Penalties as a stat have almost zero bearing on good/bad teams.
Disagree. Mainly because it is the difference between a disciplined team and an undisciplined team.
You could be last in penalties and still win a national championship, but I bet if you were to look at the stats from the last 10 years, teams near the top for penalties/penalty yards are going to probably be near the top of the standings.
Not because of the penalties being the reason but teams with more penalties are probably making bigger mistakes elsewhere--not executing.