Dean's List: BSC Coach Rankings

SPORTING NEWS RANKS ALL 66 BCS COACHES:
1. Pete Carroll, USC
2. Jim Tressel, Ohio State
3. Rich Rodriguez, Michigan
4. Bob Stoops, OU
5. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest

I don't believe in ranking coaches 1-119. It's too subjective. Ranking a Top 5 list in a conference we see year after year is more realistic. Disclaimer aside, we proudly offer our Dean's List of the Top 5 coaches in the Big 12 Conference.

DEAN'S BIG 12 COACHES RANKS:
1. Bob Stoops, OU (4)
2. Mack Brown, Texas (7)
3. Mark Mangino, KU (9)
4. Gary Pinkel, Missouri (35)
5. Mike Leach, TT (11)
(The number in parenthesis is the Sporting News' BCS ranking.)

Stoops is a no-brainer. Maybe 0-4 in the last four BCS bowls, but just the opposite in league championship games, winning in a remarkable 5 of 6 appearances in 9 years in an elite conference.

Some coaches are given ‘attaboys' if they just win five or six games a year. To put it proper perspective, the average number of wins the five years before Stoops was 4.7 per season for Gibbs, Blake and Schnelly.

Further, there've been 25 Big 12 coaches in Stoops 9 years in the conference. Those 25 coaches have combined for 4 conference titles. Big 12, Bob's won 5 of them.

Mack Brown is a distant second. Par excellence recruiter and winner of ten or more games for 7 straight seasons...it's about wins....but still, Mack is closer to those below him than to the one above him.

Mark Mangino did the best coaching job in the country last season. He put QB Todd Reesing in a perfect position to make plays...and led Kansas to a school-best No. 4 final ranking...Manginoman deserved the consensus national coach of the year award...and deserving of number three on our list.

Some wanted Missouri's Gary Pinkel fired not long ago...but now he's shown the Show Me state that he can flat out coach-and recruit, see Jeremy Maclin, who'd committed to OU and is the scariest talent in the league. Pinkel gets the nod over Leach because he's made it to the conference title game was in the national title hunt and expected to do so again. Besides, he looks cool.

And Leachs' Pirate gig may have run its course.

The Stoops tree branches out with three of the top 5 coaches in the league...and anticipated success from another one-time assistant in with Youngstown's own Bo Pelini at Nebraska. Maybe the guy should look at permanent residency.

OTHER COACH RANKS SPORTING NEWS

Sporting news notable coaches BCS rank:
12. Spurrier
20. Miles
50. Gundy
63. Mike Stoops
66. Randy Shannon (last)