Ranking Every College Football Team's Bowl Performance In The BCS Era, Statistically

Surprised?

Author:
Matt Lombardi
Publish date:
Aug 17, 2013

We're down to just one final season of college football in the BCS era, as fans will finally get to see a 4-team playoff system beginning in 2014. As such, we figured we'd take a look at the postseason history since 1998 and compile some data from every bowl game played in that time frame. Our goal was to see which teams have consistently performed the best using a different type of metric - overall point differential.

We realize the obvious flaw in the idea here - bowl games pit teams against like opponents, meaning the playing field is anything but level. It also penalizes teams that made bowl games and underperformed, as opposed to those that weren't even bowl eligible. But we thought it'd be interesting to see how each program has performed against "equal" competition in the postseason from a purely statistical standpoint. If anything, it makes it obvious which fan bases head into the off-season optimistic.

Here's what we learned:

Georgia has the most bowl game wins in the BCS era with 11, and also has the highest point differential at +125
Of teams that have played in at least one bowl game, Notre Dame has the worst point differential at -107
Utah has the most impressive overall record at 10-1, and comes in fourth in point differential at +97
Five of the top fifteen teams play in the SEC

The Data:


Rank	School	W	L	Win %	Pts. F	Pts. A	+/-
1	Georgia	11	4	73.33%	456	331	125
2	LSU	8	5	61.54%	380	260	120
3	USC	7	4	63.64%	334	222	112
4	Utah	10	1	90.91%	278	181	97
5	Florida St.	9	6	60%	396	305	91
6	Boise St.	9	4	69.23%	425	335	90
7	SMU	3	1	75%	130	42	88
8	Rutgers	5	2	71.43%	240	158	82
9	Tulsa	5	3	62.5%	276	197	79
10	Marshall	7	1	87.5%	251	174	77
11	Maryland	5	2	71.43%	224	148	76
12	Alabama	7	5	58.33%	311	247	64
13	Florida	8	7	53.33%	464	400	64
14	Mississippi	7	1	87.5%	264	201	63
15	Texas Tech	8	5	61.54%	438	383	55
16	TCU	9	5	64.29%	313	263	50
17	Wake Forest	4	2	66.67%	144	96	48
18	Oklahoma St.	6	4	60%	324	276	48
19	Oregon St.	6	4	60%	273	231	42
20	NC State	6	4	60%	279	240	39
21	Nebraska	6	7	46.15%	327	288	39
22	Texas	10	4	71.43%	430	392	38
23	Brigham Young	6	5	54.55%	287	251	36
24	Troy	2	3	40%	178	146	32
25	Virginia Tech	7	8	46.67%	389	357	32
26	Miami (OH)	2	1	66.67%	97	66	31
27	Auburn	8	3	72.73%	248	219	29
28	Illinois	3	2	60%	172	145	27
29	Boston College	8	4	66.67%	318	291	27
30	Oregon	7	7	50%	423	396	27
31	Missouri	5	4	55.56%	270	244	26
32	Utah St.	1	1	50%	64	39	25
33	Miami (FL)	6	6	50%	287	262	25
34	South Florida	4	2	66.67%	144	120	24
35	Kansas	3	1	75%	134	111	23
36	California	5	3	62.5%	266	243	23
37	Tulane	2	0	100%	77	55	22
38	Mississippi St.	5	2	71.43%	176	154	22
39	Florida Atlantic	2	0	100%	68	48	20
40	So. Mississippi	7	6	53.85%	334	314	20
41	Rice	2	1	66.67%	88	69	19
42	Air Force	4	5	44.44%	275	257	18
43	Connecticut	3	2	60%	127	109	18
44	San Jose St.	2	0	100%	49	32	17
45	UNLV	1	0	100%	31	14	17
46	C. Michigan	3	2	60%	168	151	17
47	Iowa	6	4	60%	247	232	15
48	Temple	1	1	50%	58	45	13
49	La-Lafayette	2	0	100%	75	64	11
50	Penn St.	5	5	50%	210	199	11
51	Baylor	2	1	66.67%	130	120	10
52	Vanderbilt	2	1	66.67%	78	69	9
53	Stanford	2	4	33.33%	148	139	9
54	Idaho	2	0	100%	85	77	8
55	Colorado	3	4	42.86%	224	217	7
56	Ohio St.	7	6	53.85%	325	318	7
57	Army	1	0	100%	16	14	2
58	South Carolina	5	4	55.56%	227	227	0
59	Syracuse	4	2	66.67%	144	146	-2
60	W. Kentucky	0	1	0%	21	24	-3
61	Kent St.	0	1	0%	13	17	-4
62	Central Florida	2	3	40%	123	127	-4
63	San Diego St.	1	3	25%	84	89	-5
64	Washington St.	2	1	66.67%	75	81	-6
65	Akron	0	1	0%	31	38	-7
66	Fl. International	1	1	50%	44	52	-8
67	Cincinnati	5	5	50%	249	260	-11
68	Wyoming	2	1	66.67%	74	86	-12
69	Duke	0	1	0%	34	48	-14
70	Oklahoma	7	7	50%	339	353	-14
71	Indiana	0	1	0%	33	49	-16
72	North Carolina	3	4	42.86%	161	178	-17
73	Buffalo	0	1	0%	20	38	-18
74	UAB	0	1	0%	40	59	-19
75	Colorado St.	3	4	42.86%	178	198	-20
76	MTSU	1	2	33.33%	77	98	-21
77	Minnesota	3	7	30%	267	290	-23
78	Kentucky	3	4	42.86%	138	161	-23
79	Wisconsin	7	7	50%	304	327	-23
80	Louisiana Tech	1	2	33.33%	65	90	-25
81	Arkansas St.	1	2	33.33%	56	82	-26
82	Georgia Tech	5	10	33.33%	355	381	-26
83	Ohio	2	3	40%	107	134	-27
84	Northern Illinois	3	4	42.86%	142	170	-28
85	Washington	2	6	25%	247	276	-29
86	Pittsburgh	4	6	40%	193	223	-30
87	Tennessee	5	6	45.45%	237	267	-30
88	La-Monroe	0	1	0%	14	45	-31
89	UCLA	3	8	27.27%	271	302	-31
90	W. Michigan	0	3	0%	70	102	-32
91	Navy	3	6	33.33%	251	286	-35
92	Iowa St.	3	5	37.5%	151	188	-37
93	Arkansas	4	7	36.36%	212	254	-42
94	Toledo	3	4	42.86%	192	235	-43
95	Louisville	5	7	41.67%	328	371	-43
96	Memphis	2	3	40%	141	185	-44
97	Arizona	3	2	60%	113	158	-45
98	Bowling Green	2	3	40%	149	194	-45
99	Hawaii	4	4	50%	271	317	-46
100	North Texas	1	3	25%	71	122	-51
101	West Virginia	6	7	46.15%	394	446	-52
102	Houston	2	5	28.57%	194	249	-55
103	New Mexico	1	4	20%	81	136	-55
104	Fresno St.	4	8	33.33%	323	379	-56
105	Virginia	3	6	33.33%	259	315	-56
106	Michigan St.	4	5	44.44%	205	270	-65
107	Arizona St.	3	6	33.33%	263	328	-65
108	Nevada	3	5	37.5%	199	265	-66
109	East Carolina	2	7	22.22%	253	320	-67
110	Kansas St.	3	7	30%	235	303	-68
111	Michigan	6	7	46.15%	369	438	-69
112	Purdue	4	7	36.36%	306	376	-70
113	Clemson	5	8	38.46%	303	376	-73
114	Ball St.	0	3	0%	60	135	-75
115	Northwestern	1	7	12.5%	231	310	-79
116	UTEP	0	4	0%	88	168	-80
117	Texas A&M	3	8	27.27%	235	327	-92
118	Notre Dame	2	8	20%	208	315	-107