Notice they list the Alabama 2018 squad, the only team without a NC in the Top 10.
It was a great team, regardless of the outcome against Clemson.
I'm very wary of ANY ranking system done by ESPN, who despite the name, doesn't seem to know all that much about analyzing sports. This is a network that when they did their "Who's #1" ranking of the greatest World Series (in 2004)....put THREE World Series' ahead of 1991 and chose 1986 (Red Sox vs Mets) as the greatest ever, which is a damn joke. (I at least could understand if they chose 1975 or 2001 over 1991, but I digress).
The problem with ranking CFB teams all-time isn't the teams, it's the idiots analyzing them. This ESPN tweet shows they can't see very much even with a recency bias of the last ten years.
These folks - almost universally choose the top teams based on:
- winning a blowout in the national championship game
- going undefeated
- having a high-powered offense while
- paying zero attention whatsoever to great defense
- brand name
They are easily swayed by "man, 1983 Nebraska averaged over 50 points per game" and CANNOT see that
in almost every single case, a REALLY good defense stops a REALLY good offense. It's why the clown show picked Oklahoma for the 2018 CFB playoff over Georgia and Ohio State, two teams - I said TEAMS - that were substantially better than the Sooners and their 49.5 ppg offense that needed overtime to beat Army, lost to Texas despite scoring 45, and had four wins in a row closing the season where they surrendered 46, 47, 40, and 56 points. Yes, the Buckeyes lost to Purdue - on a night on the road where Purdue was fired up to win one for kid dying from cancer. Georgia had a bad quarter against LSU and got outwitted by a backup QB again, but they were better than OU, too. This is also why they have 2018 Alabama as the only team that didn't win a championship in the Top Ten - easily swayed by high numbers on offense.
Here, incidentally, are the Alabama numbers for offense for these years:
2014 - 36.9 (16th)
2015 - 35.1 (30th)
2016 - 38.8 (15) - see comment below**
2017 - 37.1 (15)
2018 - 45.3 (3rd)
2019 - 47.2 (2nd)
2020 - 48.5 (2nd - though since Kent St only played 4 games vs 13, we're "really" 1st)
2021 - 39.9 (6th)
2022 - 41.1 (4th)
2023 - 34.0 (24th)
At least their top 2 are defensible and WOULD STILL BE DEFENSIBLE if reversed. I have no real qualm either way, some folks will want to punish Alabama for "but that was a Covid year", which is ludicrous. Not one sap saying this diminishes the Dodgers or Lakers championships the same year (probably because, you know LOS ANGELES). Alabama played an all-SEC schedule and tore through it like a tornado through a trailer park. But I wouldn't die on the hill if they'd chosen 2019 LSU except I'd note that 2019 LSU damn near lost to a not-so-healthy 2019 Alabama, too.
They rated 2022 UGA ahead of 2021 for two of the reasons noted above, they blew out TCU, and they went undefeated. But having watched both teams, I think the 2021 team was better, even though they had a brutal loss to us in the SECCG plus their beating Alabama was a far more impressive accomplishment than wiping the floor with TCU.
Michigan - assuming they belong on the list, which is debatable - shouldn't be higher than 9th or 10th at best. And 2018 Clemson didn't really face anyone until the playoffs, they just blew both teams out.
Also.....isn't it BIZARRE to say "2018 Alabama was so good they're the only ranked loser but they got blown out by Clemson"......this seems a tad contradictory to me.
** - personally, I think the 2016 Alabama team gets dissed. The numbers above are MISLEADING regarding our "offensive points per game", because that was the year we had FIFTEEN non-offensive TDs (NOTs) that year, meaning we averaged ONE PER GAME, which cuts the offensive points numbers down by 6-7 ppg. Yes, I know the argument ("but the offense misses the possession") and if we were talking 3 or 4 that would be one thing. But this defense was SO GOOD that Alabama's offense could have gone out to give them a breather with a decent drive but not scored anything but field goals and the defense/special teams
would have won FIVE games all by themselves plus the SECCG and the Washington playoff game.
Then bear this in mind: 2016 Clemson, who is on this list, did not even lead 2016 Alabama until the final five minutes of the game. You can blame our coaching staff and the off-field drama, the failure to develop Jalen Hurts, whatever - but the truth is that Clemson barely beat perhaps the best defense of the playoff era (using two pick plays, but whatever) in the waning moments. In other words, I still don't think the better team won the game, the team that PERFORMED BETTER and had fewer distractions won the game.
I think they got the top two spots right and the rest is debatable.
Also - why does everyone ASSUME that a CFB team has to go undefeated to be the greatest team ever when they know full well a team with one-loss is often better than an undefeated team (see 2012 Alabama vs Notre Dame for a good example)?
In no other sport do we assume this to be true - not even the NFL, where the 72 Dolphins barely crack the Top Five of most lists.
