I think it HAS to be the 2009 Florida Gators.
It's the only time we've ever had an SEC championship game with two unbeaten teams, and the team that lost had won 2 of the previous three national championships. And then just to show they could recover, they blew out Cincinnati in Urban's farewell game, the one where Aaron Hernandez absolutely murdered the Bearcats with his receiving stats.
I don't think there's even a close second.
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Let's divide them out.
THE COMPLETE JOKES
1995 Arkansas
2002 Arkansas (only made it thanks to Alabama being on probation; I'd call them lucky but they weren't good at all)
2007 Tennessee
2010 S Carolina
2014 Missouri
2016 Florida
THE GOT THERE BY BEING THE LEAST BAD
1992 Florida
1996 Alabama
1997 Auburn
2013 Missouri
2015 Florida
THE GOOD OR DECENT ENOUGH TEAMS
1994 Alabama
1999 Florida
2000 Auburn
2003 UGA
2004 Tennessee
2006 Arkansas (an argument for lucky could be made for them as well - if Leigh Tiffin makes just one kick, LSU wins the West; but they were a good offense anyway)
2018 UGA
THE LUCKY NUMB NUTZES
1993 Alabama (only made it because Auburn was on probation - the Tigers actually beat both teams in the game for Pete's sake)
1998 Mississippi St
2005 LSU
2011 UGA (lost to USCe, but then the Gamecocks lost twice, once to a mediocre Auburn. Win that and UGA doesn't even make the game)
2017 Auburn
THE LEGIT CONTENDERS
2001 Tennessee
2008 Alabama
2009 Florida
2012 Georgia
I realize some of you are going to quibble with my assessment of 2018 Georgia, but I think you're reading the 2017 team into the 2018 team. I'm not saying that wasn't a good Georgia team, but they:
a) got blown out by LSU
b) struggled to beat a Kentucky team overrated because they'd beaten a Florida team in its first SEC game with a new coach (31 years!)
c) played five ranked teams and lost to three of them
Let me put it this way:
take away the 2 turnovers we gave them and Tua being hurt on the first series of the game (which included one of those).....and do you think the final score is even close?
They were a GOOD team, they were not "a potential national champion." I think Clemson would have routed them worse than they did us.
1994 Alabama - a solid team but a team that primarily won games with intelligence and some lucky breaks to be quite blunt about it. The only difference in the 91 and 94 Tide teams compared to the 88 team is that the 91 team won every single close game, and the 94 team won every single close game except one.
We might well have had a team that could have beaten Nebraska or Penn State that year - but it was not a "great" overall team, either.
If asked to rank them.....
1) 2009 Gators
2) 2008 Crimson Tide
3) 2001 Vols
4) 2012 UGA