Best Program of the 21st Century

[Chemhen]

is ASU. Now that that's out of the way:

So, now that the national championship game is over, I can post this. I wanted to rank the top programs of the century so far and give us something to talk about in the offseason. I pretty much figured App State would be #1 (to the point that if they weren’t, I would rework my system), but I was curious as to how the rest would fall out. I came up with my scoring system before looking at any data, so that part was blind, apart from my general knowledge of FCS football going in.

Before I get started, some caveats. The data range is 2000 to 2010 inclusive. Yes I know that’s 11 years, not a decade, but I wanted it to be up to date. The points assigned are at my discretion, and may futz with the rankings. I didn’t include some info that I initially wanted to, either because it was too difficult to gather (penalties for losses to sub D1 teams) or because it was too arbitrary.

For instance, I wanted to give UD points for Flacco’s success in the NFL and being a 1st round draft pick. I decided that would be a) homerific and b) too difficult to do with every team selected. To narrow down the teams, I decided to only have schools that made it to the semifinals of the playoffs, so it’s a little CAA heavy. I would have done conference champions, but that would have been a lot more work. I also decided dominance should be rewarded, so I added bonus points for consecutive championships, champ game appearances, playoff appearances, and conference titles (though if you, say, won the title game 2 years in a row, you don’t get the title game appearance bonus points).

[Chemhen]

Ok, here’s the scoring system:

National Champions 50 points (+20 for consecutive)
Championship Game Appearance 25 points (+10 for consecutive)
Semifinal Appearance 15 points
Playoff Appearance 10 points (+5 for each consecutive playoff appearance, ie 25 for 2 straight, 40 for 3 straight, etc.)

Walter Payton Winner 20 points
Payton Finalist (top 3) 10 points
Buck Buchanon Winner 20 points
Buchanon Finalist (top 3) 10 points
Eddie Robinson Winner 20 points
Robinson Finalist (top 3) 10 points

Conference Champions (+15, 5 additional points for each consecutive championships, ie 35 for 2, 55 for 3, etc.)

Win over FBS team 15 points (+5 points for in state rival, +5 points for BCS team)

Penalties:
Two years without a playoff appearance -5 points
Three years -10 points
Four years -20 points
Five years -30 points
Six years -50 points

Losing Season -10 points

A couple teams had negative points after everything; I’m not bashing these teams or programs, it just worked out that way because of the scoring system. I’m also not saying that teams like, say NDSU or UNH (especially UNH), don’t have a claim to be in the top 19 (the number of difference semifinal teams since 2000) programs since 2000.

[Chemhen]

Anyway, here’s how the numbers shook out:

1. Appalachian State 770
2. Montana 710
3. Delaware 295
4. Georgia Southern 290
5. Northern Iowa 270
6. McNeese State 260
7. James Madison 255
8. Eastern Washington 250
9. Villanova 235
10. Southern Illinois 225
11. Richmond 180
12. Furman 175
13. William and Mary 110
14. Wofford* 105
15. Colgate 105
16. Massachusetts 90
17. Sam Houston State 0
18. Youngstown State -10
19. Texas State -20

*tie broken by fewest penalty points

Not surprising that App State and Montana are 1,2, but I didn’t expect the margin to be that huge, and I didn’t expect it to be that close between ASU and Montana.

Before the homer charges for putting UD 3rd, let me defend myself. First, when I wrote up my scoring system, UD was in ~5th (behind JMU, 255 to 245). If I was cheating, I would have made sure we beat JMU. Second, I added all the Payton etc. stuff, knowing UD would get no points (they ended up with 10, compared with 50 for GSU and 40 for UNI, the closest teams to them). Third, I designed the penalties with UD in mind; they lost almost as much as GSU and UNI combined. This despite GSU reinventing their program. Also, since the numbers are arbitrary, a 5 point difference, say between UD and GSU, means jack shit.

[Chemhen]

Anyway, hope this spurs some debate and you guys find it interesting. I had to add EWU in to the system after they beat NDSU, and they ended up coming in 8th after tonight. It took a fair amount of time, so I'll probably bump it a bit. Just to start it off, here are my CAA rankings:

1. Delaware 295
2. James Madison 255
3. Villanova 235
4. Richmond 180
5. William and Mary 110
6. Massachusetts 90

Clearly, UD has been the class of the CAA so far this century; not like that was any change from their previous domination of the A-10. Maybe someday another CAA program will be able to challenge the Hens, but it probably won’t be in the lifetime of the conference. Also, JMU sucks. Nova sucks.

[mainejeff]

UNH is a Top 10-15 program in the past decade. Your rankings and scoring system suck.

[DJH]

Sounds cool.

[Chemhen]

UNH is a Top 10-15 program in the past decade. Your rankings and scoring system suck.

Go back, read my post (specifically the part about UNH) and then suck my dick. Like I said, I was mostly interested in the top 10, and IMO, you can't make the case that UNH is a top 10 program without them having at least been to a semifinal game. Are they top 15, top 20, definitely, but you have to win in the playoffs to be a top 10 program.

[BlueHen86]

UNH is a Top 10-15 program in the past decade. Your rankings and scoring system suck.

They have never made it past the second round of the playoffs. You suck.

[FargoBison]

Agreed gotta put UNH in it, way too solid of a program. One semifinal appearance could be just a fluke while UNH has reached the playoffs seven straight times.

[DJH]

UNH is a Top 10-15 program in the past decade. Your rankings and scoring system suck.

Go back, read my post (specifically the part about UNH) and then suck my dick.

[Chemhen]

Oh, and I forgot to mention; any team that moved to 1A is a goddamn traitor and ineligible to be included.

Yes, I've started drinking, and jeff you're a pudyanker (props to Seattlegriz).

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

I think this is similar to what OL FU started years back and Mountaineer has continued but yours has a couple of different twists. It is a good idea so thanks for the effort.

[SeattleGriz]

UNH is a Top 10-15 program in the past decade. Your rankings and scoring system suck.

They have never made it past the second round of the playoffs. You suck.

No BluHen, you suck!

Nice. That one works everywhere.

[BlueHen86]

They have never made it past the second round of the playoffs. You suck.

No BluHen, you suck!

Nice. That one works everywhere.

Kudos to you for sticking with the sure fire stuff. Nothing beats playing it safe, especially on the internet.

[SeattleGriz]

No BluHen, you suck!

Nice. That one works everywhere.

Kudos to you for sticking with the sure fire stuff. Nothing beats playing it safe, especially on the internet.

You wait until it is the 400th time I have used that one. It will be so funny by then it will make you cry. Of course it will have to run it's cycle of being funny, then boring, then painfully annoying, back to hilarious.