Texas is the Greatest Team of All Time...According to CFN

[Yeofoot]

In a computer ranking, UT is the greatest Football team of all time. I like this ranking, so I'm going to go ahead and agree with it. Oh, and to add salt to your wounds USC, if you had won that game, USC would be on top of that list. Here's the article:

Who is the best team of all time. Our friends at CollegeFootballNews.com acutally put some of that college math to use and came up with a formula that ranks the best teams in college football history.
Below are 70 teams, including all the national champions since Texas won in 1969, and a few notable others considered by most to be among the greatest of all-time, give or take a Yale or Michigan squad here and there, and what kind of seasons they had based on the CFN Formula. (This isn't a ranking of the top 70 seasons among every team that ever played, but ranked on the teams considered among the best.)

Which teams had the best seasons on the field? Forget about biases and human opinion, what if you just went by wins and the importance of each one? After several tweaks, adaptations and attempts, here's the CFN Formula to find out which of the greatest teams of all-time had the best seasons ever.

Two things to keep in mind:
1. This takes into account the entire season punishing ugly losses and pumping up good wins. A win at the beginning of the year counts the same as a win at the end in a bowl game, so there might be some head-to-head discrepancies; they're unavoidable in any ranking system. Remember, this is looking at an entire season and not just which team beat another team.

2. This is NOT a ranking of which teams were the best or most talented. This is a formula to find out which teams had the best seasons. Anything else is simply opinion.

1. Texas, 2005
Big 12 (13-0)
Final Score: 29.54
Quality Wins: 9. UL Lafayette, at Ohio State, at Missouri, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas Tech, Kansas, Colorado, USC
Elite Win Score: 2.5. at Ohio State, USC
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 1.Rice
Elite Loss: 0 .... Point Differential Score: 4.29 ... Winning Percentage: 1.00

2. Nebraska, 1995
Big 8 (12-0)
Final Score: 27.64
Quality Wins: 6. at Michigan State, Arizona State, Kansas State, at Colorado, at Kansas, Florida
Elite Win Score: 5. Kansas State, at Colorado, at Kansas, Florida
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 4. Pacific, Washington State, Missouri, Iowa State
Elite Loss: 0 .... Point Differential Score: 4.64 ... Winning Percentage: 1.00


3. Oklahoma, 2000
Big 12 (13-0)
Final Score: 27.37
Quality Wins: 8. UTEP, Texas, at Kansas State, Nebraska, at Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Kansas State, Florida State
Elite Win Score: 3.5. at Kansas State*, Nebraska, Florida State
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 1. Rice
Elite Loss: 0 .... Point Differential Score: 2.87 ... Winning Percentage: 1.00
*Oklahoma beat Kansas State, who finished 11-3, twice. The ruling was to give the Sooners a bonus score of 0.5 for the second win.

4. Nebraska, 1971
Big 8 (13-0)
Final Score: 27.28
Quality Wins: 6. Utah State, Colorado, Iowa State, at Oklahoma, at Hawaii, Alabama
Elite Win Score: 3.5. Colorado, at Oklahoma, Alabama
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 1. at Missouri
Elite Loss: 0 .... Point Differential Score: 4.03 ... Winning Percentage: 1.00

5. Florida State, 1993
ACC (12-1)
Final Score: 26.99
Quality Wins: 7. Clemson, at North Carolina, Miami, Virginia, NC State, at Florida, Nebraska
Elite Win Score: 3.5. at North Carolina, at Florida, Nebraska
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 3. at Duke, Wake Forest, at Maryland
Elite Loss: 1: at Notre Dame .... Point Differential Score: 4.07 ... Winning Percentage: 0.92

6. Notre Dame, 1930
Independent (10-0)
Final Score: 26.86
Quality Wins: 9. SMU, Navy, Carnegie Tech, at Pittsburgh, at Penn, Drake, at Northwestern, Army, at USC
Elite Win Score: 5. at Pittsburgh, at Northwestern, Army, at USC
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 1. Indiana
Elite Loss: 0 .... Point Differential Score: 1.91 ... Winning Percentage: 1.00

7. USC, 1978
Pac-10 (12-1)
Final Score: 26.57
Quality Wins: 10. Texas Tech, at Alabama, Michigan State, California, at Stanford, Washington, at UCLA, Notre Dame, at Hawaii, Michigan
Elite Win Score: 2.5. at Alabama, Michigan
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 2. at Oregon, Oregon State
Elite Loss: 0 .... Point Differential Score: 1.65 ... Winning Percentage: 0.92

8. Tennessee, 1998
SEC (13-0)
Final Score: 26.42
Quality Wins: 8. at Syracuse, Florida, at Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Florida State
Elite Win Score: 3. Florida, at Georgia, Florida State
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 4. Houston, at Auburn, at South Carolina, at Vanderbilt
Elite Loss: 0 .... Point Differential Score: 2.42 ... Winning Percentage: 1.00

9. Miami, 1991
Big East (12-0)
Final Score: 26.42
Quality Wins: 6. at Tulsa, Penn State, West Virginia, at Florida State, San Diego State, Nebraska
Elite Win Score: 5. at Tulsa, Penn State, at Florida State, Nebraska
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 2. Oklahoma State, Long Beach State
Elite Loss: 0 .... Point Differential Score: 2.86 ... Winning Percentage: 1.00

10. Florida, 1996
SEC (12-1)
Final Score: 26.07
Quality Wins: 6. at Tennessee, LSU, Auburn, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida State (Sugar Bowl)
Elite Win Score: 3.5. at Tennessee, LSU, Florida State (Sugar Bowl)
Bad Loss Score: 0 ... Bad Wins: 2. Georgia Southern, at Vanderbilt
Elite Loss: 1. at Florida State .... Point Differential Score: 3.9 ... Winning Percentage: 0.92

Notes of interest: The All-Time Rankings
1. USC 2005
Yup, had the Trojans won the 2006 Rose Bowl, they would've finished with the number one season of all-time.
2. The big debates
2004: Auburn 24.45 - USC 23.77
2003: LSU 25.14 - USC 22.62
1997: Nebraska 25.18 - Michigan 23.33
1994: Nebraska 25.22 - Penn State 21.37
1991: Miami 26.36 - Washington 25.55
1990: Colorado 22.83 - Georgia Tech 22.39
1974: Oklahoma 22:56 - USC 19:09
3. BYU didn't beat anyone in 1984, but ...
Neither did Washington. The Cougars scored 19.73, while the Huskies finished 19.24.
4. The worst national champion season of the last 40 years was ...
Georgia, 1980. Herschel Walker's Dawgs had only four Quality Wins and five Bad Wins.
5. 1993 Auburn ...
Doesn't even deserve to be in the discussion with only two Quality Wins scoring a 15.86.
6. 1983
The wackiest year ever for the formula. Miami beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, but the Huskers scored a 24.04 to Miami's 19.69. The Formula's national champion? Auburn at 25.42. Not on the list of 70, but also interesting to note, was Texas scoring 20.92.
7. USC 1978
Ten quality wins. The most ever.
The Formula's Components:
1. Wins. - If you win, everything else falls into place. Each win counts as 1.
2. Quality Wins - The number of wins over teams that finished with a winning record. Each win counts as 1.
3. Elite Wins - The number of wins over teams that finished with two losses or fewer. Each win counts as 1 with a road win over an Elite team getting an extra 0.5. Also counting as 1 is a road win over a team that finished with three losses or fewer (but the extra 0.5 isn't added). A new wrinkle was added this year. A win over a team that finishes with three losses in a bowl game counts as one.
4. Bad Loss - The number of losses to teams that finished with three wins or fewer or a loss to a DI-AA team. Each loss counts as minus-1. Take away an additional 0.5 for a Bad Loss at home.
5. Bad Win - The number of wins to teams that finished with three wins or fewer, or a win over a D-IAA team. Each win counts as minus 0.25.
6. Elite Loss - The number of losses to teams that finished with two losses or fewer. Each loss counts as 0.25.
7. Point Differential - Points for minus points against divided by 100.
8. Winning Percentage - To take losses into account, winning percentage is in the mix. Total wins is the tie-breaker followed by winning percentage.


And this formula was originated before the Rose Bowl. I like it!

[colorado_loves_football]

There seems to be a lot of debate about which team deserves the award.
And I'm not sure there's one clear-cut way to settle the matter, other than maybe to have the teams play each-other, next to impossible.
But it does at least give some idea as to how strong a team is in a given year, and it also seems to address how well the polls have done in selecting a national champion (pretty well if the numbers are correct).

[Yeofoot]

If we win out next year, we'll be #1 and #2 of all time, I like it, but of course ESPN will hate on them all year, then right after they win the game, they'll talk about how good they were all season.

[Yeofoot]

Yeah, the media does love Texas, but in Texas, you either hate 'em or you love 'em. And there are a lot more haters. Then again, I haven't been there in a few years, but especially with the Aggies, it's like the Hatfields and McCoys.

I still can't stand the fact that AP went to OU. Then again he is a Palestenian.

[Yeofoot]

Man oh man was I wishing that Texas had hired Stoops at that point. They definitely did have that mind control over Texas, Texas was really good every year of those 5 years, and OU made us look 1-AA. I really don't support this type of thinking, but man I hope AP is hurt again this year so we can win by a lot. If he's playing the best I can hope for a win. That kid is the real deal.

[Yeofoot]

is it online anywhere? I'd been hearing about him since he was a freshman, one of my brother's fraternity brothers was from Palestine, and he was always talking about him, we all presumed he'd come to Texas, then his senior year, OU just mopped the floor with us...again, and OU didn't have a premier back and Texas had Cedric Benson. Speaking of High School studs, wow. He scored 5 touchdowns as a sophomore in the state championship game. He scored 5 touchdowns as a junior in the state championship game. He scored 5 touchdowns as a senior in the state championship game. WTF?

[Yeofoot]

Oh, the highlight to end all high school highlights that I've seen was Demarco Murray, your next AP, from Las Vegas, on one play he broke/made guys miss about 20 times. He literally was running the ball for like 30 seconds, zig zagging around the field like crazy. That kid is going to be good. You'd have to be out of your mind to come to Texas to play runningback this year, but we snagged a 4 star anyway.

[Yeofoot]

well, with any luck, he'll have an AP type of freshman year, and his highlight tape will eventually get around.

[Derek]

The award is silly and ludicrous.

No way to determine...Are you gonna get the '05 Texas team back together and play the 72 Cornhuskers??? Where the athletes as well conditioned then as they are now? Probably. None of the comparisons are valid.

The whole gimmick was started so that ESPN could praise USC and Reggie Bush. NO WHERE in this whole silly argument was Texas mentioned, it was USC beating the 02 Hurricane's....ETC.....Texas was written off and never mentioned.

Im glad the whole thing is over.

[Yeofoot]

This was seperate from the ESPN thing they were doing, this was a way of measuring who had the best season. Not pitting them against each other, it compared how well they did against their peers. The BCS gives the newer teams an advantage because whoever wins beats the #2 team in the country and that is usually how the runner up is ranked. I'm not going to argue that we are the best of all time, just loving the attention.

[Yeofoot]

Hey Riche, you do realize that if you hadn't blown the game in the last few minutes of the National Championship game in front of millions of people, that you would've been ranked number one? Wow, USC really blew it didn't they. Losers, those that lose.

[Spence]

The greatest team of all time is the one the media is using to promote the next bowl game. It is all a marketing ploy by the media to sell a game. You also here that any close NC game is the best ever for the same reason. They do what they can to keep people interested.

[Yeofoot]

USC LOST! LOSERS!!!

[Yeofoot]

USC LOST! LOSERS!!! Let it go Riche. We won. You lost. You can get together with your buddies and convince yourselve you really won that game, but guess what? You don't have anything that says USC National Champs '05. Ya lost. Get over it. You sound so bitter, it's disgusting. I understand that you are not educated. I can tell from your responses. You try to put thought behind it, but let's face, if you even have a degree it's in PE. That's okay. Not everyone can have a reasonable IQ.

[Spence]

and your right, when we look at the tape, we do see texas with the higher score at the end of the game, but they didnt win it, we gave it to em. thats how it all adds up for us.

That is usually how it works if you lose. If Ohio State hadn't had 16 fumbles this year we would have probably been in the championship game. But we did have 16 fumbles.

I didn't think either team in the championship game got embarassed, just the opposite. It was a very good game. Mistakes are part of football, the team that makes the least usually wins.