Penalties are Bad... Or Are They?

In my continuing search to determine who will be the national champion this year, (Part one discussed experienced QB's if you missed it) I'm disturbed at the results of the second factor.
I feel pretty good about my system. It worked for college basketball. But maybe I'm just way off for college football, or selfishly, at least I hope I am.
If I called in to any talk radio show, posted on any message board, or wrote a post on a sports blog (Hey, wait a minute!) and said that highly penalized teams fair better under the BCS system, I would be laughed at. Mocked. Burned at the stakes. But that's what I'm about to write. I can't believe I'm about to do this, but alas, the facts are the facts.
Conventional wisdom would tell you that a team that is highly penalized will, at some point in the season, self destruct. After all, every game matters in college football and a couple of extra penalties could cost you a game. Which in turn would cost you a chance at a national championship.
But apparently, that's not the case. Take a look at the last five national champions and see how they ranked nationally in number of penalties:
2007 - LSU - 2nd

2006 - Florida - 1st

2005 - Texas - 14th

2004 - USC - 69th

2003 - LSU - 19th

Wow!

With the exception of USC in 2004, every national champion ranked in the top 20 in number of penalties. I've tried to wrap my mind around this, and the only explanation I can come up with is the best teams are the most aggressive. They push everything to limit and are willing to sacrifice a few penalties in order to get away with a few penalties as well.
So...
I guess it's OK to be a heavily penalized team?????
With that being said, let's look at the top 8 teams in the current BCS rankings and see where they rank.
Alabama - 105th - I will not be upset about this at all. As a Bama fan. I just can't!
Texas Tech - 5th Texas - 34th
Florida - 17th
Oklahoma - 14th

USC - 5th (tied with Texas Tech)
Utah - 23rd
Penn State - 117th
Sadly, these rankings support what has been happening in the previous seasons.
So I guess, this Saturday, I'm going to cheer every time Alabama gets a penalty.
False Starts....
Holding....
Face Mask....
Offsides....
Delay of Game....
Bring em on!!!!!