Which NCAA Football program is the best overall when looking through the sands of time? Oklahoma Nebraska Ohio St. Notre Dame USC Miami, FL Florida St. Penn St. UCLA Other (who?) Discuss...
Penn State. They're 4-Time National Champions with a combined bowl record of 24-12-1. Great coaching over the years, especially Joe Paterno, has led to numerous players such as Kerry Collins, Courtney Brown, and Ki-Jana Carter having excellent seasons. This proves that in the system they can win with mediocre players, something that Florida State or USC probably couldn't. They are Lineman U and Linebacker U and they are the tough, grind it out team that everyone loves. WE ARE PENN STATE!
Notre Dame, Southern California, Oklahoma Definitely not Miami (Florida). Their big success only dates back to the 1980s.
Cakes is right, it's not Miami, they're by far the best team since 1980, but not all time. I'd say the discussion would be between USC, ND, OU, Michigan, and Alabama. Oklahoma had their own miami-type rise in the 50's, but the others had done it earlier, so I lean against them. Alabama's intriguing, but as it turns out, few of their titles are unanimous. Michigan has been consistently very good, but they haven't really ever built a dynasty that can be looked to (since the 40s). That leaves ND and USC, both have 10+ titles, and both have 7 Heisman winners. I'm going to give the edge to SC for two main reasons, they've done it laregely in an era that allowed more widespread competition, and because they've built legendary multiple year dynasties in that time.
I'd say USC. They've been very successful on the college level and have also turned out some fantastic pro players.
However a lot of the championships USC claims are very controversial and they have claimed championships many years after it looks like 2nd place. ND could easily call that 1993 team champions in light of some of the USC champions.
Not sure what that means, "claiming titles", in the AP/BCS era they've split 3 championships (based on what the major polls say), and Nore Dame has split 3 as well. During that era, there were specific polls looked to as the standard, just like it was the AP and ESPN/USA Today through the late 90s, early 00's. I was comparing them to Alabama, who split 5 of their 7 titles during the same time (most in the Bryant era). * Unless you're talking about the retroactive polls, but those aren't the doing of Southern Cal or any school, those are the official findings of groups employed by the NCAA, and in any case, SC and ND won the same amount of titles in that span.
PSU. Look at the history, the bowl games, the national titles and the reputation of the program. They've turned out some amazing players as well. Sure they've had their busts, but what school hasn't. Think about the greats that came out of the school as well. http://scripts.cac.psu.edu/dept/psusportsinfo/scripts/history/bowls.pl
http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/database/pennstate_database.htm National Champions 1911, 1912, 1982, 1986 Undefeated Seasons 1887, 1894, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1920, 1921, 1947, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1986, 1994
There was no official national champion in 1911 and 1912. The Helms Foundation selected mythical national champions between 1883 and 1935. Princeton won in 1911 and Harvard in 1912.
top 3 are: 1. Notre Dame 2. USC 3. PSU or OSU (toss up) Number 1 wasn't to hard, as Notre Dame is the most historical football programs and has been one of the most competitive for the longest period of time. But it was tough picking the rest. Because they all have had dominant eras. I really wanted to put OSU in there, they had the dominant woody hayes era, and bounced back nicely during the 90's and have done well in this new century as well. Ok I have to change my list now. Edited to add OSU.
If somebody could post a list of the teams who have won national titles it would help. Not year-by-year, but list the teams in order with the #1 team as the team who has won the most titles. I have the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia, but believe it or not, it doesn't have such a simple list in it.
There is no possible way anyone could justify PSU over Michigan, Bama, or Oklahoma. Absolutely no way.
I'm sticking with my team. PSU all the way! Granted PSU wouldn't be what it is today without JoePa. Can't really dispute him as greatest coach in College Football history. And I don't want to hear about Bobby Bowden. Nobody's done it with more class than JoePa and he's been with the same school his entire career.
Well Bama certainly should not have been overlooked. They belong on the list. This is just to hard for me to decide.
