re: all time records? "modern era" of football? what's relevant?

There's no correct answer, it's completely subjective. Many people, including those in the media, use 1936 as a line of demarcation between the "old day" and "modern football" since that's when the AP poll began and at that point the rules were well standardized and college football was a very big sport all across the country.

For the SEC of course 1992 is a big deal because of divisions.

Also, 1992 is significant because that was when the Bowl Coalition was formed and we began having an "official" national championship game at the end of the year.