Growing up, college football had a few powerhouse programs that you knew would be right there among those battling for the top of the polls every year. Programs like Florida State, Miami, Michigan Nebraska and Penn State were ones I especially remember ruling the roost. A little later, Tennessee and Virginia Tech were national powers for a good stretch, and USC was for a time as well; I remember being in Miami to see USC annihilate Oklahoma in the 2005 Orange Bowl for the mythical national championship, and Tennessee won a mythical national championship as well during their run.
But where are they now? Certainly not in the College Football Playoff, or near the top of the polls. Of the aforementioned programs, only USC and Miami were in the top 25 of the final College Football Playoff rankings, coming in at numbers 17 and 18, respectively.
Simply put, a long run as a national power is not a birthright, and programs that have maintained that have done a remarkable thing.
This came to mind recently when seeing the news out of Knoxville, a sign of how the mighty have fallen. Tennessee not only won a lot of games, they produced plenty of NFL players including legendary quarterback Peyton Manning. From 1989-2004 – a stretch that began during some of my earliest days following sports – the Volunteers won at least nine games all but three times, with each of those three seasons being “disappointing” 8-win seasons (8-4 twice and 8-5 once). Since 2007, however, they have won nine or more games just twice, and since 2004 they have had more seasons without a bowl game than with one.
Now, Phil Fulmer, the architect of many of the big years from 1989-2004, has retired as athletic director, and the school recently fired head coach Jeremy Pruitt amid an NCAA investigation. While they have their new AD in Danny White, widely viewed as a rising star, this is quite a place for a one-time powerhouse to be. I’ve seen them become more than just irrelevant in my short lifetime.
But they are hardly alone among the programs that were national powers in my early days of watching college sports.
Florida State? Irrelevant. Michigan? Only relevant because Jim Harbaugh is the coach. The fan base in Ann Arbor has long expected 10-win seasons at a minimum, and they have had three under Harbaugh, but with expanded seasons, 10 wins doesn’t represent what it used to, just like 20 wins on the hardwood. The last time Michigan won the Big Ten title was in 2004, and they have won just three bowl games since 2003 against 11 losses. Most stinging of all is that Ohio State has dominated them in the 21st century, winning all but two meetings since 2000 and often in convincing if not blowout fashion.
Who talks about USC nowadays? Of course, the entire Pac-12 has struggled in recent years, a big reason why Larry Scott is on his way out there. Nebraska’s relevance was dropping before they went to the Big Ten. Penn State has had some big years, but wasn’t always a constant contender for the top of the polls even before the Sandusky scandal hit them hard for a time. Virginia Tech has watched Clemson take over the ACC and contend for the national title most years; Clemson wasn’t always the powerhouse they are now. Georgia has always been good, even very good, since I have followed, but only fairly recently have they been a consistent national power.
Times change, and along the way, the same programs don’t always rule the roost. Sure, Oklahoma was a national power when I first followed college football and still is now, as are a few others. Alabama has a celebrated history, though during my early days the program had fallen on relative hard times in the early post-Bear Bryant days that they would recover from before long. But as time goes on, some programs make gains in a facilities arms race, or they hit a home run or two with a coaching hire and go on a run while pushing down a one-time national power along the way.
In basketball, this has happened as well. Georgetown was a national title contender often in the 1980s, remained a very good program well into the 2000s but has not been the same of late. Syracuse is similar, a long-time national power that in more recent years has often been on the NCAA Tournament bubble, although they made an unexpected Final Four run a few years back. UCLA leads the way in national championships, but hasn’t won since 1995 and has won just one Pac-12 championship since 2008, which was also their last Final Four. The Bruins may be on their way back, aided by their 8-1 start in Pac-12 play this season, but it is too soon to tell. Indiana won the national championship the first full season that I followed college basketball – 1986-87 – but hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since a Sweet 16 run in 2016 and hasn’t even made the Elite Eight since they were national runner-up in 2002. (Chances are, the Hoosiers would have made it last season had the NCAA Tournament not been canceled.)
On top of that, this season Duke and Kentucky have not been, well, Duke and Kentucky. Neither was a powerhouse last season, for that matter, though Kentucky certainly had a great SEC run after a so-so non-conference performance. Both look quite ordinary this year. The Blue Devils simply don’t have the same talent as usual and have also been hurt by interruptions from the virus, while Kentucky still has great talent but lacks experience and also lacks someone who can orchestrate the offense. The Wildcats make a lot of bad decisions with the ball at the offensive end. Meanwhile, as can unfortunately be expected, some in Lexington are calling for John Calipari’s head, not just for this season but because they haven’t been to the Final Four since the 2014-15 team that flirted with going undefeated.
The simple reality is that when these two teams have won more recently led by star freshmen, they had veterans who were no small part of it. Kentucky’s national championship in 2011-12 included a key senior in Darius Miller who had played in many games and started some games that year, while Duke had a senior starter in Quinn Cook alongside their freshmen when they won in 2014-15. Nowadays both teams are perpetually young, rarely with holdover veterans who play a significant role (in recent years, Kentucky has taken on graduate transfers, but by definition they are new to the program). Neither team has had a Darius Miller or Quinn Cook of late.
Programs that consistently win big don’t do so with magic, and they don’t do it easily. The kind of winning some of these programs did for good stretches, or even the kind that Gonzaga has done for over two decades, is simply remarkable. We have to remember that, and similarly, remember that winning big and/or winning championships every year is not a birthright. The program that has won for a few years might not be in a decade or so, and a new program might emerge as a powerhouse at the same time.