10 Greatest College Football National Championship Games of the 21st Century

The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be squaring off in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Monday night, setting the stage for a National Champion that everyone in SEC country will claim is illegitimate. Bookmakers like the Buckeyes by a considerable margin, but for as good as Ryan Day's squad has looked in the postseason, we know that this isn't a team that is unbeatable. Something tells me the Irish will be ready to make this a nail-biter.

We won't know where this year's matchup between the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish ranks among the best National Championship Games in recent history until a winner has been decided late Monday night, but until then, let's dive right into the rankings of the top ten National Championship Games of the 21st Century.

10. Florida over Oklahoma (2008) 

As a means of getting the pro-SEC crowd back invested in this thing, let's kick this top ten list off with an SEC triumph which came during what could be argued was the peak of the conference's dominance. Florida's victory over Oklahoma was not only notable because it was the second title won by legendary college quarterback Tim Tebow — his first as the Gators' starter — but it was also the SEC's third consecutive season claiming a National Title, tying a streak held by both the SEC (1978-80) and the Western Conference (1940-42), which would eventually become the Big Ten.

As for the game itself, what was expected to be a shootout between a pair of offenses that were each scoring more than 45 points per game ended up being a defensive struggle, but a competitive one nonetheless. For nearly 57 minutes this was a one-possession game, but with just over 3 minutes to go, Tim Tebow and David Nelson connected on 4-yard jump pass to clinch the Gators' second championship in three years.

9. LSU over Clemson (2019) 

Given how both this game and LSU's season turned out, you've likely forgotten that the Clemson Tigers actually did jump out to a 17-7 lead early in the 2nd quarter of their National Championship Game matchup with the Bayou Bengals, and trailed by only three points halfway through the 3rd quarter. But that says more about LSU than it does the quality of this game or the quality of their opponent, a Clemson program that had won 29 games in a row and was the defending National Champions.

Simply put, the 2019 LSU Tigers are the greatest college football team I've ever seen, and their 42-25 win over Clemson capped off the single greatest individual season in college football history.

Joe Burrow had already cruised to the largest victory margin in the history of the Heisman Trophy vote and was on his way to becoming the 1st overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft regardless of the result in the National Championship Game. But predictably, Burrow did not disappoint with the title on the line, completing 31-of-49 passes for 463 yards and 5 touchdowns against a Clemson defense that had given up 20 points or more only twice all season long. In total, these were Burrow's 2019 stats:

15-0 record, 76% completion, 5,671 passing yards, 65 total touchdowns, 6 interceptions

To call those video game numbers is an insult to Burrow, who was better than any novice is at video games.

8. Georgia over Alabama (2021) 

Granted, it was by no means a barn-burner, but this National Championship Game matchup between the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide was a whole lot closer than the 33-18 final indicated. In fact, Alabama took an 18-13 lead with just over 10 minutes to go in the game, setting the stage for their second win over Georgia of the season. It was only a month earlier in the SEC Championship Game when Bama hung 41 points on a Georgia defense that had given up only 83 points in their first 12 games of the season.

With Nick Saban closing in on his 7th title at Alabama, the Bulldogs staged a furious comeback over the final 10 minutes of the game. Only two minutes after Georgia gave up the lead, Stetson Bennett connected with Adonai Mitchell for a 40-yard touchdown to put the Bulldogs back in front. Less than five minutes later, Brock Bowers scored to push Georgia's lead to eight, and with Bama driving to potentially tie the game with under a minute left, Kelee Ringo sealed the win with a 79-yard pick six.

This was Georgia's first National Title since 1980, and their first of two championship victories in a row. Georgia's 65-7 win over TCU the following year will not be included in this top ten list, but I doubt that comes as a surprise.

7. Auburn over Oregon (2010) 

Cam Newton's finale for the Auburn Tigers was somewhat underwhelming given the historic season the Heisman winner had just completed, and the game that was expected to be a high-scoring shootout — Steve Spurrier noted before the game that he believed the final score could be 60-55 — ended up being a slugfest that was tied 19-19 when Auburn got the ball with just over two minutes to play following an Oregon score which had been set up by a Cam Newton fumble.

The hero for Auburn on this night ended up being freshman running back Michael Dyer, not Newton, who threw for a pedestrian 265 yards and 2 touchdowns while also adding 65 yards on the ground. Dyer, the game's most outstanding player on the offensive side, rushed for 143 yards, including a dramatic 37-yard run late in the 4th quarter on a play that looked like Dyer had been brought down after just a few yards.

In not-so-dramatic fashion, it was a 19-yard field goal from kicker Wes Byrum that gave Auburn a 22-19 win over the Ducks and their first National Title since 1957.

6. Florida State over Auburn (2013) 

After seven consecutive seasons of SEC dominance in the National Championship Game, Jameis Winston and the Florida State Seminoles got the rest of the NCAA off the schneid, scoring a 34-31 victory over the Auburn Tigers in what would be the final game in the 16-year history of the oft-criticized postseason selection system known as the BCS.

While Florida State's spot in the BCS Championship Game was never in doubt thanks to a perfect record and Winston's Heisman campaign, Auburn needed a Kick Six finish against Alabama in their regular season finale, a shootout win over Missouri in the SEC Championship Game, and a stunning loss by Ohio State to Michigan State in the Big Ten Title Game in order to make their second National Championship Game appearance in four years.

Despite coming into the game as an 8.5 point underdog, the Auburn Tigers stormed to a 21-3 lead in the 2nd quarter and looked like they were bound to close out the BCS era with the SEC's eighth straight National Title. But the Noles cut the lead to 21-10 by halftime and eventually cut that lead to 21-20 early in the 4th quarter, setting up a final five minutes that would include three lead changes, the last of which came on a Jameis Winston to Kelvin Benjamin touchdown pass with 13 seconds left to play.

5. Alabama over Georgia (2017) 

Also known as Holy Hell, did Nick Saban really just bench Jalen Hurts for Tua Tagovailoa game, or the 2nd and 26 game, referencing Bama's game-winning overtime touchdown, for me, the National Championship Game matchup will be the night where it finally felt like the rest of the SEC was truly catching up to Nick Saban's squad, which really had no true rival from the time he led Alabama to their first National Title in 17 years in 2009.

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For the better part of this game, Georgia looked like the better football team, but from the moment Saban made the ballsy decision to bench Jalen Hurts for freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, the game began to swing in Alabama's favor. It started to culminate late in the 4th quarter, when Tua and Calvin Ridley connected on a 7-yard touchdown pass to tie the game with under 4 minutes to go, and then finally, in overtime, when Tagovailoa hit DeVonta Smith on a 41-yard game-winning touchdown.

4. Ohio State over Miami FL (2002) 

Hurricanes fans should avert their eyes, because we're about to take a look at arguably the most controversial penalty in National Championship Game history:

Oof! Yeah, even as someone who has so much love for the Buckeye state and recently moved from Florida to Ohio, I can't find a way to defend that call. It prevented Miami from becoming the first team to win back-to-back National Championships since Nebraska won it all in 1994 and 1995, and marred what had been a far more competitive game than the bookmakers expected.

The Hurricanes came into the Fiesta Bowl as an 11.5 point favorite over the Buckeyes, and frankly, it was for good reason. Miami was on a 34 game winning streak, and only four of those wins came by fewer than ten points. Meanwhile, Ohio State, though also undefeated, had numerous close calls throughout the 2002 season, winning six games by fewer than seven points. But to almost everyone's surprise, Ohio State took a 3-point lead into the 4th quarter, pushed the game to a pair of overtimes, and came away with a 31-24 victory to cap their first National Championship season since 1968.

3. Alabama over Clemson (2015) 

2. Clemson over Alabama (2016) 

Place these two games in whatever order you want, but in some form or fashion, the back-to-back donnybrook's between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Clemson Tigers outshine every other National Championship Game this century with the exception of the one game left to come on this list.

I give the the slightest of nods to the second of these two meetings for two reasons:

1. The game wasn't decided until there was one second left on the clock, when Deshaun Watson and Hunter Renfrow connected on a go-ahead, game-winning 2-yard touchdown pass, which is pictured above.
2. This game marked the first time in five National Championship Game appearances that Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide came out of the game with an L. The Tide were 4-0 in title games previously, and it's not as if his 2016 team lacked talent. 19 of Alabama's 22 starters in the National Championship Game would eventually be selected in the NFL Draft. For what it's worth, Clemson did have 11 players eventually drafted.

And I should mention, these two teams did have their championship rubber match in 2018, a game that Clemson trailed 16-14 early in the 2nd quarter, but eventually won 44-16. Though, Bama fans would likely be quick to remind you that the Tide and Tigers also played in the College Football Playoff Semifinal in 2017, and Alabama won that game 24-6.

1. Texas over USC (2005) 

The 2006 Rose Bowl Game between the Texas Longhorns and USC Trojans, which doubled as the 2005 National Championship Game, is not just the 21st century's greatest college football game, it's also on the short list of the most iconic and entertaining sporting events of the last 25 years. That's right. Put this game up against any Super Bowl, any NBA Finals or World Series game, or any Olympic event, and it not only holds up, it may just surpass it.

Now while I would strongly suggest you rewatch the game on YouTube, especially if you soon find yourself suffering from the springtime blues that often follows the conclusion of football season, to fully appreciate the greatness of this game, you need to look beyond the game itself. Yes, USC and Texas delivered an on-field instant classic, but it goes much deeper than that.

You need understand that this matchup felt preordained from the time the previous season ended. The Trojans were the defending National Champions and the Longhorns had won the previous season's Rose Bowl. They were the top two teams in the country from the opening poll of the season and remained as such until the final night of the season.

You need to remember that Reggie Bush won the Heisman Trophy in 2005, Vince Young finished as the runner-up behind Bush, and Matt Leinart, who finished 3rd in the vote, had won the Heisman the season prior.

You need to appreciate the greatness of Keith Jackson as he called his final college football game, the beauty of the stadium in Pasadena, the damn near perfect ABC Sports theme, and of course, you need to sit back and marvel at what Vince Young was able to do over the course of these three-plus hours. Young threw for 267 yards, ran for another 200, and scored three touchdowns on the ground to lead the Longhorns to a dramatic 41-38 win.

As Dan Fouts boldly claimed after the Longhorns quarterback's go-ahead touchdown run, Vince Young was invincible in 2005, and this game's standing as the best National Championship Game ever may be invincible too.