Top Big Ten Teams of All Time

[Sloopy45]

Has anyone ever seen this before?
http://www.collegefootballnews.com/2003/Greatest_Teams/Greatest_BigTen_Teams.htm

CFB News ranks the Top teams of all time from each conference. I liked to see the '02 Buckeyes rank at # 4 - we definately deserve major props in retrospect for the teams we beat. Plus, the Big Ten was the best conference (undisputed) in football that year as well. I think that if Tress wins another Title in the next few years, people will look back and regard the '02 Bucks even higher in retrospect. I think the accomplishments of that team rank with any of the great ones.

I also like how the '68 Bucks ranked ahead of a 1901 scUM squad that didn't give up a point the entire year. They went 11-0 and outscored their opponents 555-0 over the course of the year. Now that's tough to beat.

The '02 (that's 1902), scUM squad, ranked # 1 all-time, beat OSU 86-0, beat MSU 119-0, beat Iowa 107-0, and outscored their opponents 644-12 over the course of the season. Now that's impressive.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

It's hard to argue with the Bucks' 1968 and 2002 teams being the best ever at Ohio State, but IMO the 1973 team was the Bucks' most talented squad, and the 1975 and 1998 teams were pretty close - too bad that those versions of the Buckeyes couldn't win the big games. I hate to admit it, but OSU probably leads the country in missed opportunities between 1968 and 2002 (1969, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1979, 1995, 1996, 1998). I was beginning to think that I would never see a NC team at Ohio State, but Coach Tressel saved me!

 

[DiHard]

could you imagine if the bucks just won 1/3 of those games???? just 1/3....we'd be looking at 5 NC's in that span.....

 

[Xevious]

It's a nice list, but if they are going to include PSU prior to their joining the conference, and records of teams back when it was the old "Western Conference", then I feel they should have added or considered the old University of Chicago teams. While they haven't played D-1 football in over 60 years, they played a significant part in the early days of the conference. The season below is the one I feel is most deserving of consideration.


1905 (10-0)
[size=-1]Coach: Amos Alonzo StaggLawrence 33- 0
Wabash 15- 0
Beloit 38- 0
Iowa 42- 0
Indiana 16- 5
Wisconsin 4- 0
Northwestern 32- 0
Purdue 19- 0
Illinois 44- 0
Michigan 2- 0[/size]
[size=-1]Total 245-5[/size]

Anyway, I really feel it doesn't really make sense to include teams from early in the century, prior to; the legalization of the forward pass, the current down system, and current scoring system. This would include the 1901 and 1902 scUM team and the 1904 Minn team and the above team. These games were 90 min long, had 3 downs to make 5 yds, 3 players in motion, 5 pt TDs, and 4 or 5 pt FGs.

 

[Sloopy45]

LordJeff,

I was thinking the same thing as you until last year. OSU has had as many heartbreaks over the years as any fan in sports, except for the Red Sox.

The 1995 team was awesome (had a bad run Defense, but still should've won it all - way too much Offensive talent), the 1996 team was loaded, and even the 1993 team had a shot (although I don't think they were quite there yet). Had anyone of those teams taken care of business against scUM, we wouldn't have had to wait until 2002 ..

If you wipe the Turn of the Century teams off, OSU dominates the top of the list, and the '68 and '02 Bucks are the greatest B10 teams of All Time. That's pretty impressive .. for as great a program as dUMb is, they really rely on those 1900's teams as a big source of their history. When you think about it, that program should've produced a lot more than 1 Split National Title in 50+ years.