Football modern day statistics

https://csnbbs.com/thread-867977.html

Since I wanted to do this for both football and men's basketball I started with basketball. In my mind I thought modern era could easily be defined as several things, when the NCAA tourney first had the 3 point shot, when the NCAA tourney first used a shot clock, when the NCAA tourney first expanded to 64, or the earliest being when the NCAA tourney expanded to 32 teams, which was the 1974-75 season.

In terms of football it was harder to do. My only thought was the point at which the beginning of Division 1-A and Division 1-AA which was 1978. Since I didn't want to have different starting points for both sports and since the 1974-75 season was the first year AP and UPI gave their Final Top 25 lists after bowl games, I decided 1974-75 will be the starting point for my definition of the "modern era" of college athletics. You may disagree, of course, and I am open to other thoughts as to why a different year would be better but the data I mined began with that starting point.


In the "Modern Era" (which the 2018-19 year marks the 45th year) there have been 51 National Champions in football with six of the years having split champions.

Alabama - 8
Miami - 5
Oklahoma - 4
Southern Cal - 4
Clemson - 3
Florida - 3
Florida State - 3
Nebraska - 3
LSU - 2
Notre Dame - 2
Ohio State - 2
Penn State - 2

The following each won 1 NC in the modern era: Auburn, BYU, Colorado, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.

In the "Modern Era" of football the number of times a program has finished the season as a Top 4 team with the caveat that all BCS championship runner-ups and CFP semi-finalists are considered to be Top 4 regardless of where the AP final poll ranks them. Prior to the BCS NC games, the AP final poll is being used.


Florida State - 15
Oklahoma - 14
Alabama - 13
Ohio State 12
Miami - 11
USC - 11
Florida - 8
Nebraska - 8
Penn State - 8
Notre Dame - 7
Georgia - 6
Michigan - 6
Auburn - 5
Clemson - 5
Oregon - 5
Texas - 5
LSU - 4
Tennessee - 4
Washington - 4

The following programs finished in the Top 4 three times or less in the modern era: Arizona State (3), Colorado (3), Pittsburgh (3), Michigan State (2), Utah (2), Arizona, Arkansas, Boise, BYU, Georgia Tech, Houston, Missouri, Okla. State, Oregon State, South Carolina, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, TCU, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin.

Make of the data what you will, but for me I know I am rethinking which programs truly have been "elite" using this definition of the modern era as well as how they stack up against each other and who may be considered "elite" historically, but in terms of the modern era, may simply not be anymore.

Cheers,
Neil