When I sat down to write this column, my plan was to form an argument for the best team in college football through the first eight weeks. After a quick glance at the undefeated crowd atop this week’s Associated Press Poll, I took a familiar step: highlight text, delete, sit for a half-hour and come up with a new idea.
Not only is it too early in conference play to really determine a best team, but there are far too many candidates to even consider narrowing the field to just one. Or two. Or three.
At this stage in the game, it isn’t enough to award more golden stars to the speed of LSU’s defense than the power of Wisconsin’s offense. That would do an injustice to the all-around soundness down on “The Farm” at Stanford and the high-flying aerial attacks at Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. The list of BCS unbeatens doesn’t even end there.
The crowded top 10 showcases just how much the remaining weeks will decide. It also highlights a trend: The talent gap is growing in college football.
Eight BCS teams are currently undefeated through their first six games. That is the highest number of 6-0 or better BCS teams of any college football season this decade, tied only with the 2002 season.
Last season at this time, the number was seven. Nine BCS teams finished last season with two losses or fewer. Only one other season (2006) matched this mark. When tossing legitimized mid-majors No. 2 TCU and No. 9 Boise State into the mix, 2010 was arguably the most top-heavy season of the past decade.
The upper class effect certainly seems to have carried over into this season. And unlike most previous seasons, a majority of these unbeatens aren’t merely surviving the weeks. Several of them are asserting dominance in ways that scare the living death out of future opponents and BCS determinants alike.
LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Oklahoma State have combined to play 12 games against teams ranked in the respective week’s Top 25. Only one of these games wasn’t a double-digit victory.
Despite solid impressions, Stanford has yet to play a team ranked in the Top 25 and has suffered for it. Only in a season as top-heavy as this can a team win its first five games against BCS competition by an average of 31 points and fall in the rankings.
The prevailing theme following Wisconsin’s 47-17 drubbing of then-No. 8 Nebraska was whether or not the Badgers could do enough within their own schedule to reach the BCS National Championship Game. Seven teams in the past decade have reached the stage with at least one loss, including two-loss LSU in 2007. The Badgers already fear their 40-point victories might not be enough without the falter of one of the other powers.
Although this top-heavy trend eliminates much of the parity that fueled past seasons, it does raise the intensity of the matchups between these teams down the road. In 2010, the only losses Stanford or Ohio State suffered were to Oregon and Wisconsin, respectively, two teams that went on to win their conference championships. The scenario may happen again with Oklahoma-Oklahoma State and LSU-Alabama matchups later this season.
With such a big handful of teams distancing themselves from the pack with each passing week, it’s only a matter of time until opposing fans pack these campuses to protest the talents and successes they wish they saw in their own teams.
They’ll call it “Occupy the Top 10.”
