Top Teams (as Recognized in the Final Rewards Ranking)

Since the Rewards ranking system was designed to consider the same number of games for all teams, it uses the largest even number of games played by every Division I-A team that year to determine the rating. All ratings from 1951 to 1979 incorporate 8 games, and those from 1980 to 2005 use 10 games, so any team before 1980 below had its rating "normalized" to be out of 10 games, since the largest value possible for a team's rating is the number of games considered. The table below lists all teams that have achieved a rating of 8.2 (out of 10) or higher (or 6.56 out of 8, which is equivalent to 8.2 out of 10). 2006 will see the number of games included increase to 12, and perhaps that will continue into the future.

All teams below finished their seasons undefeated (and without any ties), and they were also voted as the number one team in the country that year (in both major polls) except for:  the 1979 Southern California (USC) team, which was #2 and played one game that ended in a tie, and the co-champions in 1990 (Washington and Miami of Florida), when the two polls disagreed on who was the national champion. There are many outstanding teams not included below because the Rewards system ignores margin of victory, and so some dominant teams of the past are excluded if they did not defeat many quality opponents (though no doubt, they were a top team).

Rankings for the teams defeated in the rightmost column below appear in parenthesis, after the team's name, and this is their final position in the polls (AP/Coaches if they disagreed) which is also followed by the final Rewards ranking if it was different.

  Name
 

Reward
Rating

Notable teams defeated to earn this high rating:
 
1

 

 Nebraska - 1971

 

 9.4061

 

Nebraska defeated Oklahoma (#2) 35-31 on the road, Alabama (#4,#3) 38-6 in the Orange Bowl, Colorado (#3, #6) 31-7 at home, and Iowa State (NR/#17,#22) 37-0 at home.
2

 

 Notre Dame - 1988

 

 9.1236

 

Notre Dame defeated Miami of Florida (#2) 31-30 at home, West Virginia (#5) 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl, Michigan (#4,#7) 19-17 at home, and USC (#7/#9,#4) 27-10 on the road.
3
 

 

 Miami (F.) - 1987
 

 

 8.8900
 

 

Miami defeated Florida State (#2) 26-25 at FSU, Oklahoma (#3) 20-14 in the Orange Bowl, South Carolina (#15,#17) 20-16 at home, Notre Dame (#17/#21T, #16) 24-0 at home, and Arkansas (#29/#21T, #26) 51-7 in Little Rock, Arkansas.
4

 

 Alabama - 1979

 

 8.8259

 

Alabama defeated Arkansas (#8) 24-7 in the Sugar Bowl, Auburn (#16,#18) 25-18 in Birmingham, and Baylor (#14/#15, #20) 45-0 at home.
5

 

 Southern Cal - 2004

 

 8.7368

 

USC defeated Oklahoma 55-19 (#3) in the Orange Bowl, California (#9,#8) 23-17 at home, Virginia Tech (#10,#13) 24-13 at a neutral site and Arizona State (#19/#20,#11) 45-7 at home.
6

 

 Nebraska - 1995

 

 8.7161

 

Nebraska defeated Florida (#2) 62-24 in the Fiesta Bowl, Colorado (#5/#4, #6) 44-21 on the road, Kansas State (#7/#6, #8) 49-25 at home, and Kansas (#9/#10, #10) 41-3 on the road.
7
 

 

 Nebraska - 1997
 

 

 8.6433
 

 

Nebraska defeated Tennessee (#7/#8, #4) 42-17 in the Orange Bowl, Kansas State (#8/#7, #11) 56-26 at home, Washington (#18,#19) 27-14 on the road, and Texas A&M (#20/#21, #27) 54-15 in San Antonio for the Big-12 championship game.
8
 		 Pittsburgh - 1976
 		 8.6355
 

Pittsburgh defeated Georgia (#10,#7) 27-3 in the Sugar Bowl, and they defeated Notre Dame (#12, #18) 31-0 on the road.
9


 

 Ohio State - 1968


 

 8.6230


 

Ohio State defeated USC (#4/#2,#5) 27-16 in the Rose Bowl, Purdue (#10/#11, 8) 13-0 at home, Michigan (#12/#15, #13) 50-14 at home, and SMU (#14/#16,#13) 35-14 at home. (No post-bowl game votes were taken in 1968.)
10


 

 Tennessee - 1998


 

 8.6030


 

Tennessee defeated Florida State (#3,#5) 23-16 in the Fiesta Bowl, Florida (#5/#6,#8) 20-17 at home, Georgia (#14,#16) 22-3 on the road, Arkansas (#16/#17,#22) 28-24 at home, and Syracuse (#25/#24,#24) 34-33 on the road.
11

 

 Texas - 2005

 

 8.5938

 

Texas defeated USC (#2,#3) 41-38 in the Rose Bowl, Ohio State (#4,#5) 25-22 on the road, Texas Tech (#20/#19,#16) 52-17 at home, and Oklahoma (#22,#20) 45-12 in Dallas.
12
 

 

 Syracuse - 1959
 

 

 8.5813
 

 

Syracuse defeated Texas (#4/#5) 23-14 in the Cotton Bowl, Penn State (#12/#10, #8) 20-18 on the road, and Pittsburgh (#20/#19T, #25) 35-0 on the road. (No post-bowl game votes were taken in 1968.)
13

 

 

 Ohio State - 2002

 

 

 8.5752

 

 

Ohio State defeated Miami of Florida (#2) 31-24 in the Fiesta Bowl, Washington State (#10,#9) 25-7 at home, Michigan (#9,#11) 14-9 at home, Penn State (#16/#15,#19) 13-7 at home, Texas Tech (#27/#28,#27) 45-21 at home, and Minnesota (#34,#33) 34-3 at home.
14

 

 Clemson - 1981

 

 8.5505

 

Clemson defeated Georgia (#6/#5,#9) 13-3 at home, North Carolina (#9/#8,#10) 10-8 on the road, and Nebraska (#11/#9,#12) 22-15 in the Orange Bowl.
15


 

 Oklahoma - 2000


 

 8.5289


 

Oklahoma defeated Florida State (#4/#5, #7) 13-2 in the Orange Bowl, Nebraska (#8/#7,#8) 31-14 at home, Kansas State (#9/#8,#9) 41-31 on the road, and 27-24 in the Big-12 Championship game in Kansas City, and Texas (#12,#18) 63-14 in Dallas.
16

 

 Georgia - 1980

 

 8.4346

 

 Georgia defeated Notre Dame (#9/#10,#8) 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl, Florida (NR/#19,#21) 26-21 in Jacksonville, Florida, and South Caroline (NR,#22) 13-10 on the road.
17

 

 Michigan State - 1952

 

 8.4245

 

Michigan State defeated Notre Dame (#3,#6) 21-3 at home, Syracuse (#14/NR, #29) 48-7 at home, and Purdue (#18/#12,#23) 14-7 on the road. (No post-bowl game votes were taken in 1968.)
18

 

 Miami (F.) - 1991

 

 8.4037

 

Miami defeated Florida State (#4) 17-16 on the road, Penn State (#3,#9) 26-20 at home, and Nebraska (#15/#16,#14) 22-0 in the Orange Bowl.
19

 

 Nebraska - 1994

 

 8.3828

 

 Nebraska defeated Colorado (#3,#4) 24-7 at home, Miami of Florida (#6,#8) 24-17 in the Orange Bowl, and Kansas State (#19/#16,#18) 17-6 on the road.
20

 

 Washington - 1991

 

 8.3433

 

 Washington defeated Michigan (#6,#7) 34-14 in the Rose Bowl, California (#8/#7,#10) 42-17 on the road, Nebraska (#15/#16,#14) 36-21 on the road, and Stanford (#22,#21) 42-7 on the road.
21

 

 

 Alabama - 1992

 

 

 8.3134

 

 

Alabama defeated Miami of Florida (#3) 34-13 in the Sugar Bowl, Tennessee (#12,#11) 17-10 on the road, Florida (#10/#11,#15) 28-21 in the SEC Championship game in Birmingham, Mississippi (#16,#19) 31-10 at home, and Mississippi State (#23/#26,#29) 30-21 on the road.
22


 

 Southern Cal - 1962
 

 

 8.2925
 

 

 USC defeated Wisconsin (#2) 42-37 in the Rose Bowl, and they defeated Washington (NR/#14T,#9) 14-0 at home. (No post-bowl game votes were taken in 1968, and the AP listed only the top 10 teams.)
23
 		 Southern Cal - 1979
 		 8.2590
 		 USC defeated Ohio State (#4,#6) 17-16 in the Rose Bowl, and Washington (#11,#16) 24-17 on the road.
24

 

 Penn State - 1986

 

 8.2481

 

 Penn State defeated Miami of Florida (#2) 14-10 in the Fiesta Bowl, Alabama (#9,#8) 23-3 on the road, and Boston College (#19/#18,#19) 26-14 in Foxboro.
 
 

(This page last modified November 28, 2006 .)