FO's top 100 teams of the last 100 years.

by LaFortune Teller , South Bend, Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 16:23 (5797 days ago)

Not exactly the definitive word on this subject, but my colleague Bill Connelly did all the research and development for a massive project that ranked every team over the last 100 years according to strength relative to era. The formula is pretty heavily weighted toward schedule strength and defensive dominance, and only uses final games scores.

He wrapped up the countdown today with the final top-20 here:
http://footballoutsiders.com/varsity-numbers/2010/top-100-college-football-teams-last-1...

Here are the others:
100-81: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/varsity-numbers/2010/vn-greatest-teams-last-100-years-...
80-61: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/varsity-numbers/2010/top-100-college-football-teams-la...
60-41: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/varsity-numbers/2010/top-100-college-football-teams-la...
40-21: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/varsity-numbers/2010/top-100-college-football-teams-la...

Notre Dame had 11 teams in the top 100 (second-most behind Alabama):
3. 1966 ND (9-0-1)
11. 1946 ND (8-0-1)
20. 1943 ND (9-1)
31. 1988 ND (12-0)* (ranked behind No. 25 '88 Miami)
37. 1930 ND (10-0)
71. 1931 ND (6-2-1)
77. 1973 ND (11-0)
85. 1932 ND (7-2)
89. 1989 ND (12-1)
95. 1977 ND (11-1)
99. 1938 ND (8-1)

*Interestingly, '88 ND ranked behind '88 Miami (No. 25); '93 ND ranked behind '93 FSU (No. 56), but '89 ND ranked ahead of '89 Miami (No. 91).

These kinds of lists are generally pretty silly exercises, and as Bill mentioned in his write-ups, a slight tweak in the formula likely would have shuffled most of the top 250 altogether (we're talking about 12,000 different teams). But the write-ups are pretty damn interesting, and the conversations in the comments have been pretty good as well. Bill will post a podcast with Beano Cook later this week, too.