The Athletic's Top 25 teams since 2000
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They have teams that didn’t win the natty ranked ahead of the team that actually won it all in some years. Gay list.
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Like how is 2016 Bama ranked ahead of 2016 Clemson by 15 spots?
Clemson beat em and has the trophy
Clemson beat em and has the trophy
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That one I don't agree with, but 2019 OSU being ahead of teams that won the Natty I'm fine with. I'll take 2019 OSU over a lot of teams that won it IMO.
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The 2005 USC hype has always been funny to me. Their defense was awful and they capitalized majorly off of playing in a weak ass Pac 10.
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I’m fine with non natty winning teams being ranked ahead of teams that won a natty in another year. Like, there’s plenty of non natty winning teams this century I would take over 2007 LSU, but the team that won a natty should be the highest rated team for that year IMO
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I wouldn't say the P12 was weak that season. Probably right in line with every other league. Plus they did play ND OOC. I do think they are, from a historical perspective, overrated though. I think 2019 OSU would beat them in a hypothetical matchup.
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Pretty bad defensive conference all around.
Oregon had the "best" defense in terms of YPG allowed and they ranked 44th.
UCLA finished 2nd in the standings and they were 115th
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I agree the defenses were not great, but that was offset by having very good offenses. Overall they finished with 4 out of the 10 teams ranked, which was more than the B1G and Big East and the same as the Big 12. Plus, like I said had to play ND OOC.
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I think you could maybe argue that USC team on the tail end of the top 25, definitely not top 15 though.
Im shocked they didn't slide 2002 Miami in there, they had the "greatest team ever!!!" train going from ESPN and co too until they lost to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
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Yeah, I think somewhere between 20-25 is more appropriate. Having them ahead of 2019 OSU is pretty ridiculous.
Yeah, I was surprised 2002 Miami didn't make it either, just from what I can remember. But looking at their results, they just weren't overall that dominant. Maybe had they beaten OSU they would have cracked the top 20-25.
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95 Nebraska was the last truly dominant team.
Even 2001 Miami had major trouble with 8-4 Boston College and Virginia Tech teams.
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Yeah, and I think it will be that way moving forward. I do think LSU in 2019 is pretty close given the way they finished, but even they had a couple close games.
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2020 Bama is actually the closest to a truly dominant team but they'll never get that full credit because of the circumstances surrounding that season
They won ever game besides the SEC title game by 15 or more points.
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That's a good point, and hadn't even thought of them, because that entire season was fucked up.
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2000 Miami, good lord. What's funny is if 2002 Miami had beaten OSU and won the title, I have no doubt they'd be ranked top 3, yet 2002 OSU goes 14-0 and beats Miami and they're 19th. The love affair with those Miami teams is absurd.
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I think 2002 OSU is hurt by them beating alot of avg teams by single digits that year. I know off the top of my head the games against Illinois and Purdue came down to the wire (The Musberger call on that OSU TD is an all-time great). But they did have a shit ton of NFL guys on that team.
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2002 Miami shoulda lost to Florida State who choked and missed a very makeable FG as time expired, people completely forget that for some reason. They also came dangerously close to choking against Pitt too.
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2001 Miami always gets rated #1 on these lists b/c the individual talent on that team was insane. it's dumb to ignore that Larry Coker was the coach. They could have easily dropped the BC and VT games that year. I have a hard time rating them #1 on any all-time list because of that. BC and VT were decent that year (#21 and #18 respectively), but definitely teams they should have beat going away.