College Football: Which School has the Richest Tradition?

If you want to spark a debate among friends or really piss off a sensitive message board poster, talking about a program’s tradition, or lack thereof, is one of the best ways to do it.

With that in mind, what better way to kick off our ‘bests’ series than by taking a look at who the most storied programs are. And when we think of ’storied,’ we (most of us, at least) think of sustained success, championships, and how recognizable the program is, from iconic coaches and players to the stadium.

In the ‘what have you done for me lately?’ world that we live in, the accomplishments of some certainly carry more weight than others with many fans, so as tempted as I was to include Yale, Princeton, Harvard, or even Army, Minnesota, or Michigan State, those missed the cut.

Alabama

The program that the Bear built has fallen out of the national spotlight over the last several years thanks to a few questionable coaching hires and the SEC being a lot deeper than it was back when the man in the houndstooth hat roamed the sidelines in Tuscaloosa.

But, the Tide have enough success to last a few lifetimes, with their 12 national championships, 25 outright or shared conference titles (21 in the current SEC), 56 bowl appearances (most all-time), 32 bowl wins (most all-time), and 92 First-Team All-Americans.

The only thing that Alabama is lacking is a Heisman Trophy winner, but that’s a minute blemish on a laundry list of accomplishments before and after Bear Bryant.

Florida

Nearly all of Florida’s success has happened over the last 50 years, or more notably, the last few decades, but they’ve built up a nice resume over that time period.

The Gators have won two national championships, produced three Heisman Trophy winners and made 35 postseason appearances.

We think the most about what they’ve done since the start of the Steve Spurrier era, but they had a lot of success before that, back to when the Ol’ Ball Coach was a Heisman Trophy-winning QB in the 60s.

Florida State

FSU got a little later jump on their history than most of the rest of the programs on this list, seeing as how they were a women’s college until 1947, and though there were some good years, pre-1976, the Seminoles weren’t really on the map until Bobby Bowdenarrived to save the day.

The current decade has seen a lot of frustration of FSU fans, but two national championships, two Heisman Trophy winners, a run of 14 straight 10-win seasons and top-five finishes from 1987-2000, and 26 straight bowl appearances (18-7-1 record) is a nice resume for a late starter.

Georgia

A commenter brought it to my attention that I’d left out the Georgia Bulldogs, which given my SEC roots, I feel pretty bad about.

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