Can't argue with anything said here (except Miami... really???)
It's some combo of Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC, and Notre Dame.
Miami is not top five, but a reasonable argument can be made for them in the Top Ten.
I don't know that I'd agree with it, but a reasonable argument could be made.
Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, Penn State, in the next tier. When discussing all-time college football, you simply can't include Florida State, Miami, and Florida ahead of the aforementioned.
I might fudge a bit on Penn State.
I think a reasonable argument can be made in favor of FSU and Miami.
I DON'T think one can be made on behalf of Florida, who won their first SEC title in 1991 (even getting technical with saying they were the SEC's best team in 1984, they began playing in 1906).
Miami, in particular, was quite dominant for a solid decade and then had another spurt of near greatness in 2000-2002.
I think the top five are easy, it's just a question of "who ranks where and why."
Legit arguments can make Ohio St or OU number two, and Notre Dame has been in (for them) a historic low post-Holtz with rare good year exceptions like 2012 and 2018.
Below the top five, it gets much more difficult.
The problem I have with Michigan is that the major point in their favor is "has the most wins and best winning pct (.730)."
But their winning pct is largely controlled by their wins total, which is largely controlled by "has played the most games" - and ran up impressive numbers in pre-1950 college football.
It seems to me that when we're going in the all-time great category, it sorta requires a team that has done a lot across a lot of different decades and especially MORE RECENTLY.
Let's face it - the quality of football played has drastically increased over the last 50 years. So in my view, a team (like Miami, for example, or maybe Penn St) can be ranked even if they weren't very good early on but have been truly phenomenal for a long period of more recent time.
Miami WAS - and I'm a strong critic of that whole nonsense myself - but Miami WAS the Team of the Decade for the 1980s. It's not even a close competition. While I have some beefs with HOW they won a few of those titles (they did not deserve it in 1983 over Auburn, and they ducked Florida in 1991 to smoke Nebraska in the safety of their own home field), those balance out over time, and a strong argument can be made that Miami got hosed in 1985, when they beat OU head-to-head and then watched OU play Penn St in a national title Orange Bowl. Miami was probably the best team in the USA in 1985-86-87-88, and they only got one title out of those years, but they were NOT the best team in the country in 1983, 1989, or 1991 - and they won those. So it balances out.
But I have a hard time putting Miami either top five or even ahead of Nebraska over the long haul. Yes, both have five national titles, but Nebraska's winning pct is almost 60 points higher despite playing 316 more games than Miami.
Florida State put together an Alabama-like run from 1987-2002, but the reality is that not only did they win "only" two titles, their 1993 title is tainted by the fact they had no damned business in the title game, and they choked more often than they champed (they lost to the eventual national champions in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018), and even their own coach thinks their 2013 title is a fluke prevented by The Play That Shall Not Be Mentioned Here.
But I'd list them in the next tier, along with schools like Georgia, LSU, and even Tennessee (remember, all-time, they are the 2nd most successful SEC program behind Alabama. Perhaps they've been passed by Florida and LSU, but I do believe they still have the second most SEC titles).
Things That Matter In Determining This
National championships (they're not the "be all and end all," but they DO matter)
Total wins
Winning pct
Weeks at #1 (important because it means the perception AT THE TIME was "they're the best")
Things That DO NOT Matter Much or AT ALL
Heisman Trophies (little more than a popularity contest)
conference championships (Notre Dame has zero, and all conferences are not created equally)
big names long ago that haven't won anything in the last 50 years