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It pains me to say it, but I would put TX/USC at the top. A game that lived up to the hype, and in the Rose Bowl.

ND/FSU lived up to the hype, too, but it was a mid-season game. ND/MSU is infamous as much as famous, so I would move it towards the bottom of the list. I'm only barely aware of the other three.

Best game I've ever watched.  A buddy of mine, an OSU fan, came over and we were going to drink some wine and watch the first half and call it a day.

At halftime, he said "I can't leave!", so we opened another bottle and watched the rest which was incredible.

I was at the Army-ND game, it really was boring.  

This is AI stuff:

The 2006 Rose Bowl between Texas and USC is often cited as the greatest college football game ever played. It was a thrilling national championship game featuring two undefeated teams with long winning streaks. The game was a back-and-forth affair with legendary performances from Vince Young and Reggie Bush, and Texas ultimately won in a dramatic finish.


Here's why this game is considered so great:

• Undefeated Teams:
  Both Texas and USC entered the game with perfect records, boasting 2005 Heisman winner Reggie Bush (USC) and 2004 Heisman winner Matt Leinart (USC).
  
  
• High Stakes:
  The game was for the national championship, with USC attempting to win their third consecutive title.
  
  
• Legendary Performances:
  Vince Young delivered a legendary performance for Texas, throwing for 267 yards and running for 200 more, including the game-winning touchdown.
  
  
• Back-and-Forth Thriller:
  The game was a back-and-forth contest with numerous lead changes and dramatic plays on both sides.
  
  
• Last-Second Finish:
  The game culminated in a thrilling fourth-down touchdown run by Vince Young with less than 20 seconds left, securing the victory for Texas.
  
  
• Impactful Moments:
  The game had several memorable moments, including a fourth-down stop by Texas that set up the winning drive and Reggie Bush's incredible plays.

'93 FSU vs ND

The only other one of those I've ever seen was FSU-Notre Dame which I recall enjoying quite a bit.  I was in college at the time and so was sort of in my sweet spot for enjoying college athletics.

I'm a little younger than you.  This was my freshman year at Ohio State and based on University of Texas Electrical Engineering 94, I'm assuming it was your senior year at Texas.  

Anyway, I remember that one largely because of what it spawned.  As a Notre Dame home game that game was on NBC but ESPN sent their college football show there anyway and the idea that became the travelling GameDay show began.  

I was acutely interested in that game due to the rankings situation.  Before I went to college I was an Ohio State fan but TBH I was more into pro football.  As bad as the Browns have been, their best run of the past ~80 years coincided with the age at which I was first starting to follow such things and that also coincided with Ohio State's worst run of the past ~80 years.  From 1985 when I was 10 through 1992 (my Senior Year in HS) the Browns:

• Went to the playoffs five straight seasons 1985-1989
• Won at least one playoff game three times (1986, 1987, 1989)
• Made it to the AFC Championship Game three times (1986, 1987, 1989)

That is as good as it has been for the Browns since their glory days pre-SuperBowl.  

Meanwhile the Buckeyes weren't all that good.  They had a great season and finished one play shy of a NC in 1979 but I was only four so I don't remember that.  Then they entered the Earle "9-3" Bruce years and went 9-3 six straight years from 1980-1985 only breaking that cycle by playing an extra game and going 10-3 in 1986*.  Then the transition from Bruce to Cooper was rough.  They were barely over .500 in Earle Bruce's last year (only salvaging a >.500 record by upsetting Michigan in Ann Arbor AFTER Bruce had been fired).  They were sub .500 in Cooper's first year (1988) and lost four games each year in Cooper's second through fourth years (1989-1992).  

The above explains why I generally followed the Browns a lot more than the Buckeyes in that era.  

Then my freshman year at Ohio State the Buckeyes were seriously in the NC hunt for the first time since before I started Kindergarten so 1993 was extra exciting for Ohio State fans since it had been so long and even more extra exciting for a freshman living it.  

Ohio State's 1993 season:
Ohio State started ranked in the teens which is unsurprising since they hadn't done much in better than a decade but they jumped to the brink of the top-10 with a HUGE home win over #12 Washington in their second game then beat the living daylights out of Pittsburg (Mark May is still mad about it) and moved into the top-10.  I was in Ohio Stadium for #3 Ohio State's win over #12 Penn State on October 30.  Even after tying the Badgers in Madison the Buckeyes were still in the hunt at #5.  Heading into that game I had it all figured out:

• #1 FSU beats #2 Notre Dame in South Bend but loses to #8 Florida
• #2 Notre Dame loses at home to FSU (see above)
• #3 Miami loses to #9 West Virginia
• #4 Nebraska loses their bowl game
• #5 Ohio State wins out and wins the NC.  

So I watched the brand new travelling ESPN show and watched the ND/FSU game on NBC rooting for the Seminoles.  

*Note for @betarhoalphadelta because I know he'll point this out otherwise.  I fully realize that losing exactly three games every year would be an enviable situation for the vast majority of College Football programs and that this is very much a #HelmetSchoolProblem.  That said, if you look at what came before and what came after, this was a bad time for Ohio State.  

Even after tying the Badgers in Madison the Buckeyes were still in the hunt at #5.  

This was the game that taught me that no matter how good Wisconsin looks against a helmet team, they are always a couple of big plays away from disaster. The Badger D played so well the entire game, only to give up a four-play, 99-yard touchdown drive in the last five minutes that pretty much went universally through WR Joey Galloway. Then the Buckeyes blocked a 32-yard field goal attempt to preserve the tie. It wasn't a terrible result for the Badgers, but it was just soooo close to an incredible one.

It was also a weird year for both teams. 

For one thing, do you know why Wisconsin didn't play Iowa that year?  Then, since they weren't playing Iowa you'd think Minnesota would be the finale but the finale was a weird game against MSU in Tokyo. 

Anyway, both the Buckeyes and Badgers lost a rivalry game to a team they should have beaten.  Wisconsin lost 28-21 in Minneapolis to a Gophers squad that finished 4-7 while Ohio State lost 28-0 in Ann Arbor to a Wolverines squad that finished 8-4. 

Weird barely begins to describe it for the Badgers, who hadn't had a winning season since 1984 and hadn't won 8 games since 1962.

I was at that mess of a game in Minneapolis. Road tripped out for what we were sure was going to be a cakewalk--but Wisconsin hadn't really beaten anyone yet. Five picks, including a pick-6, and 602 futile yards of offense later, the Badgers slunk out of there. Rivalry games are a bitch. See Ohio State at Michigan, 1993. A week later the Badgers beat Michigan and the hope returned.

Don't know why we didn't play Iowa, although Iowa wasn't especially good that year (on the other hand, neither was Minnesota).

Don't know why we didn't play Iowa, although Iowa wasn't especially good that year (on the other hand, neither was Minnesota).

Iowa was atrocious.  Their 3-5 record is misleading.  Remember that they missed BOTH co-Champions.  Their three wins came against the two teams that went winless (PU, NU) and, oddly enough, Minnesota.  They did make a bowl at 6-5 but that was only because they had some MAJOR SoS help:
Their three OOC games were:

• A one point win at home over Tulsa (4-6-1)
• A road win by a FG over ISU (3-8)
• A home blowout of Northern Illinois (4-7).  

All three of their OOC opponents finished below .500 as did the three Big11Ten teams that they beat so that year Iowa managed to go bowling and finish 6-6 despite their best win being over a team that finished 4-7.  Unsurprisingly, they got smoked in the Alamo Bowl.