In today's upcoming Minnesota profile, we discuss "Glen Mason Territory."
Back in my blogger infancy, i coined a term called Glen Mason Territory to describe when a coach achieves at a higher-than-normal level at a given school (probably a second-tier BCS program that hadn't won in a while before he showed up) but cannot ever break through to the next level; he keeps making bowl games and winning, say, 6-8 games a year, but fans begin to get impatient. The crazies begin to start yelling things like "settling for mediocrity!" on talk radio and message boards, season ticket sales begin to fade, and even the rational fans in the base (the SBN readers, naturally) begin to start wondering if a change is needed.
Let's take a look at the teams who have finished the most seasons with between a .501 and .625 win percentage (above .500 but no better than about 8-5, basically) over the last 100 years. These seasons aren't particularly good, but they also aren't bad; pretty much the definition of Glen Mason Territory
Most Seasons With a 0.501-0.625 Win Percentage
1. Southern Miss (38.3% of 47 seasons)
2. Air Force (30.2% of 53 seasons)
3. South Carolina (27.3% of 99 seasons)
4. Texas Tech (26.9% of 78 seasons)
5. Houston (26.2% of 61 seasons)
6. Cincinnati (25.0% of 56 seasons)
7. Kentucky (24.7% of 93 seasons)
8. Fresno State (24.4% of 41 seasons)
9. UL-Monroe (24.3% of 37 seasons)
10. Syracuse (23.2% of 99 seasons)
11. Washington (23.1% of 91 seasons)
12. Minnesota (23.0% of 100 seasons)
13. Virginia Tech (22.4% of 98 seasons)
14. Arizona (22.4% of 76 seasons)
15. Memphis (22.0% of 50 seasons)
Disturbing consistency, thy name is Southern Miss.
Here are some one-time FBS programs that did the deed once upon a time: Detroit Mercy (33.3% of 36 seasons), George Washington (31.3% of 32 seasons), Colorado College (30.0% of 30 seasons), Denver (29.4% of 51 seasons), Brown (25.4% of 63 seasons), and Holy Cross (22.2% of 45 seasons).
For fun, here are the teams that have had the fewest Glen Mason Territory seasons, either because they're typically better or they're typically worse.
Anti Glen Mason
1. UL-Monroe (4.3% of 23 seasons)
2. Eastern Michigan (5.7% of 35 seasons)
3. Michigan (7.0% of 100 seasons)
4. Arkansas State (7.1% of 28 seasons)
5. Idaho (7.5% of 67 seasons)
6. Kansas State (8.2% of 98 seasons)
7. Notre Dame (8.2% of 97 seasons)
8. Kent State (8.3% of 48 seasons)
9. UTEP (8.3% of 72 seasons)
10. East Carolina (8.9% of 45 seasons)