The dividing line in college football, the one thing that most sharply separates the sport's top teams these days, is the speedometer.

In recent years, the list of teams that forms the sport's upper class has been neatly cleaved in two. On one side are teams such as Alabama and Stanford, which use pro-style offenses featuring stationary quarterbacks who like to take their time snapping the ball. On the other are programs such as Oregon and Texas A&M, which play a frenetic, up-tempo style and encourage their quarterbacks...