ESPNTheMag.Com Presents: All-World Power Rankings

TEN YEARS OF BCS TITLE GAMES, AND YOU GOTTA GO WITH TEXAS VS. USC AS THE BEST ONE, RIGHT?
What is "All-World Power Rankings?"
Interesting: "BCS" is an abbreviation for many things. For tonight, only one matters. By about 11:30pm EST, either Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops will be the first coach with two BCS Championships under their belt. Simple math: this is the 11th BCS Title game, meaning (you following along?) there have been 10 prior. Since these rankings usually need nine slots, we'll rank 9 of the 10 so far. What do we jettison? USC 55, Oklahoma 19. That game was just awful to watch. Now, ranking a list of games isn't necessarily the most interesting thing in world history (this is), so for each game, we're going to offer a "sidebar discussion" for you and your friends. Cool? Here we go.
| TOP 5 | |||
| RANK (YESTERDAY) | WHAT | WHY | |
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1 (14) | TEXAS 41, USC 38 (2005) | You know how this ended. Sidebar: will this stand as Vince Young's career high-water mark? |
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2 (410) | OHIO STATE 31, MIAMI 24 (2002) | Here's the last play. Sidebar 1: if not for the pass interference call, would people consider this the best college football game of this decade, or was USC/Texas truly better? Sidebar 2: aside from games within the Michigan rivalry, will this always be Tressel's biggest win? |
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3 (21) | TENNESSEE 23, FLORIDA STATE 16 (1998) | The first BCS Title game ever. Great clip here where Keith Jackson, who was "retiring," gets all misty about life at the end of the game. Sidebar: since he's been upstaged by Tee Martin and his lil' bro, why do we value Peyton Manning as much as we do in this society? |
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4 (127) | OKLAHOMA 13, FLORIDA STATE 2 (2000) | Here ya go. Sidebar 1: why do colleges always hire coaches that have been fired at other places, when this game is a clear example of what a focused coordinator given a shot (Stoops) can do within a few seasons? Sidebar 2: is this game relevant to this year's game? |
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5 (899) | MIAMI 37, NEBRASKA 14 (2001) | At this point in the list, the games get a lot worse. We'll throw this at No. 5 because of our sidebar question: were the '01 Hurricanes the best college football team, at least talent-wise, ever? |
| HONORABLE MENTION | |||
| RANK (YESTERDAY) | WHAT | WHY | |
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18 (144) | LSU 21, OKLAHOMA 14 (2003) | We were kinda rooting for 'Bama vs. OU this year for a Saban vs. Stoops II, although honestly, this game wasn't that good. (Oklahoma scored late to finish within seven.) Sidebar: are Saban and Stoops the two best recruiters in America, or is it ridiculous to even propose that? |
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28 (701) | FLORIDA STATE 46, VIRGINIA TECH 29 (1999) | Man, Michael Vick was so exciting to watch, wasn't he? (Too soon?) He wasn't as dominant in this game. Sidebar 1: is this the most un-necessarily long Wikipedia entry for a generally below-average game in history? Sidebar 2: what happened to Peter Warrick? |
| RISING AND FALLING | ||
| MOVEMENT | WHAT | |
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| FLORIDA 41, OSU 14 IN 2006 (A rout, but it taught us a lot about the Gators and Buckeyes that we still believe.) |
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| LSU 38, OSU 24 IN 2007 (Game was just boring to watch.) |
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