Which Teams Had the Easiest Paths to the Postseason

With six new bowl games since 2005, including two more this year, the postseason contains more teams with less merit than ever before. Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News examined what this postseason brings and it's not pretty, with six teams — Memphis, Florida Atlantic, Northern Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota and Troy — without a victory over a winning I-A team.

The chart above shows the teams with the fewest victories over I-A opponents. An example: Notre Dame gets a trip to the Hawaii Bowl after defeating San Diego State, Michigan, Purdue, Stanford, Washington and Navy. The combined record of those teams: 22-50 (.306).

On the other end we have BCS title game participants Florida and Oklahoma. The Gators have beaten I-A opponents who have combined for 79 victories, topping the Sooners by one.

After the jump, a ranking and list of all the bowl games and participants.

The ranking of the bowls is based on the participating teams' combined ranking in the Sagarin ratings, which include Division I-AA teams. Listed in parentheses is the combined record of the Division I-A opponents each bowl team defeated.

1. BCS Title Game
No. 3 Florida (79-55) vs. No. 1 Oklahoma (78-56)
2. Rose
No. 5 USC (61-72) vs. No. 6 Penn State (57-63)
3. Fiesta
No. 10 Ohio State (56-52) vs. No. 2 Texas (75-59)
4. Sugar
No. 8 Utah (63-69) vs. No. 7 Alabama (66-78)
5. Poinsettia
No. 9 Texas Christian (45-63) vs. No. 11 Boise State (63-70)

6. Cotton
No. 23 Mississippi (43-42) vs. No. 4 Texas Tech (56-52)
7. Holiday
No. 12 Oklahoma State (41-57) vs. No. 18 Oregon (38-71)
8. Orange
No. 28 Cincinnati (57-64) vs. No. 15 Virginia Tech (52-45)
9. Capital One
No. 16 Georgia (49-47) vs. No. 30 Michigan State (49-59)
10. Sun
No. 21 Oregon State (44-54) vs. No. 26 Pittsburgh (60-49)

11. Gator
No. 19 Clemson (31-30) vs. No. 29 Nebraska (41-55)
12. Alamo
No. 13 Missouri (44-53) vs. No. 38 Northwestern (38-58)
13. Meineke Car Care
No. 34 West Virginia (38-46) vs. No. 20 North Carolina (49-36)
14. Emerald
No. 31 Miami (33-40) vs. No. 27 California (40-57)
T-15. Chick-fil-A
No. 43 Louisiana State (27-45) vs. No. 17 Georgia Tech (48-37)
T-15. Outback
No. 36 South Carolina (34-38) vs. No. 24 Iowa (39-45)

17. Champs Sports
No. 14 Florida State (41-32) vs. No. 50 Wisconsin (31-41)
18. Las Vegas
No. 42 Arizona (24-61) vs. No. 25 Brigham Young (36-72)
19. EagleBank
No. 32 Wake Forest (42-42) vs. No. 40 Navy (37-47)
20. Music City
No. 53 Vanderbilt (37-35) vs. No. 22 Boston College (51-46)
21. Papajohns.com
No. 46 N.C. State (35-26) vs. No. 39 Rutgers (34-38)

22. GMAC
No. 56 Tulsa (34-74) vs. No. 37 Ball State (53-79)
23. International
No. 55 Buffalo (42-55) vs. No. 41 Connecticut (33-40)
24. Insight
No. 35 Kansas (33-40) vs. No. 66 Minnesota (30-42)
25. Humanitarian
No. 47 Maryland (39-33) vs. No. 62 Nevada (30-42)
26. Armed Forces
No. 63 Houston (31-43) vs. No. 49 Air Force (30-53)

27. Liberty
No. 65 Kentucky (21-39) vs. No. 51 East Carolina (52-58)
28. Texas
No. 61 Rice (35-73) vs. No. 57 Western Michigan (36-61)
29. Hawaii
No. 58 Notre Dame (22-50) vs. No. 85 Hawaii (28-45)
30. New Orleans
No. 80 Southern Mississippi (30-43) vs. No. 67 Troy (31-53)

31. St. Petersburg
No. 101 Memphis (19-41) vs. No. 48 South Florida (32-40)
32. New Mexico
No. 87 Colorado State (22-38) vs. No. 86 Fresno State (28-56)
33. Independence
No. 83 Northern Illinois (18-42) vs. No. 96 Louisiana Tech (25-47)
34. Motor City
No. 113 Florida Atlantic (22-50) vs. No. 75 Central Michigan (38-47)

Comments

[Derrick]

That's just not fair for the Pac-10 teams, who got only 1 win from Washington & WSU.

[Darin]

It also skews the number of wins for the teams that were in the SEC and BIG 12 Championship Games. Take away Bama's 12 wins from Florida, Florida's 12 wins from Bama and Missouri's 9 wins from Oklahoma and they all drop down that list. If the PAC 10 and Big 10 played a championship game, both Penn State and USC move up. This illustrates just how much Texas got screwed this year...and this coming from a Trojan fan.

[Darin]

It also skews the number of wins for the teams that were in the SEC and BIG 12 Championship Games. Take away Bama's 12 wins from Florida, Florida's 12 wins from Bama and Missouri's 9 wins from Oklahoma and they all drop down that list. If the PAC 10 and Big 10 played a championship game, both Penn State and USC move up. This illustrates just how much Texas got screwed this year...and this coming from a Trojan fan.

[jweav2223]

Skew the number of wins? While you're taking Bama, Florida and Mizzou wins from the first two and OU why don't you take them away from the rest you idiot. Take Ohio St. wins from USC & Penn St. Take Oklahoma's wins from Texas. OU still had 78 wins by their opponents having getting screwed before the season out of another I-A matchup so was forced to play a I-AA opponent. These numbers reflect how tough the Big 12 & SEC were top to bottom this year. Look at Pac 10 however and amazing top team then 3-5 mediocre to good teams and as you get closer to the bottom it just gets embarassing. Same thing with Big 10 without the huge embarassment at the bottom.

[jweav2223]

Skew the number of wins? While you're taking Bama, Florida and Mizzou wins from the first two and OU why don't you take them away from the rest you idiot. Take Ohio St. wins from USC & Penn St. Take Oklahoma's wins from Texas. OU still had 78 wins by their opponents having getting screwed before the season out of another I-A matchup so was forced to play a I-AA opponent. These numbers reflect how tough the Big 12 & SEC were top to bottom this year. Look at Pac 10 however and amazing top team then 3-5 mediocre to good teams and as you get closer to the bottom it just gets embarassing. Same thing with Big 10 without the huge embarassment at the bottom.

[rouge]

jweav2223, your SEC brain too small to understand Darin's post?
Florida had 79 victories in 13 games, while Texas had 75 in 12 games. So if you exclude conference championships, the order is this:
Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama, Boise State, Utah, USC...
I bet you didn't even get into a 4-year college.

[tom]

Um, how did KY only have 21? They Played UF, 12 wins, UGA 9 wins, USCsouth, 8 wins, Vandy 6 wins, and UT 5, all in their own division. For a website about stats, you guys have some fact checking to do.

[Larry Brown]

Lots of great info on this post. Arizona sure improved their stock with that win over BYU but none of the other teams from the list had good showings.

[Hugh Brown]

This is one of the worst stats ever in that of course the teams with more wins are going to find that their opponents they were victorious over are going to have more wins since there are more of them. An overall winning percentage of the teams they defeated would do a much better job of telling the story here otherwise you have a pointless stat that only points out the obvious.

[SoonerMinister]

OU got screwed by having to schedule Chatty. Florida is way overhyped on the list. Multiple opponents of the Gators are on the "Easiest Path" list.