After Penn State lost to Ohio State, James Franklin made a statement during his press conference about becoming an elite program.
“AS HARD AS WE HAVE WORKED TO GO FROM AVERAGE TO GOOD, FROM GOOD TO GREAT, THE WORK THAT IT’S GOING TO TAKE TO GET TO AN ELITE PROGRAM IS GOING TO BE JUST AS HARD AS THE GROUND AND THE DISTANCE THAT WE’VE ALREADY TRAVELED.”
Now obviously Penn State is not at the elite level yet, but I started to wonder what teams were and what parameters there would be to determine who is elite.
I figured an elite team has to be very good for a decent amount of time. I decided that ten years would be a good amount of time. Winning a national championship or at least playing for one, and having a good bowl game record would define a team.
Since 2008 there has been one team that is absolutely dominant. I do not think you need me to tell you who it is…(but I will): Alabama. I am going to put them on a pedestal above Elite. Maybe they should be Premiere. They are what everyone else is striving to be in college football. Do not believe me? Since 2008 (up to this past weekend), the Crimson Tide are 132-14. They have five national championships, in fact during that time, they have played in six national championships. Throughout this period they have went 7-3 in bowl games. During that time they have been ranked number one at some point in every season. That is just insane. So yeah, Alabama is above and beyond everyone else.
Here is my ranking of elite, superb, great,very good, good, and average. It will go school name, record, bowl game record, national championship game record.
Elite Schools
Ohio State: 119-21, 5-4, 1-0
Clemson: 110-33, 6-4, 1-1
Oklahoma: 110-29, 5-5, 0-1
These schools all have over 110 wins and have at least been to a national championship game. I was shocked by the fact that Clemson has been that good for this long.
Superb Schools
Florida State: 104-36, 8-2, 1-0
Oregon: 105-33, 5-4, 0-2
LSU: 101-35, 5-5, 0-1
Georgia: 101-40, 7-3, 0-1
I know that Coach Franklin did not have a superb ranking, but I had to distinguish from these groups. I have FSU above Oregon despite having less wins because of winning a national championship.
Great Schools
Wisconsin: 104-36, 5-5, 0-0
Stanford: 102-37, 5-4, 0-0
Boise State: 115-24, 7-3, 0-0
TCU: 101-33, 6-3, 0-0
This one was tough for me because these schools all have over 100 wins, but no national championship appearances. It was tough to include Boise State, but looking at the bowl games they have won during that time and you see they have played some big ones, they deserve to be in this group.
Very Good Schools
USC: 98-40, 5-3, 0-0
Michigan State: 97-41, 5-4, 0-0
Florida: 92-44, 6-2, 1-0
Virginia Tech: 94-46, 6-4, 0-0
Penn State: 93-42, 3-5, 0-0
Notre Dame: 89-46, 5-3, 0-1
Auburn: 87-51, 4-4, 1-1
Utah: 90-44, 7-1, 0-0
This is a weird one. You have USC with 98 wins, but has not played for a championship, but Auburn has 87 wins and won it all and lost in the title game. Utah sneaks into this area because they have an impressive bowl resume and their down years were the first two or three after moving to the Pac-12. Penn State is in this grouping. I think a few more strong seasons (especially a few more 10+ win seasons should help them make the jump to the great category.
Good
Texas: 84-51, 4-3, 0-1
WVU: 85-50, 3-6, 0-0
Nebraska: 85-53, 4-5, 0-0
Central Florida: 84-53, 4-3, 0-0
Northern Illinois: 95-47, 2-7, 0-0
Miami: 83-52, 1-7, 0-0
Louisville: 82-53, 4-4, 0-0
It is crazy to me that Texas played in a national championship game and then has been so mediocre since then. Miami needs to learn how to win a bowl game or they will never make that leap to Very Good. You may be wondering why I have N. Illinois so low. They never win those bowl games where they have a chance to show they have reached a new level. Also, they very rarely beat anyone outside of their conference (aside from Purdue).
Average
Michigan: 80-54, 2-5, 0-0
Georgia Tech: 79-58, 3-5, 0-0
Pitt: 76-60, 3-6, 0-0
Tennessee: 65-66, 3-2, 0-0
Okay, to be fair, I did look at a bunch of other schools and they should be in the average group (or possibly in the good). Schools like Washington, Texas A&M, Iowa, and a few others. I wanted to mention these average schools for a variety of reasons. Mainly to shock a few of my friends who root for those teams. But also to point out how bad Tennessee has been for the last decade. If you did a ten year stretch from 98-08, they would look vastly different. Granted so would a few other teams.
I would like to mention Appalachian State. Since coming to FBS, they are 41-15 and 3-0 in bowl games. They are averaging nine wins per season. If you extrapolate that out, they would be around the great/very great line. Just from a win perspective.
I guess that brings up a valid question: can a small conference school truly make it to the elite program status? Or even superb? I suppose dominating your conference for a sustained period of time and then winning your bowl games, no matter how big or small it is, especially if they get a big name opponent, then maybe. Unfortunately, those schools will almost never get a chance to play for a national championship, and without that opportunity, they can never truly be elite.
Anyways, those are my thoughts on the subject. I would love to hear from people about what they think of as elite or why I am an idiot for not including their favorite team in the list.
