In the 150th season of college football, which national champions were the best of the bunch? Find out in the CFN College Football 150 Greatest National Championship Season rankings.
150 Greatest National Champions: No. 101 to 125
No, really. How are you supposed to rank 150 years of the best of the best college football teams?
Over the course of the CFB150 celebration of the 150th season of college football, many will try selling you on the idea that some Ivy League team from the 1800s was among the greatest of all-time based on an opinion. But that’s not fair.
That old school team would lose to the 2018 Clemson backups by 419 points.
On talent and ability, trying to rank and contrast today’s college football teams to anything from 100ish years ago is like comparing apples to … Neptune. It’s a totally different game now.
And then there’s the problem of just how fatally flawed the system for determining a champion used to be. It’s not like anyone could watch three screens of games in 1869 – or 1969. National champions from back in the day – and even as recently as the mid-1990s – were crowned mostly on a guess.
So with all of that in mind, we’re ranking the 150 greatest national champions of all-time based on how good their seasons were. The CFN Season Formula is about straight numbers, wins, losses, point totals and strengths of schedules to measure just how strong a campaign really was, and isn’t an opinion of how good the teams might have been.
It’s a simple theory. The more wins, and the more big wins, the higher the ranking. The more games a team played, the more chances for losses, wearing down, injuries, or bad days. It’s why some of the highest-ranked teams on this list are from the modern day – the more recent champions played more games.
If you won a national championship playing a schedule of cupcakes and high school teams – looking at you, 1895 Penn – this formula exposed that.
Now for the ground rules.
1. There are more than 150 college football national champions. Over the last 150 years there were plenty of split titles. Because there was no true national championship game up until the BCS was formed in 1998, crowning a champion was often a popularity contest. Only the top 150 according to the CFN Season Formula make the list.
2. Only the main methods for each era are counted. Sorry, 2017 UCF, and sorry to a few of the Alabama “national champions” that the school continues to brag about. These are based off of the top selection organizations in each era …
1869 to 1879: National Championship Foundation (NCF)
1880 to 1935: NCF & Helms Athletic Foundation
1936 to 1949: Associated Press (AP)
1950 to 1981: AP & United Press International (UPI)
1982 to 1997: AP (and 2003) & USA Today (Coaches Poll)
1998 to 2013: Bowl Championship System
2014 to 2018: College Football Playoff
3. These are the CFN rankings, and NOT a part of the CFB150. Please go to cfb150.org for everything they’re doing for the celebration of 150 years of college football.
4. The schedule … Sunday: Rankings 76-100, Monday: Rankings 51-75, Tuesday: Rankings 26-50. Wednesday: Rankings 11-25. Thursday: Top Ten National Championship Seasons. CFN’s 150 greatest players, coaches, and more coming throughout the summer.
Click for the breakdown of the CFN Season Formula criteria
Contact CFN @ColFootballNews
150 Greatest National Champions: No. 101 to 125
150. 1911 Penn State (8-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 14.0344
Key Season Score Element: 5 Bad Wins (wins over teams with three wins or fewer, or not at the highest level at the time) in 9 games
Best Win: Penn State 5, at Cornell 0
Worst Game: Penn State 0, at Navy 0
1911 was a weird college football season. Navy ended up unbeaten, but it finished with three ties. One was against Penn State, and one was against Princeton – both of the split national champions. Penn State had the better year than Princeton with a few more big wins, and with a defense that allowed just 15 points.
149. 1910 Pitt (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 14.0700
Key Season Score Element: Outscored teams 282-0
Best Win: Pitt 17, Georgetown 0
Worst Game: Pitt 19, Westminster 0
Seven of the nine wins came against teams that weren’t officially in the college football mix and/or finished with fewer than three wins. It was the year when the forward pass became a bigger part of the game, but it didn’t matter to a Pitt D that didn’t allow a point.
148. 1923 Michigan (8-0)
All-Time Season Score: 14.1300
Key Season Score Element: Outscored teams 150-12
Best Win: Michigan 10, Minnesota 0
Worst Game: Michigan 26, Quantico Marines 6
It’s a soft national championship considering there was only one amazing win – over Minnesota in the regular season finale – and a whole slew of mediocre victories over bad Case, Ohio State, and Michigan State teams. The D pitched a shutout in five of the eight games and allowed more than three points once … against Quantico Marines.
147. 1910 Harvard (8-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 14.1944
Key Season Score Element: Outscored teams 155-5
Best Win: Harvard 12, Brown 0
Worst Game: Harvard 0, Yale 0
There were a few great wins, but they were offset by a whole lot of teams that fall into the Bad Win category. Five of the eight victories were bad, and there was a tie against Yale on the road in the season finale. The D gave up just five points all year, coming in a 27-5 win over a strong Cornell squad.
146. 1942 Ohio State (9-1)
All-Time Season Score: 14.3800
Key Season Score Element: 114 points allowed the most by anyone in the bottom 25 (but scored 337 points)
Best Win: Ohio State 41, Iowa Pre-Flight 12
Worst Game: Wisconsin 17, Ohio State 7
The Buckeyes suffered a loss to a strong Wisconsin team in Madison, but they still managed to win the national title thanks to three terrific wins over Indiana, Michigan, and Iowa Pre-Flight teams that all finished 7-3.
145. 1923 Illinois (8-0)
All-Time Season Score: 14.4100
Key Season Score Element: Allowed just 20 points
Best Win: Illinois 7, Chicago 0
Worst Game: Illinois 9, at Ohio State 0
There weren’t too many problems, partly because there weren’t too many good teams on the slate. However, there were two big wins to get it done – Illinois handed Chicago its only loss of the season, and the 9-6 win at Iowa was terrific. The offense wasn’t anything special, but it was an unbeaten season with no points allowed in the last five games.
144. 1913 Harvard (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 14.7900
Key Season Score Element: 5 Bad Wins
Best Win: Harvard 3, at Princeton 0
Worst Game: Harvard 14, Bates 0
Where are the great wins? It was an unbeaten season, but five of the nine victories came against teams with losing records or weren’t at the higher level. Only Princeton provided a problem, and that was the lone road game. Overall, it’s about a weak a national championship resumé as it gets.
143. 1947 Notre Dame (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 14.8900
Key Season Score Element: 6 Bad Wins in 9 games
Best Win: Notre Dame 38, at USC 7
Worst Game: Notre Dame 26, at Northwestern 19
The Irish won the national title on brand name. Yes, going 9-0 was great, but there weren’t any amazing wins of note other than a decent one over USC on the road and one over an okay Army. The 1947 Irish beat six teams with losing records.
142. 1919 Texas A&M (10-0)
All-Time Season Score: 15.000
Key Season Score Element: 10 wins the most by anyone lower than 137
Best Win: Texas A&M 7, Texas 0
Worst Game: Texas A&M 7, Southwestern 0
A&M managed to take the national championship by outscoring teams 275-0. It helped that the schedule was loaded with layups – seven of the ten victories were Bad Wins – but a 10-0 win over Baylor on the road and 7-0 victory over an okay Texas was enough.
141. 1933 Michigan (7-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 15.0675
Key Season Score Element: 5 Quality Wins
Best Win: Michigan 13, Ohio State 0
Worst Game: Michigan 0, Minnesota 0
The Wolverine defense was the star, allowing just 18 points on the year, giving up six points in three games. There were a few tight battles against mediocre teams – 10-6 over Iowa and 7-6 over Illinois – and a key tie against a nasty Minnesota squad that finished 4-0-4. It was the end of a terrific four year run – the 1934 team went 1-7.
140. 1954 UCLA (UPI) (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 15.2700
Key Season Score Element: 327 point differential
Best Win: UCLA 12, Maryland 7
Worst Game: UCLA 21, Washington 20
Ohio State won the AP side of the national championship, and UCLA was named the champion by UPI. The Buckeyes had the much better year and was the more deserving champ over a Bruin team that beat a fat load of no one. The offense cranked up 72 on Stanford and followed it up with a 61-0 win over Oregon State, but the tight 12-7 win over Maryland was the only victory over a team that didn’t finish with four losses or more.
139. 1952 Michigan State (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 15.2800
Key Season Score Element: 0 Elite Wins
Best Win: Michigan State 21, Notre Dame 3
Worst Game: Michigan State 17, at Oregon State 14
Michigan State had way too tough a time against a miserable Oregon State team, but it also rolled by strong Syracuse, Penn State and Notre Dame squads. The only two close games were on the road – the weird game against the Beavers on the road, and a 14-7 close call at Purdue. The defense was fantastic, allowing 14 points or fewer in every game.
138. 1965 Alabama (AP) (9-1-1)
All-Time Season Score: 15.3536
Key Season Score Element: The lowest ranked team in top 150 with one loss and one tie
Best Win: Alabama 39, Nebraska 28 (Orange Bowl)
Worst Game: at Georgia 18, Alabama 17
Michigan State went 10-1 and won the UPI national championship – and had a better season than the AP champ. Bama tied 7-7 against a fantastic Tennessee team, and opened the season with a loss on the road to Georgia, but closed strong with a blowout win over Auburn and handed Nebraska its only loss in the Orange Bowl.
137. 1956 Oklahoma (10-0)
All-Time Season Score: 15.4000
Key Season Score Element: 7 Bad Wins
Best Win: Oklahoma 27, at Colorado 19
Worst Game: Oklahoma 34, at Kansas 12
The Sooners were deep in the midst of their epic 56-game winning streak under Bud Wilkinson, but … they didn’t beat anyone in 1956. The win at Colorado was fine, but nine of the ten victories came against teams that finished with losing records. To make it worse, OU beat seven teams that won three games or fewer.
136. 1946 Notre Dame (8-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 15.4144
Key Season Score Element: 24 points allowed
Best Win: Notre Dame 0, Army 0
Worst Game: Notre Dame 28, Navy 0
Of course the 0-0 all-timer against Army wasn’t a win, but it might as well have been one considering the Irish ended up as the national champion. The Elite Win on the road against Illinois to start the season was the biggest key considering the rest of the slate was really, really soft. Shhhhhh … Army played a much, much better schedule. The D came up with six shutouts in nine games.
135. 1915 Cornell (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 15.6200
Key Season Score Element: 50 points allowed
Best Win: Cornell 10, at Harvard 0
Worst Game: Cornell 13, Gettysburg 0
Cornell played a whole lot of nothing for most of the season – five of the nine wins were against bad teams – but it managed to hand Harvard its only loss in a 10-0 road win, and it came up with a nice 40-21 win over a strong Washington & Lee team. Every game was a blowout – no one came closer than ten points.
134. 1926 Stanford (10-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 15.9045
Key Season Score Element: 8 Bad Wins
Best Win: Stanford 13, at USC 12
Worst Game: Stanford 7, Olympic Club 3
It was a split national championship season with Stanford winning one part, and Alabama taking another – Bama had the better year. The two teams handed each other their only blemish in a 7-7 Rose Bowl tie, but Stanford was also able to get by a strong USC team on the road and a good Washington squad. The problem? It was cupcake city with six wins over teams that weren’t officially recognized by the higher end of the college football world.
133. 1935 Minnesota (8-0)
All-Time Season Score: 15.9800
Key Season Score Element: 148 point differential
Best Win: Minnesota 12, at Nebraska 7
Worst Game: Minnesota 26, North Dakota State 6
There just aren’t a whole slew of great wins. Only Northwestern scored more than seven points on the Gopher D – a 21-13 Minnesota win – that allowed just 46 total points, but there were only four wins over teams that finished with winning records.
132. 1919 Harvard (9-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 16.300
Key Season Score Element: 5 Bad Wins
Best Win: Harvard 7, Oregon 6 (Rose Bowl)
Worst Game: Harvard 10, at Princeton 10
Harvard beat a whole slew of bad teams – the high Bad Win score was a problem – but the defense allowed just 19 points, going the first six games without getting scored on. The one road game before the Rose Bowl win over Oregon was at Princeton, and that was the lone blemish in a 10-10 tie.
131. 1922 Princeton (8-0)
All-Time Season Score: 16.4300
Key Season Score Element: 4 Quality Wins
Best Win: Princeton 21, at Chicago 18
Worst Game: Princeton 22, Swarthmore 13
This wasn’t a totally dominant team like a bunch of the monsters of the 1920s, but it still managed to get through a season unbeaten against a decent slate. It handed Chicago its only loss of the season – and on the road – and pushed past good Harvard and Yale squads.
130. 1914 Army (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 16.6500
Key Season Score Element: 20 points allowed
Best Win: Army 20, Notre Dame 7
Worst Game: Army 13, Springfield 6
Army won the two games it absolutely had to, getting by Notre Dame and closing out with a win over a decent Navy team in Philadelphia. Along the way, Colgate and Rutgers were solid, but there were two seasons. Four of the wins were fantastic, and five of them came against teams that weren’t a part of the official college football world.
129. 1908 LSU (10-0)
All-Time Season Score: 16.8200
Key Season Score Element: 8 Bad Wins
Best Win: LSU 10, at Auburn 2
Worst Game: LSU 41, Young Men’s Gymnastic Club of New Orleans 0
The next time you want to complain about some SEC team scheduling a cupcake, try this for your 1908 national champion. LSU started out the season beating the Young Men’s Gymnastic Club of New Orleans 41-0, and followed it up by whacking around Jackson Barracks of New Orleans 81-5. However, LSU also handed Auburn its only loss of the season, and outscored teams 443-11.
128. 1922 Cal (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 16.8900
Key Season Score Element: 2.5 Elite Win Score
Best Win: Cal 12, USC 0
Worst Game: Cal 25, Olympic Athletic Club 0
There’s a whole bunch of fluff – whacking around the Mare Island Marines by 80, and beating up the local Olympic Athletic Club by 25. However, when it was time to step up, Cal did, handing USC its only loss of the year in a midseason shutout in LA, and giving Washington its only loss with a 45-7 thumping in Seattle.
127. 1957 Ohio State (UPI) (9-1)
All-Time Season Score: 16.9000
Key Season Score Element: 5 Quality Wins
Best Win: Ohio State 17, Iowa 13
Worst Game: TCU 18, Ohio State 14
Auburn and Ohio State split the national title. Auburn won the AP, Ohio State won the UPI … but Auburn went unbeaten and had the better year. Ohio State lost the season opener to TCU at home. There was a good win over a strong Iowa team – the Hawkeyes’ only loss – and things finished off with a 10-7 win over a mediocre Oregon squad.
126. 1951 Tennessee (10-1)
All-Time Season Score: 17.1091
Key Season Score Element: 0 Elite Wins
Best Win: Tennessee 46, at Ole Miss 21
Worst Game: Maryland 28, Tennessee 13 (Sugar Bowl)
This one stinks. Remember, the national championship used to be decided before the bowl season. Maryland – who got a few historical national title nods, but not from the ones that mattered at the time – beat the Vols in the Sugar Bowl to finish an unbeaten 10-0, but both the AP and UPI named Tennessee the national champ before that happened. Worst of all, there were a whole slew of okay victories over winning teams, but none over anyone who finished with fewer than three losses and a tie.
NEXT: 150 Greatest National Champions: No. 101-125
Click for the breakdown of the CFN Season Formula criteria
125. 1922 Cornell (8-0)
All-Time Season Score: 15.1200
Key Season Score Element: 312 point differential
Best Win: Cornell 9, at Penn 0
Worst Game: Cornell 48, Albright 14
Cornell played half of its games against teams that weren’t even part of the official college football world, but it still managed to come up with four excellent wins to get on the list. Only a strong Penn team was able to come closer than ten points, but a lower-level Albright team was the only team able to score more than seven.
124. 1926 Alabama (9-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 17.1700
Key Season Score Element: 27 points allowed
Best Win: Alabama 19, at Vanderbilt 7
Worst Game: Alabama 2, Sewanee 0
Bama was able to pull off a fantastic road win over a Vanderbilt team that didn’t lose to anyone else, and it tied Stanford 7-7 in the Rose Bowl – but it was enough to rank higher in a split national title year. There was a strange 2-0 win over an awful Sewanee team, and there were way too many wins over teams that finished with three wins or fewer, but again, the season ranks higher than a 10-0-1 Stanford’s.
123. 1953 Maryland (10-1)
All-Time Season Score: 17.2591
Key Season Score Element: 38 points allowed
Best Win: Maryland 39, at Ole Miss 0
Worst Game: Oklahoma 7, Maryland 0 (Orange Bowl)
Maryland was hosed in 1951, and got its payback in 1953. The 1951 team went unbeaten and beat Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl, but didn’t get named the national champion in the polls that mattered. The 1953 team went unbeaten in the regular season with a dominant run – no one came closer than 14 points – but after being named the national champ, it lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
122. 1964 Alabama (10-1)
All-Time Season Score: 17.2791
Key Season Score Element: 5 Quality Wins
Best Win: Alabama 24, at Georgia Tech 7
Worst Game: Texas 21, Alabama 17 (Orange Bowl)
Arkansas, Michigan and Notre Dame were all named national champions by recognized outfits, but the two that mattered at the time – AP and UPI – gave Bama the nod. Texas beat the Tide in the Orange Bowl, but the Longhorns lost to Arkansas earlier in the year. The Hogs went 11-0. It didn’t matter – Bama beat five teams with winning records, and stood out from the pack, at least before the bowl season.
121. 1967 USC (10-1)
All-Time Season Score: 17.3691
Key Season Score Element: 2.5 Elite Win Score
Best Win: USC 14, Indiana 3 (Rose Bowl)
Worst Game: at Oregon State 3, USC 0
USC came up with a clunker of a performance against Oregon State on the road – losing 3-0 – but it was able to beat Notre Dame in South Bend, and that meant everything. Combine that with a win over Texas and a victory over a strong UCLA team, and that was enough to get the national title call. The season was strengthened by a Rose Bowl win over Indiana.
120. 1950 Oklahoma 1950 (10-1)
All-Time Season Score: 17.4491
Key Season Score Element: 5 Quality Wins
Best Win: Oklahoma 14, Texas 13
Worst Game: Kentucky 13, Oklahoma 7 (Sugar Bowl)
Welcome to the days before bowl games mattered. Tennessee beat Kentucky in the last game of the regular season, and Kentucky finished 11-1 after beating Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl. The Vols also beat a great Texas team in the Cotton Bowl, and took down strong Alabama and Duke teams, but … Oklahoma went 10-0 in the regular season, and Tennessee lost early to Mississippi State.
119. 1896 Lafayette (11-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 17.5083
Key Season Score Element: 7 Bad Wins
Best Win: Lafayette 6, at Penn 4
Worst Game: Lafayette 0, Princeton 0
It was a split national title season between Lafayette and Princeton – the two tied 0-0, and Princeton ended up having the better overall season. However, Lafayette came up with a brilliant win over a Penn team that finished 14-1, but there were a whole lot of awful wins including three over a West Virginia program that wasn’t recognized yet.
118. 1916 Pitt (8-0)
All-Time Season Score: 17.5500
Key Season Score Element: 5 Quality Wins
Best Win: Pitt 31, Penn State 0
Worst Game: Pitt 20, Navy 19
Five of the eight wins came against teams that finished with winning records, including dominant performances against strong Penn State and Washington & Jefferson teams. The 20-19 road game at Navy was scary – they were the most points allowed by the program in six years.
117. 1983 Miami (11-1)
All-Time Season Score: 17.6867
Key Season Score Element: 5 Quality Wins
Best Win: Miami 31, Nebraska 30 (Orange Bowl)
Worst Game: at Florida 28, Miami 3
This was the season that launched a dynasty. The Hurricanes overcame a clunker of a loss to Florida to open the season by rolling through the rest of the slate. The defense allowed just 78 points over a ten game regular season run before pulling off a historic win over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl for the national title.
116. 1957 Auburn (AP) (10-0)
All-Time Season Score: 17.7900
Key Season Score Element: 28 points allowed
Best Win: Auburn 7, at Tennessee 0
Worst Game: Auburn 6, Georgia 0
Ohio State won the UPI title, but Auburn took home the AP – and had the stronger overall season. The Buckeyes lost a game and Auburn didn’t, thanks to a defense that allowed seven points in four separate games, and nothing else. The O wasn’t anything special, but that D made up for it.
115. 1954 Ohio State (AP) (10-0)
All-Time Season Score: 17.9900
Key Season Score Element: The D allowed 7 points or fewer in seven games.
Best Win: Ohio State 31, Wisconsin 14
Worst Game: Ohio State 21, at Northwestern 7
UCLA won the UPI national title, but Ohio State’s 1954 season was far, far stronger. The blowout win over Wisconsin was outstanding, and taking down USC 20-7 in the Rose Bowl helped. But there weren’t a whole slew of amazing victories – there were plenty of good ones.
114. 1955 Oklahoma (11-0)
All-Time Season Score: 17.9200
Key Season Score Element: 325 point differential
Best Win: Oklahoma 20, Maryland 6 (Orange Bowl)
Worst Game: Oklahoma 13, at North Carolina 6
The Sooners got past a bad performance against a lousy North Carolina team in the opener to roll through the season with ease. They won each of their last nine games by double-digits, and didn’t allow a point in the final four regular season games. It all closed out with a win over an unbeaten Maryland team in the Orange Bowl.
113. 1882 Yale (8-0)
All-Time Season Score: 18.0100
Key Season Score Element: Allowed 1 point
Best Win: Yale 1, at Harvard 0
Worst Game: Yale 11, Columbia 0
Yale outscored all eight opponents by a combined score of 52-1, allowing the one point to Princeton in a 2-1 victory in the season finale. Along the way, it handed Harvard its only loss of the season, came up with five victories over teams that finished with winning records, and beat Rutgers twice in back-to-back weeks.
112. 1940 Minnesota (8-0)
All-Time Season Score: 18.0800
Key Season Score Element: 4.5 Elite Win Score
Best Win: Minnesota 7, Michigan 6
Worst Game: Minnesota 13, at Ohio State 7
Most of the amazing Minnesota teams of the era put up great records by battering teams without a pulse. Not this one. The Gophers handed Michigan its only loss of the year, and they got by terrific Washington, Nebraska, and Northwestern teams that all lost just one other game. The 154 points, though, were low compared to most national champs on the list.
111. 1938 TCU (11-0)
All-Time Season Score: 18.0900
Key Season Score Element: 60 points allowed
Best Win: TCU 15, Carnegie Tech 7 (Sugar Bowl)
Worst Game: TCU 21, Arkansas 14
TCU had a rough day against a miserable Arkansas team early on, but it didn’t give up more than a touchdown against anyone else. Outside of that, there weren’t any issues against anyone else until the Sugar Bowl win over Carnegie Tech, and that turned out to be the only victory of true note.
110. 1970 Texas (UPI) (10-1)
All-Time Season Score: 18.3991
Key Season Score Element: 423 points scored
Best Win: Texas 42, Arkansas 7
Worst Game: Notre Dame 24, Texas 11 (Cotton Bowl)
And here’s the flaw in college football’s national championship system. Texas might be able to claim a national title thanks to UPI, but Nebraska went 11-0, got the AP title, and had a much stronger season. However, the bowl games were still not quite part of the national title mix for UPI. Even so, the Longhorns got this high up thanks to five wins over teams that finished with winning record, and with a a solid point differential of 2.74.
109. 1906 Princeton (9-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 18.4100
Key Season Score Element: 9 points allowed
Best Win: Princeton 6, Washington & Jefferson 0
Worst Game: Princeton 0, Yale 0
This one isn’t fair. Yale had the far better season overall and finished with the same record as Princeton – 9-0-1, with the two schools playing to a 0-0 tie. However, the stronger national champion determining outlets for the time picked the Princeton, who pulled off shutouts in eight of the ten games. It was able to come up with a big win over a strong Washington & Jefferson team, and handed Cornell its only loss of the year. However, there were only nine wins, and four fell under the Bad Win category.
108. 1920 Cal (9-0)
All-Time Season Score: 18.4600
Key Season Score Element: 496 point differential
Best Win: Cal 28, Ohio State 0 (Rose Bowl)
Worst Game: Cal 17, Oregon State 7
Cal got its groove on early – it liked to destroy teams in light scrimmages – beating St. Mary’s 127-0 and roughing up the Mare Island Marines 88-0. There were real wins along the way, too, handing Washington State its only loss in a 49-0 whacking, and giving Ohio State its lone defeat with a shutout in the Rose Bowl. The D allowed just 14 points on the year.
107. 1974 USC (UPI) (10-1-1)
All-Time Season Score: 18.5850
Key Season Score Element: 5 Quality Wins
Best Win: USC 18, Ohio State 17 (Rose Bowl)
Worst Game: Arkansas 22, USC 7
1974 USC makes the list on a glitch. Oklahoma went unbeaten and had a much better season, but it wasn’t eligible to win the UPI national title because of a few recruiting violations. So USC took home one half of the championship despite being housed by Arkansas 22-7 to start the season, and with a 15-15 home tie against an okay Cal squad. So how did USC finish this high up? 55-24 over a Notre Dame team that finished 10-2, and a classic Rose Bowl win over Ohio State that also finished 10-2.
106. 1980 Georgia (12-0)
All-Time Season Score: 18.7100
Key Season Score Element: 5 Bad Wins
Best Win: Georgia 17, Notre Dame 10 (Sugar Bowl)
Worst Game: Georgia 28, Ole Miss 21
Thanks to Herschel Walker and a great defense, this became a legendary Georgia team … and it beat a whole lot of nobody. There were just four wins over teams that finished with winning records, the Sugar Bowl win was against a decent-not-amazing Notre Dame team – it finished 9-2-1 – and that turned out to be the only victory over a team that didn’t finish with four losses or more.
105. 1908 Penn (11-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 18.8283
Key Season Score Element: 6 Bad Wins
Best Win: Penn 17, Cornell 4
Worst Game: Penn 6, Carlisle 6
Penn State didn’t beat a whole lot of strong teams, and it got pushed a bit more than many of the national champions of the era, but it’s all relative considering it outscored everyone 215-28. A 6-6 tie with a good Carlisle team was the only blemish. Handing Cornell its only loss and beating Michigan 29-0 in Ann Arbor were strong parts of the resumé.
T103. 1966 Notre Dame (9-0-1)
All-Time Season Score: 18.9400
Key Season Score Element: 324 point differential
Best Win: Notre Dame 26, Purdue 14
Worst Game: Notre Dame 10, Michigan State 10
Okay, okay, so the epic 10-10 tie on the road against a Michigan State that finished unbeaten is hardly a “worst” game, but the Irish didn’t exactly go for it when they had a shot at the win. Just about everything else after opening up with a 26-14 win over Purdue was a total wipeout – MSU was the only team to come closer than 32 over the final eight games. Notre Dame allowed just five touchdowns on the year.
T103. 1962 USC (11-0)
All-Time Season Score: 18.9400
Key Season Score Element: 3 Elite Wins Score
Best Win: USC 42, Wisconsin 37 (Rose Bowl)
Worst Game: USC 14, at UCLA 3
The Trojans started out the season with an Elite Win over Duke, and closed out with an all-time great game against Wisconsin, winning 42-37 in the Rose Bowl. Before dealing with the Badgers, USC didn’t allow more than 16 points in any regular season game, and allowed seven points or fewer eight times.
102. 1963 Texas (11-0)
All-Time Season Score: 18.9700
Key Season Score Element: Just a 172 point differential
Best Win: Texas 28, Navy 6 (Cotton Bowl)
Worst Game: Texas 15, at Texas A&M 13
There were a whole lot of puzzling-bad performances against bad teams. It took too much work to get past a bad Arkansas team 17-13, and it struggled against a lousy SMU squad 17-12. However, the 15-13 victory over a two-win Texas A&M team was the real rough one. Even so, with a Cotton Bowl win over Roger Staubach’s Navy, and a great win over Oklahoma, the Longhorns flirted with the top 100 on this list.
101. 1968 Ohio State (10-0)
All-Time Season Score: 18.9800
Key Season Score Element: 3 Elite Win Score
Best Win: Ohio State 27, USC 16 (Rose Bowl)
Worst Game: Ohio State 25, Oregon 20
The legendary team had a whole lot of easy games, and there were a few more fights than it should’ve had to deal with. Iowa and Michigan State weren’t anything special, and both games were tight. Northwestern, Illinois and Wisconsin combined to win just two games, but the Buckeyes pasted a great Michigan team 50-14 and gave USC its only loss with a 27-16 win in the Rose Bowl
Sunday: Rankings 76-100
Monday: Rankings 51-75
Tuesday: Rankings 26-50
Wednesday: Rankings 11-25
Thursday: Top Ten National Championship Seasons
NEXT: CFN Historical Rankings Formula
CFN Historical Formula
1. Wins. Obviously, winning matters. Just win lots of games, and all is fine. 1 point per win.
2. Losses. Don’t lose. -1 point per loss
3. Ties. Yeah, there used to be those. 0.5 points per tie.
4. Quality Wins. The wins over the good teams. 1 point per win over a team that finished with a winning record.
5. Elite Wins. The wins over the great teams. 1 point per home win over a team that finished with two losses, or a road, bowl, or neutral site win over a team that finished with three losses. An extra 0.5 added to a road win over a team that finished with two losses.
6. Bad Losses. The soul-crushers. -1 point per loss to a non-FBS/D-I team, or a team that finished with three wins or fewer. An extra 0.5 is added to a home loss to a “bad” team.
7. Bad Wins. The layups. -0.25 for a win over a team that finished with three losses or fewer.
8. Elite Losses. The forgivable defeats. 0.25 added for a loss to a team that finished with two losses of fewer.
9. Point Differential. They keep score for a reason. Points scored minus points against divided by 100.
10. Winning Percentage. A sort of tie-breaker, taking into account how good the season was beyond the raw wins and loss.
