What college football team had the best 2020 season?
In case you hadn’t heard, Alabama won college football’s national title in 2020. Thirteen victories in 13 games, every one of them against Power 5 competition, all but one by double digits. One national title trophy was handed out after 2020’s completion, and the Tide lifted it.
But not everyone runs the same race in college football. Half the game’s top division is constitutionally barred from even playing for the title and in practice only 10-ish programs a year begin the year with realistic hopes of even playing for the title, and so it would be foolish to measure all teams with the same stick.
For this exercise, we’ll judge 2020 teams not against each other, but against every team that has come before it. We’ll learn nothing by declaring the cheetah faster than the frog, so let’s instead compare the frog against other frogs.
Eight of the year-end AP Top 25 — nearly one third of the poll — posted the highest finish in school history, another handful came close. Who had the best 2020, comparatively speaking?
No. 1 Alabama: Alabama claimed its 18th national title in 2020. The AP ranked Alabama its year-end No. 1 for
just the 12th time, so technically speaking this season joins a 12-way tie for first place. But only the 2020 team won their title the way they did it, against an all-Power 5 schedule.
No. 8 Cincinnati: Luke Fickell’s 2020 team tied Brian Kelly’s 2009 outfit, which also went undefeated before losing a New Year’s Six game to an SEC opponent. But Kelly had already left for Notre Dame by the time the Sugar Bowl rolled around, and Cincy lost 51-24 to Florida. Cincinnati very nearly beat Georgia and Fickell is sticking around for 2021, so we can go ahead and declare 2020 the best season in school history. So far.
No. 9 Iowa State: Iowa State did not snap its longest-in-the-Power 5 108-game conference title drought, but it came damn close. It did not win the CyHawk game (because it was canceled). But the Cyclones did beat Oklahoma, they did beat Texas, they played in their first Big 12 Championship, they won their first New Year’s Six game, and they finished in the AP Top 10 for the first time in school history. In fact, ISU had only finished inside the AP Top 25
twice before, and never higher than No. 19.
Entire article:
https://footballscoop.com/news/what-college-football-team-had-the-best-2020-season/
