Where should Tennessee be ranked, ALL-TIME, among College Football Programs?

#26
#26
Maximum Jack said:
Depressingly, we're the only school in Billingsley's top 10 not to have produced a Heismann winner. I think Georgia Tech is the only other one in the top 20 without a HTW.
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Majors and Manning got robbed. Majors to a guy on a 3-8 Notre Dame team.

Frankly, the whole thing is a sham. The Heisman really isn't much a historical benchmark.
 
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#27
#27
Maximum Jack said:
I'm sure I could look this up, but perhaps one of you might tell me. If Florida has been in the SEC for 78 years (since 1933) why have we only played them 42 times?
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The sec only had ten teams until around 1990. Florida was not one of our traditional rivals. We played auburn, Bama, Kentucky, Georgia and Vandy every year. And we rotated the other four teams...LSU, Florida, ole miss and miss state.
 
#28
#28
1. Notre Dame
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Ohio St
5. Michigan
6. Nebraska
7. Texas
8. Southern Cal
9. Tennessee
10.Penn St
11.Georgia
12.LSU
13.Florida
14.Florida St
15.Auburn

Notre Dame, Alabama, and Oklahoma must be 1-2-3 simply due to the measurables and the immeasurables (all over 820 wins, the most national championships, the multiple dynasty periods for each, long historic winning streaks, and the iconic coaches). Numbers 4 thru 8 certainly belong in that grouping, and we can argue about the order, but that one made sense to me. I believe Tennessee fits in perfectly at 9, clearly ahead of those below, and just out of the pack above. As for the rest, I would argue that Penn St has had greater consistent program success than Georgia, and that Florida's successes (including multiple conference and national championships and Heisman winners) puts them above Florida St and Auburn.
 
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#31
#31
Where should Tennessee be ranked, ALL-TIME, among College Football Programs?

The key word here is "where". Since 99% of us on here are Vol fans the answer is certainly number 1. Actual analysis however would probably have UT around the top 10.
 
#33
#33
RockyTop411 said:
It's hard to not say Top 10, but I'd say 11-15. In no particular order, Michigan, Notre Dame, Alabama, USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida State, Florida, LSU, Nebraska, off the top of my head might be a little better than us. Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn are all right together.

Edit: I forgot Ohio State in there. I'm sure some more. So I'd say #12 or #13 in the Country.
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We should be #7 IMO. Fl. St. should be 25 or so. How are they 12 all time when they were all girls until 1947. Only 484 wins really? Miami has almost 100 more wins and twice as many NC's.

Just an FYI...UT was the leader in wins from 1925-2010 of all college teams.

Alabama should be #1 as much as it pains me then Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Ohio St., USC, then us. IMO.

:hi:

tennesseeduke
 
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#34
#34
depends how you want to grade things. i will use programs that will not cause world war III.

take michigan. they are at or near the top of almost every meaningful category.

yet, i can't remember a time where michigan had a truly dominant run. they have one national title in the last 50 or so years. i don't remember too many close calls in that time either.

take nebraska. for years, they literally had a 1 game schedule. the old big 8 was a paved road to 9 and 10 win seasons. all they had to do was beat oklahoma. at least oklahoma also played texas.

people think some of these conferences are jokes now, i have no respect for the historically greatness of nebraska and oklahoma because they didn't play anyone

so, there are all kinds of things you can do to influence how schools are juged.
 
#35
#35
Maximum Jack said:
Depressingly, we're the only school in Billingsley's top 10 not to have produced a Heismann winner. I think Georgia Tech is the only other one in the top 20 without a HTW.
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No we had 2 but got screwed twice. Johnny Majors and Peyton Manning! Majors was the do every thing player in 1956 when we were 10-1. Paul Hornig and Notre Dame were 2-9 and he wins it, HOW? Peyton Manning 40-6 as a starter lose to a DB and part time WR Charles Woodson??? ESPN hates us!

:unsure:

tennesseeduke
 
#36
#36
volgrad1985 said:
1. Notre Dame
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Ohio St
5. Michigan
6. Nebraska
7. Texas
8. Southern Cal
9. Tennessee
10.Penn St
11.Georgia
12.LSU
13.Florida
14.Florida St
15.Auburn

Notre Dame, Alabama, and Oklahoma must be 1-2-3 simply due to the measurables and the immeasurables (all over 820 wins, the most national championships, the multiple dynasty periods for each, long historic winning streaks, and the iconic coaches). Numbers 4 thru 8 certainly belong in that grouping, and we can argue about the order, but that one made sense to me. I believe Tennessee fits in perfectly at 9, clearly ahead of those below, and just out of the pack above. As for the rest, I would argue that Penn St has had greater consistent program success than Georgia, and that Florida's successes (including multiple conference and national championships and Heisman winners) puts them above Florida St and Auburn.
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Your top 10 coincides precisely with the schools I grew up considering as perennial powers. I also regarded Penn St. as a program that slightly surpassed Georgia's overall level of success.

Your perspective on Florida is quite understandable and thoroughly defensible, but I'm going to play devil's advocate here for several reasons: (1) I can, as a Tennessee fan, choose not to give them any more credit than they absolutely deserve; (2) their self-assumed sense of superiority has earned the attitude referenced above; and (3) their carefully couched, narrowly defined sense of historicity is consistently used as a justification for dismissing everything prior to 1990 as "irrelevant."

Weighing Florida's status as an SEC backwater prior to the Charlie Pell era (particularly 1984-85) against everything that has transpired subsequently is a difficult balancing act. I mean, if national championships are the only factor to take into the equation, where do we rank Minnesota, who won national championships in 1904, 1911, 1915, 1934, 1935, 1936, and 1941 (see http://www.cfrc.com/Archives/NC_Team_2011.htm and Final Rankings), but has rarely been a national force since then?

Plese don't feel the need to defend your position. I consider your analysis very fair and I am simply having fun with you at Florida's expense.
 
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#37
#37
Taking off the orange blinders.

I think we are top 10. The last ten years has hurt us, but you know the motto it's just win baby.
ALL time wins
1. Michigan
2. Texas
3. Irish
4. Nebraska
5. Ohio State
6. Oklahoma
7. Alabama
8. Tennessee
9. USC
10. Georgia
 
#38
#38
tennesseeduke said:
No we had 2 but got screwed twice. Johnny Majors and Peyton Manning! Majors was the do every thing player in 1956 when we were 10-1. Paul Hornig and Notre Dame were 2-9 and he wins it, HOW? Peyton Manning 40-6 as a starter lose to a DB and part time WR Charles Woodson??? ESPN hates us!

:unsure:

tennesseeduke
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I guess that's sort of my point. UT does not get a lot of respect. The Alabamas, the Notre Dames the Michigans, The USCs seem to have much more cache than we do. If Peyton would have been at any of those schools, he'd have won it twice.
 
#39
#39
99gator said:
depends how you want to grade things. i will use programs that will not cause world war III.

take michigan. they are at or near the top of almost every meaningful category.

yet, i can't remember a time where michigan had a truly dominant run. they have one national title in the last 50 or so years. i don't remember too many close calls in that time either.

take nebraska. for years, they literally had a 1 game schedule. the old big 8 was a paved road to 9 and 10 win seasons. all they had to do was beat oklahoma. at least oklahoma also played texas.

people think some of these conferences are jokes now, i have no respect for the historically greatness of nebraska and oklahoma because they didn't play anyone

so, there are all kinds of things you can do to influence how schools are juged.
Click to expand...

All valid points. As I stated previously, what do Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, USC, Michigan and Ohio State have in common? All of them have dominated conferences in which, historically, they have rarely had more than one serious threat to their supremacy.

By contrast, no matter how strong our fraternal contempt for each other as SEC members may be, the accomplishments of Tennessee, or any elite SEC program, must be viewed in the context of a conference in which, on any given year, Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, Georgia Tech, LSU, Florida and Ole Miss were or are serious contenders on the SEC and national stage.

On the other hand, to give the devil, otherwise known as Nebraska, his due, the Cornhuskers amassed an 11-game winning streak in bowls over the SEC between 1969 and 1999 (see Nebraska Historical Scores), including convincing victories over Alabama (38-6), Florida (62-24) and Tennessee (42-17), which secured national championships following the 1971, 1995 and 1997 seasons.

I completely agree that the old Big Eight consisted of the Big Two and the Little Six. However, in forty-five years of closely following college football, the strongest individual teams I ever saw were all Nebraska squads: the 1971, 1983 (yes, they lost to Miami because Osborne had the guts to go for two. I believe that, if those two teams had played 10 times, Nebraska would have won 8) and 1995 teams.
 
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#40
#40
volgrad1985 said:
1. Notre Dame
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Ohio St
5. Michigan
6. Nebraska
7. Texas
8. Southern Cal
9. Tennessee
10.Penn St
11.Georgia
12.LSU
13.Florida
14.Florida St
15.Auburn

Notre Dame, Alabama, and Oklahoma must be 1-2-3 simply due to the measurables and the immeasurables (all over 820 wins, the most national championships, the multiple dynasty periods for each, long historic winning streaks, and the iconic coaches). Numbers 4 thru 8 certainly belong in that grouping, and we can argue about the order, but that one made sense to me. I believe Tennessee fits in perfectly at 9, clearly ahead of those below, and just out of the pack above. As for the rest, I would argue that Penn St has had greater consistent program success than Georgia, and that Florida's successes (including multiple conference and national championships and Heisman winners) puts them above Florida St and Auburn.
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OU ahead of Texas? All time? Lol
 
#43
#43
Volosaurus rex said:
All valid points. As I stated previously, what do Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, USC, Michigan and Ohio State have in common? All of them have dominated conferences in which, historically, they have rarely had more than one serious threat to their supremacy.

By contrast, no matter how strong our fraternal contempt for each other as SEC members may be, the accomplishments of Tennessee, or any elite SEC program, must be viewed in the context of a conference in which, on any given year, Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, Georgia Tech, LSU, Florida and Ole Miss were or are serious contenders on the SEC and national stage.

On the other hand, to give the devil, otherwise known as Nebraska, his due, the Cornhuskers amassed an 11-game winning streak in bowls over the SEC between 1969 and 1999 (see Nebraska Historical Scores), including convincing victories over Alabama (38-6), Florida (62-24) and Tennessee (42-17), which secured national championships following the 1971, 1995 and 1997 seasons.

I completely agree that the old Big Eight consisted of the Big Two and the Little Six. However, in forty-five years of closely following college football, the strongest individual teams I ever saw were all Nebraska squads: the 1971, 1983 (yes, they lost to Miami because Osborne had the guts to go for two. I believe that, if those two teams had played 10 times, Nebraska would have won 8) and 1995 teams.
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I don't dispute any of that.

I'll just say this. Now that they are in the big 10, their days of being a top 5 program (which is what they are historically) are gone.

10 win seasons almost every year. Gone.

Averaging about 5 conference titles a decade. Gone.

And the main reason for that is competition.
 
#44
#44
. . . And the absence of a coach of Bob Devaney's or Tom Osborne's caliber. When you consider the demographic hurdles Nebraska has had to overcome, a population of ca. 1.84 million presently, and the fact that they don't even have the luxury which Oklahoma possesses (i.e. simply stepping across the Red River and raiding Texas for talent), it is amazing that Nebraska achieved what they did.
 
#45
#45
I truely believe if you put one of Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Auburn, or Georgia in a different confrence, that that team would have a lot more historical success. Basically, competition in the SEC, in my opinion, is why teams like Georgia, Auburn, and Florida don't have more championships, and is why teams like Tennessee and Alabama can have periods of being mediocre or worse.
 
#48
#48
Ranking programs all time has little relevance to what is actually happening in today's world with recruiting. I like to rank the SEC programs from 1972 because that was the first season freshmen were eligible to play varsity ball and even more importantly it was the first season the SEC was fully integrated.
The top six programs from that season to the present.

Alabama 385 wins (216 SEC)
Florida 351 wins (205 SEC)
Georgia 345 wins (192 SEC)
Tennessee 328 wins (176 SEC)
Auburn 322 wins (170 SEC)
LSU 313 wins (166 SEC)
 
#50
#50
FGT said:
Ranking programs all time has little relevance to what is actually happening in today's world with recruiting. I like to rank the SEC programs from 1972 because that was the first season freshmen were eligible to play varsity ball and even more importantly it was the first season the SEC was fully integrated.
The top six programs from that season to the present.

Alabama 385 wins (216 SEC)
Florida 351 wins (205 SEC)
Georgia 345 wins (192 SEC)
Tennessee 328 wins (176 SEC)
Auburn 322 wins (170 SEC)
LSU 313 wins (166 SEC)
Click to expand...

All those stats are pointless.......This tread is about ALL TIME....you might as well put up stats from 2000 above.
 
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