just 10 points or less. Will returning 21 starters get them from the bottom to a bowl?

Washington went from winless in '08 to five wins in '09 for a nice turnaround. They had three losses of seven points or less. They were almost went from zero wins to a bowl game. Now Head Coach Steve Sarkisian brings back 20 starters. Are they a force to be reckoned with in the Pac 10 now?

These are just questions that will be answered in the coming season. Though the past shows us not all teams with huge numbers of returning starters have stellar seasons, the fact is that most do.

Let's take a look at the teams with the most returning starters. The * on the offensive side means that they return their starting QB which is always an important stat.

                     Teams with Most Returning Starters

	OFF	DEF	ST	TOTAL	CONF
Boise St.	11*	10	2	23	WAC
Ball St.	11*	8	2	21	MAC
Miami (OH)	10*	9	1	20	MAC
Syracuse	8	10	2	20	BIG EAST
Washington	10*	8	2	20	PAC 10
Missouri	9*	9	1	19	BIG 12
North Carolina	8*	9	2	19	ACC
North Texas	10*	8	1	19	SUN BELT
Texas A&M	8*	9	2	19	BIG 12
WKU	9*	9	1	19	SUN BELT

Looking at teams with hopes of cracking the top 25 in the preseason polls however, of this list, only Boise State and North Carolina may make it. That's only two of the top 10.

Ironically, the bottom 10 includes the University of Alabama who is everyone's choice for number one in the preseason polls.

                     Teams with Fewest Returning Starters

	OFF	DEF	ST	TOTAL	CONF
East Carolina	5	3	0	8	CUSA
Bowling Green	4	4	1	9	MAC
Colorado St	2	5	2	9	MWC
Alabama	8*	2	0	10	SEC
Arizona St	4	4	2	10	PAC 10
New Mexico	5	5	0	10	MWC
Oklahoma St	4	4	2	10	BIG 12
Memphis	7	4	0	11	CUSA
Mississippi	4	6	1	11	SEC
ULM	6*	4	1	11	SUN BELT
Vanderbilt	5*	5	1	11	SEC

The bottom list only has one less team in the top 25 preseason than the top list. So is returning starters way overrated? Apparently so.

But in the case of Boise State, who is returning almost an entire team that has won them all and knows what it takes, it could be a huge thing.

Returning 20 starters from a 2-10 teams may not be such a good thing, hence the old joke about two sports fans talking about their team.

"I got some good news and some bad news, the good news is we have 20 starters coming back, the bad news is, they're the same sorry SOB's from last year."

Though numbers can be skewed to portray almost all sides of any argument, it is hard to deny the impact bringing back a whole undefeated team for another year.

Should Alabama, Ohio State or Iowa falter this year, Boise State is poised to strike at a chance for their first crack at a championship. It's something they deserve.