Since the mid-to-late 1990s, very few defending champions have rolled through their schedules. Two programs have won consecutive national championships. Some programs have had one or two losses a season after winning the championship. Some programs have had as many as four losses the year after being champions. After tabulating the win/loss margins for every game a defending champion played from the 1996 Nebraska Cornhuskers to the 2014 Florida State Seminoles, some interesting numbers stand out.
The greatest win margin by a defending champion during this stretch was 76 points by the 1997 Florida Gators and the greatest margin of defeat was 39 points by Florida State last season. The average game for the defending champs over this stretch of time was a 17.7 point victory. The median margin for the defending champs was a 17 point victory. The most commonly occurring score (the mode) of all these games was a 3 point victory for the defending champions.
The 2001 Miami Hurricanes were (arguably) the greatest college football in the modern era, but even the '02 Hurricanes with many talented players back from the previous year had some close games prior to losing to Ohio State in the natty. The USC teams of 2004 & 2005 had several games that they won by single digit margins as well as a 3 point loss to Texas in national championship game in '05. Only the Nebraska Cornhuskers of 1995 stand out to me as a defending champ that steamrolled everyone (average margin victory 39 points, beat four teams in AP top ten, lowest margin of victory 14 points). Given all this, I think quite a few people on this board may want to ease off the armchair micro-managing and enjoy that we are 4-0 and we showed some significant improvements in our most recent game. While it would be nice if we were able to put up video game-like scores every contest, it is unrealistic to expect every game to be a beatdown no matter how talented a team is.
The greatest win margin by a defending champion during this stretch was 76 points by the 1997 Florida Gators and the greatest margin of defeat was 39 points by Florida State last season. The average game for the defending champs over this stretch of time was a 17.7 point victory. The median margin for the defending champs was a 17 point victory. The most commonly occurring score (the mode) of all these games was a 3 point victory for the defending champions.
The 2001 Miami Hurricanes were (arguably) the greatest college football in the modern era, but even the '02 Hurricanes with many talented players back from the previous year had some close games prior to losing to Ohio State in the natty. The USC teams of 2004 & 2005 had several games that they won by single digit margins as well as a 3 point loss to Texas in national championship game in '05. Only the Nebraska Cornhuskers of 1995 stand out to me as a defending champ that steamrolled everyone (average margin victory 39 points, beat four teams in AP top ten, lowest margin of victory 14 points). Given all this, I think quite a few people on this board may want to ease off the armchair micro-managing and enjoy that we are 4-0 and we showed some significant improvements in our most recent game. While it would be nice if we were able to put up video game-like scores every contest, it is unrealistic to expect every game to be a beatdown no matter how talented a team is.
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