| Daily Blog • June 30, 2010 |
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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
Rk |
Team | Wins |
Losses |
Win % |
Titles |
# of Bowls |
Bowl Wins |
AP Top 25 |
AP Top 10 |
BCS Bowl Wins |
1 |
Boise St | 68 |
4 |
94.4% |
7 |
8 |
4 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Fresno St | 55 |
25 |
68.8% |
0 |
9 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
Hawaii | 50 |
30 |
62.5% |
1 |
6 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Nevada | 43 |
37 |
53.8% |
1 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
Louisiana Tech | 37 |
35 |
51.4% |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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
| Team | Overall |
vs BCS |
vs Non-BCS |
vs Ranked |
BCS Bowls |
Rec as Ranked |
| Boise St | 4-4 |
2-1 |
2-3 |
3-3 |
2-0 |
4-3 |
| Nevada | 1-4 |
0-2 |
1-2 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| Fresno St | 4-5 |
4-1 |
0-4 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
0-1 |
| Louisiana Tech | 1-1 |
0-1 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| Hawaii | 3-3 |
1-2 |
2-1 |
0-1 |
0-1 |
0-1 |
| Utah St | 0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| Idaho | 1-0 |
0-0 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| New Mexico St | 0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| San Jose St | 1-0 |
0-0 |
1-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| Rice | 0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| UTEP | 0-1 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| Tulsa | 0-1 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
| SMU | 0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
TCU |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
0-1 |
| Overall | 15-20 |
7-9 |
8-11 |
4-4 |
2-1 |
4-6 |
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 15-20 overall with an impressive 4-5 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!!!