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John Raoux/Associated Press

With Derwin James returning from injury for Florida State, the Seminoles should have the best secondary in the 2017 college football season. But watch out for Virginia Tech potentially keeping FSU from even having the best defensive backfield in the ACC.

To select and rank these defensive units, we looked at five key statistics from last season—passing yards per attempt, passing yards per game, completion percentage, QB rating and TD/INT ratio—to determine where each team ranked nationally in each category.

Teams that scored well in at least four of the five categories and have a strong contingent of returning defensive backs were among the top candidates for the list.

There wasn't any sort of mathematical formula used to rank them, though, and star power (like James and Tarvarus McFadden for Florida State) played a crucial part in the decision-making process.

Basically, the ranking boiled down to one question: Which secondary would a quarterback least want to face if down by one-possession late in the fourth quarter and forced to run the two-minute drill starting from his own 10-yard line?