Who is college football's most disappointing team?

On ESPN’s College Football Live, fans have heard a lot about dark horses, surprise teams, and teams who might shock you. Good ol' positive thinking, eh?

But at the VFA, we’re thinking something different: college football teams that, over the years, have promised much and singularly failed to deliver.

There are some big names on the list—compiled through our rather good new version of USA’s 2009 College Football Encyclopedia (Sky Horse Publishing), we’re not afraid to call out former National Champions and teams that, in our view, have pretty much sucked it up for the last few years.

Arizona State

It seems much is expected of an Arizona State team that has a ‘high-octane’ offense every year. It’s exciting to watch. Trust us, we’ve been there enough times. And while Terrell Suggs is one of the defensive alumni that’ll always be talked about, Andrew Walter, Sam Keller and Rudy Carpenter were penned as star quarterbacks, but delivered little.

Arizona State last beat USC in 1999. They’ve beaten Cal once in nine seasons. They’ve played in big games against non-conference teams (Georgia in 2008, for example) and were terrible, too.

Texas A&M

Sounds silly—bearing in mind that we’ve got to the point where the talks generally been all about the Aggies’ fans rather than the Aggies players—but Texas A&M has struggled since the 10-0 and 9-3 years of 1994 and 1998, respectively. Texas A&M might have quite a good record against their hated rival Texas, but they haven’t beaten Oklahoma since 2002, and there’s no way that they’ll be better than third in their division.

Kyle Field might be great as a tourist destination for college football atmosphere fiends like me, but fancy winning a game or two?

Nebraska

There have been a lot of good Nebraska teams in the past. Tom Osbourne coached them to four national titles, and the ‘Sea of Red’ was generally a sea of celebration.

But in the last few years—mostly under coach Bill Callahan—it’s been a Sea of Crap. A decision by Callahan to promote a "spread offense" simply didn’t work, and the Huskers looked completely outclassed against most other opponents.

Oregon

Like Arizona State, the Ducks have failed to live up to expectations.

Sure, eight out of the last nine seasons have been winning ones. Sure, they’ve got groovy kits, they can talk about a stadium that quite simply rocks, and can reminisce a win over USC in '07.

But they haven’t been great against the Trojans, and have struggled to beat better opponents. Oregon WILL be better, but how long do we have to wait?

Miami

Has anyone seen a team go so far downhill, so quickly, since '05? It might be argued that their 40-3 train wreck loss against LSU in the 2005 Peach Bowl was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but that straw continued to beat the crap out of the Hurricanes for three straight seasons afterwards.

Many people don’t want ‘The U’ to contend after the mastery of the early part of the decade, and the fact that they were so darned rude about it. Randy Shannon has people talking about a possible ACC title in 2009. But then again, it might be 2010…..or 2011.

Florida State

While heated state rival Florida can’t seem to lose, FSU can’t seem to get a marquee victory. In fact, the Noles have been ordinary since their National Championship Game loss to Oklahoma. And the reason why it’s disappointing: this team has gone from perennial National Title contender to also-ran (and Florida’s wench) in the last few years.

Dadgummit Bobby, why don’t you give it up?

Notre Dame

First of all, the VFA knows that Notre Dame has, apart from the SEC schools, the hardest schedule in the country. We know that when you play Michigan and USC every season, that you can expect the odd season sweep against these two teams, plus a few more losses.

But we didn’t expect the Irish to lose to Navy (2007) and Syracuse (2008). To make matters worse, the talk that en-wrapped Jimmy Clausen that put in virtually on the right hand side of ‘Touchdown Jesus’ has hardly materialized….and the Notre Dame has only one bowl game since 1993.

USC

You might be screaming “what the ****?” about why the Trojans themselves on this list. After all, they own the Pac-10, are a perennial National Title contender, haven’t had a losing record since the 2000 season debacle, and provided half the NFL Draft prospects for the best part of a decade.

But get this: they’ve only won a National Title once in the last decade, despite being favoured in most—if not all—the games they play. They always seem to lose one game (usually in the State of Oregon!) a season, and blow their chances of a National Title. Heck, even the Trojans don’t want to go to Pasadena every year.

What do you think?