re: The Greatest Champion of College Football? (history of CF included)

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I tend to think any clear-thinking college football fan will tell you that ND was the greatest program in the history of the sport until 1993 almost without question. Most national titles (by any measure - AP, consensus, whatever) of the programs with any serious claim (and over an eight decade period, at that), most Heisman trophies, most wins, best winning percentage, most All-Americans, most NFL draft picks, on and on and on. ND from 1988 to 1993 was a lot like USC under Carroll: one consensus title, another that it probably could claim, a run of five or six years in which it was dominant or nearly so, and a slew of NFL draft picks year after year after year. You're also short-selling Holtz and Devine quite a bit. Holtz's 1993 team had a legitimate claim to a national title, and other than his 1988 title-winning team, the 1989, 1990, and 1993 teams would have all been serious threats in today's playoff format (and the '93 team probably would have won). Devine wasn't Parseghian, but he was pretty damn good; his 1980 team was like one of those late-era Carroll USC teams that was awfully talented but blew a game or two against teams it should have beaten. Really only the Faust era - 1981 to 1985 - was an abnormality for ND up until the mid-1990's, and even that had precedent in ND's suck arse late 1950's and very early 1960's. The real gap for ND has been from 1996 until 2017, and even then, we've managed four or five NYD bowl appearances and a national title game appearance, all with coaches who have demonstrated either a bit in lesser conferences (Kelly) or basically nothing (all the rest) before or after ND.

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