The decade's once-in-a-while dominants

Here're the occasionally-dominant teams of the last decade: those averaging 66th through 95th in the Dominance Ranking.

(average ranking, all-decade-rank, team)
62.80, 66, Marshall
62.80, 66, Miami (OH)
63.70, 68, Wake Forest
64.60, 69, New Mexico
65.20, 70, Washington St.
65.30, 71, Western Michigan
65.40, 72, East Carolina
65.60, 73, Kansas
67.10, 74, Nevada
69.30, 75, Colorado St.
69.60, 76, Houston
70.90, 77, Arizona
71.70, 78, Kentucky
73.00, 79, Ohio
73.20, 80, Central Mich.
73.20, 80, Colorado
73.70, 82, North Carolina
74.20, 83, UAB
74.70, 84, Northwestern
74.70, 84, Washington
75.60, 86, Illinois
76.20, 87, UTEP
76.70, 88, Louisiana Tech
77.60, 89, Iowa St.
78.60, 90, Akron
79.00, 91, Stanford
80.40, 92, Ball St.
81.90, 93, Syracuse
82.10, 94, Vanderbilt
84.75, 95, Florida Atlantic

Among these usually-yawning football has-beens' decade, one can find a smattering of genuinely good years: Central Michigan's break-through season last year, and Kansas's two years before it are probably best among them. (The Jayhawks finished the year ranked #1 in dominance, the first team in this decade survey with that on its resume.) But even these teams' occasionally stellar years fall on an otherwise-very-drab backdrop. The good years are the exception, not the rule.

For example, Miami of Ohio went 8-4 in 2004, tallying a #6 dominance ranking that season. The rest of the decade? Miamo (OH) averages just over a 69th rank, with 113th and 114th ranks in '08 and '09 nearly expunging the memory of its heyday earlier in the decade.

The same dreary story holds true for Kansas and Central Michigan, and every other team in this quartile of the all-decade list. Each team listed above has at least one triple-digit rank in the decade; most have more. In fact, the average best rank for these low-achievers is 27th-- not even in the top 25.