Are the Utah Utes the number one team in college football?

The Associated Press and BCS powers made another national Gator championship official today. At the same time, they made a statement for any team that does not belong to the SEC, ACC, PAC 10, Big 10, Big East or Big 12: their chances of becoming a national champion are almost impossible.

After a dominant victory over Alabama, which less than a month ago led Florida to the fourth quarter of the SEC Championship, Utah coach Kyle Wittingham was quick to proclaim his team No. 1 in the country. Apparently none of the other coaches felt the same. At least they weren’t convinced enough to jeopardize their BCS vote (those with BCS votes are expected to unanimously choose the winner of the BCS Championship Game to be the national champion). The Utes’ only hope for a piece of the national title was through the AP poll, where they got 16 votes for first place. However, 16 votes left Utah a long way from being competitive with the Gators … off the field.

Given that the system is obviously (still) broken for this year, we can only speculate as to who the number one team in the country really is. We can only guess if Utah would have beaten Florida, Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Penn State or any other team that, going into bowl season, thought it should have a chance to lift the national championship trophy.

Utah’s resume highlights include:

• A perfect season (13-0)
• Three wins over ranked teams (TCU, BYU and Alabama).
• A compelling and commanding performance over Alabama.

As impressive as that resume is, there are some obvious weaknesses. Utah’s overall season is comparatively light when placed alongside Florida’s six wins over ranked teams (including four in the top ten), or even against Oklahoma’s five wins over ranked teams. There was only one common opponent shared by Utah and any of the BCS championship teams: TCU. Oklahoma did quick work with the horned frogs at home. Utah had to rally with a last-minute drive to get their home win over TCU. I admit that most of the time there is no use playing the “who beats who worst” game in college football. However, it’s pretty clear that week after week, Florida and Oklahoma faced a different level of competition than Utah saw in teams like Utah State, Wyoming, San Diego State, and the like. If Utah had played the same schedule as Florida or Oklahoma, it is very difficult to see them undefeated, especially when they struggled to beat a team like New Mexico 4-8.

If the college football audience as a whole were asked to put their money into a team that has the best chance of beating any other team in college football, Florida is likely to get the pick. Coincidentally, the BCS has to do with the distribution of college football money. The reality is that the Gators got the nod.

The sad problem is that the system is obviously flawed and there are huge roadblocks blocking a better method of choosing the best team in college football. For now, non-BCS schools would best benefit from consistently scheduling and outperforming the best BCS conference teams. For example, BYU’s non-conference schedule for 2009 includes a road game against Oklahoma and a home game against Florida State. If the Cougars somehow achieve an undefeated season next year, it would be more difficult for the BCS formula to keep them out of the national championship mix. If Utah had one more win over a top-10 team in 2008, their case would be much stronger. As it stands, even a perfect season for Utah doesn’t give them a convincing argument that they are the best.