I gotta go with the 87 Hurricanes.

Miami 2001

LSU 2019 great as well

It won't be popular but give me 2019 LSU. Won at Bama. Beat Georgia in the SEC title game 37-10. Beat Oklahoma in the Semis 63-28 in a game that wasn't that close. Then beat Clemson by 17 in the title game when they had 628 yards of offense. Scored 48.4 a game against a brutal schedule.

2001 Miami
2018 Clemson
2019 LSU
2020 Alabama
2022 Georgia

i think miami 2001 is the most talented team

but to me i think the two best teams i have seen are LSU in 2019 and bama in 2020. that bama team was legit arguably better than LSU but that 2020 season kind of gets memory holed due to covid.

we were pretty damn good that year and they waxed us and then proceeded to wax everyone else too. won natty by close to 30 pts.

1995 Nebraska

2023 Aggies

2008 Arkansas state

Since the 01 Hurricanes are already mentioned, the team that probably improved the most during the season because of their heart and determination were the 1991 Texas State Armadillos.

1995 Nebraska
2001 Miami
2019 LSU
2005 Texas (hate them but this team was beyond stout)
2004 USC (yes, there were investigations/penalties, but they were insanely good)

1939 Ags
1998 Ags
2012 Ags

Ahhhh, this maroon koolaide tastes great!!!!!!!


If I had to bet on this - 87 or 01 Canes

Easily '95 Huskers. They beat the snot out of everyone. Half their games they scored over 50 points, even against the best defenses in the league.

They are what the '85 Bears are to NFL

Using SP+ historical data, Nebraska 1971 has the highest pecentile SP+ rank at 100%. The teams with a better than 99% rank are listed below, :

year team
1971 Nebraska
1945 Army
1974 Oklahoma
1972 Nebraska
1959 Ole Miss
1956 Oklahoma
1904 Minnesota
1995 Nebraska
1973 Alabama
1952 Georgia Tech
2020 Alabama
1979 Alabama
1972 Oklahoma
1902 Michigan
1946 Georgia
1966 Notre Dame
2012 Alabama
1918 Georgia Tech
1973 Oklahoma
1947 Texas
1980 Nebraska
1932 Colgate
1939 Tennessee
2019 Ohio State
2008 Florida
2022 Georgia
2001 Miami-FL
1947 Michigan
1974 Alabama
1983 Nebraska
1953 Maryland
1940 Tennessee
1964 Alabama
1904 Michigan
1991 Washington
2021 Georgia
2004 USC
1949 Oklahoma
1948 Michigan
1972 Alabama
1972 USC
1975 Ohio State
1975 Alabama
1966 Alabama
1962 Alabama
1938 Tennessee
1891 Yale
1905 Minnesota
1905 Michigan
1970 Tennessee
1971 Oklahoma
1980 Pittsburgh
1906 Chicago
1946 Notre Dame
1934 Alabama
2005 Texas
1987 Miami-FL
1986 Miami-FL
1903 Michigan
1930 Utah
1977 Pittsburgh
1974 Ohio State
1977 Notre Dame
1961 Ole Miss
1890 Harvard
1944 Army
2018 Alabama
2001 Florida
1918 Pittsburgh
1973 Ohio State
1949 Notre Dame
1971 Alabama
1947 Notre Dame
1975 Oklahoma
1960 Ole Miss
1946 Army
1961 Alabama
1978 Oklahoma
1959 Syracuse
1935 SMU
1963 Ole Miss

Whittling this list down to the post-2000 years:
2020 Alabama
2012 Alabama
2019 Ohio State
2008 Florida
2022 Georgia
2001 Miami-FL
2005 Texas
2018 Alabama
2001 Florida

(2019 LSU was listed as 98.3% SP+)

mjhhawk said:

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It won't be popular but give me 2019 LSU. Won at Bama. Beat Georgia in the SEC title game 37-10. Beat Oklahoma in the Semis 63-28 in a game that wasn't that close. Then beat Clemson by 17 in the title game when they had 628 yards of offense. Scored 48.4 a game against a brutal schedule.

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& did it all with one of the biggest dumb**** chucklehead coaches of all time

Are we talking best compared to all the other teams from that same year? Or best across all years? B/c really, I don't think any team pre-early 80s could compete with the best teams of the last 20 something years. The top athletes are just bigger, stronger, faster (to some extent). Just look at the o-lines of today. They'd be HUGE compared to NFL o-lines of 30+ years ago.

It Aint Easy Being Brown said:

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mjhhawk said:

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It won't be popular but give me 2019 LSU. Won at Bama. Beat Georgia in the SEC title game 37-10. Beat Oklahoma in the Semis 63-28 in a game that wasn't that close. Then beat Clemson by 17 in the title game when they had 628 yards of offense. Scored 48.4 a game against a brutal schedule.

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& did it all with one of the biggest dumb**** chucklehead coaches of all time

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And yet they paid him less than our chucklehead.

I would have liked to see 2019 LSU play 2022 UGA.

The Ags that murdered BYU in the Holiday bowl.
NO ONE beats that team.
---end of line---

Jawbreaker said:

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The Ags that murdered BYU in the Holiday bowl.
NO ONE beats that team.
---end of line---

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Except Tessus, LSU and Houston..

So that list has the OU, Bama and Ohio St teams from 1973, but not the undefeated national champions, Notre Dame. The team that beat Bama in the Sugar Bowl. List is crap just based on that.

A couple Alabama teams have to be considered.

Georgia 2022 has to be considered

From my time watching since the mid 1970s:

1995 Nebraska

Next is 2019 LSU

87 or 01 Miami is up there.

I thought about recent Bama and Georgia teams like the last poster. The best team to consider is 2022 Georgia, but they came real close to losing the semifinal. 2020 Bama is next, but the strange season makes it hard to put them at or near the top. Bama 2009 had some really close calls along the way. All the rest of those teams had a loss.

NoahAg said:

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Are we talking best compared to all the other teams from that same year? Or best across all years? B/c really, I don't think any team pre-early 80s could compete with the best teams of the last 20 something years. The top athletes are just bigger, stronger, faster (to some extent). Just look at the o-lines of today. They'd be HUGE compared to NFL o-lines of 30+ years ago.

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Any reasonable discussion of all time greats should be based upon dominance of their peers in the same year or era.

To be honest, 2005 USC is the best I've ever seen.

I still can't believe Texas won. 4 hour game, USC looked like the clear winner for 3.5 hours. 2005 USC beat 5 ranked teams, 2004 USC only beat 3.

Squid94 said:

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1995 Nebraska

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This is it for me

Closest game all year was a 35-21 win over Washington st

After that none else got closer than 23 points

Best I've ever seen was 2019 LSU.

I don't think I will see a better one. Im old.

2022 Appalachian State

South Platte said:

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To be honest, 2005 USC is the best I've ever seen.

I still can't believe Texas won. 4 hour game, USC looked like the clear winner for 3.5 hours. 2005 USC beat 5 ranked teams, 2004 USC only beat 3.

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I can believe Texas won. Vince Young, I hate to say, is the best college FB player I've ever seen in person. And before he and Reggie got to college I send hours arguing online that Reggie was a better QB.

When I was coming up, most would point to '95 Nebraska. They smashed everybody and literally no game was competitive, not even remotely. Their closest game was still a 14 point romp and they won every game by an average (AVERAGE) of 38 points. Spurrier's Florida team was considered unstoppable and the Huskers completely embarrassed them; Spurrier looked, at times, utterly flummoxed by the Blackshirts' ability to shut down his offense at will and his own D's inability to stop Nebraska's run game. The main carrying point of that team was the defense; they were almost as fierce as the Wrecking Crew, but they had an actual offense to back them up so they were free to crush, bully, and intimidate teams as they saw fit. This was a team that would've thrived in their era and olden teams; shortly after the rules changes though, so they would probably have issues with their defense, although the run game could still be overwhelming even against today's defenses.

Others say the '01 Canes. There was a literal record setting amount of NFL talent on that team, and there was no denying them the title. Put them in any era and they can hang with anyone, under any rules. They were basically Saban's Bama before Saban built Bama; too much talent to deny, it didn't matter who coached them.

'19 LSU is a new one to me. They were impressive but I'm not ready to put them into that rarified air yet; they're very, very close, though. Honestly there's a whole collection of teams in that "1B" tier, to include a lot of Saban's Bama teams and other talent-laden teams of recent vintage.

TL;DR, my picks go to either '95 Nebraska or '01 Miami. Then there's a slight drop off and you get the more recent SEC juggernauts.

01 Hurricanes had a few close games. 2019 Lsu blew everyone out. Bama practically had to play all world football in their game, and a still wasn't enough. That lsu team had ELITE NFL talent all over the field.

This

How is the 1919 A&M team not at 100%? Unscored upon the entire season.

The Big 8 in 1995 had 3 other teams that finished in the Top 10 as well and all of them absolutely demolished opponents in Bowl Games. Oklahoma finished in 5th place at 2-5 in the league and yet also tied Texas who went 10-2-1