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!!!