Everyone makes fun of Texas, but they're a good model ...

by Savage, Around Ye Olde Colonial College, Monday, February 23, 2009, 08:18 (6247 days ago) @ Gator77

I don't think it's possible to play for the national title every single season. What I do think is possible is to play for a BCS berth and top-10 finish every season. If you do that, every so often the stars align, the pieces come together, other teams knock each other out, you get that one magical difference-making player, etc. and a typical top-10 performance transforms into a national title chance.

At USC, they go to the Rose Bowl every year, and once in a while they get that extra-special player (Reggie Bush) to push them over the top (no pun intended) and into a national title. At Texas, they were top-10 teams every year for the better part of a decade, always falling just short -- whether because of a loss to Oklahoma, a weak strength of schedule, or other factors -- until they finally got a year in which an extra-special player (Vince Young) and some cascading circumstances got them to a national title. At LSU under Saban and Miles they're always competitive and pushing for a top-10 spot, and every so often (twice in the BCS era) they've either had a special player or a series of chips falling their way (multiple losses from seeming title-game shoo-ins) to get them to the title game and win it.

The model is to target sustained excellence. A national title itself is still a bit of a crap-shoot, but a team can be put in the position to capitalize on whatever the football equivalent of "puck luck" is.