College Football 2011: One Team Every Conference Wishes It Could Drop
College football is littered with rivalries and juicy matchups on a weekly basis. Conference play excites a team's fanbase like nothing else in any given season.
The SEC alone boosts a game between two heated rivals seemingly every week.
But that doesn’t mean all is well in Division I football. Every conference has a team that they could do without. Year after year, they are the doormats of the league—the team that gets zero respect and generates little excitement around the country.
So why not cut the extra fat?
Here is a team from every major college football conference that should take a hike.
Sun Belt: North Texas
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The Mean Green have been a member of the conference since 2001 and have done little to prove their worth. One bowl game in 10 years doesn’t really scream juggernaut.
When 3-9 is an improvement…well, things are going well. The Mean Green were a win better in 2010 after going 2-10 in 2009. This was an improvement over the 1-11 mark they put up in 2008.
They have won a grand total of nine conference games since 2005 and have shown no signs of getting any better.
You are the weakest link…goodbye.
WAC: New Mexico St.
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The Aggies have won eight games in the past three seasons while getting dominated in conference play.
How bad?
3-21 bad.
The WAC is undergoing massive changes in the near future so they might as will get rid of the team that is impeding the progress of an up-and-coming conference.
Mountain West: UNLV
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The runnin’ Rebels have a long tradition in the Mountain West when it comes to basketball.
Football on the other hand?
UNLV won two games for four years in a row from 2004 through 2007.
They haven’t made a Bowl game in over a decade and haven’t won the conference since 1994.
They haven’t had a player of note go through the program since Ickey Woods in the late 1980s. Time to go UNLV.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
MAC: Eastern Michigan
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EMU has a grand total of one division championship that was won 24 years ago.
The Eagles once had a 27-game losing streak and haven’t been to a bowl game since the Regan administration.
How have they fared recently?
Well, they went winless in 2009 and have averaged two wins a year since 2005.
Get ‘em out of here!
Conference USA: UAB
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The Blazers may be frisky opponents on the hardwood…but they are a cupcake on the gridiron.
Current UAB head coach Neil Callaway sports a 15-33 record in four seasons at the helm. Naturally, he will be returning next season.
The Blazers have only been to one Bowl game in its history and have been a C-USA doormat since their inception into the league in 1999. The team hasn’t won more than five games in the last six years and counting.
UAB plays its home football games at Legion Field, where the latest average attendance is 23,139 according to NCAA figures. This is one of the worst attendance figures in Division 1-A college football.
Big East: Syracuse
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How can a league that has 16 basketball teams only have eight football teams?
A strange alignment aside, the Big East doesn’t have a glaring weak spot on its football roster.
The one team that more often than not fails to carry its weight is the Orangemen.
Sure, they won the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl this past season, but that doesn’t erase the futility of the past 10 years before it.
From 2000-2009, the ‘Cuse won a grand total of 46 games—that’s an average of 4.5 games a season, including the 10 win 2001 season.
From 1968 through 1984, the Orangemen went to one bowl game while cracking the seven-win barrier once.
Toss 'em to the streets.
ACC: Duke
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They may be National Championship contenders in basketball—but their football team is just plain awful.
Current coach David Cutcliffe is riding a 12-24-career record with little pressure for more wins.
Here are a couple fun facts:
Since 1962, Duke has only been in the polls during the 1971, 1989 and 1994 seasons.
Duke has never been ranked No.1 in the AP or Coaches polls.
Since 1994, there have been 253 straight AP Polls without Duke (the 13th longest streak in the NCAA).
The Dukies haven’t won more than five games in a season in the past decade and went through a stretch in the mid-2000s where they won a total of two games in three years.
This team is bringing down the reputation of a conference that needs to improve in that department.
Pac-10: Washington St.
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The Cougars may have fielded the worst Pac-10 team ever in 2008. The 2-10 team picked up wins over the powerhouse known as Portland St. and a Washington team.
The Huskies may have been winless that season, but at least, they were competitive in the vast majority of their games.
The Cougars lost games by the following scores: 66-3, 45-17, 63-14, 28-3, 66-13, 69-0, 58-0 and 31-0.
That means the closest margin in eight of their games was 25!
Couple that insanely awful season with two conference championships since 1930…and we have ourselves a winner.
Big 12: Baylor Bears
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This was a two-team race between Baylor and Kansas, but the one bowl game in the last 16 years was the difference for the Bears.
They have yet to win a Big 12 championship and have never been considered more than a trap game.
The 2010 season allowed the Bears to attend their first Bowl game since 1994—but were promptly blown out by Illinois 38-to-14. They made the top 25 for one week during the season. It marked the first time the team had been ranked since 1993!
This team is not worthy of a Big 12 membership.
Big 10: Indiana
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The Hoosiers have won a single conference game for three straight years and counting.
Checking out the records of the last four head coaches gives you all the information you need to know:
Cam Cameron: 18-37
Gerry DiNardo: 8-27
Terry Hoeppner: 9-14
Bill Lynch: 19-30
Let’s see if new coach Kevin Wilson can break the .400 winning percentage mark and call himself the greatest Hoosier coach of the last 15 years.
SEC: Vanderbilt
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Life in the best conference in the nation isn’t easy, and the Commodores have been finding that out the hard way for years.
While Vandy may hold itself to a higher academic standard than LSU, ‘Bama or Florida…it certainly doesn’t help its chances on the gridiron.
The Commodores have a 187-378-23 record against fellow SEC teams for a .337 winning percentage.
They have gone to one bowl game since 1982 and went through a stretch in the 90s where they won eight conferences games in nine seasons.
Vanderbilt is way out of their league in the SEC and need to take a step down for the sake of the league.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
