College Football Fans Get Triggered Again As ESPN Ranks The 50 Greatest Programs Of All-Time

On Tuesday we wrote about how two different media outlets, Sports Illustrated and College Football News, decided to put together rankings of the greatest programs in college football history.

As is the case with any endeavor to rank just about anything these days, people got angry and vented on social media about how horrible and inaccurate these lists are.

To refresh your memory, Sports Illustrated ranked Alabama number one. College Football News, who used a special formula to determine their rankings, had Oklahoma listed as the greatest college football program of all time.

Fans were quick to complain about the rankings of many different schools like Florida State, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, USC, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Tennessee, Miami… you get the drift.

So, because timing is everything, on Thursday ESPN released their ranking of the 50 best college football programs over the 150 year history of the sport.

ESPN, like College Football News, also used a “special” formula to come up with their rankings. I would share it here, but it’s 106 words long and you don’t really care, do you? (If you do, click here and scroll WAY down the page.)

Here’s what they came up with for the 50 the greatest programs in college football history…

1) Alabama
2) Notre Dame
3) Ohio State
4) Oklahoma
5) USC
6) Michigan
7) Yale
8) Nebraska
9) Texas
10) North Dakota State
11) Princeton
12) Penn State
13) Harvard
14) Tennessee
15) LSU
16) Mount Union
17) Miami (FL)
18) St. Johns (MN)
19) Florida State
20) Auburn
21) Florida
22) Georgia
23) Boise State
24) Clemson

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25) Grambling
26) Penn
27) Wittenberg
28) Michigan State
29) Minnesota
30) Washington
31) Wisconsin-Whitewater
32) Texas A&M
33) Pitt
34) Appalachian State
35) Linfield
36) Georgia Tech
37) Dartmouth
38) Virginia Tech
39) Army
40) Miami (OH)
41) Central Michigan
42) Colorado
43) Stanford
44) Arkansas
45) Pittsburg State
46) Arizona State
47) West Virginia
48) Georgia Southern
49) Utah
50) Wisconsin

Now that is a VERY different list when compared to the other two media outlets’ rankings.

Putting Yale, North Dakota State, Princeton, Harvard, Mount Union, and St. Johns in the top 20 is certainly a bold move. (I get it, “all time.” Don’t @ me.)

Also bold is the ommission of schools like BYU, UCLA, Ole Miss, Iowa, Cal, Illinois, SMU, TCU, Maryland, Missouri, Syracuse, Oklahoma State, Navy, UCF… etc. etc.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1162013922649677827

Same.

https://twitter.com/cfbquotes/status/1162010206601011200 https://twitter.com/Instynct02/status/1162023931223498754 https://twitter.com/lbonna04/status/1162026914464354304 https://twitter.com/RealBlairBaker/status/1162064981090848769 https://twitter.com/Texas19771/status/1162021326791553025 https://twitter.com/jblack8509/status/1162039109847855105 https://twitter.com/Californianinja/status/1162020520080134150

Nicely done, ESPN.