CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: OrangeAfroMan on December 13, 2022, 05:44:17 AM
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ESPN has a silly "ranking all playoff teams" article. It is what it is, but I found their top 3 interesting. Each was great and had a crazy-impressive pair of wins in the playoff.
So while worrying about 36 teams is a bit much, I figure we could pick a "best" from those 3 (or some other team, if you feel passionate about them). I'll try to check in and specify what your "other" team was ranked in the article.
The teams/resumes:
2020 Alabama - a unique case, due to covid...played 10 conference foes, a CCG, then 2 playoff teams...no OOC cupcakes. Won them all by an average score of 49-19. Went 13-0 with playoff wins over ND (31-14) and OSU (52-24).
They had 3 players in the top 5 of Heisman voting (QB Jones, RB Harris), including the winner (WR Smith). Only 1 win was by fewer than 14 points. Scored 50+ points 7 times. And their kicker didn't miss a FG.
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2019 LSU - the offense is legendary....15-0 record, avg score of 48-22. Defense wasn't great for a NC winner, but it didn't matter. Averaged 402 yds passing per game. Heisman winner QB Burrow threw 60 TD passes with only 6 INTs. Oh, also had a 1,400 yard rusher (Edwards Helaire).
Beat five top-10 teams BEFORE the playoff. Scored 105 pts in their two playoff games vs OU (63-28) and Clemson (42-25). Did have 3 close wins, though.
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2018 Clemson - 15-0 record, beat the hell out of both playoff opp: 30-3 vs ND, 44-16 vs Bama. QB was #1 overall draft pick (Lawrence) AND they ran for 250 yds per game @ 6.6 ypc (Etienne & Co.).
Held 9 opp to ten points or less. Had one of the best defensive lines ever. Weak regular season schedule made people wary, but dominated #3 ND and #1 Bama in playoff. Two close games early.
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I picked Alabama, as I thought they were a little more dominant.
Also, since it was Bill‘s list, does LSU beating five top-10 teams mean top 10 teams in a computer ranking? Or in the traditional sense of poll ranking when they played?
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I went with Clemson.
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Michigan State?
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Joe Burrow and those stud receivers
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I'll throw a bone out to the 2014 Buckeyes.
I've never seen a 3 game stretch so amazing. They were underdogs for all three games and pretty much dominated.
Has there ever been a 63 point cover? (4 point dogs to Wisconsin, won 59-0)
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I picked Alabama, as I thought they were a little more dominant.
Also, since it was Bill‘s list, does LSU beating five top-10 teams mean top 10 teams in a computer ranking? Or in the traditional sense of poll ranking when they played?
Probably either/or. LSU beat 5 teams that FINISHED (not game ranked) in the AP top 10 and 2 more that finished in the top 25. That’s why they got my vote. Seven wins over teams that finished ranked is just dumb.
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'19 LSU for me. Look at what Burrow, Jefferson, and Chase did that year- look at what they are doing in the NFL right now as we speak. I don't know how anyone of those playoff teams in CFB is stopping that. Hint: they are not.
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I picked Alabama, as I thought they were a little more dominant.
Also, since it was Bill‘s list, does LSU beating five top-10 teams mean top 10 teams in a computer ranking? Or in the traditional sense of poll ranking when they played?
I added in the resume stuff myself, so it was their actual human rankings.
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My only issue with LSU was the 3 close wins. If they were the best playoff-era team overall, why the 3 close wins?
Sept 7 - 7 point win @ 9 Texas
Oct 26 - 3 point win vs 9 Auburn
Nov 9 - 5 point win @ 2 Alabama
All of them were top-10 teams, and one of them was early, but still. Kudos on winning the games, but would such a great team have THREE of these games?
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I went with 2020 Alabama, mostly due to no regular season games closer than 14 points and even bigger - possibly the toughest schedule for a NC ever. Zero gimmies. No layups. No directional schools or MAC-tion or any of that. 10 conference games (even missed Vandy), a CCG, then 2 playoff games. No breathers.
I think it's the most impressive thing on any team's resume. Maybe ever.
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I look at 2020 Bama and wonder if they got everybody's best effort that year because of COVID. Yes, Bama had to endure the same issues as everybody else and should get credit for overcoming all that and dominating like they did.
But ultimately there will always be an asterisk next to anything accomplished in 2020, and it should not be considered the equivalent of a championship in a normal season. Bama never had to play in front of hostile crowds. The playoff teams they faced may possibly have been over-rated. Who knows if Notre Dame and OSU make the playoffs if they play their normal schedules. And even if OSU was one of the 4 best teams, I mean really how could have Ohio State been at its best with the limited number of games they played that year.
How many teams did Bama play that had players sitting out due to COVID? I honestly don't know, but it makes me have doubts that I should trust Bama's resume. So I am sorry, I would have trouble voting any team from 2020 as the best overall.
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I look at 2020 Bama and wonder if they got everybody's best effort that year because of COVID. Yes, Bama had to endure the same issues as everybody else and should get credit for overcoming all that and dominating like they did.
But ultimately there will always be an asterisk next to anything accomplished in 2020, and it should not be considered the equivalent of a championship in a normal season. Bama never had to play in front of hostile crowds. The playoff teams they faced may possibly have been over-rated. Who knows if Notre Dame and OSU make the playoffs if they play their normal schedules. And even if OSU was one of the 4 best teams, I mean really how could have Ohio State been at its best with the limited number of games they played that year.
How many teams did Bama play that had players sitting out due to COVID? I honestly don't know, but it makes me have doubts that I should trust Bama's resume. So I am sorry, I would have trouble voting any team from 2020 as the best overall.
OSU only suited up 55 players for that championship game. They were still following covid protocols the SEC didn't. No way 'bama faced the best version of OSU in the title game.
Muck Kevin Warren.
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I'll throw a bone out to the 2014 Buckeyes.
I've never seen a 3 game stretch so amazing. They were underdogs for all three games and pretty much dominated.
Has there ever been a 63 point cover? (4 point dogs to Wisconsin, won 59-0)
Yeah, no one else has been deep enough to win one with their 3rd string QB.
It's 2014 OSU, then everyone else.
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I guess you could maybe argue that 2014 Ohio St had the greatest post-season run of any team in the playoffs, but it's hard to argue they had the greatest season ever from start to finish.
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I'll throw a bone out to the 2014 Buckeyes.
I've never seen a 3 game stretch so amazing. They were underdogs for all three games and pretty much dominated.
Has there ever been a 63 point cover? (4 point dogs to Wisconsin, won 59-0)
Rout 66 comes to mind.
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66-3
The final score was staggering not just because UCLA was 0-2 and an underdog, but because it was on the home field of the defending Big 12 champion.
Texas was ranked 11th, coming off a season in which the Longhorns had upset third-ranked Nebraska in the Big 12 Conference championship game.
UCLA was 0-2 and foundering.
not sure of the spread, could have been 14 or more
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I guess you could maybe argue that 2014 Ohio St had the greatest post-season run of any team in the playoffs, but it's hard to argue they had the greatest season ever from start to finish.
their 2015 was even better if you ask me. they managed to lose a really close crazy game vs Sparty where they wouldn't just feed Zeke for whatever reason and it cost them their playoff shot that year and they would've repeated as champs had they gotten in the dance imo.
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throw the COVID fluke season out the window.
Even still, way I look at it is put everyone of these teams on a neutral site and let them go head to head. I'm not picking against Joe Burrow- who is arguably the best young QB in the entire NFL right now nor his two WR's Jefferson & Chase- who are arguably the #1 and #2 best WR's in the NFL right now.
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My only issue with LSU was the 3 close wins. If they were the best playoff-era team overall, why the 3 close wins?
Sept 7 - 7 point win @ 9 Texas
Oct 26 - 3 point win vs 9 Auburn
Nov 9 - 5 point win @ 2 Alabama
All of them were top-10 teams, and one of them was early, but still. Kudos on winning the games, but would such a great team have THREE of these games?
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I went with 2020 Alabama, mostly due to no regular season games closer than 14 points and even bigger - possibly the toughest schedule for a NC ever. Zero gimmies. No layups. No directional schools or MAC-tion or any of that. 10 conference games (even missed Vandy), a CCG, then 2 playoff games. No breathers.
I think it's the most impressive thing on any team's resume. Maybe ever.
Here's my thoughts on the three options offered:
Re: LSU
"Why the three close wins?" As you noted, the defense was just okay, at least early on. Aranda himself admitted after the sixth game that he had to go back to the drawing board for the season because what he thought he could do with the personnel he had just wasn't working. Instead of continuing to hammer something that just wasn't working, he began to re-scheme the entire thing. That's a legit shortcoming. There was also a rash of injuries in the Texas game (week 2) which hindered things. 7 starters went out and 5 missed multiple games going forward. That's not an excuse, it's just one of the reasons the defense was mediocre until down the stretch. All that said, Texas is really the only one of those games the offense really had to bail out the defense. The defense played plenty well enough vs. Auburn, the offense just struggled with the looks AU gave them (was a good thing, because other teams would try the same thing later but Burrow had already figured out what to do with that). Alabama was a weird game. LSU lead Alabama by 20 pts or so at the half and the defense was doing fine enough. Bama then pulled out some of the most desperate (and imo lamest) plays I've ever seen, but hey, they worked. Like the pretending to look to the sidelines to change a play so they caught Stingley looking for his updated assignment (all teams do this) but it was a fake, they snapped the ball and ran right by him for a long TD. Like I say, it worked. But it wasn't "bad defense" by usual metrics. It was a "hey we're desperate to get back in this and we can't compete with them straight up." So they outsmarted us, several times. Which, I wouldn't criticize somebody for calling that "bad defense," I guess. Player vs. player, that game shouldn't have been/wasn't as close as the score wound up. i.e., our corners did way better against their fleet of receivers than their's did against ours.....except for the "oh FFS" plays. I think Delpit was the last guy to get healthy at the end of the year, and after that they played great down the final stretch. That was a hallmark of Aranda's defenses though, 2019 was not unique. Our defense was always "just okay" for half of the year, and then they would tighten up like a boa constrictor in the final weeks. For whatever reason, it always took him/them 7/8 games to round into form. The A&M game, SECCG vs. UGA, and the playoffs, that defense played elite. But because they had so many problems prior to that....I probably wouldn't vote for that team. By playoff time? Sure, they have an argument. For the whole season? Nah, defense was too wobbly, no matter what the offense was doing.
Re: Bama
A great year strictly by the numbers. Although they avoided cupcakes, they played less games, and that's a hit. Winning 13 games isn't as hard as winning 15, no matter who you're playing. Their achievement that year is also in light of the dumbest, weirdest year cfb has ever seen. Every defense in the country was crap due to a lot less tackling in practice teams had instituted, or practice in general. Whatever the case, I didn't see a single great defense the entire year--except for Bama, eventually. They started crappy like everybody else but ultimately were the only squad to figure out how to tackle that year despite whatever challenges defenses were facing. So really, you have to give them credit for that. Mac Jones had a stellar year. But playing in a bunch of empty stadiums with no crowd noise getting at you is far different than what other QBs/teams have to deal with in a typical season. It made a difference and I feel like that's backed up by his career in the NFL so far. I'm leery of assigning too much to a guy's college career based on his pro career, but it does confirm my suspicion Jones isn't as hot with a ton of game-atmosphere pressure, which he didn't have in 2020. And him and that entire offense were playing against the aforementioned crap defenses. Like....all of them. Best team that year for sure, no contest. Best in the field of consideration? Not so sure.
Ergo, my winner is Clemson, by default. They probably have drawbacks too, I just don't know them.
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OSU only suited up 55 players for that championship game. They were still following covid protocols the SEC didn't. No way 'bama faced the best version of OSU in the title game.
Muck Kevin Warren.
i'm curious, how often does a team play more than 55 players in a game, except in garbage time in massive blowouts?
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are any of those playoff team defenses going to really stop that '19 LSU offense which was just insane? Cause I really don't think so. That LSU offense cut through every defense it faced- even really good defenses- like a depleted uranium round cutting through a tank.
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LSU that year was pretty amazing because of Joe. He made some incredible plays under duress in the SEC CG.
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I guess you could maybe argue that 2014 Ohio St had the greatest post-season run of any team in the playoffs, but it's hard to argue they had the greatest season ever from start to finish.
Agreed. Their playoff run was amazing, but taking the whole season into consideration, they had a shit defense for a NC.
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throw the COVID fluke season out the window.
Even still, way I look at it is put everyone of these teams on a neutral site and let them go head to head. I'm not picking against Joe Burrow- who is arguably the best young QB in the entire NFL right now nor his two WR's Jefferson & Chase- who are arguably the #1 and #2 best WR's in the NFL right now.
This literally has nothing to do with it.
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I think a college player who excels and then excels in the League is pretty excellent ...
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are any of those playoff team defenses going to really stop that '19 LSU offense which was just insane? Cause I really don't think so. That LSU offense cut through every defense it faced- even really good defenses- like a depleted uranium round cutting through a tank.
They wouldn't have to stop them, just slow them down more than that average LSU defense would slow their own offense.
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I think a college player who excels and then excels in the League is pretty excellent ...
Who was suggesting they weren't excellent in 2019 while at LSU?
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Here's my thoughts on the three options offered:
Re: LSU
"Why the three close wins?" As you noted, the defense was just okay, at least early on. Aranda himself admitted after the sixth game that he had to go back to the drawing board for the season because what he thought he could do with the personnel he had just wasn't working. Instead of continuing to hammer something that just wasn't working, he began to re-scheme the entire thing. That's a legit shortcoming.
This is also a sign of a guy who checks his ego at the door and is confident enough to fix the problem. Kudos to him.
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Who was suggesting they weren't excellent in 2019 while at LSU?
no one
the NFL excellent just verifies and/or shows just how excellent they were while at LSU
credibility
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no one
the NFL excellent just verifies and/or shows just how excellent they were while at LSU
credibility
When discussing college, I don't see what anything after college tells us, other than you're letting the future affect your thoughts about that present.
So again, this has nothing to do with that.
60 TD passes and 6 INTs is plenty credible on its own.
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When discussing college, I don't see what anything after college tells us, other than you're letting the future affect your thoughts about that present.
So again, this has nothing to do with that.
60 TD passes and 6 INTs is plenty credible on its own.
yeah it has to do with talent. obviously genius.
LOTS of college players put up great stats bc of the system and bc of the fact that it's college and not everyone you're playing against is actually good. See: Tebow, Tim. Wuerffel, Danny. Great college players. Obvious talent deficiencies.
How good are you REALLY? How good are all these guys when they are playing the very best in the entire world?
Joe Burrow and that WR duo happen to be REALLY REALLY REALLY fking good. Like SIGNIFICANTLY better than any of the other guys they'll have had to face in this stupid theoretical you put us up to the task about bloviating about. :)
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fine
your the stats guy
if you don't think stats in college and stats accumulated later in the NFL can't be compared and aren't at least somewhat similar, especially with similar rules, and offensive systems, and formations. That's up to you
Emmett Smith's NFL stats don't lend any credibility to his College stats?
there seems there might be a correlation to me
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I feel completely justified in considering an NFL career to assess someone's collegiate excellence. If someone else doesn't, fine with me.
Consider someone like Terrell Davis, he did little in college, injuries, being in the dog house with UGA, etc., and then ... it suggests his coach in college may have missed his talent.
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I feel completely justified in considering an NFL career to assess someone's collegiate excellence. If someone else doesn't, fine with me.
Consider someone like Terrell Davis, he did little in college, injuries, being in the dog house with UGA, etc., and then ... it suggests his coach in college may have missed his talent.
this is basically how I feel as well. college coaches screw up player development and personnel decisions all the time.
college kids dominate other college kids in college all the time only to go the grown ass man league vs the best in the world and suck ass all the time.
Joe Burrow, JaMarr Chase, and Justin Jefferson as a trio not only flat out dominated college football at a level we hadn't seen before- they then went straight to the NFL and basically were the very best at their positions almost immediately. That just points to how scary good they truly are and how much better they are than everyone else they would be facing in this theoretical game.
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I guess you could maybe argue that 2014 Ohio St had the greatest post-season run of any team in the playoffs, but it's hard to argue they had the greatest season ever from start to finish.
Agreed, for the whole season they aren't in this conversation but those last three games were amazing.
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Agreed, for the whole season they aren't in this conversation but those last three games were amazing.
2015 team that didn't make it to the playoff was a better team imo.
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Why is this so complicated?
There are great football players, like Burrow for example, who excelled in College and in the NFL.
There are great NFL players, who did ok but nothing special in college.
And their are great College players who dont do shit in the league- Tebow for example.
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Why is this so complicated?
There are great football players, like Burrow for example, who excelled in College and in the NFL.
There are great NFL players, who did ok but nothing special in college.
And their are great College players who dont do shit in the league- Tebow for example.
Agreed, but when a guy is otherworldly on both levels- that holds more weight with me when talking about college best of discussions.
None of these other college football playoff teams are stopping Burrow & those WR's from ripping them to shreds in a college football game on a neutral site with a month to prep. Burrow's 2019 season was the best QB'ing we've ever seen in cfb period.
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Agreed, but when a guy is otherworldly on both levels- that holds more weight with me when talking about college best of discussions.
None of these other college football playoff teams are stopping Burrow & those WR's from ripping them to shreds in a college football game on a neutral site with a month to prep. Burrow's 2019 season was the best QB'ing we've ever seen in cfb period.
Can’t disagree. But I would still think that even if Burrow didn’t even go to the NFL.
He decimated Clemson D- that’s for sure. But- so did Fields the following year.
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yeah it has to do with talent. obviously genius.
LOTS of college players put up great stats bc of the system and bc of the fact that it's college and not everyone you're playing against is actually good. See: Tebow, Tim. Wuerffel, Danny. Great college players. Obvious talent deficiencies.
How good are you REALLY? How good are all these guys when they are playing the very best in the entire world?
Joe Burrow and that WR duo happen to be REALLY REALLY REALLY fking good. Like SIGNIFICANTLY better than any of the other guys they'll have had to face in this stupid theoretical you put us up to the task about bloviating about. :)
I don't care about talent, I care about what they DO. In college. Why is this so difficult?
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fine
your the stats guy
if you don't think stats in college and stats accumulated later in the NFL can't be compared and aren't at least somewhat similar, especially with similar rules, and offensive systems, and formations. That's up to you
Emmett Smith's NFL stats don't lend any credibility to his College stats?
there seems there might be a correlation to me
If I'm discussing Emmitt's Florida play, what he did in the NFL is irrelevant. The assertion or knowledge or whatever that his being the NFL's all-time leading rusher doesn't change his college production. He's still Florida's all-time single-season rushing leader. I think his FR record of getting to 1,000 yards in his 7th game has been broken by someone out there. The fact his QBs at Florida were crap salad and that the Gators needed every one of his 316 yards vs New Mexico matter more than his great OL in Dallas or that his QB in the pros was a #1 overall pick.
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This will always be a mystery to me that I get pushback on this point. The NFL is such a crap shoot. Great players bust all the time, due to poor coaching, play-calling, poor OL play or poor QB play or a bad franchise, etc. I don't need to know anything that happened from the moment after a player's final college game in order to rate hm or rank him or any of it, as it pertains to college football.
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Peyton Manning was a 1st-ballot HOF NFL QB. But he never beat Florida.
Terrell Davis might have a 2,000 yard season in the NFL, but he never earned a 160-carry season at UGA.
What's the point of that crap? What does Denver's OL blocking scheme reveal? That a guy who couldn't hit 5 yards per carry as a starting RB in college had some magical, hidden talent? WTF?
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I don't care about talent, I care about what they DO. In college. Why is this so difficult?
it obviously takes talent to do something significant in college
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it obviously takes talent to do something significant in college
This is the 2nd post conveying this message. What is it for? No one is saying it doesn't take talent.
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I don't care about talent, I care about what they DO. In college. Why is this so difficult?
it was in response to your post
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Where does it say talent doesn't matter? Here, how about "I'm not worried about talent."? Is that better? Plus, if a guy runs for 1,500 yards, does it matter how talented he is? Does it matter if he runs a 4.7 or 4.4 forty yard dash?
This discussion has gotten odd.
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You know, every discussion where OAM weighs in seems to get "odd". The ones where he doesn't tend not to.
I'm entitled to my opinion. Simple as that.
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Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
https://youtu.be/YWyCCJ6B2WE?t=30
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Sure, but it often is amusing.
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I look at 2020 Bama and wonder if they got everybody's best effort that year because of COVID. Yes, Bama had to endure the same issues as everybody else and should get credit for overcoming all that and dominating like they did.
But ultimately there will always be an asterisk next to anything accomplished in 2020, and it should not be considered the equivalent of a championship in a normal season. Bama never had to play in front of hostile crowds. The playoff teams they faced may possibly have been over-rated. Who knows if Notre Dame and OSU make the playoffs if they play their normal schedules. And even if OSU was one of the 4 best teams, I mean really how could have Ohio State been at its best with the limited number of games they played that year.
How many teams did Bama play that had players sitting out due to COVID? I honestly don't know, but it makes me have doubts that I should trust Bama's resume. So I am sorry, I would have trouble voting any team from 2020 as the best overall.
fwiw, i went back and looked (as best i could), and i don't think any team was materially affected by covid for bama. went to wiki 2020 bama season, and went to each teams wiki page to see if/when covid affected the team.
first, the bama/arky game was postponed by a month and tacked on at end of season due to arky having covid the week prior to facing bama. after the postponement, they played 2 other games prior to facing bama.
second, no other team bama faced had a game postponed prior to playing bama for covid affecting their team. a couple, i think, had a game rescheduled due to their opp having covid, but not the team that faced bama in the next week or 2.
third and final, someone mentioned osu having only 55 players for the cfp. i can't find any sources for that (didn't search hard, tbf). i have no reason to doubt it either, but i can't find a reason for it.
obviously my "research" could be lacking, but i do remember discussing with friends how it was amazing we didn't get hit with effects from covid like most teams' seasons did.
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fwiw, i went back and looked (as best i could), and i don't think any team was materially affected by covid for bama. went to wiki 2020 bama season, and went to each teams wiki page to see if/when covid affected the team.
first, the bama/arky game was postponed by a month and tacked on at end of season due to arky having covid the week prior to facing bama. after the postponement, they played 2 other games prior to facing bama.
second, no other team bama faced had a game postponed prior to playing bama for covid affecting their team. a couple, i think, had a game rescheduled due to their opp having covid, but not the team that faced bama in the next week or 2.
third and final, someone mentioned osu having only 55 players for the cfp. i can't find any sources for that (didn't search hard, tbf). i have no reason to doubt it either, but i can't find a reason for it.
obviously my "research" could be lacking, but i do remember discussing with friends how it was amazing we didn't get hit with effects from covid like most teams' seasons did.
I'm sure Bama got hit with it, but they probably didn't do all of the silly asymptomatic testing that schools in the B1G did. Just a hunch.
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i haven't voted yet. if i do, i'm sure i'll vote bama. because i'm a homer. but i also genuinely think that team is one of the greatest ever, and it's a real shame it's not ever going to get it's deserved recognition due to covid. fwiw, 2019 lsu is absolutely in that same best ever category.
final case i'll make for bama:
bama was 1 garbage time* td and 2 pt conversion in the seccg vs florida away from winning all games by 14 or greater. only 1 team in "modern" cfb history, to my knowledge, has ever done that. '95 'skers, generally considered the best ever team.
*garbage time may be a little harsh. it was at 2 min mark and made game a 1 score game. but still, was in death throes of the game.
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I'm sure Bama got hit with it, but they probably didn't do all of the silly asymptomatic testing that schools in the B1G did. Just a hunch.
going from memory, but i think that hunch is likely bias and wrong. bama was testing fairly frequently. saban had to sit a game due to it, and almost had to sit another due to a false positive (had to do 3 consecutive days of negs to be allowed to coach). bama also had a pretty stringent isolation policy for the team. don't remember specifics, but do remember talking with friends about how it seemed almost harsh.
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meant to add i won't begrudge anyone picking 2019 lsu. as i said, they're obviously and rightly in the best ever argument.
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You know, every discussion where OAM weighs in seems to get "odd". The ones where he doesn't tend not to.
I'm entitled to my opinion. Simple as that.
Of course you are. Why do you feel the need to state that???
This is the oddity to me.
I chime in with my opinion, usually providing support, and possibly disagreeing with someone.
And they act like I'm derailing the conversation.
As if providing support and making counter-points is bad or wrong.
What???
It's called a back-and-forth. Not many here seem to want to engage in such a thing.
It's unfortunate.
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meant to add i won't begrudge anyone picking 2019 lsu. as i said, they're obviously and rightly in the best ever argument.
Same!
I didn't vote for them, but any of the 3 make sense to support.
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Plenty of us discuss an issue and disagree amicably and sensibly. It happens all the time in NEARLY every thread. When it doesn't, there often is one specific commonality.
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I’m glad this bus broke down on one poster’s favorite hill to die on.
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I’m glad this bus broke down on one poster’s favorite hill to die on.
Well, it's possible it is all the rest of us that are the problem here, I'm not exactly sure what the problem is, but whatever.
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We're all idiots that post on a college football message board. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.
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to various degrees of idiocrasy
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Plenty of us discuss an issue and disagree amicably and sensibly. It happens all the time in NEARLY every thread. When it doesn't, there often is one specific commonality.
I guess I'm rare in that I bother to provide support for many of my disagreements and the other poster is too apathetic to provide evidence to the contrary, only takes a pot shot at me and moves on.
I guess there's that.
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Yes, I tend to suggest that I'm right and tell why. Mostly what I get back is no, I'm wrong, neener neener jerk face.
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We're all idiots that post on a college football message board. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.
I wish everyone realized this and stopped treating it like an echo chamber of apathy.
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And I'd like nothing more than for this convo to get back on-topic. :96:
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two of the 4 selections seem to be leading comfortably
I'd like to know if "others" was a single team or two or 3?
I suspect homer buckeyes with 3 votes
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I don't think the '14 OSU picks are that homerish. There's an argument for them, it all depends on your mindset.
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For me, the "who was better?" thing is a full-season, average outcome thing. I'm probably in the minority on that. For most, I'd guess they probably figure it's a full-season, peak outcome thing. What has the team done at its best?
(I just deem it mostly likely a team will play at its average performance most of the time. If a team's average effort is close to their peak, good on them. But that seems rare.)
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The '14 OSU crowd is probably just an "end of season" thing - who would win in a NC game at the end of their season? And if that's your criteria, then that Buckeyes team makes sense.
I was fully still expecting for Bama to come back and win until that long run by Elliott late in the game. And that Oregon team was truly great, but couldn't compete with the Buckeyes.
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Joe Burrow, JaMarr Chase, and Justin Jefferson as a trio not only flat out dominated college football at a level we hadn't seen before- they then went straight to the NFL and basically were the very best at their positions almost immediately. That just points to how scary good they truly are and how much better they are than everyone else they would be facing in this theoretical game.
I'd just like to make a quick plug for my guys Terrace Marshall, Thad Moss and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Marshall missed 3 games d/t injury and was limited in several of the others but still managed 671 yds and 13 TDs as a third option behind two of the best to ever do it. Moss was a really good TE option, as was Edwards-Helaire out of the backfield. He wasn't the greatest runner we ever had, but he was good, and his vision was outstanding which made him better than his physical gifts would suggest. And it sounds cheesy, but he had no-quit attitude that somehow let his tiny little body drive piles of defenders much bigger than himself.
It really was quite an offense.
All that said, I think if we're measuring a team's season against the other teams' seasons, LSU is going to take a hit for having an average defense for 75% of the year. If we're talking about Playoff LSU vs. Playoff Clemson/Bama/whoever.....I'm taking LSU, but it's likely impossible to root out my own bias.
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All that said, I think if we're measuring a team's season against the other teams' seasons, LSU is going to take a hit for having an average defense for 75% of the year. If we're talking about Playoff LSU vs. Playoff Clemson/Bama/whoever.....I'm taking LSU, but it's likely impossible to root out my own bias.
i think that's a fair assessment. even in 2019 alone, i'd wager early season bama would have beat early lsu fairly comfortably. mid/late-season was a back and forth game with lsu winning a close one. a playoff game, had bama made it, i feel confident lsu wins fairly solidly. lsu was just a different animal late in season and playoffs.
lsu's peak was probably the highest. their o was legit one of the best ever, and d really became a good unit late on. over course of a season, though, well, it took them a while to get to that peak. while others, like 2020 bama, play nearer their peak the whole time.
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I guess I figure these fantasy match-ups are taking place on a random Tuesday in October vs "okay, you just won the NC, now go play the '95 Huskers" type of thing.
I wonder what dictates that idea in us.
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i think that's a fair assessment. even in 2019 alone, i'd wager early season bama would have beat early lsu fairly comfortably. mid/late-season was a back and forth game with lsu winning a close one. a playoff game, had bama made it, i feel confident lsu wins fairly solidly. lsu was just a different animal late in season and playoffs.
lsu's peak was probably the highest. their o was legit one of the best ever, and d really became a good unit late on. over course of a season, though, well, it took them a while to get to that peak. while others, like 2020 bama, play nearer their peak the whole time.
Idk. Maybe. I distinctly remember watching the LSU-Texas game and texting a friend this might be the year LSU got Bama. I had just never seen LSU with that type of passing attack before. It wasn’t the I formation, toss sweep left and right I had seen under Miles that was good enough to beat a lot of teams, but not Bama.
Then at some point later in the season (maybe after the UF win) I simply texted him “LSU>Bama.”
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Who's been the worst team from the CFP era? UMass?
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Every future 12th seed.
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The 12 seed won't even be the worst team that season, let alone the entire era.
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I guess I figure these fantasy match-ups are taking place on a random Tuesday in October vs "okay, you just won the NC, now go play the '95 Huskers" type of thing.
I wonder what dictates that idea in us.
I'm still not cornvinced the 95 Huskers could beat the 71 Huskers
Rich Glover had 22 tackles (19 unassisted) and knocked down the 4th down pass attempt by Jack Mildren to ice In the Game of the Century. He played with 1971 Outland Trophy winner Husker teammate Larry Jacobson.
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I'm still not cornvinced the 95 Huskers could beat the 71 Huskers
Rich Glover had 22 tackles (19 unassisted) and knocked down the 4th down pass attempt by Jack Mildren to ice In the Game of the Century. He played with 1971 Outland Trophy winner Husker teammate Larry Jacobson.
bruh....they'd kill them. football athletes in 1995 were bigger, stronger, faster on the whole than they were in 1971.
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bruh....they'd kill them. football athletes in 1995 were bigger, stronger, faster on the whole than they were in 1971.
First, you are right. An example:
I own a DVD of Ohio State's 1969 (1968 season) Rose Bowl win over USC. USC was the defending National Champion and had a Heisman winner at RB (you may have heard of him, OJ something). This was a #1 vs #2 game which was exceedingly rare back then. My point is that these were two REALLY good teams.
When I first watched the game I expected the crude broadcast technology but what shocked me was the sizes of the players. Unlike today, they were all normal-sized humans. That amazed me.
That said, I think when we do these comparisons across eras, there has to be an understood (even if unstated) understanding that we are comparing relative to the era.
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That said, I think when we do these comparisons across eras, there has to be an understood (even if unstated) understanding that we are comparing relative to the era.
Ed Zachery
Suh never had a game like Rich Glover.
and he didn't have another Outland Trophy winner next to him (although Jared Crick wasn't chopped liver)
Suh might not have ever faced an offense as good as the 71 Sooners
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bruh....they'd kill them. football athletes in 1995 were bigger, stronger, faster on the whole than they were in 1971.
So, I agree with that and I think most would. But if we go 24 years the other way do we think the 2019 LSU team would just physically overwhelm the 95 Huskers? I don’t. I think they might beat them but I don’t think it would be a physical mismatch like I imagine the ‘95 and ‘71 teams might be.
I just wonder at what point we started seeing big differences in the size, strength, and speed of players and if we are near our cap on how big, fast, and strong athletes can get now.
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bruh....they'd kill them. football athletes in 1995 were bigger, stronger, faster on the whole than they were in 1971.
We all know this. So it's about how good they'd rate vs peers.
If we're giving players a 0-100 scale, Glover is like a 98 and Jared Tomich is maybe a 93. So maybe the '71 Huskers have a better average player rating than '95, idk. That would require a deep dive.
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It would be fun, though, to see a modern defense vs. the single-wing for a quarter. Halfbacks passing left and right, all the deception, etc.
'45 Army's QB had only 1 more pass attempt than Heisman HB Glenn Davis. And neither of them led the team, lol.
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I may have rethink what I said previously. The 95 Huskers didn’t have one guy listed at 300 pounds. That really surprised me.
2019 LSU had 17 guys listed at over 300.
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We all know this. So it's about how good they'd rate vs peers.
If we're giving players a 0-100 scale, Glover is like a 98 and Jared Tomich is maybe a 93. So maybe the '71 Huskers have a better average player rating than '95, idk. That would require a deep dive.
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It would be fun, though, to see a modern defense vs. the single-wing for a quarter. Halfbacks passing left and right, all the deception, etc.
'45 Army's QB had only 1 more pass attempt than Heisman HB Glenn Davis. And neither of them led the team, lol.
«1907: Nebraska Coach William “King” Cole makes a case for rule changes to discourage the “indiscriminate use” of the forward pass.
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If we're looking vs. the field of peers then I nominate 1908 LSU. Outscored opponents 442 - 11 on the season.
Suck it, '95 Huskers.
I mean, yeah, they had never heard of a "playoff" but they'd have totally won it even though Alabama would've gotten a redo.
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I may have rethink what I said previously. The 95 Huskers didn’t have one guy listed at 300 pounds. That really surprised me.
just seemed that way watching them steamroll Spurrier's gators
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just seemed that way watching them steamroll Spurrier's gators
Since that day:
Nebraska is 210-119 (.638), good for 21st in the country, with 1 NC (1997).
Florida is 236-96 (.711), good for 7th in the country, with 3 NCs (1996, 2006, 2008).
So hang onto that Tommie Frazier highlight, boys! :88:
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*it's really 22nd and 8th, respectively, but I refuse to include Boise State in any of this. Twelve years of a high school schedule doesn't a helmet program make!
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I'll hang on to it
the 70's, 80's, and 90's is all I got
but hey, those were also my glory daze
very fortunate to enjoy that run while it lasted
born in 62, same season Devaney arrived and the sellout streak started
student at UNL from 1981-1984
season ticket holder from 1981-1991
attended the 94 Orange (loss to Charlie Ward, the 95 Orange (win over the Canes), 96 Fiesta (win over Spurrier), the 2002 Rose (loss to the Canes)
from 1962-current Stassen says the Huskers are #5 in winning percentage. #4 if you refuse to include Boise State
I can die a happy man
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I may have rethink what I said previously. The 95 Huskers didn’t have one guy listed at 300 pounds. That really surprised me.
2019 LSU had 17 guys listed at over 300.
I'm not sure of the exact timing. Maybe as an off-season project we could do a year-by-year comparison of the avg weight of O-Linemen on NC teams. That wouldn't be exactly perfect but it would be a pretty good proxy.
I've read that weight-lifting for athletes didn't start until the 1970's or later. Somewhere around there us when some genius figured out that if you stretched before and after lifting you could add bulk without losing flexibility.
My understanding is that, prior to that, weight-lifting was just a vanity thing. Some guys did it to get a bulky look, but they weren't remotely athletic in that they'd pull a muscle if they tried to move much.
Consequently, in the old days conditioning was basically just running.
Another factor is specialization.
- LeBron James is a great example of this. When he was a freshman in HS he played WR on his HS Football team. In fact, he was good enough that Jim Tressel was recruiting him to play football at Ohio State. Then he dropped football to concentrate on his best sport, basketball.
I think that if LeBron had been born 30 or 40 years earlier he'd have been a somewhat less impressive basketball player but he'd have been a multi-sport player like Bo Jackson or Dieon Sanders as probably a WR on the football team in the fall and an outfielder on the baseball team in spring as well as his winter basketball.
That just doesn't happen today due to specialization. Kids who appear to be elite athletes get funneled into their best sport at progressively younger ages and then do workout routines that are tailored to their position within their sport. Then they do camps but today's football camps aren't even full-team deals, they are split into position groups.
Realistically the average freshman at a P5 school today probably shows up more polished both physically and mentally than the average departing Senior from 50 years ago.
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Easily.
Linemen way back in the day weren't any bigger than the ball-carriers behind them (with obvious exceptions), they were just slow runners. Or they couldn't catch. Couldn't juke a guy. Couldn't impress in the "broken field" (their favorite phrase back then).
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Boyd Epley, godfather of collegiate strength training
Coach Devaney hired me on September 15th, 1969. We didn’t go to a bowl game in ‘67 or ‘68, but in ‘69 we had good success and won 9 games and went to the Sun Bowl. We beat Georgia, got some momentum and then won the national championship the next year.
And Coach Osborne said, “Alright, Boyd, we need to go in and see the boss.” And I go, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ”We need to go in and see Bob Devaney and get permission to do all of this.” So we go around the corner into Bob Devaney’s office there in the Coliseum, located up on the second floor -that office is now John Cook’s office- there was a big seal, the Nebraska State Seal on the wall above Devaney’s desk, and Devaney’s at his desk and he’s sitting there in his red, leather chair. I remember it like yesterday, I remember where I stood and where Osborne stood, and where Devaney was sitting, and Coach Osborne explained to Devaney, the athletic director and head coach, who I was.
Bob said, ”I’ve seen Boyd when he’s in the weightroom. You’re a pole vaulter, right?” I said I was. He said Tom told him that I was helping the injured players get stronger and that Tom thought it would be a good idea if the entire team lifted weights and if I’d be willing to help teach them. And Bob says, “Why would you want to do that?” So I was faced with the prospect of having to defend my program, and I’d never had to do that before. So here I was trying to explain to him that it would make the players stronger and faster, and it would help them win more games, and he said, “Well, if Tom thinks this is important, we’ll give it a try.” And then he looked me right in the eye and pointed at me and says, “But if anybody gets slower, you’re fired.” But I wasn’t really hired yet! (laughs) I was still an athlete, but it was during that time period that I had injured my back. And I don’t know if it was Devaney or the trainers or what, but they kind of told me I couldn’t pole vault anymore because Devaney wanted me to be the strength coach. And magically I started getting paid $2 an hour to watch the weightroom instead of having my scholarship. They saw to it that I got paid for supervising instead of being on scholarship and being on pole vault, they said it was too great of a risk.
Then after the first year Coach Devaney called me in and said, “You’re the best value we have in this department,” and he gave me a raise that made me feel pretty good. Of course I was making two dollars an hour, so it didn’t have to be much. (laughs)
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Has the playoff era sort of rubbed the shine off of the past mythical NCs? In that the 1 seed rarely wins the NC since we've had a playoff?
Is that simply what made it mythical?
Do you think past NCs had that special something that made them champs or that they did well and happened to finish at the top? I know it depends for each individual case, but do you believe there's a trend either way?
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Nebraska scorched UGA that year in a bowl game and Vince was made aware of "strength training", which UGA did not really have yet. Nebbie did.
I knew some football players at UGA in the mid 1970s and they looked like large fairly normal types, not someone who would stand out in a crowd. I played volleyball with some of them one quarter. Nice guys, athletic, but not huge. One I recall was the tight end, starter, Richard Applebie.
I think he later started some chain restaurant...
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Easily.
Linemen way back in the day weren't any bigger than the ball-carriers behind them (with obvious exceptions), they were just slow runners. Or they couldn't catch. Couldn't juke a guy. Couldn't impress in the "broken field" (their favorite phrase back then).
Les Miles was a OL for Michigan, if that tells you anything. I'm pretty sure I outweigh him now, not sure about his playing weight, but he couldn't have been big.
Then there's guys who go in reverse. Have y'all seen any pictures of Alan Faneca lately? Holy crap.
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Easily.
Linemen way back in the day weren't any bigger than the ball-carriers behind them (with obvious exceptions), they were just slow runners. Or they couldn't catch. Couldn't juke a guy. Couldn't impress in the "broken field" (their favorite phrase back then).
King Barry's 1993 Rose Bowl champion OL were 295, 290, 300, 300 and 315 and stood between 6-2 and 6-6.
Brent Moss was 5-9, 205 and Terrell Fletcher was 5-9, 195.
I'd say the switch really flipped in the 1960/70's WRT huge linemen.
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Has the playoff era sort of rubbed the shine off of the past mythical NCs? In that the 1 seed rarely wins the NC since we've had a playoff?
Is that simply what made it mythical?
Do you think past NCs had that special something that made them champs or that they did well and happened to finish at the top? I know it depends for each individual case, but do you believe there's a trend either way?
No luster has been lost for past champions for me. If anything, I tend to view them equally as favorably because they represent what the sport is supposed to be about imo, the best season. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. When I use the term "mythical" I mean it in the sense that who the hell knows if they were the "best" team....but they were the team who had the best season. Good enough for me.
As the playoff expands it will get somewhat more like the NFL (though never completely because college remains Haves and Have-Nots in a way the NFL has too much parity for), with teams having "okay" seasons will probably snag a few NCs here and there. I still argue that despite the allure of a playoff for an average fan, it doesn't produce any more of a meaningful champion than any of the old systems. A playoff does not guarantee us a "best" team. It just guarantees a playoff winner.
Think of 2019 (because I remember the field that year). LSU beats OU, Clemson beats Ohio State, LSU beats Clemson. Does that mean LSU would've beaten Ohio State? Maybe, maybe not. Does it even mean Clemson could beat OU? Maybe, maybe not. LSU was a playoff champion, not some provably "best" team for the year.
The only thing I've ever thought of that would make me feel confident about crowning a "best" team is to have a round-robin style playoff amongst the contenders and the team with the best record is the "best." But obviously that's impossible for many reasons, and we're always going to have a mythical "best" team as far as I'm concerned.
All that said, I don't view current playoff champions as somehow lesser because the emphasis of the goal has changed. It's fine. I think the old champions are deserving and the new ones are too. Everybody has a system set before them at the beginning of the season, you know the rules and you know what you gotta do. The teams that do it, more power to 'em, they're the champs.
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King Barry's 1993 Rose Bowl champion OL were 295, 290, 300, 300 and 315 and stood between 6-2 and 6-6.
Brent Moss was 5-9, 205 and Terrell Fletcher was 5-9, 195.
I'd say the switch really flipped in the 1960/70's WRT huge linemen.
it's probably cyclical like everything else. that's not to say players aren't bigger/faster than ever right now, but the relative size probably waxed and waned throughout the years. just in the last decade, the linebacker position has changed. in 00's, bigger and stockier was better, and speed was just a bonus. now, speed is paramount, must be able to cover passes.
bama got its mascot from some of the players in the 1920's being considered "elephants". i'm guessing they weren't 300#s, but they were obviously quite large relative to their peers.
but people in general, and athletes included, are getting bigger, taller, heavier, faster, etc. a lot of that is due to technology, improvements and better understanding of nutrition and training/exercise, equipment, etc. but it's also appears to be just part of the natural evolution of humans at this time.
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No luster has been lost for past champions for me. If anything, I tend to view them equally as favorably because they represent what the sport is supposed to be about imo, the best season. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. When I use the term "mythical" I mean it in the sense that who the hell knows if they were the "best" team....but they were the team who had the best season. Good enough for me.
As the playoff expands it will get somewhat more like the NFL (though never completely because college remains Haves and Have-Nots in a way the NFL has too much parity for), with teams having "okay" seasons will probably snag a few NCs here and there. I still argue that despite the allure of a playoff for an average fan, it doesn't produce any more of a meaningful champion than any of the old systems. A playoff does not guarantee us a "best" team. It just guarantees a playoff winner.
Think of 2019 (because I remember the field that year). LSU beats OU, Clemson beats Ohio State, LSU beats Clemson. Does that mean LSU would've beaten Ohio State? Maybe, maybe not. Does it even mean Clemson could beat OU? Maybe, maybe not. LSU was a playoff champion, not some provably "best" team for the year.
The only thing I've ever thought of that would make me feel confident about crowning a "best" team is to have a round-robin style playoff amongst the contenders and the team with the best record is the "best." But obviously that's impossible for many reasons, and we're always going to have a mythical "best" team as far as I'm concerned.
All that said, I don't view current playoff champions as somehow lesser because the emphasis of the goal has changed. It's fine. I think the old champions are deserving and the new ones are too. Everybody has a system set before them at the beginning of the season, you know the rules and you know what you gotta do. The teams that do it, more power to 'em, they're the champs.
agree with this.
take this year for example. with a 12 team format, bama is likely in. but i don't know anyone, including (most) bama fans, that think bama is remotely close to the best team this season. and certainly not the team with the best season. but i can absolutely envision this bama team hitting a streak of good play and winning a playoff. unlikely, but nowhere near impossible.
also, the playoff doesn't remove any argument. it just moves it down a peg to who should be in. not to suggest either way is better/worse, or good/bad. the argument is part of the fun, imo.
fun question, though.
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King Barry's 1993 Rose Bowl champion OL were 295, 290, 300, 300 and 315 and stood between 6-2 and 6-6.
Brent Moss was 5-9, 205 and Terrell Fletcher was 5-9, 195.
I'd say the switch really flipped in the 1960/70's WRT huge linemen.
Yeah, "way back" meant like 40s, 50s, 60s.
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No luster has been lost for past champions for me. If anything, I tend to view them equally as favorably because they represent what the sport is supposed to be about imo, the best season. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. When I use the term "mythical" I mean it in the sense that who the hell knows if they were the "best" team....but they were the team who had the best season. Good enough for me.
I just don't see it that way.
The voters were basically crap salad the further back you go. WHEN you lost was as important as WHO you lost to and by how much.
It's only in the last 20 years or so that the when mattered less. Before that, a team could have a much worse loss early in the season and go 11-1 and beat out another 11-1 team for the NC. Even if the other team's loss was better, if it was later in the year, tough shit.
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Now if you meant "best season" = "navigated the reality of the situation" then sure, that works. But the situation back in the day was verrrrrrry limited.
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It's funny that TCU's the first Texas team to make it to the playoffs. It's not like it's some year one fluke. We're almost ten years deep into this thing.
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It's funny that TCU's the first Texas team to make it to the playoffs. It's not like it's some year one fluke. We're almost ten years deep into this thing.
Could we say they were the closest before this year too? I guess it would be them or 2020 A&M.
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Ohio and Michigan each hit two before Texas or California got one.
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Ohio and Michigan each hit two before Texas or California got one.
So did Indiana.
Florida has but 1.
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I mean two schools. Ohio had Ohio State and Cincinnati, and Michigan had Michigan State and Michigan before Texas or California got a single team in. Then it was TCU of all teams to be the first from those two states combined.
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NY has zero. Texas has one now, which is surprising. Illinois? None. Large states by pop.
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I mean two schools. Ohio had Ohio State and Cincinnati, and Michigan had Michigan State and Michigan before Texas or California got a single team in. Then it was TCU of all teams to be the first from those two states combined.
Gotcha.
Florida and Miami don't look to be on the verge of anything, any time soon.
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FSU is semi-quasi-sorta-back ...
UCF might make it, but probably not before the 12ing happens.
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So did Indiana.
Florida has but 1.
alabama has 7. this is fun!
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alabama has 7. this is fun!
He was counting schools from the state with an appearance not total appearances by schools from the state.
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Alabama has 1.
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alabama has 7. this is fun!
No, just one. Bama. No Auburn yet.
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alabama has 7. this is fun!
No, just one. Bama. No Auburn yet.
And you wouldn't be happy or brag about it if Auburn did have one!
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He was counting schools from the state with an appearance not total appearances by schools from the state.
doh.:-[
still fun, though!
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i feel like we should retcon one of those appearances to uab or troy or something. our board (joint system board) has screwed over uab football in past, we could show them some love. there, that's now 2! they get the 2014 one, though. can't have them taking a champ game appearance or worse a title. :)
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The only other state with a comparable number of P5 programs to TX and CA is NC, and they are all basketball schools, so it's understandable that they haven't made it. Clemson is the FB school for the Carolinas, and it's in the other Carolina. So when NC State is your FB powerhouse, you aren't going to be in the playoff discussion anytime soon.
Plus TX and CA are both recruiting hotbeds, while NC is merely a sliver of the "Mid-Atlantic" region, which is more of a recruiting Luke-warm bed.
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The state of Texas might get one, thanks to UM.
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Judging by their lack of defense in the semis, I doubt either one of these teams left will be in the conversation for 'best-of-the-playoff-era' team.
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Judging by their lack of defense in the semis, I doubt either one of these teams left will be in the conversation for 'best-of-the-playoff-era' team.
Judging by the lack of a conference title for one of them, that was pretty obvious on the TCU side.
If Georgia wins, it could at least make a noise about it. But it has two disadvantages. The first is that the defense doesn’t seem as good as it was last year. The second is that they run a pass first offense without an unbelievable quarterback. Would be hard to hit that level of notoriety considering those facts.
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I don't think anyone thought that any of the teams in this year's 4-team field were going to claim the title of best playoff era team. TCU and Ohio State already had losses so they were out of consideration. And Michigan and Georgia were going to be facing off against those already-1-loss teams so didn't have the chance to knock out a couple of undefeateds in a row, to claim that title.
If Georgia wins, they'll have only beaten two already-defeated non-conference-champs along the way. That's not a resume that's going to earn you "best team in CFP era" points.
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To get to 15-0 is a thing, but I fully agree with the above. I remember when teams played only ten games plus one.
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To get to 15-0 is a thing, but I fully agree with the above. I remember when teams played only ten games plus one.
For sure, winning the CFP this year would be a great accomplishment for Georgia. And also for TCU.
I just don't think either would be considered the best of the CFP era, compared to some of the other teams that have been discussed for earning that disctinction, on this thread.
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Nope, not even close, in my view. I was mightily impressed with LSU and the VY Texas team and USC they played. I hate to imagine what Joe Burrow would do to that Dawg "defense" ...
I think it was '95 Nebraska that takes my all time vote.
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Yeah 95 Huskers certainly get my vote for GOAT.
But of course, they don't fit the criterion of being a CFP-era team.
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Nobody would have this year's (potentially) undefeated UGA team rated over last year's impressive, albeit 1-loss Dawg squad?
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I mean two schools. Ohio had Ohio State and Cincinnati, and Michigan had Michigan State and Michigan before Texas or California got a single team in. Then it was TCU of all teams to be the first from those two states combined.
Man, LSU fans are gonna be pissed next year when Tulane has as many playoff appearances as they do :72:
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https://247sports.com/college/michigan/LongFormArticle/Ranking-college-footballs-10-greatest-champions-during-the-playoff-BCS-eras-202014759/#202014759_10 (https://247sports.com/college/michigan/LongFormArticle/Ranking-college-footballs-10-greatest-champions-during-the-playoff-BCS-eras-202014759/#202014759_10)
2. ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE (2020)
Wins over Top 25 teams: 6
After the Crimson Tide lost the No. 5 overall pick in the NFL draft and two other first-round weapons in addition to others, skepticism dominated the preseason on just how good Alabama's 2020 team could be. Those questions were answered quickly by quarterback Mac Jones and Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith, who ripped apart the SEC en route to an unbeaten season with relative ease. Alabama averaged 48.5 points per game — the most in the Nick Saban era — and shattered numerous program records. The defense underachieved by program standards, but it still finished No. 13 nationally in scoring and saw more possessions than usual given the other side of the ball's quick-strike ability. Given the circumstances that season with constant COVID worries and a 10-game SEC schedule without a breather, Saban called it his most rewarding campaign.
1. LSU TIGERS (2019)
Wins over Top 25 teams: 7
Seven first-half touchdown passes in a playoff game? That's a record from Joe Burrow that will never be broken. This LSU team was special. Fueled by perhaps the most notable quarterback performance this century, LSU's magical unbeaten run to a national title during the 2019 season featured an unprecedented seven wins over top-10 teams (at the time of game). The run also included record-setting numbers from Burrow, the runaway Heisman Trophy winner (60 touchdown passes). The Tigers won 12 games by double digits and led college football in scoring at 48.4 points per game. LSU would go on to tie the NFL Draft record for a single school during a seven-round draft with 14 selections, including five first-rounders, before Georgia topped that mark last spring.
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They're pre-playoff, but I'd love to see them against 2011 Alabama.
Allowed 49 comp %
4.3 yards per pass attempt
AND you couldn't run on them (72 yds allowed per game)