12 Legendary College Teams That Never Won a Title

The 1972 UCLA Bruins men's basketball team. 1976 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team. The 2001 Miami Hurricanes football team.

What do these teams have in common? They're considered legendary thanks to their seasons ending with a championship.

And while they, no doubt, had great players and coaches who helped them get there, we've seen other teams who were just as talented end up walking away without a national title.

Whether by shocking upset or just bad luck, here are a few other teams with great reputations, yet they failed to ever win a title.

1990 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Men's Basketball

Eric Riseberg/Associated Press

Better known to Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket fans simply as Lethal Weapon 3, thanks to the trio of Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott and Brian Oliver, the team had high hopes and success while together yet never finished the job.

With all three players averaging an insane 20 points per game during the 1989-90 season, Georgia Tech reached the Final Four, but it lost to the eventual champion, the UNLV Runnin' Rebels, that year.

While the '89-90 team was, arguably, the most talented team the school has ever had, other G-Tech teams have actually surpassed the success that that team had.

2004 Auburn Tigers Football

For those who remember why the 2004 Auburn Tigers football team that finished undefeated didn't win a title, it's not because it wasn't talented enough.

No, the Tigers simply weren't given a chance due to the previous Bowl Championship Series that was used to help determine the two teams in college football's national championship.

Boasting a lethal running attack behind future first-round picks Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams, Auburn went through a difficult SEC schedule by earning its first conference championship in 15 years.

However, due to a softer schedule, the polls didn't favor the navy and orange, keeping them out of the national title game in favor of the Southern Cal Trojans and Oklahoma Sooners, who met in the Orange Bowl for the crystal ball.

Even after the Trojans were forced to vacate their wins and rings following an NCAA investigation, Auburn weren't going to be crowned as champs—even though it was one of three undefeated teams from a major conference that season.

1984 North Carolina Tar Heels Men's Basketball

Anonymous/Associated Press

Many of us remember some skinny freshman named Michael Jordan knocking down the game-winner for the North Carolina Tar Heels against the Georgetown Hoyas in the 1982 national title game.

But what most of us may not know is that the team Jordan played for in 1984—his last in Chapel Hill—may have been even more talented than that championship-winning squad.

With MJ winning National Player of the Year and beginning to come into his own, he was surrounded by talent like Sam Perkins, Kenny Smith and Brad Daugherty, who, eventually, all became first-round NBA draft picks.

Navigating through the ACC unbeaten, the Heels may have had the best team in the country in 1984, but a wrist injury to Smith derailed their chances of winning it all, as did the 27-point outburst by former Indiana Hoosiers guard Steve Alford.

Alford's breakout game in the second-round prevented UNC from even reaching the Sweet 16, as well as Jordan from leaving with two national championships in his three years in Carolina Blue.

1988 Miami Hurricanes Football

During his five seasons with the Miami Hurricanes, former head coach Jimmy Johnson proved to be one of the most successful coaches in football history—and he proved it later by winning two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys in the '90s.

Still, one season in which Johnson ended up without a ring was in 1988, when his Canes finished with an 11-1 record, with the one loss coming with controversy by a single point, on the road, against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish—who finished unscathed and were crowned national champs.

Outscoring their opponents that season 418-116, including a thrashing of in-state rival and then No. 1-ranked Florida State 31-0 to open their season, the Hurricanes proved to have the roster necessary to win a championship—they just didn't do it.

1975 Indiana Hoosiers Men's Basketball

Charles Knoblock/Associated Press

As I mentioned in my opener, sports fans are well-aware of the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers—who finished undefeated and won the national title—the last team to do so.

But the 1975 Hoosiers were every bit as good—they just didn't finish with a national championship.

Going through the Big Ten season with a perfect record and an average margin of victory of nearly 23 points per game, IU entered the NCAA tourney as the undisputed No. 1 team in the land.

Unfortunately, Hoosiers star forward Scott May fractured his arm that February and required a pin to be implanted into it in order to keep it steady.

While May only missed two games on the season, he wasn't the same player following the blow, and the Hoosiers lost to the Kentucky Wildcats in the Elite Eight.

With a two-year record of 63-1, though, the mid-'70s Hoosiers can make a serious argument for being one of college hoops' best ever.

1999 Duke Blue Devils Men's Basketball

Flanked by future first-round NBA picks Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon, William Avery, Corey Maggette and Shane Battier, the 1998-99 Duke Blue Devils were an absolute juggernaut and favorites to end the season as national champs.

The Connecticut Huskies had something to say about that, though.

Even with a six-point win over the Michigan State Spartans in the Final Four, the Dukies' average margin of victory in their five NCAA tourney games leading up to their matchup with UConn sat at 24.8, showing just how dominant they were—even on the biggest stage.

With the Huskies beating the Blue Devils 77-74 in the final game of the college hoops season, Connecticut guard Khalid El-Amin proudly yelled, "We shocked the world!" as his team celebrated keeping Duke from atop the podium for a trophy presentation.

2004-2005 USC Trojans Football

Sure, prior to an NCAA hearing that ruled the USC Trojans had to vacate victories due to the Reggie Bush decision, the record books, initially, had the team as national champs in 2004 and as runners-up in 2005.

With two Heisman Trophy winners in the backfield—quarterback Matt Leinart and Bush, who was forced to give his back after the NCAA ruling—the Trojans had a team that had top-tier talent at nearly every position.

And while history and those who saw their games live know that SC accomplished as much as any team during a three-season span from 2003-'06, because of breaking the rules, they're the title-winning team who will forever be forgotten about.

University of Michigan Men's Hoops

The Fab Five.

Players like Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard didn't just change the Michigan Wolverines program thanks to their swagger and style of play, but they also made up one of the most talented rosters in college hoops history.

Making two-straight national title trips in 1992 and 1993, the Wolverines never finished a season with a national title, though, as their closest chance came in '93 when, inadvertently, Webber called a timeout that his team didn't have.

That ill-fated loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels was the lasting impression of the Fab Five for years. However, with the NCAA ruling that players were ineligible, Michigan was forced to lower the banners of success from those days, wiping out everything they had ever accomplished.

Gone, but not forgotten, the Fab Five's legacy is felt even today.

1991 UNLV Runnin' Rebels Men's Basketball

Coming off their first ever national title in 1990, the UNLV Runnin' Rebels returned a team that featured future pros like Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony and Stacey Augmon, entering the '91 season as favorites to win it all once again.

Entering the NCAA tournament with a perfect record—the first team to do so since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, who finished undefeated—the Rebels were being mentioned as one of the best teams in college hoops history.

They could have made a serious claim had they not run into the Duke Blue Devils in the Final Four.

After absolutely demolishing the Dukies in the 1990 NCAA title game by 30, Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devils had revenge on their minds, as they knocked off UNLV in a shocking upset by two.

Sure, the Rebs had won a title the year prior, but they could have joined one of the great fraternities by winning back-to-back titles—yet, they are left wondering what could have been.

2002-04 Miami Hurricanes Football

It would be easy to sit here and claim the 2002 Miami Hurricanes as one of the great teams to never finish their season with a national title—even though fireworks exploded to acknowledge them as such before a questionable pass-interference call which, eventually, led to a loss.

But, when you dig a little bit deeper, the teams that the Canes fielded from 2002-04 were about as talented as any in recent memory, boasting the most first-round draft picks in a three-year period, 15, in those seasons.

Compiling a combined record of 32-6 in those seasons, the Canes may not have finished as champions, but it wasn't because they lacked talent.

Hell, the worst of the bunch—the 2004 Canes, who finished 9-3—still hold the record for the most first-round draft picks in a single draft, with six players selected.

1923 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football

When former Notre Dame Fighting Irish head football coach Knute Rockne put players Harry Stuhldreher (quarterback), Jim Crowley (left halfback), Don Miller (right halfback) and Elmer Layden (fullback) in the same backfield starting in 1922, he probably didn't know the phenomenon the kids would become.

Coined by famous sportswriter Grantland Rice as the Four Horsemen, the players became the most famous quartet in NCAA college football history.

With a combined record of 37-3 during their four seasons together from 1921-24, the Irish were only capable of winning a national title just once, in the 1924 campaign. 

And while that's an accomplishment in its own right, seeing the team finish 9-1 in 1923 when all four members of the Four Horsemen were juniors, it has to go down as a missed opportunity for a team that is one of the best assembled.

1983 Houston Cougars Men's Basketball

Not only did the Houston Cougars of the early-'80s have one of the coolest nicknames in all of sports—Phi Slama Jama—they had quite the roster, too.

Led by Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon, the Cougs reached three-straight NCAA Final Fours from 1982-'84 and two-straight national title games in the final two years of that stretch.

And guess how many championships they won? Zero.

Known for their high-octane offense and ridiculous dunks, the slamming fraternity is often remembered for being one of the best dynasties to have never won a ring, even if they had one of the most talented rosters college hoops had ever seen.

Phi Slama Jama may have helped elevate the game with their explosiveness and highlight-reel slams, but they'll always be thought of as the best runners-up in NCAA history.