1973: Notre Dame beat Alabama in their No. 1 vs. No. 3 bowl, so ignore Bama’s claim to this season, unless you’d also like to ignore the game between the two at the end of the 2012 season. SRS considers once-tied Oklahoma the best non-World War II team ever, by the way.
The tie was 7-7 vs. #1 defending-champion USC in the Coliseum in the 2nd game of the season. Barry Switzer said later that he didn't know how good a team he had or he would have coached a lot less conservatively. Soph QB Steve Davis was in his second college football game. He would start in 34 of them, going 32-1-1. He had Joe Washington at LHB and Waymon Clark at FB. Each of them rushed for over 1,000 yards, and Davis rushed for almost 900 himself, while passing for over 900, quite a lot for an early wishbone team. RHB was by committee, but was productive.
The Selmon brothers were the core of the DL, with oldest brother Lucious at NG and Dewey and Lee Roy flanking him as the DTs. Rod Shoate was one of the linebackers in the 5-2 defense, and Jimbo Elrod and Duane Bacchus was the starting DEs.
That was a very good team. After squeaking past Miami, the Sooners ripped through the rest of the schedule, beating Texas 52-13. That was the first season of a staggered probation--TV was OK, but no bowl game was allowed. So the last time anyone could see OU on TV until the '75 (season) Orange Bowl vs. Michigan was the 27-0 hammering of Nebraska in which the Huskers crossed the 50 only once, and then fumbled at the end of that play at about the OU 45. After that game, DC Larry Lacewell said he'd take his defense and go fight the Russians.
On probation and with no bowl game, it's hard to make the case for an NC, but that was a very, very good 10-0-1 team. At the end of the year, I think that they were the best in all the land.
