ESPN: Which schools should be considered college football royalty?

Saunders

Saunders

Heisman Trophy Winner
Which schools should be considered college football royalty?

What are the most important programs in the history of college football?

It's a thorny, fun, fascinating question that we posed to 12 of our writers. We asked them to rate every current FBS program on a scale of 1-10, based on each school's overall impact on the history of college football.

The rankings below list the school, then their average score. The top five finished with unanimous 10 scores, and we rounded up from 9.5 for those that just missed a perfect score.

The end result? Eight schools qualify for what we're calling blue bloods -- the royalty of the game.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/17336754/alabama-crimson-tide-notre-dame-fighting-irish-ohio-state-buckeyes-oklahoma-sooners-usc-trojans-lead-list-college-football-blue-bloods
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8. Nebraska Cornhuskers | 9.5

Relatively speaking, Nebraska has enjoyed more recent success. The first of the Cornhuskers five national championships came in 1970. They went back to back in 1970-71 and again in 1994-95. They've also produced three Heisman winners including 2001's winner, quarterback Eric Crouch.
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Related:

Tough calls: Most difficult college football programs to rank

It sounds like a simple proposition: On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is (fill in the blank with a school) to the history of college football?

Sure, in our blue bloods project, programs such as Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC all grabbed unanimous 10s across the board.

But that's when things got interesting. Here are the most difficult assessments that each of our 12 writers had to hand out.

Andrea Adelson: Nebraska Cornhuskers

It has been nearly 20 years since Nebraska won a national championship, 17 years since it won a conference title. Despite the recent slide in fortunes, there is no question the Huskers deserve the highest possible rating as a tried-and-true blue blood. The program has been around for 126 years -- it's won 46 league titles, five national championships and produced three Heisman Trophy winners. Its teams in the mid-'90s go down among the best in college football history. Has the program slid in recent years? Yes. Incoming freshmen have never known true Nebraska football dominance. But its storied history puts the Huskers in rarefied air, worthy of a perfect "10" rating.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/17386120/toughest-decisions-college-football-writer
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Man, we are in some serious need of real success / national relevance.

In a million years, I never would have predicted what has happened over the past 15 years. Reflecting back to myself in 2001, with the machine still rolling and only one stunning high-profile loss (Miami could have been worse, but Colorado was stunning), I wouldn't have thought it was possible for the wheels to fall off. Still SMH in amazement.

 
How about this ........ Which schools should be considered college football BENEFITS?

Oklahoma - Free cars and hookers, immune laws, NCAA darlings, cover up expertise and easy-peasy academics

 
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Nebraska is in real danger of becoming Minnesota. The Golden Gophers have seven national championships to their name, but haven't been relevant on the national stage in fifty years. They're forever away from recruiting hotbeds and they haven't had a top-tier recruiting class since the major raters came into being. There are a lot of parallels between the two programs.

 
knapplc said:
Nebraska is in real danger of becoming Minnesota. The Golden Gophers have seven national championships to their name, but haven't been relevant on the national stage in fifty years. They're forever away from recruiting hotbeds and they haven't had a top-tier recruiting class since the major raters came into being. There are a lot of parallels between the two programs.
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Except our fan base is still rabidly passionate. Otherwise I completely agree. After this year we will be 20 years removed from a National Championship win. As long as we can at least get back in the yearly discussion we can avoid that fate.

 
It's respectable rank to be placed at but Nebraska has lost more national championship games in the past 30 years than a few of those teams listed have played in. Being 4th with most wins ever, 3 back from being tied for 2nd, the run of success for 35 years, amongst other reasons has me questioning voter bias just a little. If current relevancy is a factor, I can understand the rating. Oh well.

 
The fact that Oregon and Wisconsin are both in the top 25 of this list tells me all I need to know about the age of the voters, and their perspective on college football history.

...based on each school's overall impact on the history of college football...
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What about Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Pitt, Minnesota, Army, etc? This is more of a list of schools that have been dominant in the last 30 to 40 years (within the lifetime of most of the writers) with more emphasis on the last 10 or 20 years.

 
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I remember watching the Nebraska beat Payton Manning and Tennessee when I was in 2nd grade. Now I'm 27 and Payton is retired from the NFL. It's been too long.

23 years between 1971 and 1994 though, it can happen again. GBR.

 
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So basically, we almost dont belong cuz our success was too modern, but we also almost dont belong cuz our success was too long ago? Am i reading this right? Arent we like 3rd or something in all time wins?

 
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