Elite Offenses Win Titles in College Football Now

It's difficult to pinpoint when it happened, but the scope of college football has changed from a defensive mindset to an offensive mindset, and that seems to be the way to compete for national titles now. At least that's what the numbers say from last year.

In order to win a national championship in college football now, you must first make the College Football Playoff. To be one of the last four teams standing at the season's end is the primary goal for each team at the FBS level.

Now the question becomes, "How do we get to the playoff?"

One could say that it's as simple as winning games and losing fewer than the vast majority of the other teams. However, it seems like the most offensively efficient teams have the best chance at making it to college football's version of the Final Four.

Let's take our reigning national champions, the Ohio State Buckeyes: they were one of the most dominant offensive teams in the country all season, averaging 44.8 points per game (ranking fifth in the nation), 511.6 yards per game (ninth in the nation), and ranked second in the country in plays that gained more than 30 yards with an astounding 46 plays, all against Power 5 teams.

Just let that soak in for a moment... Sure, they played in the Big 10, but to put up gaudy numbers like that in a Power 5 conference is flat out silly. Urban Meyer and crew showed the country exactly what Barrett Sallee said on "The Game" last week to host Ryan Fowler, "Defense doesn't win championships anymore, just enough defense wins championships now."

Who did Ohio State play in the national championship game? None other than the offensive juggernaut Oregon Ducks from Eugene, Oregon. We all know what this team is capable of offensively, with their blazing fast pace and uncanny ability to make big plays. Even so, they still didn't have the guns to match Ohio State's firepower, putting up a season low 20 points in the national championship game (although they managed to squeeze out 465 yards of total offense).

The Ducks ranked  fourth last year in points per game with 45.4, just ahead of the Buckeyes, and third in total offense with 547 yards per game. On paper, these stats are better than the Buckeyes', but they couldn't produce the same numbers when it counted.

Most people think of Alabama as a dominant defensive program, and for the most part, that's true. They ranked sixth last season in points allowed per game at 18.4 (the highest such stat from a Nick Saban defense since 2008, by the way). Also, they didn't give up many yards, averaging just 328.4 yards per game, good enough for 12th in college football.

I won't take the time to compare everyone's defensive statistics, but trust me when I say that Alabama definitely had the best defense out of the four playoff teams.

Nick Saban has seen where college football is heading, and he has been trying to change with the flow of the game since his last national championship at The Capstone. He has emphasized more production from the offense, and it has shown in the statistics.

Alabama averaged 36.9 points per game in 2014, only the third highest in Nick Saban's tenure in Tuscaloosa, but managed to move the ball downfield basically at will against any opponent, putting up 484.5 yards per game.

Yet still, these stats alone weren't good enough to take down the Buckeyes.

Florida State was the other playoff team, but their beatdown at the hands of the Oregon Ducks showed how flawed they were, both offensively and defensively. Their offensive numbers were barely inside the top 40 in both points per game and yards per game.

In all honesty, they really shouldn't have been playing in the first ever College Football Playoff.

But I digress.

Those basic stats show how those teams got there, but there is one telling stat that almost proves how dominant a team is on the offensive side of the ball, and gives way to legitimately compete for a national championship.

In order to be considered efficient on offense, a team must be able to score and move the ball almost at will, and both Ohio State and Oregon did just that.

The best way to score in football is how? Cross the ball over the goal line for a touchdown, right? That's seven points. One score for seven points (six technically, but we'll automatically assume the extra point is good, even though Oregon didn't always play by these rules).

A team would need three field goals to exceed a touchdown, and four safeties to do the same. Field goals and safeties, while beneficial no doubt, are not considered "efficient" in today's college football.

Touchdowns win games, and the two teams that played for the national championship proved that.

Ohio State led the nation with an absolutely silly .08189 touchdowns/play throughout the season. In other words, just over eight out of every 100 plays was a touchdown for the Buckeyes. They scored more than 56 points every 100 plays.

Wowza.

Oregon's ratio wasn't too far off that, either. They ranked third with .0805 touchdowns/play. They too scored just over 56 points every 100 plays.

Just for comparison's sake, Alabama ranked 14th with an impressive .0668 touchdowns/play, but the Florida State Seminoles limped in at 39th with .05791 touchdowns/play.

In short, offense now wins games and championships. Or, it at least gets you to the final cut to compete for a championship.

(All stats gathered from cfbstats.com)