So, where does the 2012 Tide rank among the BCS era’s best teams?

Alabama’s Eddie Lacy (42) rushes for yardage in the BCS National Championship Game against Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o (left) and Zeke Motta (right). (Copyright photo by Gary Cosby Jr. of The Decatur Daily)

If you’ve followed The Daily Bama Blog long, you probably know we like USA Today analyst Jeff Sagarin’s computer rankings.

We’re not talking about the set of rankings he provides the BCS, which are politically correct and don’t include margin of victory. He does a separate set that includes scoring margin, and this is what USA Today publishes. Click here for his 2012 final rankings, which include the bowl games.

If you compile all of his rankings since 1998, which is the beginning of the BCS era, the 2012 Alabama team ranks 12th in that span. This is unofficial to say the least. I used his rankings and compiled them myself. Sagarin isn’t involved with this, so if you have a complaint with the result, please don’t bombard him with hate mail.

 No. 12 is pretty good and trails only four other SEC teams – Alabama’s 2011 team at No. 3, 2011 LSU at No. 9, 2009 Alabama at No. 10,  and 2001 Florida at No. 11. The 2012 Tide team ranks ahead of the 2008 Florida team with Tim Tebow (No. 15), Tennessee’s 1998 national champions (No. 16) and Auburn’s 2010 national champion team with Cam Newton (No. 17).

Sagarin’s top teams in the BCS era

*-national champion

Also find and follow The Daily Bama Blog on:
Twitter: @DailyEdwards
Facebook: Facebook.com/dailybamablog