Ten Wins Are Not Equal

Winning ten games in a season used carry some significance. Teams used to play a ten game regular season and if they we fortunate, they played in a bowl game. That meant that your team played a total of eleven games and won all but one game and sported a .910 winning percentage. In most cases, it meant that your team won its conference championship.

As the years rolled on, an extra game was added to the schedule and most teams played an eleven game regular season. If they were successful, they went to a bowl game and played a total of twelve games. Winning ten games in a twelve game season brought your winning percentage down to a .840 winning percentage.

Most teams today are now playing a 12 game regular season schedule. Many conferences have a conference championship game and then follow that up with a bowl game. Winning ten games in a thirteen or fourteen game season does not carry the significance that it once did. In today's thirteen-fourteen game seasons, winning ten games means that you also lost three or even four games-something that many fans do not like to or will not discuss. A team that wins ten games in today's 13 game season carries .770 winning percentage and a team that wins ten games in a fourteen game season drops down to a .720 winning percentage. Thats a drop of 21 percentage points in the win column if you go back and compare a season of ten wins from the 1960's and 1970's versus a ten-win season in todays college football.

Not all ten win seasons carry the same importance nor do they bring cause to celebrate equally. Ten wins today do not carry the weight of ten wins from the past.