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ChatGPT's best Badger teams:

• 1999
• 1998
• 2011
• 2017
• 1993

"The most interesting debate among Badger fans is whether 2011 was actually the best team despite not winning the Big Ten or a Rose Bowl. In terms of pure talent and efficiency, many would put 2011 at No. 1. In terms of accomplishments and legacy, the 1998–99 Barry Alvarez teams still have the strongest claim."

#6 was 2010, Bielema's 10-2 Rose Bowl loser to TCU (I would put this team lower); #7 was 1962's AP#2 team that lost the Rose Bowl by one score (closest Wisconsin has come to a national championship). That last one sticks in my craw. If they missed a national championship by one score, how are they not in the top three?


I think ChatGPT also undervalues the 2017 team. Orange Bowl winners; only loss was a one-score squeaker to Ohio State in the Conference Championship game (OSU won the Cotton Bowl over USC, but had two uncompetitive losses during the regular season). 

They beat final AP number #2 Miami, #4 Michigan, #5 West Virginia (#3 going into the bowl game with ND), and #7 USC (#2 when ND beat them over Thanksgiving weekend).

For the time, that was quite a schedule.

Not different from any other team. ND beat up on Navy and Air Force; Michigan beat up on Wake Forest and Wisconsin. Miami beat up on Wisconsin and Cincinnati. LSU beat up on Tulane and Mississippi State. Nebraska beat up on Utah State and UNLV. USC beat up on Oregon State and Boston College. Arkansas (the SWC champ) smacked around Pacific, and played Tulane and Tulsa. Every team played (and plays) patsies.

ND's schedule was heavier at the top than any other team, and was comparable in the middle and lower end of competition.

Sports Reference CRC strength of schedule (a rating system like Sagarin) for 1988:

• USC
• UCLA
• ND
• Michigan State
• Michigan
• Washington
• Florida State
• Miami
• Nebraska
• Oklahoma

Helping USC Michigan State, Michigan, and Miami? Their games against Notre Dame.

As ChatGPT responded to this query: "what Div. 1 FBS college football teams had the toughest schedules in 1988" (the rest of this post is copied and pasted, except the bracketed text re the incorrect final AP rankings):

If you're looking at 1988 Division I-A (today's FBS) schedules using modern retrospective strength-of-schedule systems such as the Sports Reference Simple Rating System (SRS) SOS and similar power-rating reconstructions, the teams most often identified as having the toughest schedules were:
[th]Approx. Rank[/th]
[th]Team[/th]
[th]Notes[/th]

1
USC
Faced Notre Dame, UCLA, Washington, Michigan State, and other strong Pac-10 opponents.

2
UCLA
Played a brutal Pac-10 slate plus strong nonconference games.

3
Notre Dame
Faced Michigan, Michigan State, Miami (FL), USC, and others; arguably the most famous championship schedule of the era.

4
Michigan State
Played a powerful Big Ten schedule plus Notre Dame.

5
Michigan
Faced Notre Dame, USC, and a strong Big Ten.

6
Washington
Strong Pac-10 competition including USC and UCLA.

7
Florida State
Independent schedule loaded with ranked opponents.

8
Miami (FL)
Played Florida State, Notre Dame, and a difficult independent slate.

9
Nebraska
Faced Oklahoma and several strong nonconference opponents.

10
Oklahoma
Tough Big Eight schedule plus notable nonconference games.


A few observations:

• Notre Dame's 1988 national championship team is often cited as having one of the strongest schedules ever for a title winner. They defeated:
  
  • Michigan (#19 final AP) [incorrect: Michigan was #4 CITE]
  • Michigan State (#10) [incorrect: NR, receiving votes tied for #26]
  • Miami (#2)
  • USC (#6) [incorrect: #7]
  • West Virginia (#5 in the Fiesta Bowl)
• The Pac-10 powers (USC, UCLA, Washington) rate extremely high in many SOS systems because they all played one another while also scheduling strong nonconference opponents.
• Florida State and Miami were independents and routinely assembled national schedules rather than conference-only slates, which boosts their SOS in most retroactive rankings.

People love to hate on ND's scheduling, but first: 4 of 12 games against AP-top-10 teams is top heavy because the top is so big, not because the rest of the schedule is bad.

Of the 6-5 or worse teams that were the other 8? MSU, 2nd in the Big 10 (6-1-1), a pre-season top 20; Pitt: made it into the top 20 after smoking Ohio State before dropping back out; Penn State, pre-season top 20, two years removed from a national title; Purdue, sixth--i.e., middle of the pack--in the Big 10 (actually 10 teams!); Stanford: poor end-of-season record, lost to AP #7 USC by 4, AP #16 Washington State by 3, and only ND and UCLA (AP #6) beat Stanford by more than four points, UCLA by 10, ND by 28; yes, Air Force sucked, but not so badly that it couldn't smoke Northwestern (the Big Ten had at least three very weak teams), and Navy and Rice were terrible. So two terrible teams, one bad team, four mediocre teams (two of which, Penn State and Pitt, spent time in the top 20), and one pretty good team (MSU).

If two of the four top 10 teams they played had instead been top 20, it would have been a schedule comparable to ordinary national champs of the era; instead it was "top heavy."

But Michigan had a real schedule because it played in the Big 10, i.e., three terrible teams (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Northwestern), Ohio State was 4-6-1, Michigan tied Iowa (who just liked ties, at 6-4-3), 4-7 Purdue (just like ND), 6-5-1 Illinois, Indiana (5th in the Big Ten) had a good final record at 8-3-1, and MSU--a good 6-5-1 team (the same one that ND beat). Does Michigan get credit for scheduling Miami (in Ann Arbor)? Of course. As did ND. Michigan gets credit for playing USC in the Rose Bowl. Notre Dame scheduled USC for its regular season. Was Ohio State unusually weak? Sure. So was Penn State.

Michigan played three teams in the top 10: ND (L), Miami (L), and USC (W). And one other ranked team (Indiana, #20). Outside of them, it didn't play any teams with more than 6 wins, either.

So, no, the rest of ND's schedule doesn't bring it down at all.