The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty
by Steven Travers
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steven TraversEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-25
ISBN: 1589793560
Number of pages: 280
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
Book Reviews of The USC Trojans: College Football's All-Time Greatest Dynasty
Book Review: The ALL-TIME TOP TEN
Summary: 3 Stars
While Mr. Travers makes some good points, the premise of the book is wrong. USC is not the all-time #1 team in college football. To the extent that there could ever really be anything such as an all-time top ten, here's my admittedly subjective try, subjective because I abjure any effort to use any complicated mathematical system in rating the all-time programs. You only need think of the BCS annual rating system to see how far wrong mathematical point formulae can go in rating teams. My criteria are at the bottom of the list.
1) MICHIGAN (1st all-time wins, 1st in winning percentage)
2) ND (3rd all-time wins, 2nd winning percentage, which percentage, like Michigan's, is still signicantly higher than the eight teams under them)
3) TEXAS (2nd all-time wins, 3rd all-time winning percentage)
4) USC (10th all-time wins, 7th all-time winning percentage, but ranked this high because of head-to-head advantage over virtually all the top ten here except ND. However, ND still has a significant lead in the historical head-to-head annual rivalry match)
5) OKLAHOMA (8th all-time wins, 4th all-time winning percentage, but is historically dominated by Texas in their total annual rivalry comparison)
6) ALABAMA (7th all-time wins, 6th all-time winning percentage; the historical dominator of history's premier conference)
7) OHIO STATE (5th all-time wins, 5th all-time winning percentage; however, is not even first in its own conference, but is historical loser to Michigan in their head-to-head series)
8) NEBRASKA (4th all-time wins, 9th all-time winning percentage, but is dominated by Oklahoma in their long, head-to-head rivalry)
9) PENN STATE (6th all-time wins, 11th all-time winning percentage)
10) TENNESSEE (9th all-time wins, 10th all-time winning percentage)
Obviously, I've put greatest significance on all-time victories and all-time winning percentage. These figures are current through the 2008 football season and BCS series into early 2009. I've also taken head-to-head rivalry into account when it applies, as it is a good indicator of relative strength. I've ignored national championship titles because they are strictly mythical and essentially meaningless: just witness this year's travesty - Texas, USC, and Utah could all reasonably lay claim to the national championship and have at least as good a case as Florida. In fact, I think the BCS should have matched USC and Texas, which would have been as good a draw as Florida-Oklahoma. Perhaps the BCS folks didn't want that match for that very reason, and because the competing AP poll might have voted the winner of that game as its National Champ.
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