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College football: 5 most overrated programs in history

By Justin Dottavio

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - OCTOBER 01: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and his team wait to head on to the field for the start of the game against the Syracuse Orange at MetLife Stadium on October 1, 2016 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - OCTOBER 01: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and his team wait to head on to the field for the start of the game against the Syracuse Orange at MetLife Stadium on October 1, 2016 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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Today’s college football world has a slew of overrated programs. Here are five that stand out from the rest that are the most noticeably over-hyped.

College football programs can’t rate themselves per se (besides the Coaches’ Poll) but some do and say things via their recruitment or on-screen presence that can increase their exposure and cause fanbases to get sick of those programs. A few that are on the cusp won’t make the top five, but deserve to be mentioned (and thus maybe even I’m currently overrating them by discussing them here?).

While LSU did take home a share of a title in 2003, and an outright title in 2007- they deserve to be in the conversation. LSU is often considered a “big time job” to land during the coaching carousel, and with the local talent in New Orleans and Baton Rouge there is no reason the Tigers shouldn’t be more successful. The Tigers have produced a boat load of NFL talent but don’t have the SEC West titles or SEC Championships to back it up.

On the same theme, UCLA doesn’t have the same cache as their crosstown rival the USC Trojans. UCLA expects the adoration of the college football world but hasn’t backed it up since being pounded by Miami late in the 1998 season.

Rocky Top is another overrated program, but only by their own fanbase. Outside of Knoxville I’m not sure how much clout the Volunteers really have in the college football landscape.

That brings us to a recently sanctioned program which eliminates them from the conversation. The Penn State Nittany Lions are by far overrated. Penn State hasn’t won a national title since the 1986 season. Before that State College, PA brought home the trophy in 1982 but no titles before then and none since the 1987 Fiesta Bowl upset of Miami.

The Nittany Lions did have an undefeated season in 1994, but the final title went to the Nebraska Cornhuskers who beat the second and third ranked teams in the country. Miami and Florida are other options but Florida won the title in 2006 and 2008, give them some leeway while Miami has dealt with sanctions and a cloud of NCAA issues that never materialized.

After those honorable mentions, here are the five most overrated programs in college football history.

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