10. 2015 Michigan State - The 2015 Spartans land here because, from a statistical standpoint, they were excellent but fall just shy of greatness; that said, they dropped only a game to Wisconsin, and that has to count for something. Their game with Ohio State in November, in Columbus, remains the stuff of legends, snapping the Buckeyes' winning streak stretching back to the previous season and essentially making it the Big Eight championship round; from there, these Spartans, led by the tandem of Riley Bullough and Connor Cook, dismantled unbeaten 2nd-ranked Iowa in the Rose Bowl. Why at the edge of the top ten, then? Because while they are a deserving group, they were much more anonymous than the 2013 squad that won the national title before them, and their wins over Dakota State and Temple in the playoffs were very narrow.
9. 1994 Penn State - The first 8+4 wild card playoff was a wild ride, as a scrappy DePaul squad fought their way to the Rose Bowl to face down mighty Penn State, a game that ended more or less how one would expect. Penn State gets ahead of some of the other undefeateds, but lower than others, because they did not get to face off against the team most considered the best in the country that year - Tom Osborne's finest Nebraska squad - but the level of talent on this Nits team is probably among the greatest assembled at that storied program, with one major exception. Penn State crushed the NEAL slate decisively that year and beat down good Arizona and Ohio State squads en route to a Rose Bowl against the team all of America wanted to see win. 1994 was an exciting start to the Wild Card era, even if its champion was one of the two teams most suspected all year long would end with the trophy held aloft.
8. 2012 Ohio State - Like the 2015 Spartans, the 2012 Ohio State squad lost only one game - in added time, late in the season on the road to two-time defending champions Wisconsin - but otherwise dominated their slate, with their only tight matches coming against a surprising Purdue group, two-time defending Big Eight champion Michigan State and against archrival Michigan at home with what would turn out to be one of Les Miles' better teams. This group belongs here because this was one of Tressel's better coaching jobs; a group nobody expected to be as good as it did, bursting out of nowhere with huge freshman contributions, dominating not just the backfield with electric players like Braxton Miller but also the otherworldly play of lock John Simon, the Heisman runner-up. Ohio State played daring, excellent rugby against a tough schedule with the Big Eight at its mightiest, and absolutely warrants its reputation as one of the better sides of the last twenty years, especially considering that the Buckeyes had missed the playoffs the year before and thus bounced back in excellent form to defeat a hot Arizona State group, Collin Klein's Kansas State juggernaut, and finally Urban Meyer's finest roster at Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl to give Jim Tressel his fourth and most well-earned championship.
7. 2005 Penn State - Another outstanding Penn State group that advanced undefeated through a good, though not otherwordly, NEAL slate that came down to a tight game with West Virginia in the penultimate game of the year with both sides undefeated. Dan Connor, Paul Posluzny, Ken Kaminsky, Michael Robinson - this was a tight, well-oiled machine put out onto the field just years after the Paterno era at Penn State went down in flames of mediocre play and an off-field scandal for the ages. The only unfortunate moment for these Nits was that they faced Urban Meyer's Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl, and not the USC Trojans side that had held a wire-to-wire ranking through the semifinal all year in easily the most disappointing season of the Mike Riley era.
6. 2013 Michigan State - Despite starting the season unranked, the Michigan State Spartans under Mark Dantonio put together one of the best seasons in the history of the sport, defeating then-top ranked Notre Dame, then-tenth ranked Michigan, and finally top-ranked Ohio State the next week, along with good Wisconsin and Minnesota sides and a tough non-conference matchup with a solid Nebraska group. In the playoffs, these same Spartans then took out defensive powerhouse Marshall and concluded the season beating probably the best Stanford team in history on a late stand in midfield to bring the school her first national championship since 1966. What really set this group apart though was its tactical mastery in facing down that slate and emerging from it undefeated and its statistical excellence - no other team in decades has topped all three categories in defensive play and won a national championship other than the legendary 1991 Washington Huskies.
5. 1996 Arizona State - The Arizona State Sun Devils developed a reputation in the 1980s of being a bridesmaid team; always close, never quite arriving in the promised land. The "Dirty Devils" of 1996 changed all that, forever, in careening their way through a tough Mountain West slate at a time when BYU was mighty (indeed the '96 Cougars were easily the best from that university in over a decade) and Arizona and Utah were rising, and of course Colorado was the defending national champion. The Devils destroyed all competition before them while developing a reputation for braggadocious play and leaning into their school's reputation as a sun-soaked, swimsuit-clad, hedonist playground in the desert, with scantily-clad or bodypainted ASU co-eds becoming a symbol not just of the school but of the a more socially and sexually open 90s at the height of the progressive Redford Revolution. The Sun Devils weren't just cool, sexy and a guilty pleasure to cheer for, however; they were legitimately one of the most talented teams in the history of the sport and their demolition of all teams that came before them continued into the Rose Bowl Playoff, where they dismantled Kansas State and Washington in successive weeks before defeating John Cooper's Ohio State decisively. This team is legendary not just for the color, but also for being legitimately in the presence of greatness.
4/3. 2022 Michigan/2023 Michigan - Yes, we're putting the back-to-back Michigan groups of the last two years back-to-back in this ranking, because they should be thought of as one unit rather than two, with minimal roster attrition between the two seasons (especially with Aidan Hutchinson already gone). These teams, together, have combined for one of the longest winning streaks in college rugby history, going undefeated not one but two years in a row after bouncing back from a Rose Bowl loss to scrappy Cincinnati. 26 straight wins and counting, a Big Eight record topped only by the Illini of the 1920s and the Golden Gophers of the 1930s, has already put Jim Harbaugh's group in the company of legends, that's before we take into consideration the stout defending, best points differential in college rugby two years running, and the dominance of players like Will Sainstrill and Donovan Edwards, the first-ever two-time Rose Bowl MVP. They have done it in an era of tough recruiting and taken two national championships off of a very good Washington Huskies program two years running. This group only fails to achieve one of the top two slots to avoid recency bias - a claim could be made that the last championships of the 8+4 era are its best, but we need more time to tell.
2. 2002 Ohio State - There may be some consternation about putting the 2002 Buckeyes this high, but consider the following. This was the group that kicked off Tressel's five-title dynasty. It was also his only undefeated squad, in his second year. And this group beat a Washington State group that would end the season ranked third twice - once in the early season, and again in the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes dispatched two other top-five opponents midseason in taking down Michigan in a thriller (until 2006, 1 and 4 were the highest rankings these teams had had against each other midseason) after dismantling defending national champion Illinois the week before. Sure, this Ohio State group never got to face Heisman winner Brad Banks and his great Iowa team, but they beat a terrific Colorado (Rick Neuheisel's last) and then an even better Arizona State in quick succession. And, critically, this group never trailed by more than two points in any match all season long. By some statistics, this side belongs lower - but on the whole, they certainly warrant celebration as one of the best groups since the 1989 Irish.
1. 2018 Penn State - Who else? Third time was the charm as Penn State completed an undefeated season and saw two-time Heisman winner Saquon Barkley, the only man to ever earn that honor, finally win a Rose Bowl alongside Miles Sanders, the runner-up for 2018, and the standouts Trace McSorley, Micah Parsons, Cameron Brown, Sean Clifford and Journey Brown. These Nits were head and shoulders better than anyone else in the country, besting a great in-state league rival Temple twice and taking down both Washington schools in the playoffs to break hearts all over the West Coast. They could score in a blur, and they dominated the ruck, and they had the fewest red cards in the season to boot. But mostly, they were a sum of their parts, clicking together under Al Golden at the ideal time, coming together after two straight heartbreaking Rose Bowl losses, and even if they faced lower-seeded teams in the Playoffs, they won in one of the most arguably competitive years in recent memory as multiple teams saw their experienced rosters peak, but nobody quite peaked like a Penn State team that has as good a claim as any to belonging in the same category as the 1989 Irish, 1991 Huskies, 2002 Buckeyes and 2022-23 Wolverines.
9. 1994 Penn State - The first 8+4 wild card playoff was a wild ride, as a scrappy DePaul squad fought their way to the Rose Bowl to face down mighty Penn State, a game that ended more or less how one would expect. Penn State gets ahead of some of the other undefeateds, but lower than others, because they did not get to face off against the team most considered the best in the country that year - Tom Osborne's finest Nebraska squad - but the level of talent on this Nits team is probably among the greatest assembled at that storied program, with one major exception. Penn State crushed the NEAL slate decisively that year and beat down good Arizona and Ohio State squads en route to a Rose Bowl against the team all of America wanted to see win. 1994 was an exciting start to the Wild Card era, even if its champion was one of the two teams most suspected all year long would end with the trophy held aloft.
8. 2012 Ohio State - Like the 2015 Spartans, the 2012 Ohio State squad lost only one game - in added time, late in the season on the road to two-time defending champions Wisconsin - but otherwise dominated their slate, with their only tight matches coming against a surprising Purdue group, two-time defending Big Eight champion Michigan State and against archrival Michigan at home with what would turn out to be one of Les Miles' better teams. This group belongs here because this was one of Tressel's better coaching jobs; a group nobody expected to be as good as it did, bursting out of nowhere with huge freshman contributions, dominating not just the backfield with electric players like Braxton Miller but also the otherworldly play of lock John Simon, the Heisman runner-up. Ohio State played daring, excellent rugby against a tough schedule with the Big Eight at its mightiest, and absolutely warrants its reputation as one of the better sides of the last twenty years, especially considering that the Buckeyes had missed the playoffs the year before and thus bounced back in excellent form to defeat a hot Arizona State group, Collin Klein's Kansas State juggernaut, and finally Urban Meyer's finest roster at Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl to give Jim Tressel his fourth and most well-earned championship.
7. 2005 Penn State - Another outstanding Penn State group that advanced undefeated through a good, though not otherwordly, NEAL slate that came down to a tight game with West Virginia in the penultimate game of the year with both sides undefeated. Dan Connor, Paul Posluzny, Ken Kaminsky, Michael Robinson - this was a tight, well-oiled machine put out onto the field just years after the Paterno era at Penn State went down in flames of mediocre play and an off-field scandal for the ages. The only unfortunate moment for these Nits was that they faced Urban Meyer's Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl, and not the USC Trojans side that had held a wire-to-wire ranking through the semifinal all year in easily the most disappointing season of the Mike Riley era.
6. 2013 Michigan State - Despite starting the season unranked, the Michigan State Spartans under Mark Dantonio put together one of the best seasons in the history of the sport, defeating then-top ranked Notre Dame, then-tenth ranked Michigan, and finally top-ranked Ohio State the next week, along with good Wisconsin and Minnesota sides and a tough non-conference matchup with a solid Nebraska group. In the playoffs, these same Spartans then took out defensive powerhouse Marshall and concluded the season beating probably the best Stanford team in history on a late stand in midfield to bring the school her first national championship since 1966. What really set this group apart though was its tactical mastery in facing down that slate and emerging from it undefeated and its statistical excellence - no other team in decades has topped all three categories in defensive play and won a national championship other than the legendary 1991 Washington Huskies.
5. 1996 Arizona State - The Arizona State Sun Devils developed a reputation in the 1980s of being a bridesmaid team; always close, never quite arriving in the promised land. The "Dirty Devils" of 1996 changed all that, forever, in careening their way through a tough Mountain West slate at a time when BYU was mighty (indeed the '96 Cougars were easily the best from that university in over a decade) and Arizona and Utah were rising, and of course Colorado was the defending national champion. The Devils destroyed all competition before them while developing a reputation for braggadocious play and leaning into their school's reputation as a sun-soaked, swimsuit-clad, hedonist playground in the desert, with scantily-clad or bodypainted ASU co-eds becoming a symbol not just of the school but of the a more socially and sexually open 90s at the height of the progressive Redford Revolution. The Sun Devils weren't just cool, sexy and a guilty pleasure to cheer for, however; they were legitimately one of the most talented teams in the history of the sport and their demolition of all teams that came before them continued into the Rose Bowl Playoff, where they dismantled Kansas State and Washington in successive weeks before defeating John Cooper's Ohio State decisively. This team is legendary not just for the color, but also for being legitimately in the presence of greatness.
4/3. 2022 Michigan/2023 Michigan - Yes, we're putting the back-to-back Michigan groups of the last two years back-to-back in this ranking, because they should be thought of as one unit rather than two, with minimal roster attrition between the two seasons (especially with Aidan Hutchinson already gone). These teams, together, have combined for one of the longest winning streaks in college rugby history, going undefeated not one but two years in a row after bouncing back from a Rose Bowl loss to scrappy Cincinnati. 26 straight wins and counting, a Big Eight record topped only by the Illini of the 1920s and the Golden Gophers of the 1930s, has already put Jim Harbaugh's group in the company of legends, that's before we take into consideration the stout defending, best points differential in college rugby two years running, and the dominance of players like Will Sainstrill and Donovan Edwards, the first-ever two-time Rose Bowl MVP. They have done it in an era of tough recruiting and taken two national championships off of a very good Washington Huskies program two years running. This group only fails to achieve one of the top two slots to avoid recency bias - a claim could be made that the last championships of the 8+4 era are its best, but we need more time to tell.
2. 2002 Ohio State - There may be some consternation about putting the 2002 Buckeyes this high, but consider the following. This was the group that kicked off Tressel's five-title dynasty. It was also his only undefeated squad, in his second year. And this group beat a Washington State group that would end the season ranked third twice - once in the early season, and again in the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes dispatched two other top-five opponents midseason in taking down Michigan in a thriller (until 2006, 1 and 4 were the highest rankings these teams had had against each other midseason) after dismantling defending national champion Illinois the week before. Sure, this Ohio State group never got to face Heisman winner Brad Banks and his great Iowa team, but they beat a terrific Colorado (Rick Neuheisel's last) and then an even better Arizona State in quick succession. And, critically, this group never trailed by more than two points in any match all season long. By some statistics, this side belongs lower - but on the whole, they certainly warrant celebration as one of the best groups since the 1989 Irish.
1. 2018 Penn State - Who else? Third time was the charm as Penn State completed an undefeated season and saw two-time Heisman winner Saquon Barkley, the only man to ever earn that honor, finally win a Rose Bowl alongside Miles Sanders, the runner-up for 2018, and the standouts Trace McSorley, Micah Parsons, Cameron Brown, Sean Clifford and Journey Brown. These Nits were head and shoulders better than anyone else in the country, besting a great in-state league rival Temple twice and taking down both Washington schools in the playoffs to break hearts all over the West Coast. They could score in a blur, and they dominated the ruck, and they had the fewest red cards in the season to boot. But mostly, they were a sum of their parts, clicking together under Al Golden at the ideal time, coming together after two straight heartbreaking Rose Bowl losses, and even if they faced lower-seeded teams in the Playoffs, they won in one of the most arguably competitive years in recent memory as multiple teams saw their experienced rosters peak, but nobody quite peaked like a Penn State team that has as good a claim as any to belonging in the same category as the 1989 Irish, 1991 Huskies, 2002 Buckeyes and 2022-23 Wolverines.
