Does defense win championships?

We’ve all heard the old adage regarding football, “offense may win games, but defense wins championships,” a philosophy I firmly believe. However, I came across an interesting stat.

I’m a Texan and I love my high school football. I was reading through the Dave Campbell’s 2009 Texas Football magazine and noticed the season summary for the 2008 Class 4A Division II state champions, the Sulphur Springs Wildcats.  I first noticed the final score of the state championship game, 69-49, and thought it must be an anomaly. However, as I went down the results of Sulphur Springs’ schedule I noticed a distinct pattern. The Wildcats scored a ton of points, but also gave up a ton of points.

They finished the season as champions with a 14-2 record, but they gave up an average of 30.6 points per game. They’re are girls basketball teams that give up less points per game. Their defense gave up at least 16 points in every game, only held one time to less than 20 points and gave up 30+ points, 7 times.

In spite of these numbers,  I still believe that defense wins championships. What this proves is that the playoff system for Texas high school football has been extremely watered down ever since they went to the two division/two champions format for each classification.  Just as the BCS needs a face lift, the Texas high school football playoff systems needs some restructuring as well.