A Classic Offseason Debate: The Greatest Teams of All Time

Fans of every sport love to debate it: Who’s the greatest team of all time? In college football—a sport defined by dynasties—it’s an especially worthwhile pastime…particularly in the doldrums of summer.

While we at TTM celebrate college football’s rich historical tapestry in its entirety—from Yale’s contraceptive-themed juggernaut of 1876 (see below, first pic), to Princeton’s 1922 buzzsaw whose moms accidentally stretched out their collars in the wash (“Ah golly gee, Mom!!”)—we also recognize that the game has evolved dramatically over time.

Comparing the relative strength of a Nick Saban-era Alabama team to one of these condom hat-wearing, barbershop-quintet-singing bands of young whipper snappers is exceedingly difficult, if not altogether impossible. (That said, I’d love to see an Oklahoma drill between Jalen Carter and Lurch from bottom left^.)

So we’re going to chop our discussion of great teams down a little bit. We’re going to confine our analysis to our definition of the modern era, which conveniently begins right when our writers first gained the ability to make memories. We’re late-80s babies, and we’re here to debate the greatest teams that we remember, god damnit!

(For any of you slightly older souls out there, we would also love to hear about any juggernauts from the 70s or 80s you feel could have hung with some of the more recent behemoths we’re going to discuss here today. Simply drop us a line by responding directly to this email. We don’t remember those Bear Bryant-led Alabama teams, or those Ara Parseghian-led Notre Dame teams, or even those Jimmy Johnson-led Miami teams—great hair on that guy though…hasn’t moved in 50 years!—so we don’t feel comfortable judging them. That story seems best told by someone who was there. So again, drop us a line and educate the youth!)

But there remains a problem even within the confines of a modern-era debate…Even if you limit the debate to a singular era, arguments over who would’ve beaten who—whether that one Michigan team would’ve stood toe-to-toe with that Georgia team [shakes head knowingly], whether that one FSU team could’ve hung with that LSU team [nods head confidently]—still inevitably end in a draw. We all have our hero teams. For every fan of a blueblood, national title-winning program, we all have that one team—or maybe, if we’re lucky, it’s a couple teams—that we’ll be talking about for the rest of their lives. For Tennessee fans, we’re talkin’ ’98, Peerless Price, and the Two Travis’. For Nebraska, we’re talking ’95 and that lethal triple option attack helmed by Tommie Frazier (you know, the team that hung 62 (!) on the stinkin’ ass Gators). For Miami? We’re definitely talking 2001 and that juggernaut packed with future NFL studs like Ed Reed, Andre Johnson, and Jeremy Shockey. For Alabama? Well, the Gumps may have a few in mind...Saban was rolling absolute terminators off the assembly line for over a decade. (Or are ‘Bama fans so spoiled and de-sensitized to winning that they no longer appreciate greatness??)

Because of our emotional attachment to these teams—to the memories they gave us, whether we were in the stands with our dads, or at home watching with our whole family, running through the house like lunatics as our boys scored a crucial touchdown, or at a hazy post-grad watch party with friends—it’s simply not in our biology to admit that they would lose to anyone. And as a result, any debate over this national champion versus thatnational champion remains an unsolved mystery.

Until now. TTM’s team of scientists has been hard at work in the lab developing a tool to measure these bygone behemoths against one another. We call it…the Super Secret Super Sexy Flavor Blasted Historical Power Index (SSSSFBHPI)™. What’s included in this mysterious index, you ask? We’ll never tell…

Alright we’ll tell!

The SSSSFBHPI™ factors in wins and losses—a pretty important measure of any team—of course, but it also incorporates strength of schedule, margin of victory, and NFL production, among a handful of other proprietary spices. “Why does NFL production matter in a conversation about collegeteams, Burt?” “Shut up and pay attention!” What’s a decent way of measuring, say, 2013 Florida State’s talent level against that of 2009 Alabama? Or 2008 Florida? Or 2014 Ohio State? Why, how their players performed in the league as they competed in its ranks at roughly the same time! Which teams put out a bunch of multi-contract pro bowlers? Which teams saw their college-level stars largely flame out at the next level? When comparing teams across years, pro production has to be an element of that analysis. That said, a team’s performance at the college level is the most important factor in this debate and thus makes up the backbone of SSSSFBHPI’s analysis.

So who’s ready to dive in?? Hey you! With the orange crocs and the Tebow jersey!! I know you’re ready. So let’s do it…Let’s pit our darling national champs against one another. Let’s figure out whose dream team stands above the rest. But to get us started, a few important notes…

First, not every national title winner of the past 30 or so years is included here, because 1) some national title winners are pretty clearly not the greatest team of our lifetimes and 2) this was a lot of work…so to that two-loss LSU team? Sorry, you’re not making the cut. And to any team who didn’twin a national title? Again, I’m sorry, but you’re not grabbing a spot here. Seat’s taken. (As an FSU fan, I can point to multiple extraordinarily talented Bowden teams that didn’t win squat. So can you ‘Bama fans, or you Ohio State fans, or you Oklahoma fans, and so on and so forth. If you weren’t the best team in your year, then you’re certainly not the best team across manyyears.) Finally—and this is going to really grind Badger Bill’s gears—we were not able to include 2023 Michigan and 2024 Ohio State in this exercise, because we just don’t know what those players are going to do in the NFL. For 2021 Georgia, for example, we were able to project that a guy like Jalen Carter—who’s already made two Pro Bowls—is going to have a long and prosperous career. Same goes for 2020 Alabama and established studs like Pat Surtain, Jr. We have a few years of data on those teams now. Now perhaps 2023 Michigan and 2024 Ohio State produce the type of elite NFL talent that lets us know they truly were some of the most dominant college football teams of our lifetimes. But until we have more information, we can’t run the numbers on ‘em. [Nerdy computer voice] Data…not…available!

So without further ado…lady and gentlemen…our top ten college football teams of a 37-year-old man’s life! (Ranked by their score in the Super Secret Super Sexy Flavor Blasted Historical Power Index (SSSSFBHPI)):

The Vince Young team. The team that ended Pete Carroll’s—and Reggie Bush’s, and Matt Leinart’s, and (although he actually went pro a year earlier, a spiritual member of this team) Troy Polamalu’s—run of Hollywood dominance at USC with a classic Rose Bowl ending that still reverberates through our collective memories. Somewhat surprisingly—because Mack Brown always had that roster stocked with high-end Texas high school talent—this Longhorns team did not boast the kind of future NFL talent that many of these other top-ten behemoths did. That’s really the only thing holding them back. But for ‘Horns fans, what an indelible memory. They’ll be hoping they can recapture some of that magic this year.

Jimbo Fisher at the height of his powers. An absolute war machine of a team that ranked highly in pro production—133 NFL service years and counting—broke records in year-over-year draft totals, and led all of our contenders in average margin of victory at 39.5 (!!!). Its lone wart? A weak schedule at 60th nationally. (For all you knobs just itching to say “Yeah Burt, they’re in the ACC!” consider that FSU was dealing with Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson within the same god damn division two years later. The ACC isn’t always trash. But aside from a talented Clemson team FSU absolutely obliterated in Death Valley that year, it kinda was in 2013…). To my ‘Noles out there, with a top-ten schedule, this team easily moves into the SSSSFBHPI’s top five, and perhaps its top three. Anyway…when Jameis Winston hit Kelvin Benjamin for a late touchdown in a jam-packed Rose Bowl on a picture-perfect Southern California night—Burt and the boys were there and may have been inebriated—Seminole fans weren’t crazy to think that an extended run of brilliance may have just been beginning. The 2014 team was returning the most talented roster in college football; the SEC’s streak had been broken by an SEC-style roster that didn’t have to play an SEC schedule; and FSU had the next great coach in Fisher. But things didn’t break that way. That 2014 team, littered with early-round draft picks like Winston, Jalen Ramsey, and Dalvin Cook showed a disinterest that, in hindsight, was a pretty clear signal of a culture rot that unfortunately coincided with some pretty sad stuff in Jimbo’s personal life. 2013 was Fisher’s high-water mark at FSU, but hey, putting together a top-ten team over the last 35 years? That ain’t bad for a career high-water mark...

Peak Dabo mini dynasty, with Trevor Lawrence at the helm, and a boatload of future NFL stars and starters like Tee Higgins, Dexter Lawrence, Christian Wilkins, A.J. Terrell, and Travis Etienne. This team blew out a stacked, Tua-led ‘Bama team in the national championship game, and really weren’t challenged that season after a close week 2 win at Texas A&M. For all his idiotic, try-hard antics, Dabo Swinney owns the enviable title of being the only coach who really bested Saban when Saban was at the zenith of his powers at Alabama. Kirby certainly pushed the Little Emperor late, but—as shitty as it is to admit as a Georgia fan—Saban still owned that series. Dabo beat multiple peak Saban teams on the big stage. This was likely his best team.

Some will moan that TCU “didn’t deserve to be in the championship game”…even after the Horned Frogs beat, in the semis, one of Big Ten darling Michigan’s best teams in 30 years. TCU was a good team that year, and Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs defended their 2021 ‘ship with the bludgeoning of a lifetime, snatching the Frogs’ souls out of their slimy little bodies by a final score of 65-7 (!). The ‘Dawgs followed up their drought-breaking natty in 2021 in fitting fashion and did it one better—they went undefeated. A perfect 15-0, and against the third-toughest schedule in the country. Stetson Bennett wrote his damn name in permanent marker on every bathroom stall in the state of Georgia. The only thing keeping this team from challenging for #1 honors was how freaking good the ‘Dawgs were in 2021…that is, that superfreaks like Jordan Davis, Travon Walker, Quay Walker, and Nakobe Dean had all departed for the NFL after 2021. Still, a pretty damn good encore…

Derrick Henry’s team. A classic Saban object of abject cruelty. Sure, its quarterback (Jacob Coker) was previously Jameis Winston’s backup at FSU, but Coker, a decent college quarterback in his own right, was playing behind a brick wall of an offensive line at ‘Bama, and alongside a defense stuffed with Saban-era sickos. Jonathan Allen, Jarran Reed, Daron Payne, and A’Shawn Robinson were all part of the same defensive tackle room. In college!! If we’re being honest, had Tua or Hurts played on this team, this may have been Saban’s best. As it is, they only won 14 games, beat a Deshaun Watson-led Clemson team in the natty, and produced (so far) 29 Pro Bowl years between them, bagging Saban his fourth (but not his last…) national title with the Crimson Tide.

When we fed the numbers into our proprietary, Skynet-linked algorithm (SSSSFBHPI), this was a team we had our eye on as a potential contender. Not only did it dog-walk a dangerous and defending national title-winning Clemson team in the national championship game, but its studs have immediately become stars at the next level. The combination of Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and Justin Jefferson in the Bayou Bengal battery make it pretty clear why this team was able to absolutely light teams on fire, including under the bright lights of the playoff. This was Da Coach O’s triumphant Cajun crusade, after which he promptly philandered his way directly out of the profession. From an LSU perspective, it might have been worth it. This was one of the greatest teams of all time, and anyone who watched them more or less understood that at the time.

Alabama fans might feel cheated (good!) that I paired these two together, but I think they’d also admit the following: Saban teams, even when they were stacked with superstar individual players, all kinda looked and felt the same. That’s a testament to the power of the Saban Process ™. These teams were blunt-force weapons of factory-town anger (can’t wait for that Saban origin story…). They were Ramma Jamma Yella Hammas. BUT! What really allowed Saban’s late career to blossom was his pivot away from Ramma Jamma ball toward modern, dynamic offense led by modern, dynamic quarterback play. These two teams spanned the Jalen Hurts, Tua Tugavioloa, and Mac Jones eras, and those future NFL signal callers had themselves a boatload of elite pass catchers (Devonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle, Calvin Ridley, Jerry Jeudy, etc.) to throw that thang to. Late Saban combined the characteristic cruelty of his old-school, physicality-based approach—a great way to win football games—with a willingness to take chances on the offensive side of the ball, and he did it with elite playmakers operating behind a Berlin Wall of an offensive line. The result? The most dominant run in the history of modern college football.

But who takes the title of the most dominant SEC team of our lifetimes?? It’s the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs folks…That’s right. The team that broke through. The team that opened the door for Kirby and co. to win many, many more (well, at least one more…). The ‘Dawgs did it with an all-time collection of defensive talent, especially where it matters most—the boys with their hands in the dirt. To this point, 2021 was probably peak Kirby, a team where five stars were backing up five stars across damn near the entire team. Naturally, we lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game…but we got those assholes back in the ‘ship, where Burt, his dad, and his brother drunkenly walked over a mile to the game in a roughly 10-degree January Indianapolis night. What really boosts this team up our list is its uber elite NFL production. Yeah, we had to project some, but I think the SSSSFBHPI did it as fairly as it could: Guys like Jalen Carter, Brock Bowers, Broderick Jones, Travon Walker, and Amarius Mims are already studs in the league, and given its ridiculous draft production, this team is projected to bag our highest number of combined NFL service years at over 180! (Second in that category goes to 2017 Alabama at 174; beyond that, no one else cracks 150...) ‘Dawgs on fuckin’ top baby…Or, very, very nearly…

Yep…those guys. That team of All-Americans—and future NFL Hall of Famers—that still has an army of drunk, sunburnt, fake Rolex watch-wearing, New York-born 56-year-olds running their mouths down in South Florida (but at the Hooters down the street…they don’t actually go to games in Miami). The 2001 Hurricanes boast the second-best scoring margin on our list—with the sixth-toughest schedule in the country that season—but what sets this team apart is an unparalleled collection of generational talent that did it at both the college and pro levels. Unanimous All-Americans and longtime NFL stars like Andre Johnson, Sean Taylor, Ed Reed, Jeremy Shockey, Vince Wilfork, Clinton Portis, Jonathan Vilma, and Bryant McKinnie make this the most dominant team of our lifetimes. As a ‘Nole, it ain’t fun to admit—these guys ruined Bobby Bowden’s last good years. But they were a juggernaut beyond compare. Would I love to see 2021 Georgia line it up against these guys? Damn right I would. Unfortunately, until Elon eats a bushel of mushrooms and invents some fucked-up form of time travel, that’s not gonna happen. Perhaps that Georgia squad ends up with more Pro Bowlers and Hall of Famers than 2001 Miami. If so, maybe my ‘Dawgs’ reputation comes to eclipse that of the 2001 ‘Canes. But as of now, these are the guys. Yep…[shakes head]...Those guys…

Just missed out…2009 Alabama, 2008 Florida (suck it Tebow!), 2004 USC (yeah, I was pretty shocked these boys missed the top ten…they did great in the draft, but with only 66 NFL service years, the 2004 Trojans’ talent severely underperformed in the league, which is ultimately what did them in here), 2014 Ohio State, and 1999 Florida State.

Not even close…2010 Auburn (the lowest-ranked team on our list…Cam Newton really carried these boys; even with his 11-year career, this Tigers team totaled only 27 years of NFL service), 2000 Oklahoma, 1997 Michigan, and 1996 Florida (Hey-ohh!! While this Florida team—Spurrier’s best—was a buzzsaw that dropped my ‘Noles like a sack of potatoes in a Sugar Bowl rematch, they dropped a game in the regular season and simply didn’t produce the level of pro talent many of these other championship squads did).

Final Takeaways…Our top ten includes SEVEN current SEC teams (one of which—2005 Texas—was in the Big 12 at the time), three current ACC teams (one of which—our number one team in 2001 Miami—was in the Big East at the time), and zero from the Big Ten, current Big 12, or former Pac 12. To any Big Ten haters of the SSSSFBHPI, I’d say this: Be more talented.(Also, to be fair, I expect at least 2024 Ohio State, and perhaps 2023 Michigan, to make a play at this list when TTM—by then a billion-dollar newsletter—runs these numbers again in 10 years.)

The prevalence of recent SEC juggernauts in the top 10 is noteworthy, as it appears a fairly unprecedented consolidation of talent has been accruing at Alabama and Georgia over the past decade (what an insight, Burt!). But perhaps the new paradigm—and Saban’s retirement—challenges that trend. We shall see…After all, college football’s only a month and change away folks…With each season, a new opportunity for a new GOAT. Stay locked in with us here at TTM, and you won’t miss a damn thing.

Addendum: We said the SSSSFBHPI was proprietary, but eff it! Here’s our spreadsheet, which offers a more complete picture of the factors we considered. For All-American selections and draft production, we used both the year of and the year after, since virtually all players in those year-after categories were key contributors the year before: