You may have heard that LSU squeaked by Alabama Saturday night, 9-6. Clever pundits/tweeters likened the extra time to soccer penalty kicks. Clever readers of Fantasy College BLitz knew to expect a defensive struggle since the Tigers and the Crimson Tide led the nation in choking opposing defenses.

After that race to the bottom, Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers remain atop the BLITZIndex college football defense rankings.

Penn State at 3 is going to need all the defense it can get both on (weak offense) and off the field (horrific allegations with no defense if true) to get through the challenges ahead.

Run Saban Run! (Thanks, Cajun Boy)

Fantasy College BLITZIndex 6NOV11

The Fantasy College Blitz BLITZIndex is an equal weighted ranking of three important defensive efficiency variables important to fantasy football – yds/play allowed (YPPL), yds.pt allowed (YPPT) and pts/gm allowed (PPG). Total yds/gm (YPGx) included but not part of the calculation. AlphaBetical sort to help you set your lineups here BLITZIndex_6NOV11_alpha.

If you follow this site, you have likely already programmed your smartphone with the Saturday 8PM kickoff for the epic SEC-showdown-de-facto-national-championship-semifinal LSU at Alabama. You may have done this in the preseason if you are truly a college football freak.

Alabama Crimson Tide defensive tackle Josh Chapman (99) sacks LSU Tigers quarterback Jarrett Lee (12) in last years 24-21 win - expect more defense in this one. (Icon SMI)

Many pixels and inkdots will be spilled on this matchup (rightfully so, and this website will be no different), but for the purposes of our exclusive BLITZIndex college football defense rankings let us look at just how good these two squads are playing in 2011.

Alabama puts this ranking in a headlock every week – for the third week straight they lead the nation in the three categories most important to fantasy college football – yards per play allowed (3.3), points per play allowed (26.3) and points per game allowed (6.9).  LSU trails by just a tiger’s hair width ranking third fifth and third in the nation in the same stats.

For benchmarking, the national median average for each stat is 5.5 YPPL , 14.6 YPPT and 26.4 PPG. It is fair to say that both the Crimson Tide defense and the LSU Tiger defense are about twice as good as the national average which is pretty impressive given the SEC schedule.

But could they stop Case Keenum? We will never know…unless the Houston Cougars go undefeated.

The BLITZIndex Top 30 (alphabetical sort to help you set your fantasy lineup here BLITZIndex_31OCT11_alpha)

Herman Cain presents a 9-9-9 Plan to overhaul the US Tax Code (one can imagine the German response), but the Alabama Crimson Tide has already rewritten a few complex offensive game plans in 2011. That is why they rank atop our rankings of the most difficult defensive matchup in the college football country 1-1-1.

Alabama Crimson Tide coach Lou Saban applauds his #1 ranked defense (Icon SMI)

Lou Saban’s squad sets the standard at all three of the defensive efficiency stats that make up our unique Fantasy College Blitz BLITZIndex – 3.2 yards per play allowed , 26.3 yards per point allowed and a mere 6.9 points per game allowed. Compare that to the national median average at each stat and it really drives home how good they are: 5.4 YPPL (Arkansas) 14.5 YPPT (South Carolina) and 25.4 PPG (West Virginia). Yeah, about twice as good as average.

Oh, ten days until Alabama meets LSU and their #3 ranked D for the defacto national title semifinals…

Your top 25 defenses (alphabetical sort to set your roster. BLITZIndex_24Oct2011_alpha):

The Temple Owls continues to strangle the MAC, allowing less than 10 points per game causing much pain to those who like MAC fantasy players this time of year.

Alabama Crimson Tide continues to lead the nation in the two defense efficiency categories, with a FULL YARD advantage over #2 Michigan State on yards per play allowed (3.2!) and points per game with SEVEN. Quite ridiculous to see that kind of gap over the competition.

The leader in the less-discussed third variable, yards per point allowed, is the Wisconsin Badgers defense at 27.7.

A reminder, the BLITZIndex is an equal weighted index of three defensive efficiency statistics – yds/play allowed (YPPL), yds/pt allowed (YPPT) and pts/gm allowed (PPG).

Top 25 below, followed by a pdf of alphabetical sort to help you with your fantasy college football matchups.

Lou Saban and Alabama prove again to be best defense in college football, but was the Florida Gator defense any way to test that theory? Lots of the usual suspects in this Top 25, but also some sneaky new teams like the Ohio Bobcats and the Vanderbilt Commodores. Michigan hasn’t played this good of defense since the middle of the Lloyd Carr regime. Kansas State continues to play opportunistic defense as a truly sneaky Big 12-2 contender.

Here are the top 25 defense to NOT play your guys against…
BlitzIndex Rank, stats thru Oct 1, 2001

K-State LB Arthur Brown (the good brother) actually caught Robert Griffin in their win over Baylor (Icon SMI)