4 Teams College Football Needs to be Good

Much talk in college football this year has centered on the ‘parity.’ The basic argument goes like this: because of the 85 scholarship limit, a few elite schools are unable to stockpile talent like they used to. Judging on this year, it certainly appears that parity has arrived, evidenced by the current and recent success of the mid-majors. For instance, the University of South Florida sits at #2 in the BCS poll. South freakin’ Florida! Seriously? Last year, Boise State beat mighty Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. That’s a team that for years was famous only for having a nauseatingly blue field defeating one of the historical powers, a charter member of the “traditional powers club.” This year has seen an unprecedented litany of upsets, with every team in the preseason top 10 having already lost once, and we are just past the halfway point of the season.

But is this parity good for the game?

I would argue that it is. Though teams like South Florida or Boise State or Hawaii don’t have the tradition or historical cachet that some teams have, few can argue that the Boise State win in the Fiesta Bowl wasn’t one of the most exciting games they had ever seen. And South Florida is winning this year with a nasty defense and efficient offense. Wins over Auburn and West Virginia attest to the strength of the Bulls. And having more good teams is good for football.

But…..

There are some teams that College Football needs to be good. What I mean is this: when these teams are good, the sport is better. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of any of these teams. In fact, I despise a couple of them. But that’s why college football needs them – either you love them or you hate them, there is no middle ground. I mean, right now, who pulls for their favorite team and then whoever is playing South Florida? Nobody does. But I know a lot of people who pull for their team and against one or more of the teams I am going to list below.

Here are the rules I used to make this list:

• A team must have tradition and personality. It doesn’t have to be a long tradition necessarily, but it has to be substantive.
• A team must currently be unranked. For instance, if Oklahoma was unranked, they would definitely make the list. But since this list is for teams that College Football needs to be good, and the Sooners are currently very good, that need is fulfilled.
• When I say good, I mean “challenge for a conference/national title almost every year” good. 7-5 doesn’t cut it. These need to be 10-2, 11-1 teams that when you see their helmet, you know it’s a big game.
• A classic or distinctive uniform.

With those rules in place, let’s look at the four teams that College Football needs:

1) Notre Dame – Yes, I hate to say it, but College Football needs the Irish to be good. For years as I was growing up, my favorite teams were LSU and whoever was playing Notre Dame. I hated Holtz, the Rocket, Tony Rice, Jerome Bettis, Chris Zorich even despite his feel-good story, all of them. I especially hated Allen Pinkett because I saw him dominate a game against LSU in the mid-80s. I hated NBC, and derisively referred to them as the “Notre Dame Broadcasting Network.” But man, it was fun to hate them. Even in my antipathy, when Our Lady was playing Michigan, I was watching. I cheered wildly the clipping call that brought back Rocket’s punt return to give CU the championship over Notre Dame in 1990. Deep down, if most Domer Despisers were honest with themselves, they would admit that they think the end zones painted with simple lines are pretty cool, as are Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, the green jerseys and the gold helmets. Bottom line is that there are very few people who are completely ambivalent about Notre Dame, and when Notre Dame is good, it is good for College football.

2) Miami – One moment defines why this team needs to be here: the Hurricanes getting off the plane the week before the 1987 Fiesta Bowl dressed in combat fatigues. Of course, they were going to play the apple-pie all-American boys from Penn State, who debarked from their plane in suits and ties. When Miami’s players emerged from the plane, it simply confirmed the nation’s notion of them as brash, disrespectful, dirty football players. I myself thought of them that way. But what they were also was very very good. And their success against some of football’s great powers (see Nebraska) forced the nation to take notice. Admittedly, da U didn’t have much before the mid to late 70s, but when they arrived it was with a vengeance, bringing an incredible emphasis on speed, speed, and more speed. You may have hated them, but the football was great to watch.
College football needs a Miami team that is fast, brash, exciting to watch, and on the edge of being over the top. It needs a little of that South Florida attitude, a little South Beach, unapologetically pastel-wearing, dominating, trash-talking, show-boating speed.

3) Bama – It pains me to write this, but College Football needs Bama. The Tide has the best history of any SEC team, one of the best in the nation. Since the days of the Bear, the Tide have been able to find and/or live with a coach who could win consistently. When one sees those maroon uniforms with just the numbers on the helmet, one thinks of big games of yesteryear. Unfortunately, yesteryear is about the only place to find truly big Bama games at the moment. Saban may resurrect the team, and he may not. But it would be better for College football if he did.

4) Nebraska – College football needs a Big Red that dominates. Representing the best of Bread-Basket American values: hard work, team focus, and clean living, the Huskers could be counted on for two things: polite fans and running the football. Their fans love their football, but they don’t hate the other teams, probably because for many years any team that went into Lincoln was about to be killed, skinned, put on a spit and served with a side of corn. Heck, when La Tech’s Troy Edwards caught 21 passes for 405 yards in Lincoln in 1998, fifteen thousand Husker fans stayed in their seats to give him a standing ovation when he left the field. That’s class, and not likely to be seen in an SEC stadium. But CFB needs a power running, Nebraska bred, swarming defense playing Husker team filled with oversize blond white farm boys who call any woman two years older than them “ma’am.”

One of the things that makes these teams so needed is how they represent distinctive regions: Alabama the south, Miami South Florida, Notre Dame the mid-west, and Nebraska the plains. The personality of each region is to some degree represented in the teams listed here. Sure, other teams represent those regions, too, and some of them have great history. But these teams each have their own personality, but are still universal in their appeal.

There are also several teams that could have made the list, but didn’t: Army, Harvard/Yale, UCLA, Washington, Florida State are some examples. For various reasons, each of these fell short. And there are several teams that are currently ranked that would make the list if they weren’t in the top 25. If you disagree, let me hear about it, and I will explain why your school didn’t make the list.