Apologies for the weekend disappearance. It was a big Football Outsiders Almanac 2011 writing weekend. Hopefully we'll get back to the Classic Study Hall and Anatomy Of An Upset series soon...
Anyway, today's nerd tidbit was easy.
Worst BCS Conference Teams Of The F/+ Era (2005-10)
1. 2009 Washington State (-29.3% F/+ rating, 1-11)
2. 2008 Washington State (-27.6%, 2-11)
3. 2005 Duke (-21.7%, 1-10)
4. 2008 Washington (-21.5%, 0-12)
5. 2010 Kansas (-21.0%, 3-9)
6. 2006 Duke (-16.3%, 0-12)
7. 2005 Illinois (-15.4%, 2-9)
8. 2007 Syracuse (-15.1%, 2-10)
9. 2008 Iowa State (-14.9%, 2-10)
10. 2005 Kentucky (-14.9%, 3-8)
The last team to collapse from mediocre to awful this quickly was Washington State in 2008 ... which is not a precedent any fan wants to see. The Jayhawks did manage to win three games last year but looked so bad in the losses (and in three-quarters of one of the wins) that they made the list regardless.
Worst BCS Conference Offenses Of The Off. F/+ Era (2006-10)
1. 2009 Washington State (-19.2%)
2. 2008 Washington State (-17.4%)
3. 2010 Vanderbilt (-14.1%)
4. 2010 Kansas (-13.6%)
5. 2010 Purdue (-13.1%)
6. 2007 Notre Dame (-12.8%)
7. 2008 Colorado (-12.4%)
8. 2008 UCLA (-11.7%)
9. 2010 Texas (-10.9%)
10. 2008 Mississippi State (-10.9%)
The good news for the Jayhawks is that their defense was only the 27th worst BCS unit of the last five seasons. So they avoided that list. Oh, and ... did you see No. 9 on the offenses list above? My goodness.