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

Best college football teams without a national championship: 1947 Texas Longhorns

Blair Cherry’s first Texas team was also his best. The 1947 Texas Longhorns came agonizingly close to perfection, though jumping Notre Dame in the polls might have been difficult regardless.

Led by All-American quarterback Bobby Layne, who finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting that season, Texas dominated the majority of their schedule in racking up 10 wins.

The ‘Horns’ 10 wins came by an average margin of victory of nearly 22 points per game. It included regular-season wins over ranked North Carolina and Oklahoma. The lone loss of the season for Texas came on the road on the opening weekend of November to the eventual Southwest champion SMU in Dallas by a single point.

Even more frustratingly, Texas had the opportunity to tie the game late in regulation after Layne engineered a touchdown drive that would have seemingly tied the game. Unfortunately, Texas kicker Frank Guess pushed his extra point wide right and Texas suffered a bitter loss.

The one-point defeat at the hands of the Mustangs stood between Texas and an SWC championship and a perfect season, with a legitimate argument for an AP National Championship.

Instead, Texas was relegated to playing in the Sugar Bowl against No. 6 Alabama. The Longhorns easily dispatched the Crimson Tide, rolling to a 27-7 victory to cap a strong season that could have easily resulted in at least a share of the national title had it not been for that close loss to SMU in November.