Worst Team in BCS Conference History

To explain how we got here, the incomprehensibly amazing SB Nation blog Every Day Should Be Saturday provided a look back at the 2003 OU-A&M game (final score: 77-0) that is both hilarious and harrowing. That reminded me of the simple fact that the loser of that game beat our own Baylor Bears by the score of 73-10 just 4 weeks prior to that game. Yes, the team that OU obliterated also obliterated us.

That sent me down the rabbit trail of trying to figure out how any team could possibly have been worse than that 2003 squad, which was outscored in 7 conference losses by the score of 336-69. The lone conference win that season came in Waco over Colorado, the first time I ever rushed the field as a student.

Then someone on twitter reminded me that we were actually worse the year before, 2002, when I wasn't even at Baylor yet. Not having seen it in person, I didn't realize just how bad it was. I've made mention before about that year probably had the worst recruiting class in BCS conference history, but I'd never really looked at the season as a whole.

Now I wish I hadn't. The 2002 team gave up 60 points 3 times in the same season. Shut out by New Mexico, the Bears scored only 98 points total in 8 conference games that season and lost nine games by a combined score of 439-80. The offense averaged 2.9 turnovers per game and 330 total yards. Aaron Karas had fewer passing yards (1792) in 2002 than Terrance Williams had receiving yards (1832) in 2012. The leading rusher for that team, Rashad Armstrong, had 642 yards on the season. Lache Seastrunk had that in the last 4 games of 2012. If it were up to me, any student from 2002 that could prove they went to every home game that season would get a medal and a free scholarship for their children.

So with that knowledge seared into my memory, I asked on twitter whether anyone could beat it, and several responded. I got one Baylor 1999 (1-11), Kansas from this past year, several Washington State teams (2009 and 2012 among them), a Colorado, and several Dukes (too many to link). I still think 2002 Baylor is the worst.

There has to be a way to figure this out and reach consensus on the Worst BCS Conference Team in History, but to do that, we need to make sure we have all the possible candidates before us. I'm limiting it to BCS conference teams so as to keep from going too far back, so we have to start when the BCS did in 1998. Let's hear them.