[Bamabeachlivin]

There are all sorts of ways to view the college football season that just ended, some telescopic and others microscopic. The best way is probably still good old common sense, that rarest of commodities in intercollegiate athletics.

One personal favorite in an admittedly geeky way is simply to look at statistics. With the final game of the college football season going into the books last Monday night, all the NCAA statistics for the 119 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (the clumsy new name for what used to be called Division I) are complete. Statistics can be deceiving, but if used correctly, they are also interesting interpretative tools. In that spirit, here is a look at the statistics, with particular emphasis on how the University of Alabama ranked by the numbers.

For the most part, as you would suspect from a 7-6 team, Alabama ranked about in the middle of the Southeastern Conference, and the nation, in most categories. In fact, the Crimson Tide was amazingly average on offense, finishing exactly in the middle of Division I (sorry, NCAA, but I am going to use the old terminology for convenience's sake.) in both rushing offense (No. 59 of the 119 teams) and passing offense (No. 60 out of 119). That's right at the midpoint in both categories. Since it was outstanding at neither phase, the Tide was a little worse than average in total offense (No. 75) and scoring offense (No. 64). The numbers were roughly comparable to the 2006 offensive numbers, with the Crimson Tide doing a little better at running the fotball (after a No. 77 national ranking in 2006) and not quite as well throwing it (down from No. 49).
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[Stoney]

Well that describes a 7-6 team average.