re: Best teams to not win Natty title

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2011 LSU beat 3 BCS bowl winners on the road during the regular season, went undefeated in the regular season, absolutely demolished opponents, and dominated the SEC championship. They also beat Bama, who won the title, in Tuscaloosa. nearly that entire defense has started in the NFL at one point, with several pro-bowls/all-pros.

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Not to mention with average QB play

08 Oklahoma
09 Texas
2000 Miami
11 LSU

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Taurus 357

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Kudos on the sig pic.


83 Auburn needs to at least be an honorable mention. That team got robbed by voters.

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08 Oklahoma
12 Bama
09 Texas
2000 Miami
11 LSU

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One of these is not like the other.

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Boyd was never reason Clemson lost. 1st two years the defense was bad. wud have lost a lot more games without him

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Agree to disagree.

His last 2 years, Clemson only score 17 points against SC. Hard to blame that on the defense with all the offensive weapons Clemson had. Also only 14 points against FSU with Ellington, Hopkins, Watkins etc..

He was a good player, but not a championship quarterback, IMO.

These are the best teams I've seen in my lifetime that failed to win a national title. I can't speak to any of the great teams from the 60s, 70s and 80s because I was too young/hadn't been born yet.

1. 1994 Penn State- I've never seen a better pro-style offense in college during my lifetime. They were completely unstoppable. Defense was a little inconsistent but they were more than able to make up for it with their ability to get sacks and create turnovers.

2. 2008 Oklahoma- They're the highest scoring offense of all-time and were absolutely stacked on offense with Sam Bradford, DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown, Juaquin Iglesias, Jermaine Gresham, Ryan Broyles and Trent Williams. It took an all-time great defensive effort by an absurdly talented Florida defense to finally derail them.

3. 2005 USC- USC's offense was truly an awesome force and was never really stopped that season. Their lowest point output was 34 points against Notre Dame. Unfortunately for them, their defense was nowhere near as good as their 2004 unit and it finally caught up to them in the NCG against Texas.

4. 2011 LSU- 2011 LSU was the best college defense I've ever seen at forcing turnovers and making big plays until 2016 Alabama came along. Their offense actually wasn't that bad for most of the season. They might not have put up a ton of yards but they were extremely efficient. LSU was 12th in TD% inside the red zone. Their defense would often force a turnover deep inside an opponent's territory and their offense would almost always cash those opportunities in with TDs. Unfortunately, they didn't have a QB that could win them games and they were unable to get it done at the end.

5. 2002 USC- I believe 2002 USC is the greatest two-loss team from their modern era. They had a slow start to the season losing to Kansas State and Washington State but they were a runaway train at the end averaging 43.1 PPG in their last seven contests. With the way Carson Palmer and that team was playing, I truly believe they would have beaten both Miami and Ohio State if they had gotten the opportunity to play them at the end of the season.

Fun fact about 1983 - here were the top 6 teams according to the final AP Poll:

#1 Miami (11-1)
#2 Nebraska (11-1)
#3 Auburn (11-1)
#4 Georgia (10-1-1)
#5 Texas (11-1)
#6 Florida (9-2-1)

All 7 of the combined losses were to other teams in the top 6.

2016 Tennessee

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2.) 2011 LSU
1.) 1994 Penn State

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Those 2 in my 40+ years of watching football got the biggest shaft jobs IMO.

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1983 Nebraska 

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Should've kicked.