quote:
ULM (5-6)
MSU (3-8)
LSU (9-3)
Citadel (3-7)
Tennessee x 2 (10-3)
LA Tech (6-6)
Arkansas (5-6)
Kentucky (2-9)
Ole Miss (4-7)
UGA (10-2)
Bama (6-6)
VA Tech (10-3)

Added our last opponent, whom you seem to have ignored. So we won four games against teams with 10 wins (in a year with an 11-game regular season). LSU would have been the fifth victory over a 10-win team if Saban hadn't gone brain-dead on the final play of the Cap One Bowl. As it stands, we beat #7, #10, #13 (twice) and #16, four teams whose combined records against all other teams was 39-6 (.867 winning percentage).

Here's Bama's 2011 schedule:

quote:
Kent (5-7)
Penn State (9-4)
North Texas (5-7)
Arkansas (11-2)
Florida (7-6)
Vanderbilt (6-7)
Mississippi (2-10)
Tennessee (5-7)
Louisiana State (13-1)
Mississippi State (7-6)
Georgia Southern
Auburn (8-5)
Louisiana State (13-1)

You played 3 games against 2 ranked teams: #2 LSU and #5 Arky. And you lost one of those. I'd argue that our close win over defending BCS Champion LSU in '04 was far more impressive than your pedestrian blowout of a Penn State squad in Paterno's final year. And we dominated UT and UGa in the regular season.

As long as we're on the subject, here's a couple more schedules to contemplate from outside the decade in question in the OP:

quote:
Vanderbilt (4-7)
Southern Mississippi (7-4)
Arkansas (3-7-1)
Louisiana Tech (5-6)
South Carolina (5-6)
Tulane (2-9)
Tennessee (9-3)
Mississippi (9-3)
Louisiana State (2-9)
Mississippi State (7-5)
Auburn (5-5-1)
Florida (9-4)
Miami (Florida) (11-1)

Is that more impressive looking than the slate AU faced in '04? And there were far more close games as well.

How about this one?

quote:
Georgia Tech (4-6-1)
Baylor (8-4)
Vanderbilt (1-10)
Wichita State (1-10)
Florida (0-10-1)
Tennessee (7-5)
Virginia Tech (5-6)
Mississippi State (3-8)
Louisiana State (7-5)
Miami (Florida) (5-6)
Auburn (8-3)
Arkansas (10-2)

Only three teams finished in the AP Top 20 that year, and one of those games came down to the wire. And I seriously doubt there's another team in college football history that's EVER faced three 10-loss teams in a single season (and on consecutive weeks, no less).

I don't think it would be fair to conclude that Bama's last two consensus NC teams prior to Saban were not great, simply because they played ridiculously easy regular season schedules. Neither should '04 AU be similarly dismissed for a perceived weakness in their regular season opposition.

This post was edited on 7/3/14 at 11:30 am