Throwback Thursday: Best SEC teams not to win a title

By Chris Marler

I think about sliding doors a lot this time of year. Not our actual sliding glass door leading to the backyard. Metaphorical sliding doors that open and closed one certain way, but could have also gone the slightest way differently and rewritten history altogether. 

In the world of college football, debate over the greatest teams, players and coaches are played and then replayed every offseason like reruns of The Office or Law & Order. It’s the same episode we’ve already seen a million times. It’s usually also the same stance or opinion that hasn’t budged in the slightest. But come on, why pass up and opportunity to watch Kevin drop the chili for a millionth time, or spend 10-30 minutes talking about nostalgia, the swaggiest team ever, and Coach O impressions? 

The debate on the best college football team ever has been a two team conversation for years now – 2001 Miami and 2019 LSU. I believe 2020 Alabama should be in the conversation as well as 1995 Nebraska. But more importantly there are several others that I think would easily be in that same discussion as well if it weren’t for some sliding doors, Hunter Renfrow pick plays, and Les Miles QB decisions. 

Here are the best teams of all-time that didn’t win a national title. 

1. 2011 LSU

If it weren’t for their loss in the national title rematch against Alabama, that 2011 LSU team would be looked at as the best team of all time. Yes, better than Miami, and over the 2019 Tigers. Full stop. 

LSU started that year 13-0 with eight of the 13 wins coming against ranked opponents. Over 60 percent of their wins that season came against Top 25 teams, three came against teams in the Top three, and only one of those eight was at home in Tiger Stadium. If that didn’t impress you enough, they also beat all eight of those opponents by an average of 24.8 points

That’s about as dominant as it gets.

They were also loaded on both sides of the ball with stars, Heisman finalists, and future NFL Draft picks up and down the roster. They finished second in total defense and scoring defense and held half their opponents to single digit points. The roster had 31 future NFL players on it, as well as the best defensive player in the country in Tyrann Mathieu. 

If Oklahoma State hadn’t inexplicably lost to Iowa State, then they would’ve played in the national title game, and become the 9th ranked team to get steamrolled by that squad. 

2. 2016 Alabama 

As much praise as we gave 2011 LSU, the 2016 Alabama team wasn’t far behind in terms of incredible seasons. I will die on the hill that Nick Saban’s 2016 team was the best Alabama team of all-time. 

Alabama started 14-0 that season with nine wins against Top 25 teams by an average of 23.6 points. They led the country in scoring defense, total defense, and rushing defense, allowing just 63 yards per game on the ground. They scored an absolutely ridiculous 15 non-offensive touchdowns including four punt returns, five fumble returns, and six interceptions returned for touchdowns. Jalen Hurts won SEC Offensive Player of the Year as a true freshman, and led an offense that scored 40 or more points in half their games. 

However, thanks to a Lane Kiffin temper tantrum that left them without an offensive coordinator ten days before the national title game, a Bo Scarborough broken leg in the fourth quarter, and an illegal offensive pick play from Hunter Renfrow with one second left, the greatest Alabama team ever didn’t get a single trophy or ring like so many others. Personally, I think they should just do what they do best and claim it anyway. It would be way more valid than half the ones from 30s and 40s. 

3. 2023 UGA 

Georgia’s run from 2021-2023 was one of the most dominant stretches in college football history. Two national titles, 33 NFL Draft Picks and three straight undefeated regular seasons. The 2023 Georgia team showed very few signs of weakness or even the slightest vulnerability. That UGA team was ranked top five in the country in both scoring offense and defense. Only one team lost by a touchdown or less, and they beat all four ranked opponents by an average of 22.5 points including three of the four by 28 points or more. 

They seemed destined to three-peat until the Nick Saban monkey they thought they got off their back in 2021 climbed right back on. Georgia had won 41 of their last 42 games heading into the SEC Championship. However, a three point loss on a neutral field while most of their offensive stars were sidelined with injury cost the Dawgs a chance at three in a row.

The committee then sent them to the Orange Bowl which subsequently turned into one of those rage rooms where people break stuff with a little league bat instead of going to therapy. Georgia’s rage room was a 63-3 win over 13-0 Florida State and a perennial confusion as to what the heck happened in Atlanta that cost them another trophy. 

4. 2018 Alabama 

Hindsight is 20/20 and we all remember the absolute bed wetting from Bama in the national title game against Clemson. However, prior to that this team was talked about as the greatest team ever. The defense wasn’t as stingy as previous years, but the offense was doing things Alabama and SEC fans had never seen before. 

Tua Tagovailoa and four future first rounders at receiver put up video game numbers all season. At the end of October, Alabama had played eight games. The offense was averaging 564 yards per game, 54.2 points per game and were beating opponents by more than 38 points per game. Tua entered the month of November with 27 touchdowns and not a single interception. The offense scored 30 points or more in every game but two all season, and even then, the defense pitched a shutout in both. It became routine to see Tua throw for 300 yards and four touchdowns before Saban pulled him for former starting QB Jalen Hurts. But, it was happening in the 2nd quarter. 

Either way, just like property values, crime rates, and opioids the moment Alabama stepped foot in the state of California, everything plummeted into oblivion.  

5. 1995 Florida 

One of the biggest snubs in this discussion almost every time it happens is 1995 Florida. A lot of people will clutch pearls and misguidedly suggest 2004 Auburn at least somewhere on this list, but they’d be wrong. (I’ll explain later). 

Scoring 40 points a game has become much more of the norm in today’s spread out, snap the ball every 14 seconds offenses. But, in 1995? Some NBA teams weren’t putting up 40 points a game in that era. Steve Spurrier’s team did things offensively that we’d never seen in this conference. Danny Wuerrfel, Fred Taylor, and one of the wide receiver corps in college football history set program and conference records for passing touchdowns, passing yards per game, total yards per game, and points per game (45.6). 

They finished the regular season 12-0. The defense allowed ten points or less in six of the 12 games and the offense scored 40 or more points seven times in 12 games. They beat five ranked teams by nearly 20 points per game, including three top ten teams. The closest win they had all season was by 11 points. This was a complete team that put up historic numbers all year, beat Peyton Manning’s Tennessee team 62-37, and ran through the SEC with a 9-0 record with an average margin of victory of 28.8 points. 

Then, they met Nebraska in the desert, and the one of the greatest teams to not win a title met arguably the greatest college football player to not win a Heisman, Tommy Frazier. 

Honorable mention 

2004 Auburn 

2001 Tennessee 

2009 Florida 

2017 UGA 

1966 Alabama 

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