The 25 best college football teams to not win a national championship

Best college football teams without a national championship: 2004 Auburn Tigers

Before the SEC started largely getting the benefit of the doubt with the pollsters, there was 2004 Auburn, a team that won the conference as an undefeated champion, but was the odd team out in a three-team title race of unbeatens (four if you count Utah, the original BCS Buster that ran the table that season in Urban Meyer’s final season with the Utes.)

2004 Auburn had a ferocious defense led by Carlos Rogers, an offense helmed by a first-round pick at quarterback in Jason Campbell and one of the best running back duos in the history of college football in Carnell “Cadillac” Williams and Ronnie Brown.

After a close 10-9 win over No. 5 LSU at home in September, Auburn mostly steamrolled its competition heading into the Iron Bowl in November, including an impressive 34-10 win over Tennessee in Knoxville.

A mediocre Crimson Tide team put a scare into Auburn in the first half, surprisingly leading the Tigers 6-0 at halftime. Auburn outscored Alabama 21-7 in the second half to earn the win and finish the regular season unbeaten.

The Tigers earned a second win over Tennessee in Atlanta to capture the SEC, but they were left out of the BCS Championship Game, with the nod instead given to USC and Oklahoma.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but Auburn’s lack of inclusion has become even tougher to swallow in the aftermath. It was immediately clear that Auburn should have been invited to the title game over Oklahoma after USC eased past the Sooners, 55-19. That, along with USC’s NCAA issues that forced the Trojans to vacate the title has made it all the more difficult to reckon with.

Instead, Auburn had to be satisfied with the consolation prize of a Sugar Bowl win over Virginia Tech to cap a perfect 13-0 season.