The 2015 Buckeyes Would Beat About 148 Of The 150 Teams In The "Greatest College Football Teams Of All Time" Rankings
So in honor of college football's 150th anniversary, ESPN decided to make a list of the 150 greatest teams in college football history. I'm not here to knock on the idea. It's pretty cool and it was fun to read. But I am here to knock on the fact that this list absolutely stinks. Or at least it needs a name change.
A panel of 150 voters was created ranging from former coaches like Frank Beamer and Bob Stoops to football experts like Paul Finebaum and Condoleezza Rice. Then they included a bunch of media members too. And I can't fault them all because any time you make rankings, especially of 150 very successful teams, there's going to be dissension. That's not the point of this. The point of this is that this rankings are not realistic AT ALL. Let's be clear: they called this the "greatest teams of all time", meaning the best teams ranked in order.
Am I crazy in thinking that an average team in today's day and age -- let's say this year's Wisconsin team -- beats Knute Rockne's "Four Horsemen" Notre Dame team by a million?
Jonathon Taylor would run for 1,000 yards on them. In the first half. So if you want to go by "special seasons" then it's fine to put the 1945 Army Black Knights at 58, but don't call it the "Greatest Teams of All Time" rankings. If we're talking greatest teams of all time, I'm talking talent. I'm talking The U in 2001, USC in 2004, Texas in 2005, and a combination of Alabama and Clemson teams from recent years. Line them up against any of these greatest Army teams and they win by triple digits.
But honestly, I probably wouldn't have blogged this just to say that. I get that it's an argument of talent and different time periods that you just can't compare. But the reason I had to blog is that this panel of 150 voters chose multiple teams that didn't win championships, and they left the greatest team of all-time off their list: the 2015 Ohio State Buckeyes.
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Nope, not that one. Not the one that won the championship. The NEXT one. The team that choked to Michigan State. The most talented team of all time. I would pay an infinite amount of dollars to watch the 2015 Ohio State Buckeyes play the 94th ranked 1888 Yale Bulldogs. 5 Buckeyes were drafted in the 1st round. 11 were selected in the first 102 picks. And 12 names were called overall. This team was DIRTY.
Here's just a couple of the absolute dawgs on that roster:
Joey Bosa - Defensive End (#3 Overall Pick)
Ezekiel Elliott - Running Back (#4 Overall Pick)
Michael Thomas - Wide Receiver (47th Overall Pick)
Darren Lee - Linebacker (20th Overall Pick)
Vonn Bell - Safety (61st overall pick)
Taylor Decker - Offensive Lineman (16th overall pick)
Eli Apple - Cornerback (10th Overall Pick)
And then you can toss in Braxton Miller, Josh Perry, Cardale Jones, JT Barrett, Adolphus Washington, Nick Vannett, Billy Price, Pat Elflein, Raekwon McMillan, Gareon Conley, and Jalin Marshall. HOLY SMOKES that team was absolutely loaded. Oh, and we had Urban Meyer.
This team would go down as perhaps the greatest of ALL-TIME if it weren't for that gosh darn Michigan State kicker.
That still hurts. This was the best team to never win a title. Don't tell me about The U in 2002 or USC in 2005. This team was unreal, and then they proved it by kicking the shit out of Michigan and Notre Dame the next two weeks. This team dominates all other Ohio State teams, including Woody Hayes' #13 ranked 1968 team and DEFINITELY Jim Tressel's 34th ranked 2002 team. I'm not sure there's one team in history that I wouldn't line this team up against. But I guess that's debatable. One thing that's not debatable, they would beat 2013 North Dakota State by a million.
