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Oregon

Ranking the Top 25 College Football Teams of the 2000's

On3 imageby:Justin Hopkins•05/23/25
NCAA Football: Washington at Oregon
Nov 30, 2024; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning runs out with the team before a game against the Washington Huskies at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

There’s a lot of discussion around college football concerning tradition. Some schools like Oregon would be more considered a ‘new blood’ versus other storied programs that earn the ‘blue blood’ designation. It is not a slight to be considered a new blood which means that you have reached a certain level of success more recently.

I think Oregon falls into this category. Prior to the 2000’s, they won some but not consistently. At least not at the level we see from Oregon today. The Ducks are one of the winningest teams in college football in the 2000’s. Don’t believe me?

Well the Athletic did the legwork for me. In a story published Friday, Oregon checked in at No. 7 in Stewart Mandel’s rankings. Despite not winning a national championship, he pointed to Oregon’s success as an elite team. Coincidentally, Oregon was ranked one spot ahead of USC in his rankings.

“Some may scoff at ranking Oregon this high without having won a national championship, but every other data point is that of an elite program. The Ducks’ 182 weeks spent in the AP top 10 are higher than the likes of LSU, Clemson and Texas, among others. And they’ve been to more BCS/NY6 bowls than USC, Michigan and Notre Dame.”

Here is how Mandel explained how he arrived at his rankings.

“The factors I considered when ranking the top programs of the 2000s so far: Overall winning percentage, BCS or New Year’s Six bowl appearances (including last year’s first-round CFP games), national championships, conference championships*, wins against ranked opponents (via Stathead), percentage of total weeks spent in the AP Top 25 and top 10 (via College Poll Archive) and, as a counterbalance, their number of losing seasons.”

“Because every league but the SEC had co-champions at some point this century, I used each league’s automatic BCS/CFP entrant to ensure only one champion per year in each conference.”

Here is Mandel’s top 25 ranking of CFB teams in the 2000’s.

  1. Ohio State
  2. Alabama
  3. Oklahoma
  4. Georgia
  5. LSU
  6. Clemson
  7. Oregon
  8. USC
  9. Texas
  10. Florida
  11. Michigan
  12. Florida State
  13. Notre Dame
  14. Miami
  15. Auburn
  16. Wisconsin
  17. Penn State
  18. Virginia Tech
  19. TCU
  20. Boise State
  21. Oklahoma State
  22. Utah
  23. Iowa
  24. Washington
  25. Michigan State

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