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

Best college football teams without a national championship: 2011 LSU Tigers

Les Miles captured a national championship in 2007 in Baton Rouge, but the best LSU team he fielded was in 2011. His quest for a second title was foiled by a divisional rival in a rematch in New Orleans that helped spark the birth of the College Football Playoff.

The Tigers didn’t have a high-powered offense, but Miles’ bunch had plenty of talent on that side of the ball with both Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson splitting the duties at quarterback and managing the game. LSU’s wide receivers featured Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, and Reuben Randle; imagine how good this offense could have been with good quarterback play?

It was LSU’s defense that carried the torch as the Tigers ran through the regular season undefeated. Led by a loaded secondary that featured a legitimate Heisman candidate in Tyrann Mathieu, the Tigers swarmed and bullied opposing offenses.

By most metrics, no team played a tougher schedule in 2011 than the Tigers, with nine of their 14 games coming against teams ranked in the Top 25 at the time of the game. That included impressive out-of-conference wins over both Oregon at a neutral site and West Virginia on the road.

LSU easily dispatched both Florida and Auburn in impressive fashion, leading into the “Game of the Century” in Tuscaloosa against Alabama. In one of the greatest defensive games of the modern era, LSU prevailed 9-6 in overtime to take control of the SEC West and insert itself as the team to beat in college football.

LSU blew out rival Arkansas to finish the regular season and then blasted Georgia in the SEC Championship to clinch a spot in New Orleans for the BCS crown. Waiting for them was a familiar foe in Alabama, who edged out Oklahoma State in the BCS Standings to earn a rematch against the Tigers.

Alabama proved to be the superior side with a dominant performance in New Orleans, outclassing the Tigers 21-0 to snatch the crystal football out of LSU’s hands. While the blowout loss to the Crimson Tide is the lasting image of the 2011 Tigers, history will continue to remember them as an all-time great team.