Sure, we've heard it before, the adage that defense wins championships. These days, however, the national media cares more about explosive offenses and star quarterbacks than disciplined defenses and shutdown corners. Perhaps the media needs to take a closer look at the numbers as the teams rising to the top of the standings all have one thing in common...a great defense

Coefficient of Determination:
The coefficient of determination (r-squared), without getting all technical, is a statistical representation of how well a piece of data predicts an outcome. I determined r-squared for Total Offense, Total Defense, Scoring Offense, and Scoring Defense as predictors of a team's winning percentage.
  1. Scoring Defense - .573
  2. Scoring Offense - .572
  3. Total Defense - .425
  4. Total Offense -.275
Obviously looking at points rather than yards is a better indicator of wins. There is really no difference between scoring defense vs. offense, but the is an obvious gap between total defense and total offense. Based on the stats, a team's total offense has very little bearing of their overall record. If you look at the top 5 offensive teams (Houston, Nevada, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Notre Dame), not a single one is rated in the top 10 in the BCS (Houston is #15). If you look at total defense however, the top 5 teams (TCU, Florida, Texas, Alabama, and Penn State), all 4 of the teams are in the BCS top 10 and PSU is #11.

More Stats:
Another revealing defensive statistic is pass efficiency defense. The top 5 are Florida, Alabama, Iowa, Oregon, and Texas...all vying for a spot in the championship game. Texas and Florida are atop the 3rd down defense and TCU, Florida, Boise State, Alabama, and Iowa are all in the top 10 in first down defense.

Hawkeyes:
So it's no real wonder why the Hawkeyes are winning...it's defense. Iowa is 3rd overall in pass efficiency defense and in the top 20 for both total defense (19) and scoring defense (13). The defense has only given up over 20 points twice, against Michigan (21) and Indiana (24) (Arkansas State scored 21, but 7 were off an interception). When you hold a team to under 20 points, you win a lot of games, even if the offense is only averaging 25.7 points per game.