Stats are for champions (part 4)

In installment 4 of "Stats are for champions" we take a look at the stats for teams still alive in the national championship race and how their stats aligned with the history of the 10 previous national champions.

Teams eliminated this past Saturday: Georgia.
Teams added this week: Oklahoma State is back in after Texas Tech beat Texas.

In summary, the past 8 national champions (starting in 2000) look like this: Of those 8 title winners only one (Ohio State in 2002) finished below 10th (23rd) in total defense. The average ranking of the total defense for those 8 teams was 8th.

Offense has not been as important statistic in determining the national champion. The average rank for those 8 offenses was 23rd and only 2 of the 8 champions (Miami in 2001 and Texas in 2005) had offenses finish in the top 10. The 2002 Ohio State team actually won the national title while being ranked 70th in total offense. The 2007 LSU team finished 26th in offense and the 2003 LSU team finished 31st in total offense.

With that in mind, here is an updated look at the teams, in my opinion, that remain with a realistic chance at the national title and their current defensive rankings:

USC - 1
Alabama - 4
Penn State - 6
Florida - 16
Texas Tech - 54
Oklahoma - 59
Oklahoma State - 62
Texas - 64

To take this a step further, over the last 8 years the average rankings for the National Champions has been:

Total Defense - 8
Rushing Defense - 15
Passing Defense - 26
Total Offense - 23
Rushing Offense - 29
Passing Offense - 40

Penn State remains at or above all of the markers above, but doubt still remains as to whether the Lions will make the BCS title game. As long as an SEC team (Alabama) and a Big 12 team (Texas Tech) remain unbeaten Penn State may be on the outside looking in. Penn State got a break last week when Texas Tech beat Texas, and now they must hope that the Red Raiders stumble down the stretch (OU and Oklahoma State are still on their schedule).

This weeks schedule has Oklahoma State visiting Lubbock, Alabama travelling to LSU, Florida heading to Vanderbilt, Oklahoma going to Texas A&M, Texas hosting Baylor, Penn State travelling to Iowa and USC hosting Cal. We'll continue to update this as the season progresses.