Top Winning %s NCAA Football Last 30, 20, 10 Years

There were some interesting comments in the "best coaching jobs" thread - specially for how Oklahoma is not an elite job - that had me scratching my head.  Considering the Switzer to Stoops era was conceptually one of the best off the top of my head I could think of (i.e. top 5) for 40ish year I am not sure where this viewpoint was coming from.  At first I thought maybe younger guys dont remember how dominant Oklahoma used to be, but considering Stoops has the same winning % as Bo did ....in an era with scholarship reductions and far more parity, that didn't make sense.  Maybe an 80% win % is just not that impressive to some.  Switzer was even more dominant (albeit with some wink wink stuff going on).  Anyhow I digress a bit but how someone doesn't think OK is one of the top 7-8 jobs in the country is beyond me.  It's not an academic ranking - its damn football, and Oklahoma is and has been a bad ass program for decades.

Anyhow that thread led me to take a look back at the top program winning %s by in 3 time frames.  While the headline says 30, 20 and 10 years it's technically 31, 21, and 11 years (1984, 1994 and 2004 to 2014).  I tried to focus on P5 conferences but did add in TCU and Utah which spent most of this time outside the P5 - I also included Louisville which was in various conferences.  Former Big East conference members were difficult to figure out since things changed so often there but this should cover the major players.  So you have your Louisvilles, West VAs, VA Techs etc.  I did include BYU over 30 years but excluded them in the 10 and 20 due to error.

This data also doesnt penalize for sanctions.

Some interesting data:

1984-2014 (31 years)

	Team	%
1	FSU	77.95%
2	Nebraska	76.21%
3	OSU	75.93%
4	Miami	74.21%
5	UF	73.51%
6	OK	73.06%
7	UM	70.10%
8	Auburn	69.16%
9	PSU	69.10%
10	GA	68.75%
11	TN	68.23%
12	BYU	67.93%
13	Bama	67.80%
14	USC	67.61%
15	TX	67.41%
16	LSU	67.11%
17	Va Tech	66.97%
18	Oregon	66.76%
19	A&M	65.97%
20	ND	65.70%
21	Clemson	65.40%
22	WVA	62.40%
23	Utah	61.34%
24	TCU	60.08%
25	UCLA	59.97%
26	Wiscy	59.92%
27	Iowa	59.74%
28	GA Tech	58.05%
29	WA	58.00%
30	Ark	57.85%

 

1994-2014 (21 years)

	Team	%
1	OSU	79.38%
2	FSU	75.87%
3	UF	74.54%
4	Neb	73.90%
5	Oregon	73.59%
6	VA Tech	73.33%
7	Texas	72.58%
8	Oklahoma	71.12%
9	LSU	71.11%
10	GA	70.87%
11	USC	70.12%
12	Wiscy	69.07%
13	Miami	68.34%
14	TCU	68.09%
15	Bama	67.89%
16	KSU	67.30%
17	UM	67.18%
18	Auburn	67.11%
19	PSU	67.05%
20	Utah	66.93%
21	TN	65.78%
22	Louisville	63.04%
23	WVA	62.31%
24	Clemson	62.21%
25	ND	61.58%
26	A&M	61.49%
27	Texas Tech	60.92%
28	GA Tech	59.25%
29	Iowa	57.17%
30	MSU	57.12%

 

2004-2014 (11 years)

	Team	%
1	OSU	80.92%
2	LSU	77.78%
3	Oregon	77.62%
4	Oklahoma	77.40%
5	USC	75.97%
6	TCU	75.54%
7	Bama	74.19%
8	Texas	73.94%
9	Wiscy	73.79%
10	GA	72.22%
11	VA Tech	72.11%
12	UF	71.13%
13	Auburn	70.42%
14	FSU	69.40%
15	Utah	69.07%
16	WVA	68.57%
17	Louisville	67.39%
18	Missouri	67.13%
19	PSU	66.91%
20	Clemson	66.90%
21	Nebraska	65.04%
22	OK State	65.00%
23	South Car	64.29%
24	MSU	63.12%
25	Texas Tech	62.59%
26	ND	61.87%
27	GA Tech	61.38%
28	Rutgers	60.00%
29	Iowa	59.71%
30	Michigan	59.42%

 

Some takeaways:

• Over a 30ish year time frame 6 teams clearly stand out at 73%+ - FSU, Neb, OSU, Miami FL, Florida, Oklahoma.  From there we have a significant 3% drop to the cabal of UM, Auburn, PSU, GA.
• While lacking the # of NCs of Bama, no way to say it other than OSU has been the the best program in terms of consistency for 20 years.  And aside from FSU is essentially tied for 2nd over 30 years.  A hell of a multi decade run.
• Despite some fall off post Bowden, FSU has had an amazing 30 year run.
• I doubt most would guess LSU was #2 over the past 11 years.  I wouldn't.
• Nebraska had such a good mid 80s to early 2000s it has offset the relative mediocrity of late.
• Oregon has been better for longer than I assumed.
• While UM has been wholly mediocre relative to perceived status for 10 and 20 years, ND has been mediocre for all 3 time frames which is suprising considering Holtz era.
• For all the TX angst they have had a nice run the past 20 years.
• Despite not even being found in the top 30 the past 11 years, Miami is still #4 overall over 30.
• Wisconsin is impressive - Alvarez did a hell of a job not only building a program but despite the coaching changes leaving a legacy.  Let's hope Dantonio does not do the same.
• Rutgers was not such a bad addition to the Big 10 ;)
• As suspected UCLA is a chronic underachiever considering all the assets at their disposal.