Today I conclude my series of conference teams of the decade with a look at how each individual conference fared in the past decade in bowl games. To come up with a ranking system I included their overall bowl record, records against BCS conf teams, non-BCS conf teams, records against ranked opponents, the ranked teams’ records, and most importantly their BCS bowl record.

Here are the overall records for each conference and how I would rank each conference’s performance in the past 10 years in bowl games. Keep in mind this not my overall ranking on which conference is the toughest in the country but just one factor that goes into my ranking along with non-conf record, record against BCS foes, number of players drafted and number of top 10 finishes just to name a few.

Conference Bowl Rankings 2000-2009

The SEC was clearly the top performing conference in bowl games in the last ten years. Their overall 48 bowl wins were 10 more than any other conference and their win % was just behind the MWC and Big East. What really separated the conference from the others was their performance in BCS bowls and games against ranked teams. Their 32 wins over ranked teams was 13 more than the Big 10 and their outstanding 12-3 record in BCS games was clearly the best. The conference also went a perfect 5-0 in national title games!

Coming in at #2 is the MWC, which is very surprising but much deserved. Despite having less overall wins than several of the BCS conferences in many categories, their winning percentages were higher in nearly every category. Thier 63.2% win % was #1 as was their 61.1% vs BCS conf teams. The conference also fared well vs ranked teams and in BCS bowls and what put them over #3 was their 6-5 record (including 2-0 LY) against the Pac-10.

The Pac-10 also had a great decade in bowl games including a 9-3 mark in BCS bowls thanks in large part to USC’s 6-1 record. The conference would have been ranked higher if not for their sub-.500 record against non-BCS schools. The Big East comes in at #4 here with an overall 62.7% win % which was best among BCS conferences. While the conference did well in BCS games at 6-4, they did fatten up on the little guys with a 12-1 mark against non-BCS conferences. While it should be noted that they took care of business when they had too, the conference was just 20-18 against the other BCS conferences.

The Big 12 racked up 38 wins (2nd most) and were right around the .500 mark in several categories. The conference was 32-34 vs BCS teams, 6-5 vs non-BCS teams and their ranked teams were 19-20. The Big 10 is #6 on my list and it is shocking to see how poorly the conference did overall with just a 40.6% win %. The conference was just 19-27 vs ranked teams and 6-11 in BCS games. To the conference’s credit they did play the least amount of non-BCS teams with only three games and the Big 10 got a big boost last year with 4 wins over Top 15 teams in bowl games.

The ACC like the Big 10 did not have a great decade in bowl games. Despite having a better win % than the Big 10, their 1-9 mark in BCS bowls including 0-2 vs the Big 10 puts them at #7. Finally, the WAC deserves some mention here thanks to Boise St with 2 BCS wins and their .500 mark against ranked teams.

On the PhilSteele.com homepage, you can vote on the winner of each regular season conference matchup. When you select a conference you get the complete conference schedule for each team with the home team capitalized. All you have to do is vote on who you will think the winner will be in each game and the current voting tally appears. Remember you can only vote once and take your time by maybe doing one conference at a time. To vote you do have to register your e-mail address but this is just to make sure there is no stuffing of the ballot box. This is a great way for me to gauge on how the public looks at each game and I will look at how the current % are going so far in Monday’s Blog.

Also We just posted my 2010 FCS All-Conference and All-American teams on the homepage on Thursday and if you want to see if your favorite local team has any players on make sure to download them. Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #11 Wofford. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Have a great weekend!

Only 54 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

June 28 Sun Belt 
June 29 MAC 
June 30 WAC 
July 1 CUSA 
July 2 MWC 
July 3-4 Big East 
Monday Pac-10 
Tuesday ACC 
Wednesday Big 12 
Yesterday Big 10 
Today SEC 
Weekend Conference Bowl Records

The SEC has dominated college football in the past decade and is an automatic answer when anyone asks me what the best conference is. The SEC has now won four straight National Titles and had five total in the past decade. In the past 10 years several great coaching hires have made this conference so strong with four of the current coaches having won a national title and six of them have at least one BCS Bowl win at some point in their career. This year looks like it will be another strong year for the conference and the big question is can the SEC make it 5 straight National Titles?

But for now let’s look back at the previous decade and here are my overall rankings for SEC team of the decade.

SEC Rankings 2000-2009

Rk	Team	Wins	Losses	Win %	Titles	Div Titles	# of Bowls	Bowl Wins	AP Top 25	AP Top 10	BCS Bowl Wins	Natl Champ
1	Florida	61	19	76.30%	3	4	10	5	8	5	4	2
2	LSU	55	25	68.80%	3	4	10	7	8	5	4	2
3	Georgia	55	25	68.80%	2	3	10	8	9	5	2	0
4	Auburn	52	28	65%	1	2	9	6	6	2	1	0
5	Alabama	46	34	57.50%	1	2	7	4	4	3	1	1
6	Tennessee	51	29	63.80%	0	3	8	3	5	1	0	0

This was a tough call for me as Florida and LSU both had three overall conference titles, 4 division titles, 10 bowls, 8 AP Top 25 finishes, 5 Top 10’s, 4 BCS Bowl wins and 2 national titles. One could make an argument that these two teams were the top programs in all of the country for the past decade (USC, Oklahoma, Texas and Ohio St are the others). While LSU fared better in bowl games, Florida had six more conference wins and were 6-4 in head-to-head matchups vs the Tigers (avg score 26-17) so they get my nod for SEC team of the decade!

Coming in at #3 is Georgia who clearly was ahead of the other schools with two overall titles, 3 division titles, 9 AP Top 25 finishes (#1 SEC), 5 AP Top 10’s and 2 BCS wins. While he is currently feeling some heat after finishing 8-5 LY, HC Mark Richt has done a good job here and I think they will top LY’s win total and they are prime contenders in the SEC East.

At #4 is Auburn who had an impressive 65% win % in league play and went to 9 bowl games. The Tigers grabbed an overall title in 2004 and came up just short of the national title. The Tigers get the nod over Alabama here because of their 7-3 record head-to-head (including six straight from 2002-2007) and they won six more games than the Tide in conference play. #5 Alabama has really come on strong the last couple of years going 16-0 in regular season conference play. The Tide would have finished higher but remember they did have six seasons where they finished .500 or below in conference play.

In the 90s Tennessee probably would have finished #2 in my rankings behind Florida. In the past decade however the Vols have slipped a little and despite having five more wins in conference play than the Crimson Tide, Tennessee gets my #6 vote. While they did appear in 8 bowl games, none of them were a BCS bowl and they had just one appearance in the final AP Top 10. With that being said there are a lot of programs that would love to have a 63.8% win % in the tough SEC and I think new HC Dooley will do a great job here.

Here are the overall bowl records for SEC teams during the past decade.

SEC Bowl Records ’00-’09

As you can see above, the SEC has been very impressive in bowl games the last ten years with an overall 60.8% win % including a 65.3% mark against ranked teams. Their 12-3 (80%) records in BCS games is outstanding and is just another key factor in the conference being the strongest in the country. There were several teams that fared well in bowl games led by Georgia who was 8-2 overall and 6-1 vs ranked teams. LSU was 7-3 overall in bowl games and were a perfect 4-0 in BCS bowls. Mississippi went 4-1 overall including an impressive 3-0 mark vs ranked teams.

Tomorrow I will take a look at all the conference’s bowl records and rank which conferences did best overall in the past decade.

We just posted my 2010 FCS All-Conference and All-American teams on the homepage yesterday and if you want to see if your favorite local team has any players on make sure to download them. Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #12 Stephen F Austin. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Only 55 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

June 28 Sun Belt 
June 29 MAC 
June 30 WAC 
July 1 CUSA 
July 2 MWC 
July 3-4 Big East 
Monday Pac-10 
Tuesday ACC 
Yesterday Big 12 
Today Big 10 
Tomorrow SEC 
July 10-11 Conference Bowl Records

The Big 10 has now been at 11 teams since 1993 but that will change next year when Nebraska joins the conference. Throughout much of it’s history, Ohio St and Michigan have dominated the conference with the Wolverines having 42 overall titles and the Buckeyes are 2nd with 34. Their combined 76 titles is nearly as many as all the other Big Ten past or present members have combined (89)! So were Michigan and Ohio St clearly the top two teams in the past decade?

Here are my rankings for Big 10 team of the decade for 2000-2009.

Big 10 Rankings 2000-2009

Ohio St was clearly the team of the past decade with six outright or shared titles including five in a row! In 2002, they captured the Big 10′s first outright national title since 1968 (Michigan shared in ’97). Their 64 wins were 11 more than Michigan and they were the only team to go to 10 straight bowl games. To put into perspective how dominant the Buckeyes were, they were #1 in the conference for each of the ten categories I looked at when ranking the teams! They nearly doubled up the second place finisher in total points.

Coming in at #2 was Michigan who had a good shot at the title but have fallen back the last couple of years. The Wolverines had the 2nd most titles with 3 and they had 7 AP Top 25 finishes. Their four game lead over Iowa in overall wins put them over the top despite having less Top 10 finishes and no BCS Bowl wins.

Kirk Ferentz has done a great job with Iowa and come in at #3 here with 2 titles and an impressive four AP Top 10 finishes including last year when they finished off their season with their Orange Bowl victory over Georgia Tech. Penn St is #4 on the list and had polar opposites parts in the decade. From 2000-04 the Nittany Lions were just 26-33 overall (16-24 in conference play) and had four losing seasons. In 2005, they turned it around and have gone 51-15 overall (29-11 in conference play) and have three AP Top 10 finishes and two Big Ten titles in the last 5 years.

Wisconsin comes in at #5 for 2000-2009 after quite possibly being the Big Ten team of the decade for the 90s with 3 Rose Bowl wins. It is very surprising to me that the Badgers have not won or shared a Big Ten since 1999 but the Badgers did go to nine bowl games and had six finishes in the AP Top 25. Purdue also deserves some mention with an above .500 finish in the decade and made a Rose Bowl appearance in 2000 under former HC Tiller and QB Brees.

Here are the Bowl records for Big Ten teams in the past decade.

Big Ten Bowl Records ’00-09

The conference really struggled in bowl games with a 28-41 overall record (40.6%). Big Ten teams were just 19-27 against ranked teams including just 6-11 in BCS games. Some bright spots were Iowa’s 5-3 overall record and Ohio St finished 4-3 in BCS bowl games. To its credit the conference usually plays top-notch competition as evidence of their 3 total bowl games against non-BCS teams.

I will be back tomorrow with a look at the SEC conference which features a very tight race at the top.

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #13 Illinois St. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Only 56 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

June 28 Sun Belt 
June 29 MAC 
June 30 WAC 
July 1 CUSA 
July 2 MWC 
July 3-4 Big East 
Monday Pac-10 
Yesterday ACC 
Today Big 12 
Tomorrow Big 10 
Friday SEC 
July 10-11 Conference Bowl Records

The Big 12 has been the talk of the college football this offseason with expansion and re-alignment rumors. Nebraska will head to the Big 10 next year and Colorado will be moving on to the Pac-10 in 2011. The conference will probably get a name change in this upcoming decade and while there was talk that the conference could cease to exist for now most of the conference was able to stay together for the near future.

Looking back at the past decade there were just the sane 12 members separated by two 6-team divisions. What is interesting to note is at the start of the decade the North division was considered much stronger than the South with Nebraska being a regular national title contender, Kansas St a perennial Top 25 team under Bill Snyder and Colorado being a solid program under Gary Barnett. Meanwhile, the South division had traditional powers Oklahoma and Texas but heading into the 2000 season, Bob Stoops was in just his 2nd season after going 7-5 in his 1st year and Mack Brown was in his 3rd season and they too were coming off a five loss season in 1999. 

That 2000 season however would be a harbinger for things to come in the decade as Oklahoma would run the table and win the national title. Meanwhile Texas won nine games and the following year would begin their current run of nine consecutive 10-win seasons! On the North side Nebraska would enjoy a few more solid years before slipping in the middle part of the decade while Colorado and Kansas St both suffered similar fates but have yet to recover like Nebraska has done under HC Pelini. Clearly Texas and Oklahoma were the two powers in the Big 12 the past ten years but which school gets my vote as team of the decade?

Here are my overall rankings for Big 12 team of the decade.

Big 12 Rankings 2000-2009

Oklahoma gets my vote for #1 despite having one less win than Texas in conference play. The Sooners six Big 12 titles dominated the conference and they enjoyed seven AP Top 10 finishes and won a national title in 2000. While the Sooners have lost 4 of the L/5 vs the Longhorns, they did win 5 straight from 2000-04 by an avg margin of 38-11!

Texas is a clear #2 here as they had the best win % and won 2 titles along with five outright or shared division titles. The Horns won a national title in 2005 and had 7 AP Top 10 finishes and 3 BCS wins.

Nebraska had a great start to the decade and slipped in the middle part. However, the last couple of years under HC Pelini the Cornhuskers are back at the top of the conference and get my vote for #3. Despite having the same win %, Nebraska had 5 outright or shared division titles, which puts them ahead of #4 Texas Tech. The Red Raiders had a great decade and naturally are hurt by the fact that they are in the same division as Texas and Oklahoma.  Texas Tech did go to 10 straight bowl games and finished in the Top 25 five times. Despite not winning an overall conference title their conference win % was much higher then the remaining teams.

Kansas St, Colorado and Missouri all won our shared multiple division titles and had at least one AP Top 10 finish. Kansas St’s 2 AP Top 10 finishes and outright title in 2003 puts them at #5 while Colorado’s 2001 title gives them the nod over Missouri.

A couple of interesting notes is that the conference had 21 AP Top 10 finishes which naturally is an avg of two a year. Also only four teams have a winning conference record this decade, which is probably due to the dominance of Texas and Oklahoma who have each won over 80% of their games.

Here are the overall bowl records for Big East teams during the course of the decade.

Big 12 Bowl Records ’00-’09

The conference finished with a 38-39 overall record with not much difference between their record against BCS conference teams and Non-BCS teams. The Big 12 did have a sub-par record against ranked teams (18-25) and were just 6-9 in BCS bowls thanks to Oklahoma losing five straight and the ranked teams were just 19-20 (48.7%). Texas had a solid 7-3 record with five of the wins coming against ranked teams and the Horns were 3-1 in BCS games. Oklahoma and Texas Tech both went to a bowl every year and finished at 5-5, which heavily contributed to the conference’s near overall .500 mark.

I will be back tomorrow with a look at the Big 10 conference.

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #14 Cal Poly. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Only 57 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

June 28 Sun Belt 
June 29 MAC 
June 30 WAC 
July 1 CUSA 
July 2 MWC 
July 3-4 Big East 
Yesterday Pac-10 
Today ACC 
Tomorrow Big 12 
Thursday Big 10 
Friday SEC 
July 10-11 Conference Bowl Records

The ACC began the decade as a 9 team league then they added Virginia Tech and Miami, Fl in 2004 and Boston College in 2005.

There have been a couple of myths about the ACC in the past decade. First, at the start of the decade there was a lot of talk that Florida St would continue to dominate the conference. When Florida St joined the ACC in 1992 they did not lose a single conference game until 1995 and were an amazing 70-2 in conference play from 1992-2000! In the first season of the past decade (2000) the Seminoles extended their amazing finishes in the AP Top 5 to 14 consecutive seasons, a feat that probably will never been duplicated. At the start of the 2001 season if someone would have predicted that the Seminoles would not finish in the Top 10 again for nine straight years and even finish outside the top 25 for three seasons, you would have been considered an idiot. However, that is exactly what has occurred since that first season as the Seminoles have “just” a 48-24 conference record (also 0-1 in champ gms) with zero Top 10 finishes and they have finished outside the AP Top 25 three of the last four years.

Another myth with the ACC occurred when the conference decided to expand to 12 teams and welcome in Miami Fl, Virginia Tech and Boston College from the Big East. The Hurricanes and Seminoles were placed in opposite divisions and everyone assumed that the two schools would regularly meet each other in the conference title game. However, that “dream” match-up has never occurred in the ACC title game and between the two teams they have only 2 division titles with Florida St having both. In fact, busting that myth even more is that Miami by far has the weakest conference record of the three Big East teams as Virginia Tech has dominated with a 38-10 record (79.2%) and Boston College has an unexpected 26-14 (65%) record in conference play with 2 appearances in the ACC title game. Miami meanwhile is only 25-23 in conference play.

Here are my rankings for ACC team of the Decade.

ACC Rankings 2000-2009

While one could make a case for Florida St since they had the most wins and the most titles, I’m going to go with Virginia Tech since they have by far the best win %, 3 divisional titles and have finished in the AP Top 10 four times in six years while Florida St has just one AP Top 10 finish in 10 years.

Georgia Tech had a solid decade and get my vote for #3. The Yellow Jackets went to 10 bowls a feat only accomplished by 10 other teams in the country and they have the 2nd most wins and took home the ACC title last year. Boston College has surprisingly fared well since they joined the league in 2005. Their 65% win % ranks 3rd and they have won or shared 3 division titles so they get my #4 vote. Rounding out the Top 5 is Clemson who also had a solid decade winning at least 6 games every year and went to 9 bowl games but an overall league title has eluded the Tigers.

Here are the overall bowl records for Big East teams during the course of the decade. Keep in mind for Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, these bowl records are only from their seasons when they were in ACC.

ACC Bowl Records ’00-’09

As you can see the conference has struggled with just a 49.2% win % in bowl games in the past decade. Florida St finished with the most wins with 5 but also had five losses. The conference did not fare well against ranked teams at just 10-17 thanks to their 1-9 record in BCS games (only win was ’08 Orange Bowl vs Cincinnati). Their poor BCS record contributed heavily to the conference having only six teams total that finished in the Top 10 which is surprising and the conference had 0 national titles.

I will be back tomorrow with a look at the Big 12 conference which will be a very tight battle between Texas and Oklahoma.

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #15 Delaware. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Only 58 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

First, I hope you and your families are having a very happy and safe 4th of July weekend!

First, I want to wish you and your families a very happy and safe 4th of July weekend!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

Monday Sun Belt 
Tuesday MAC 
Wednesday WAC 
Thursday CUSA 
Yesterday MWC 
Today Big East 
Monday, July 5th Pac-10 
Tuesday, July 6th ACC 
Wednesday, July 7th Big 12 
Thursday, July 8th Big 10 
Friday, July 9th SEC

The Big East was not easy for me to research. At the start of the decade it was Miami Fl, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College, West Virginia, Temple and Rutgers. Temple was kicked out of the league in favor of Connecticut. Miami and Virginia Tech bolted the league for the ACC after the 2004 season and Boston College won the title in 2004 (7 team league) and left for the ACC in 2005. Then they added in USF, Cincinnati and Louisville in 2005.

Here are my overall rankings for Big East Team of the Decade.

Big East Rankings 2000-2009

Clearly this was a two horse race and while the numbers point to Miami, Fl which opened up the decade at 27-1 with 3 outright and 1 shared title in 4 years, they left the league for the ACC. Their 27 total wins in the Big East were STILL 3rd best in the decade!

I have been leaning towards teams that have left the conference recently with Marshall (MAC) and Louisville (CUSA) as teams of the decade but here I will go with West Virginia. They tied Miami for 4 titles and their 47 wins are 6 more than Pitt. They also went to 9 bowl games winning 5 and had 2 BCS Bowl wins and 3 AP Top 10 finishes. Had the Hurricanes stayed in the league for just one or two more years they would have proabably gotten the nod.

In 3rd Place, Cincinnati jumps Pittsburgh thanks to their back-to-back Big East titles the last two years and two crucial wins over Pitt with the league title on the line. The Panthers had a solid decade with 41 wins but missed several opportunities to finish higher in this list.

Former Big East member Virginia Tech and Boston College round out my list of teams of the decade as they were the only other remaining teams with at least a 50% win % in league play.

Here are the overall bowl records for Big East teams during the course of the decade. Keep in mind for Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Cincinnati, etc these bowl records are only from their seasons when they were in Big East.

Big East Bowl Records ’00-’09

The Big East was 32-19 (62.7%) in Bowl games during the decade thanks in large part to their 12-1 record vs Non-BCS schools. The conference did win 6 of their 10 BCS games and Boston College went a perfect 5-0 overall in bowl games when they were part of the Big East (’00-’04).

I will be back on Monday with a look at the team of the decade in the Pac-10 and just like the WAC it should come as no surprise who is #1.

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #18 South Dakota St. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Only 61 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

Monday Sun Belt 
Tuesday MAC 
Wednesday WAC 
Yesterday CUSA 
Today MWC 
Saturday Big East 
Monday, July 5th Pac-10 
Tuesday, July 6th ACC 
Wednesday, July 7th Big 12 
Thursday, July 8th Big 10 
Friday, July 9th SEC

The MWC has been the best non-BCS conference the last few years and the Big 3 (TCU, BYU, and Utah) are all BCS caliber teams. In 2000, the MWC had eight teams and then added TCU in 2005 to get them to nine. Next year the conference adds WAC Power Boise St but loses Utah to the Pac-10. Here are my overall rankings for MWC Team of the Decade.

MWC Rankings 2000-2009

Utah gets the nod here despite being #3 in overall win %. What put the Utes over the top was their two undefeated seasons in ’04 and ’08 in which they won two BCS bowls and finished in the AP Top 5 each year. Utah also tied BYU with the most titles and made the most bowl games (8). Another impressive feat for the Utes was they won all their bowl games in the past decade including 5 over BCS conference teams! It is kind of ironic though that Utah wins my team of the decade and will be moving on to the Pac-10 next year.

Going into last year, TCU was #3 on my list but thanks to a tremendous season, the Horned Frogs jump to #2. TCU easily has the best win % with 83.7% since joining the conference in ’05. The Frogs have 5 straight bowl appearances winning four of them and has four AP Top 25 finishes the last five years! TCU also has won 3 of 5 against BYU including the last two by a 70-14 margin, which gave them the slight nod over the Cougars.

It is tough putting BYU here at #3 as the Cougars have finished very strong under HC Mendenhall recently. However, BYU did have 5 seasons from 2000-06 with 6 or more losses. While the Cougars are tied with Utah with the most titles (3) and have more conference wins than any other school, they do not have any BCS appearances and Top 10 finishes like TCU and Utah.

Colorado St won a couple of titles early in the decade and get my vote for #4 despite having a losing record overall in conference play thanks in large part to last season’s 0-8 finish. However, their 2 titles trumps any other argument for Air Force and New Mexico. In the last couple of years Air Force has clearly been the #4 team behind the Big 3 but come up at #5 here. Former New Mexico HC Rocky Long did a great job and led the Lobos to five bowl games in the past decade as they get the nod for #6.

Here are the overall bowl records for MWC teams during the course of the decade. Keep in mind for TCU these bowl records are only from their seasons when they were in MWC.

MWC Bowl Records ’00-’09

As you can see, the MWC has been very impressive in bowl games with a 24-14 overall mark and a nice 11-7 record against BCS teams. They also have six wins over ranked teams and Utah’s 8-0 overall mark in bowl games was better than any school in the country over the past decade!

I will be back tomorrow with a look at the team of the decade in the Big East. Will another team who has not played in the conference for several years be named team of the decade like the MAC and CUSA? Check it out tomorrow around noon est.

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #19 Eastern Illinois. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Only 62 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

Monday Sun Belt 
Tuesday MAC 
Yesterday WAC 
Today CUSA 
Tomorrow MWC 
Saturday Big East 
Monday, July 5th Pac-10 
Tuesday, July 6th ACC 
Wednesday, July 7th Big 12 
Thursday, July 8th Big 10 
Friday, July 9th SEC

CUSA in 2000 consisted of Louisville, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Southern Miss, UAB, Tulane, Memphis, Houston and Army. They added TCU in 2001. Two years later in 2003 they added South Florida and they were an 11 team league for two seasons. In 2005 they lost Cincinnati, Louisville and USF to the Big East and Army dropped out. They added in Rice, SMU, UTEP and Tulsa from the WAC. They also added Marshall and UCF from the MAC. With 12 teams they split into two divisions the last 5 years. Here are my overall rankings for CUSA Team of the Decade.

CUSA Rankings 2000-2009

Just like Marshall in the MAC, Louisville gets the nod here despite not being in the league for five years. They easily had the highest win % and also had the most titles with three. The Cards went to five bowl games in five years and finished in the AP Top 25 twice including a #6 finish in 2004.

Tulsa comes in at #2 with the second highest win % and the Golden Hurricane also had the most division titles with 3. Had Tulsa won the conference last year they would have had a chance to finish as the team of the decade.

If I were awarding the most consistent team of the decade it would clearly be Southern Miss as they had ten winning seasons and made nine bowl appearances. Southern Miss easily had the most wins but the problem is they could not get over the hump and win multiple championships. Despite having 24 more wins than Tulsa, I put Southern Miss here at #3 because Tulsa had a higher win %, was 2-1 against Southern Miss and also had 2 more division titles.

East Carolina made a late push under former HC Skip Holtz. With their back-to-back CUSA Championships the past two years they finish #4. Houston also has finished the decade strong but three losing seasons to start the decade including an 0-11 season in 2001 has them coming in at #5. Rounding out my top 8 are TCU, UCF and Cincinnati. It is interesting that of the two MAC teams that came over Marshall was the MAC powerhouse coming in but has gone just 17-23 while UCF was coming off an 0-11 season but has gone 26-14 in a tougher league.

Here are the overall bowl records for CUSA teams during the course of the decade. Keep in mind for Louisville, TCU, and Cincinnati these bowl records are only from their seasons when they were in CUSA.

CUSA Bowl Records ’00-’09

Overall, CUSA was 21-31 overall last decade with just a 1-10 record against BCS teams. The conference faired reasonably against ranked teams with a 6-6 record. Southern Miss led the way with five bowl wins while Tulsa had three. Louisville was 2-3 but each of the wins came against ranked opponents.

I will be back tomorrow with a look at the team of the decade in the MWC which is a three horse race between BYU, Utah and TCU. 

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #20 Montana St. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Only 63 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a look at the conference teams of the decade for 2000-2009. Factored into my analysis will be conference win %, conference and division titles, bowl games and bowl wins. I will also include BCS bowl wins, final AP rankings and number of national championships for the major conferences. There have been several teams who have changed conferences during that time and I will include them in the analysis for any season(s) they were affiliated with that certain conference. I will also be doing a breakdown of how the conference did in bowl games during the decade and I will emphasis the overall win/loss record, the number of BCS bowl wins, and the records against Non-BCS and ranked bowl teams.

While some conferences may have no-brainers as the top team, other conferences were very competitive over the past decade. Here is the schedule for the upcoming week with the conferences I will be analyzing on each date.

Monday Sun Belt 
Yesterday MAC 
Today WAC 
Tomorrow CUSA 
Friday MWC 
Saturday Big East 
Monday, July 5th Pac-10 
Tuesday, July 6th ACC 
Wednesday, July 7th Big 12 
Thursday, July 8th Big 10 
Friday, July 9th SEC

The WAC conference in 2000 consisted of Fresno St, UTEP, San Jose St, Tulsa, Rice, Hawaii, SMU and Nevada. In 2001, they added Louisiana Tech and Boise St and stayed at 10 teams for the next 4 years. In 2005 they were raided by CUSA and lost Rice, SMU, Tulsa, and UTEP and replaced them with 3 Sun Belt members in Utah St, Idaho and New Mexico St. Those 3 teams have combined for a record of 15-83 in their 5 years in the league vs other WAC members not including games vs each other (26-94 overall), which has greatly inflated the rest of the leagues team records.

Here are my overall rankings for WAC team of the decade.

WAC Rankings ’00-’09

With all factors considered, Boise St is clearly the team of the decade for the WAC with more than triple the number of points than 2nd place Fresno. Boise St has lost 4 WAC games in 9 years and is 61-2 since in their last 8 years! That is remarkable! The Broncos have won 7 titles (1 of those was co-title) while UTEP, Hawaii, Nevada and Louisiana Tech have one apiece. Fresno does have the 2nd best win % mark in the league and while the Bulldogs have shockingly not won a title they have 9 bowl berths with 4 wins over BCS conf teams in bowl games.

Hawaii had a resurgence under former HC June Jones and thanks to their magical season in 2007 where they made a trip to the Sugar Bowl, the Warriors come in 3rd. Nevada and Louisiana Tech also had nice decades with each winning one WAC title but the Wolf Pack edge out the Bulldogs with 5 bowl appearances to finish #4.

There will be a new school crowned team of the decade for the upcoming ten years as the Broncos will be moving to the MWC next year and will have just one year in the league.

Here are the overall bowl records for WAC teams during the course of the decade. Keep in mind for Rice, UTEP, Tulsa and SMU these bowl records are only from their seasons when they were in the WAC.

WAC Bowl Records ’00-’09

Boise St and Fresno are tied with 4 bowl wins a piece. The Bulldogs have played to the level of their competition with a 4-1 mark against BCS schools but are 0-4 vs Non-BCS teams. Boise St naturally has their two Fiesta Bowl victories in the past decade and have three bowl wins vs ranked teams. Hawaii had three bowl wins in the past decade and made a BCS appearance in 2007. Overall the WAC was 15-19 overall with an impressive 4-4 record vs ranked teams.

I will be back tomorrow with a look at the team of the decade in CUSA and you may find the results to be similar to the MAC with all of the changes that have taken place over the past 10 years. 

Also please check PhilSteele.com everyday to get my FCS Top 25 Countdown, which continues with #21 South Carolina St. Thru July 20th, I will post both magazine pages on a new team ranked in the Top 25 and you can get an early look on how I breakdown your favorite FCS team. Remember those magazine pages are available for only 24 hours for you to download as the next team will be posted the following day.

Only 64 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!