OSU has amassed an amazing record and has been no stranger to January Bowl games but it has to take it’s toll being on the field to watch another team celebrate time after time. Many have Ohio State penciled in for the Title game, I would say leave it in pencil as they are no lock to get there.
3) Oklahoma (102-28; .785)
It’s tough to call a team with as stellar record as the Oklahoma Sooners a team in decline, but it seems that this where they may be headed.
While Oklahoma had made a boatload of January bowls and took home yet another National Title for the program in 2000, the Sooners have been on the wrong end of some seriously non competitive BCS Bowl games including two losses in games for the National Championship, a loss to non BCS Boise and getting routed once again last year by West Virginia.
While once again, the Sooners will be near the top of the polls we have to question whether they have done enough to be competitive outside of the Big 12.
While Oklahoma started this 10-year run not as well as some of the others, the biggest difference seems to be that the Sooners used to play five road games in an 11-game schedule, now they play at the most four in a 12-game schedule. Hmmmm...
2) Texas (103-25; .805)
If recruiting rankings mean anything, Texas would be the National Champion almost every year. The Longhorns and Head Coach Mack Brown are outstanding at bringing in some of the best-ranked talent year after year.
If you listened to the guys on TV and if you just looked at records, you would think Texas was a powerhouse, a regular machine; this is far from the case.
Of schools ranked within the top 10 winners, Texas has gone to the fewest BCS Bowl games (two) of any of the schools on the list from BCS conferences (which is nine of them).
What this shows us is that while Texas looks great on paper especially against lesser foes, they seldom bring it to the table when it’s time to lay their chips down.
It will be interesting to see just how long the faithful in Austin will be satisfied with going to the Holiday Bowl and San Antonio Bowl as regularly as they do.
1) Boise State (102-24; .809) - It’s tough for me not to put an asterisk here, as Boise doesn’t play in a BCS conference; and up until a few years ago, very few people even knew they existed.
I’ll give major kudos to Chris Petersen and Dan Hawkins for the job they’ve done and did with the Broncos, but if I’m Florida or Florida State who is at 11th and 12th on this list I’m probably wearing a sneer about right now.
So what exactly does all of this mean? To me it just shows once again that no one is world beaters year after year. At the end of the day, the game is far more cyclical than we can even remember on a year-to-year basis.
As we look over these past records, it’s hard to say that someone else can’t emerge. What we should also remember is that when we look at the rankings or talk about programs, that it is very hard to find a team that is “always” good.
If we expanded this list to the top 25 programs of the last 10 years, schools like Alabama, Penn State and Notre Dame would still not be on the list. This is one that changes regularly and it will be interesting to see where it sits in a few years.
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