College Football 2022: “Here’s a twenty, bury two.”

[Slap Shot]

Marshall! Marshall! Marshall!

[MichVandal]

Idaho really made it a game against the Hoosiers. For an 0-2 FCS team, the Vandals are either not bad, or WSU and IU really suck.

[psych]

Idaho really made it a game against the Hoosiers. For an 0-2 FCS team, the Vandals are either not bad, or WSU and IU really suck.

Outside of the Covid year, Indiana has sucked for decades in football. They have to be in the top 5 for worst P5 conference football programs of all-time.

[Kepler]

Outside of the Covid year, Indiana has sucked for decades in football. They have to be in the top 5 for worst P5 conference football programs of all-time.

They are.

1. Wake Forest
2. Indiana
3. Northwestern
4. Kansas State
5. Iowa State
6. Kansas
7. Oregon State
8. Vanderbilt
9. Duke

[Fighting Sioux 23]

They are.

1. Wake Forest
2. Indiana
3. Northwestern
4. Kansas State
5. Iowa State
6. Kansas
7. Oregon State
8. Vanderbilt
9. Duke

Very interesting. Although, I don't know if purely looking at winning percentage is necessarily the best way to determine the worst programs. Using college hockey as an example, is Boston College the best college hockey program because it has the top winning percentage? Is Clarkson better historically than Cornell because of the same? Are Princeton and Massachusetts the worst "Big 4" programs in history? Although, it certainly adds a piece to the puzzle, I don't believe it is the end all be all.

For college football, in addition to winning percentage, I would look at other factors, such as conference titles, bowl games, top 10 seasons, etc. And I would select a "champion" for each conference to get my bottom 5.

Let's start with the programs that have won 2 or fewer conference titles in the last 50 years:

ACC: Virginia (2), Boston College (1), Wake Forest (1), Duke (1)
B1G: Rutgers (1), Purdue (1), Indiana (0), Minnesota (0)
Big 12: Oklahoma State (2), Kansas State (2), Texas Tech (1), Kansas (0), Iowa State (0)
Pac 12: California (2), Washington State (2), Oregon State (1)
SEC: Kentucky (0), Ole Miss (0), Mississippi State (0), Missouri (0), USC (0), Vanderbilt (0)

Now let's rank these teams by the number of Top 10 seasons (using AP/Coaches Polls) in the last 50 years, and eliminate the top team from contention:

ACC: Boston College (2), Virginia (0), Wake Forest (0), Duke (0) - Boston College eliminated
B1G: Purdue (1), Minnesota (1), Rutgers (0), Indiana (0) - Purdue eliminated*
Big 12: Kansas State (6), Oklahoma State (4), Kansas (2), Iowa State (1), Texas Tech (0) - Kansas State eliminated
Pac 12: Washington State (5), California (2), Oregon State (1) - Washington State eliminated
SEC: USC (3), Missouri (2), Kentucky, (1), Ole Miss (1), Mississippi State (0), Vanderbilt (0) - USC eliminated

Then let's rank the remaining teams by the number of bowl games played in the last 50 years, and keep only the bottom two teams in contention:

ACC: Virginia (21: 8-13), Wake Forest (14: 9-5), Duke (8: 3-5) - Virginia eliminated
B1G: Minnesota (20: 9-11), Indiana (12: 3-9), Rutgers (11: 6-5) - Minnesota eliminated
Big 12: Oklahoma State (28: 18-10), Texas Tech (27: 13-14), Iowa State (15: 5-10), Kansas (9: 5-4) - Oklahoma State and Texas Tech eliminated
Pac 12: California (16: 10-6), Oregon State (12: 7-5)
SEC: Mississippi State (22: 12-10), Missouri (22: 11-11), Ole Miss (19: 14-5), Kentucky (17: 9-8), Vanderbilt (8: 3-4-1) - Mississippi State, Missouri, and Ole Miss eliminated

Then let's compare the bottom two in each conference by winning percentage:

ACC: Wake Forest (41.9%) vs Duke (48.8%)
B1G: Indiana (42.1%)vs Rutgers (49.3%)
Big 12: Iowa State (45.7%) vs. Kansas (46.9%)
Pac 12: California (55.0%) vs. Oregon State (47.2%)
SEC: Kentucky (50.2%) vs Vanderbilt (48.7%)

Using each of these metrics, (with winning percentage as the final tiebreaker) the "Champions" under this analysis are:

ACC: Wake Forest**
B1G: Indiana
Big 12: Iowa State
Pac 12: Oregon State
SEC: Vanderbilt

Ultimately, this lines up fairly well compared with overall winning percentage. The only "swap" is Iowa State for Kansas State.

*I broke the tie between Purdue and Minnesota by looking at the better results in the statistic above (conference titles in last 50 years). The Boilermakers edged out the Gophers 1-0, so Purdue was eliminated.
** Wake Forest and Duke tied 1-1-2 in the metrics, but Wake Forest is the ACC "Champion" based on their winning percentage.

[French Rage]

Pac 12: California (2), Washington State (2), Oregon State (1)

This seems like a good place to point out Queen Elizabeth II was the longest reigning monarch in UK history, yet Cal never won a single Rose Bowl during that entire time.

[bronconick]

Frost is safe until October. That’s when his buy out drops significantly.

Decided they couldn't wait that long. Fired

[Kepler]

Decided they couldn't wait that long. Fired

Mission accomplished.

[unofan]

Decided they couldn't wait that long. Fired

That's an expensive 3 weeks. 7.5 million extra to not wait until October 1. Not worth it.

[Spartanforlife4]

That's an expensive 3 weeks. 7.5 million extra to not wait until October 1. Not worth it.

I would have to think it's coming from donors. Or enough donors threatened to not donate more than 7.5 million if they kept him.

Maybe they were scared of what might happen if he was still coaching next week against Oklahoma. But based on the last two years it would've just been another one score loss instead of a blowout.

[unofan]

Whatever. Couldn't happen to a more deserving crowd. The Curse of Solich continues.

[WeAreNDHockey]

I know of a rapidly rising offensive coordinator I'm willing to let go of, cheap. Somebody have Trev Albert's number they can share with me?

[Kepler]

I know of a rapidly rising offensive coordinator I'm willing to let go of, cheap. Somebody have Trev Albert's number they can share with me?

ND fans are saying this non-ironically.

Tommy aint makin any friends.

[MichVandal]

Not to bash on ND too much, but they are a great example why pre and early season polls are junk. Can’t call any game early in the season an upset until you know how good a team really is.

Heck, App St may really be that much better than A&M.

The only real upsets at this point are crossing divisions.

[WeAreNDHockey]

Not to bash on ND too much, but they are a great example why pre and early season polls are junk. Can’t call any game early in the season an upset until you know how good a team really is.

Heck, App St may really be that much better than A&M.

The only real upsets at this point are crossing divisions.

Agree about the junkiness of pre-season polls and the polls for the first couple of weeks. About the only thing positive in the old BCS system was they didn't bother with releasing any rankings until 5 or 6 weeks into the season. By then you have at least some idea about who is as good or bad as suspected, and enough data to begin figuring out where the suprisingly good or bad teams are on a week-by-week basis.