Rank the BCS Champions. (1 Viewer)

TPS

Guest
Joined
Aug 15, 2000
Messages
36,028
Reaction score
63
Age
60
Location
da boyah
Offline
A guy at work sent me an e-mail and asked me if I agreed with his rankings (excerpted from the discussion below). I'm going to post my rankings first and then a portion of his e-mail later (he lurks the site but isn't a registered member because he's afraid of getting banned for arguing). To each their own.

Here are a listing of the games and BCS Champions:

1998 - Tennessee defeats FSU 23-16
1999 - FSU defeats VA Tech 46-29
2000 - Oklahoma defeats FSU 13-2
2001 - Miami defeats Nebraska 37-14
2002 - Ohio State defeats Miami 31-24 (OT)
2003 - LSU defeats Oklahoma 21-14
2004 - USC defeats Oklahoma 55-19
2005 - Texas defeats USC 41-38
2006 - Florida defeats Ohio State 41-14
2007 - LSU defeats Ohio State 38-24
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are my rankings of the champions:

1) 2004 USC. Dominant team who went 13-0. They had close games with Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and UCLA but blew everyone else out. Big season for a great team.

2) 2005 Texas. Vince Young's team blew out everyone but Ohio State and USC in the championship game. Undermatched by all Big XII opponents.

3) 2007 LSU. While everyone knows this team underachieved, they had serious health issues throughout the season to numerous key players. I think healthy, as they were in the BCS Championship Game, they play with anyone from the era. Talent at running back may be the most ridiculously deep of all times and the most varied skillset ever (think late 80's Detroit Pistons 9/10 deep team).

4) 2006 Florida - Played a lot of tough games and might have been their best at the end of the season gritting out a tough win in Tallahassee and against Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game and then blowing out outmatched Ohio State.

5) 2001 Miami Hurricanes (probably underranked here. Great players on this team).

6) 1999 FSU Seminoles - Undefeated and perhaps the best FSU team since the 1993 national champions. Team didn't produce that many great NFL players, but they were good in college. Exceptions would be Janikowski and Corey Simon.

Most of the rest of the teams are too subjective for me to rank any further.

Excerpt from his e-mail that got me thinking:


1. 2005 Texas - The championship game was basically two future NFL teams playing one another. The best game in the history of college football. Vince Young. 2005 USC is probably the second best team ever in college football, only behind, obviously, 2005 Texas.

2. 2004 USC - This is basically a younger version of the 2005 powerhouse team. Two future Heisman winners (one tainted, albeit). Absolute demolition of Oklahoma.

3. 2001 Miami - Another team loaded with future NFL players. You could almost make a NFL playoff team from the future players on this roster. Nebraska was completely overmatched. Ironically, the 2002 team, considered better than the 2001 team, lost to a team much lower on this list.

4. 1999 Florida State - Undefeated in the ACC, before the ACC was terrible. Played a game VT team in the Sugar Bowl and still won comfortably.

5. 2006 Florida - This team wasn't spectacular in the regular season. But they were playing great football at the end, and the championship performance was nothing short of dominant.

6. 2000 Oklahoma - This was probably Stoops' best team. They had a great, great defense. Roy Williams was arguably the best player in CFB that year. This year was the pinnacle of OU/Stoops and was the last year where you could call Stoops "Big Game Bob" with a straight face.

7. 2002 Ohio State - Tressel's finest season ever. Pulled out a bunch of close wins, seemingly every week. Miami 2002 was being regarded as one of the most talented teams ever in college football. Ohio State pulled it out. Great coaching, smart kids, mediocre team in the grand scheme of things.

8. 2003 LSU - Split title. Didn't even play the best possible opponent. OU didn't even bother showing up to the bowl game (Stoops trend starting to show). Who knows what would have happened if LSU had played USC, but my money would have been heavily on USC. Not a great team, not the BCS' finest moment.

9. 1998 Tennessee - Meh. Tee Martin?

10. 2007 LSU - First two loss champion in 40+ years. Lost to two mediocre football teams and was thoroughly outcoached in several games. Needed tons of breaks and the most mediocre season of CFB ever to get into the title game. Dominating performance in that game, but there were about 5 teams better than Ohio State. Amazingly talented team that just wasn't that good.

TPS
<!-- / message -->
 
Last edited:
Ummm... Which games was LSU thoroughly outcoached this year?
 
Last edited:
A guy at work sent me an e-mail and asked me if I agreed with his rankings (excerpted from the discussion below).

If Loose Cannon wanted to post on this board he really should have just avoided getting banned. :hihi:
 
Last edited:
1. Miami
2. USC
3. Texas
4. Florida State
5. Oklahoma
6. Ohio State
7. Tennessee
8. LSU '03
9. Florida
10. LSU '07

1. Texas can't be number one through common sense. The USC team they beat was half the team it was the year before because of defense. Tatupu and Mike Patterson would have never allowed Young to run on them. '04's defense was astronomically better than '05's, which is the only reason Texas won.

2. Miami is easily the best team. Top to bottom, that team was downright deadly. The debate should be who's number 2. At every position there's either an NCAA All-American or an NFL All-Pro.
 
>>Loose Cannon wanted to post on this board he really should have just avoided getting banned. :hihi:

If I post something by LC, I'll credit him.

>>2. Miami is easily the best team. Top to bottom, that team was downright deadly. The debate should be who's number 2. At every position there's either an NCAA All-American or an NFL All-Pro.

That was a vicious team, but I really REALLY hate Miami and couldn't help my own biases. I think 2004 'SC is legit though. They are my #1. I think they and the '01 Hurricanes is the match of the decade.

TPS
 
So are we talking the season as a body of work or are we talking about championship game performance? Very few teams on that list would have beat LSU last Monday. Their health had a lot to do with their two losses, which is a part of playing football. However, they were healthy that night and I don't see many teams beating them at 100% strength.

2004 USC should be first followed by 2005 Texas. Vince Young simply isn't going to allow many teams to beat him. Miami was pretty fierce, but they would get outcoached by most teams on that list.
 
Miami was pretty fierce, but they would get outcoached by most teams on that list.

That just kind of proves how strong they were. Larry Coker was their coach and they were one ref administered screw job away from being back to back champs.

If we're looking just at how loaded the teams were, the 2001(-02) Hurricanes have to top the list, IMHO.
 
>>Loose Cannon wanted to post on this board he really should have just avoided getting banned. :hihi:

If I post something by LC, I'll credit him.

>>2. Miami is easily the best team. Top to bottom, that team was downright deadly. The debate should be who's number 2. At every position there's either an NCAA All-American or an NFL All-Pro.

That was a vicious team, but I really REALLY hate Miami and couldn't help my own biases. I think 2004 'SC is legit though. They are my #1. I think they and the '01 Hurricanes is the match of the decade.

TPS

I'm with you, I have really despised Miami for many years; but even so, I have to admit I would easily rank them the best championship team of the BCS era. Personnel-wise (especially looking back now at all the NFL talent on that one team) and the way they won games that year, they were just scary good (and I pulled for them to lose every week). To me, it's not really close.
1 - 2001 Miami
2 - 2005 University of Vince Young
3 - 2003 LSU
4 - 2004 USG
5 - 1999 FSU
6 - 2006 UF
7 - 2007 LSU
8 - 1998 Tenn
9 - 2002 tOSU
10 - 2000 OU

Just my opinion, of course, and reflects my own personal biases as well:
I hate OU, but I just don't think they were all that dominant a team and I don't think they really proved it that year other than beating FSU, whose offense didn't seem to have shown up that day.
I thought at the time that tOSU was just lucky to beat Miami in 2002 (and I admit I was elated when Miami lost).
Again, my bias, but I firmly believe that LSU had the players to beat USG in 2003 if the BCS had had the guts to dump the over-rated OU from #1.
I'm still quite a UT fan and seing them wipe out the media declared "all-time greatest college football team" was among the sweetest college football moments of my life (not the sweetest, but up there).
That 99 FSU team was pretty impressive. It's splitting hairs to rank them behind USG, but I give the Southern Cal guys a slight edge.
I do feel I have to rank this year's LSU somewhat lower because despite being extremely talented, they did somewhat "underachieve" (largely due to injuries to some key players, IMHO, but still) despite never losing a game in regulation.

EDIT: MLU, I'm basing my rankings on the overall season, not just the championship game. I don't ever rate teams or players off of one game (because on any given Sunday - or Saturday, etc.)
 
Last edited:
I rank them by the totality of the season, thus an undefeated team gets the benefit of the doubt over a 1 loss or 2 loss team

1. Miami - the best defense of the 10 and arguably the best offense.

2. Tennessee - obviously I am a homer on this, but the 98 Vols have the best running attack of any BCS champ, and probably the 2nd best rush defense (behind '03 LSU). just a solid, hard hitting team.

3. Fla. St. - I remember this team well, and while nothing jumps out as them being the best amongst these 10 teams, I bet they are in the top half of just about every category.

4. '03 LSU - had one loss, but was a dominating defense. Probably put up better stats than Miami on that side of the ball and they are 1-2 in best defense category of the 10 teams.

5. Ohio St. - great rush defense. Gain a couple of spots for knocking off Miami (who was a better team than OSU).

6. USC - Possibly the best offense of the 10. Near the bottom on defense (despite having some talent).

7. Oklahoma - Could be lower, but their balance saves them IMO

8. Texas - the one team of the 10 most dependent on one player. Possibly the worst defense of the 10 even though they put up decent numbers during the year.

9. Florida - Tough to put them ahead of '07 LSU since this is the worst team of the BCS champs, but the two loss team has to be last IMO.

10. '07 LSU
 
Yeah the 1998 Vols had, correct me on this JE because i'm sure i'll get it wrong, but they had at RB Travis Henry, Travis Stephens, and Jamal Lewis, all drafted and played in the NFL (2 long-time starters). You also sent a bunch of wide recievers to the NFL from that team but they all stunk (Marcus Nash, Peerless Price, etc)
 
>>So are we talking the season as a body of work or are we talking about championship game performance?

Your call, any criteria you want. I was drunk for all the games and am not looking to nuance anyone. I just threw this out there for fun.

TPS
 
Yeah the 1998 Vols had, correct me on this JE because i'm sure i'll get it wrong, but they had at RB Travis Henry, Travis Stephens, and Jamal Lewis, all drafted and played in the NFL (2 long-time starters). You also sent a bunch of wide recievers to the NFL from that team but they all stunk (Marcus Nash, Peerless Price, etc)

Marcus Nash did not play on the '98 Champs.
 
Yeah the 1998 Vols had, correct me on this JE because i'm sure i'll get it wrong, but they had at RB Travis Henry, Travis Stephens, and Jamal Lewis, all drafted and played in the NFL (2 long-time starters). You also sent a bunch of wide recievers to the NFL from that team but they all stunk (Marcus Nash, Peerless Price, etc)
We also had Shawn Bryson on that team, and I always think of him as touching the ball maybe 8 times that year and scoring like 5 long run tds (I know that is not accurate, it just seemed that way).
Nash left the year before. But Donte Stallworth was a freshman on that team, and Cederick Wilson played a big role.
Defense we had Al Wilson, Deon Grant, Dwayne Goodrich, Shaun Ellis, Raynoch Thompson, Eric Westmoreland, and Drawin Walker. I am probably forgetting a few players that play or played in the NFL from that defense.

That team didn't put up big passing numbers because we didn't pass much. But we had a very effective passing game. Particularly the deep ball. Tee MArtin was an accurate QB that year - in fact he either set or tied the NCAA record for most consecutive completions.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom