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There's an old saying that applies to most of the major team sports that we see: defense wins championships. I've heard broadcasters and analysts spout that line in respect to football, basketball, hockey, and even baseball. I can see the validity of the sentiment for each of those sports. When you look at the current and past champions, strong defenses are a common thread.

But when it comes to college football, I'm not so sure that this one-liner is as appropriate. After all, The USC Trojans won a couple of National Championships without having a strong defense. More recently the Texas Longhorns won the national title and the Rose Bowl despite giving up 38 points to the aforementioned Trojans. That brings me to my question: when it comes to college football, is it better to have a high-powered offense that can score at will or a stingy defense that can come up with a huge stop when necessary?

I'm trying to think back to the last time that a dominating defense helped a team win the national championship in college ball. I can't really come up with any off the top of my head, although I believe the Nebraska Cornhuskers squads that won back-to-back titles in 1994 and '95 had pretty strong defenses. Overall, I would say that explosive offenses help college teams win more than stingy defenses do. Let's take a look at some stats.

In 2005, the Alabama Crimson Tide had the best defense in the country -- at least according to the numbers. The Tide gave up only 248.4 yards per game and opponents were able to score a miniscule 10.7 points per game against them. If you ask me, 10.7 points per game is practically equivalent to a shutout when talking about college football! However, Alabama still managed to lose two games during the season (16-13 to LSU and 28-18 to Auburn) to finish with a record of 9-2. That mark left Alabama with a #8 national ranking, but it wasn't good enough to win the SEC conference. This might be due to the fact that the Alabama offense managed to score only 22.7 points per game, which ranked near the bottom quarter of teams in the country. We're talking San Jose State, Florida International, and Central Michigan territory here.

You have to believe that if the Tide had a little more firepower on offense, they would have had a shot at overcoming the three point deficit in that LSU game. And who knows what might have happened in the Auburn game if 'Bama had been able to stretch the field a couple of time with some long passes. Another win and the Tide would have been in the SEC title hunt and would have finished a couple of spots higher in the national rankings.

On the other side of the coin, let's take a look at a team that was pretty much all offense. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish boasted a very strong offense that ranked sixth in the nation at the end of the year. The Irish put up an average of 489.1 yards of total offense per game, and scored an average of 38.2 points per game. It was a rare game indeed when quarterback Brady Quinn didn't top the 300-yard plateau. He even posted a couple of 400-yard efforts (487 yards against Michigan State in overtime and 467 yards against the Brigham Young University Cougars). When teams took on Notre Dame, they knew they would be facing an aerial assault all game long.

However, the Irish lost three games last year, two in the regular season plus their bowl game against Ohio State. In those three losses, their opponents were able to exploit the weak defense and put lots of yards on the board. Just look at the mind-boggling total of 617 total yards that the Buckeyes racked up at the Fiesta Bowl. The Irish defense was the team's Achilles heel all season long, and took the brunt of the criticism for all three losses.

Remember the USC game? Quinn and the offense did everything in their power to give Notre Dame a chance to win. But the defense basically folded in the final two minutes of play, allowing the Trojans to march 76 yards down the field for the game-winning touchdown. That final drive featured memorable miscues by the Irish D, including giving up a huge 61-yard pass play from Matt Leinart to Dwayne Jarrett on 4th down. Then the defense couldn't make a goal line stand, and Leinart sealed the victory for USC.

Just as Alabama would have benefited from a couple of extra touchdowns or field goals in their close losses, the Fighting Irish faithful would be singing a different tune right now if their team had been able to provide better pass coverage. If the Jarrett completion had just gone for 10 yards instead of 61 for example, or if the pass had been knocked away altogether, the outcome would have been different. For the Irish, last season made it clear that they won't win on the arm of Brady Quinn alone.

The Texas Longhorns provided the best balance of offense and defense last season, so I guess it's not surprising that they won the National Championship. The Longhorns had the most potent offense in the country, averaging a whopping 50.9 points per game and putting up 508.4 yards of total offense every week. In addition to these great numbers, the defense also did their part, holding opponents to just 280.6 yards per game and 14.6 points per game. This allowed the Longhorns to beat teams by huge margins. Consider their Week One 60-3 win over Louisiana Lafayette, their 62-0 win over Baylor, their 66-14 win over Kansas, and their 70-3 trouncing of Colorado. The closest a competitor ever came to Texas was within 3 points. This happened twice, when Ohio State lost by a score of 25-22 and when the Trojans came up short in the Rose Bowl.

Despite the low scores yielded by the Texas defense, I don't think they really relied on this defense to win the championship. After all, when you take into account the quality of their opponents, you can see that not many teams were a legitimate threat to run up the score against the Longhorns. Besides USC and Ohio State, Texas only played two other ranked teams: #24 Colorado and #10 Texas Tech. I would say that holding Texas Tech to just 17 points was an incredible feat, since that team ranked fourth in the nation in scoring with a very healthy average of 42.1 points per game. When it comes right down to it, I'd take the Texas defense over USC, Notre Dame, Fresno State, or any other squad on a purely offensive-minded team any day.

Overall, I think the trend in today's college football landscape is to focus on a high-powered offense. I guess the philosophy here is that as long as you can outgun your opponents, you'll be in good shape. This strategy usually works during the regular season, and especially in non-conference games where strong teams like Texas, USC, and Notre Dame are matched up against much weaker opponents. But it really does make for some close calls along the way in conference games, and eventually, not having a strong defense will come back to bite teams when they can least afford it. Just ask Notre Dame and USC.

I will say this, though: the focus on offense in college football makes for some great shows for the fans. I don't know about you, but I love watching teams lay wood to their opponents by scoring nearly every time they touch the ball. Now if some of those teams could just add a little bit of defense, the national title chase would be a lot more exciting.