Ranking The 10 BCS Champions, Who Is Really The Best Of Alltime?

Choose an objective system to rank the 10 BCS Winners. The system used here will be a breakdown of the points scored and points given up during the regular season giving us a margin of victory going into the title game. Accept that all national champions played a tough schedule or they wouldn't be in that position. Remove the bias of who plays in what conference. The proof will be in the numbers, not who has the largest cheering section. This leads to surprising results, some going against accepted beliefs and conventional wisdom.

TEAM/YEAR/RECORD      OFF.AVE.     DEF.AVE.      MARGIN OF VICTORY

9Tie) Ohio St. '02   14-0      29.3             13.1              16.2                            

9Tie) Florida   '06   13-1      29.7             13.5               16.2

8) Florida St.  '99   12-0      37.5             15.8               21.7

7) Oklahoma   '00   13-0     37.0              14.9               22.1

6) Tennessee  '98   13-0     33.2              10.7               22.5

5) LSU           '03   13-1      33.9              11.0              22.9

4Tie) Sou Cal  '04   13-0     38.2              13.0               25.2

4Tie) LSU       '07   12-2     45.1              19.9               25.2

2) Miami         '01   12-0     42.7                9.8               32.9

1) Texas        '05   13-0     50.1              16.4               33.7

There you have it. The 2005 Longhorns are the best BCS champ in terms of strength of victory margin. Using this as our guideline we see that 2007 LSU is stronger than 2003 LSU. The 1st BCS champ, the 1998 Tennessee Volunteers, finally get respect in this objective system after years of being underrated. The 2001 Miami Hurricanes, considered by many the finest team to come along since the all-powerful 1971 Nebraska steamroller, is only 2nd strongest among the 10 BCS winners in terms of strength of victory margin.

We see differing opinions about how strong the SEC is compared to the Big10, how unbalanced the PAC10 is compared to the ACC, how the Big12 is more physical than the Big East. The one factor that rises above the others here is that Vince Young was the most dynamic talent we've seen in the BCS era, his Longhorns beat Ohio State in Columbus, beat Sou Cal in Pasadena, and beat Oklahoma in Dallas. That's taking down three BCS champion programs away from home. It's time we tip our hat to the 2005 Longhorns.