College football season is upon us, which means endless debate between loyal alumni about whose alma mater has the better football program. There are numerous arguments that can be made for any school. Nowhere is this better seen than the bitter rivalry between BYU and Utah, who will play their “Holy War” later today. One side claims a global brand and a national championship, while the other has been superior when it comes to talent and winning in the past decade. Another pair of bitter rivals, Virginia Tech and Tennessee, will also face off tonight in the Battle of Bristol in front of an expected record crowd of 150,000+ fans.
How about the last 5 National Champions? Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State, Auburn, and Florida are the elite teams in college football, but what can truly set one college football program apart as “the best” in recent history?
You take a look at the NFL talent they’ve produced. We’ve created an alumni superteam for the top schools using only active NFL players, and we need you to vote and tell us who you think comes out on top.
Here are the rules: only teams with enough NFL players to field a team on both offense and defense (22 players) will be included. Each team must have an active NFL quarterback, five linemen and a plausible set of players for the other positions.
Some major powerhouse programs fell a few players short of filling out their rosters. Auburn fell short two linemen up front to protect 2015 MVP Cam Newton. Le’Veon Bell’s alma mater Michigan State is missing offensive linemen and a few players on defense. Joe Haden’s Florida team has no QB to run the offense. It was hard leaving out Texas A&M despite all of their incredible individual talent–Von Miller, Michael Bennett, Martellus Bennett, Mike Evans and Ryan Tannehill all played college ball there–but we made no exceptions.
Well, let’s get to it for the College Alumni Superteams.
There is a lot of talent on each of these superteams. Each team is headlined by Pro Bowl players and young players with Pro Bowl potential. Alabama has Julio Jones and Eddie Lacy on one side of the ball and C.J. Mosley on the other. Miami has talent in young blood in Allen Hurns, Lamar Miller and Greg Olsen. Florida State’s young talent is highlighted by Jameis Winston, Devonta Freeman and Kelvin Benjamin. Ohio State is packed with talent as well, with five guys (Bosa, Elliott, Apple, Decker, Lee) going in the first round of this year’s NFL draft alone. Haloti Ngata and T.J. Ward lead the Oregon defense while Marcus Mariotta mans the helm on offense. USC’s Carson Palmer and Clay Matthews are veteran leaders still playing at a Pro Bowl level. I think any coach would want the WR and DB pairs that LSU boasts in Odell Beckham, Jr./Jarvis Landry and Patrick Peterson/Tyrann Mathieu.
There is no question that each team is full of talent. But which roster looks best? Let us know in the poll below.