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

Best college football teams without a national championship: 2009 Florida Gators

Coming off of a national championship in 2008, Tim Tebow-led Florida was looking for one final ride. The Gators opened the 2009 NCAA season as the heavy favorites to win their third national championship in four years.

Along with the return of a Heisman winning quarterback, Florida returned all 11 of its defensive starters from its title team the year before.

The Gators were loaded on both sides of the ball with future NFL talent and suffered no lapse of focus in the regular season that had led to a single loss in their national championship seasons of 2006 and 2008. Instead, Florida ran through the regular season with 12 consecutive victories, only one of which was by less than 10 points.

Florida’s perfect regular season coincided with Alabama’s, setting up a highly anticipated SEC Championship rematch between the Gators and Crimson Tide. The year before, Florida overcame a fourth-quarter deficit to defeat Alabama in what was a de-facto play-in game for the national championship.

The 2009 version also served as a play-in game. Instead of replicating their win the year before, the Gators were ambushed by an equally talented and supremely focused Alabama team on a mission to capture their first national championship since 1992 and the first of the Nick Saban era in Tuscaloosa.

Alabama’s defense befuddled Tebow for most of the afternoon. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram punched in three touchdowns as the Tide rolled to a 32-13 win over Florida, shocking the Gators and knocking them out of the national title race.

Instead of playing for another title, Tebow’s final college football game was in the Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati, where the Gators predictably blew out the Bearcats 51-24 to end the season on a high note.

Despite the loss to Alabama, Florida still graded out as S&P+’s No. 1 team in 2009.