The year 2010 is here.   A decade into the new century and still no flying cars or robot servants, but we do have two college football teams that have played above the rest.   Any time you try to argue something as subjective as “team of the decade” it is always thought provoking and controversial, which I suppose is the point.  A careless AP reporter decided 3 years ago the University of Southern California was the team of the decade, perhaps prematurely and to the ire of all USC fans everywhere.  You will read elsewhere on this blog arguments for the University of Florida and the Ohio State University and I cannot argue with the facts.   I would even agree Florida has been the team of the last five years with two national championships and a 3-0 BCS record; however their paltry 4-5 bowl record over the last 10 years reveals inconsistency. Inconsistency should actually be the title of this thread because it is inconsistency that ultimately cost Oklahoma a shot at this title (6 Big 12 championships, 2 Heisman winners and 5 consecutive BCS bowl losses), Ohio State the title (six Big Ten Conference championships, 1 national championship, a 4–4 bowl record, a 3–3 mark in BCS bowl games), and even potentially knocks USC off of its perch.  More on that later.

USC came out swinging in the 21st century.  Few could argue a few years back when they were declared the team of the century.  USC has won one national championship, tied for another, and almost won a third.   They have a startling 6-1 BCS record this decade, winning those by an average margin of 22 points.   They have won 101 games and are 14-4 against top 10 teams.  Prior to this year they won 7 straight consecutive Pac-10 titles and, by the way, won 3 Heisman trophies.  On paper, these statistics are just incredible, but as Paul Harvey says “Now it is time for the rest of the story.”   A bulk of those BCS wins where in the Rose Bowl, a bowl played in USC’s backyard versus the Big 10 conference which has been less than remarkable in bowl play for the past 5 years. Even compounding the ease of that bowl for USC is many of those years they were actually playing the Big 10 runner up as the Big 10 champion was competing in the national championship game.  I know it seems harsh to penalize USC for doing exactly what they were supposed to do but unfortunately over the past 5 years they always seemed to find a way to miss the “big game.”  Each season it seemed they would find the least competitive team on their schedule and find a way to lose that game.  Some argue east coast bias against Pac-10 but whatever the reason USC lost numerous opportunities to prove how good they really were, and in some ways that is tragic.

That leads us to Texas.  I wish I knew the score of the national championship game before writing this article because I may look really foolish after that game for picking Texas but, again, it is the consistency of that team which is impressive.  A win this year would give Texas 2 national championships, the same as USC, Florida, and LSU.   More impressively they have won 9 more games this decade than USC and finished with an impressive 7-2 bowl record including 5 straight wins.  A win over Bama would give them a 4-0 BCS record for the decade as well.  No matter what happens they will finish the decade with eight top 10 finishes.

So, in conclusion, in my mind a win over Bama makes Texas the best team of the new millennium, but without that second national championship ring the AP reporter in 2007 got one thing right, the most dominate team in the nation the past decade resided in California.  The real shame is how often they were passed over with a one loss season to really prove how good they were.

Tags: Alabama, BCS, Big Ten, Bowl Championship Series, College Football, College Football News, NCAA College Football, NCAA Football, PAC 10, Texas

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Authors Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.