ESPN: College football's most unlikely title winners of the past 75 years

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
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15. 1970​

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5-year average SP+ ranking: 21.4
Preseason AP rank: 9
Weeks at No. 1 (AP): 0

Bob Devaney enjoyed immediate success when he arrived at Nebraska in 1962, but the Cornhuskers slipped a bit, going 6-4 in both 1967 and 1968. They rebounded to 9-2 in 1969 and tied No. 3 USC on the road early in the 1970 season, which certainly hinted at upside. But any hopes of a first national title required both No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Ohio State to lose their bowl games. Done and done. Stanford upset Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, Notre Dame thumped Texas in the Cotton Bowl, and a 17-12 win over No. 5 LSU in the Orange Bowl earned NU its first ring.
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6. 1981​

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5-year average SP+ ranking: 41.0
Preseason AP rank: unranked
Weeks at No. 1 (AP): 1

Clemson had gone just 14-9 in young head coach Danny Ford's first two seasons, hinting at major defensive upside and pummeling a couple of ranked teams but struggling with consistency. The Tigers were unranked heading into their Week 3 matchup with Herschel Walker and No. 4 Georgia, but a 13-3 upset of the defending champs triggered a rapid rise. They were ranked second heading into November, and they moved to No. 1 for the first time ever following top-ranked Pitt's blowout loss to Penn State. They were four-point underdogs against No. 4 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl -- a sign that they weren't being taken seriously enough -- but a 22-15 win gave them their only title until 2016.
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3. 1983​

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5-year average SP+ ranking: 45.4
Preseason AP rank: unranked
Weeks at No. 1 (AP): 0

A smaller private school in Coral Gables with a nondescript football history, Miami famously considered dropping the sport in the late-1970s. It hired Howard Schnellenberger instead. Good call. The Hurricanes won nine games in both 1980 and 1981, but a 7-4 campaign in 1982 threw everyone off the scent once more, as did the fact that they headed into 1983 with a redshirt freshman (Bernie Kosar) at QB and lost their opening game, 28-3, at Florida. They won their next eight by an average of 36-8, however, and after comfortable wins over both No. 13 Notre Dame and No. 12 West Virginia, they suddenly found themselves in the top 5 for only the second time ever. And with a shocking 31-30 upset of an all-time great Nebraska team in the Orange Bowl, they completed one of the sport's most unexpected title runs, one they backed up with three more national titles over the next eight years.
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2. 1990​

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5-year average SP+ ranking: 47.2
Preseason AP rank: unranked
Weeks at No. 1 (AP): 0

Over the previous 17 seasons heading into 1990, Georgia Tech had seen more one-win seasons (two) than ranked finishes (one). Bobby Ross had built some momentum, jumping from 3-8 to 7-4 in his third season in charge, but no one thought much of the Yellow Jackets heading into 1990.

It took a while to change that. They were still just 16th in the AP poll on the first Saturday of November, but a classic 41-38 victory at top-ranked Virginia gave them a serious boost. They were second behind Colorado at the end of a wild regular season, and the Orange Bowl passed on a potential No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, instead choosing a Notre Dame team with a lower ranking and bigger brand power. The Sugar Bowl, meanwhile, had locked into an arrangement with Virginia back when the Cavaliers were still No. 1; UVA was unranked by the time the Sugar Bowl actually rolled around. (For all the problems a playoff system can offer, never forget that giving all the power to bowls and bowl executives was infinitely worse.) Tech instead pummeled No. 19 Nebraska in the Citrus Bowl. Combined with Colorado's controversial win over the Irish, however, that was enough to snag the top spot in the UPI poll.
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