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Forgotten 5: Best teams that didn't win the national title

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

While a second-place finish is certainly nothing to sneer at, the ever-so-eloquent driver Reese Bobby perhaps said it best, "If you're not first, you're last."

Throughout the existence of college football, history remembers the champions, while the second-place finishers are often swept under the rug as the victory parade storms through.

The 2015 season added another name to the list of "best teams to not win a championship," as Ohio State dominated its opponents, but missed out on a chance to repeat the 2014 title thanks to a home loss versus Michigan State.

The Buckeyes saw 12 players from last year's team get selected in the 2016 NFL Draft, including 11 in the first 102 picks, speaking to the talent level Urban Meyer accumulated in Columbus.

Here's five other phenomenal teams from the past 20 years that haven't been able to win the big one.

1998 Ohio State (11-1 Big Ten Co-Champions)

An Ohio State team that was the Preseason No. 1, cruising through the regular season before losing a close game at home as big favorites against Michigan State, and rebounding for a bowl game victory. Does that sound familiar? The 1998 version of the Buckeyes was very similar to the 2015 edition. That edition didn't have the NFL star power that last year's bunch did, but still had three first-round picks in David Boston, Antoine Winfield and Andy Katzenmoyer.

2010 Oregon (12-1, Pac-10 Champions)

Oregon's explosive offense went off in Chip Kelly's second season as head coach, putting up an absurd 46.8 points-per-game in a perfect regular season and Pac-10 title. LaMichael James led the nation with 1,731 rushing yards and finished second with 21 touchdowns, and the Ducks were unfazed by the season-long suspension to starting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli. Oregon would eventually fall in the national title game to Cam Newton and Auburn on a last-second field goal, but the 2010 season announced to the world that Kelly's offense was here to stay.

2000 Miami (11-1, Big East Champions)

Perhaps the most shocking thing about Miami from 2000-02 is that it only captured one national championship. The assembly of talent for the program over that three-year stretch is arguably the best in college football history. Butch Davis' club knocked off No. 1 Florida State, No. 2 Virginia Tech, and No. 7 Florida, only suffering a narrow five-point loss on the road to an equally-impressive Washington team. An overall point differential of plus-316 spoke to how dominant this team was. Eventual NFL players from this team include Santana Moss, Reggie Wayne, Jeremy Shockey, Ed Reed, Bryant McKinnie, Dan Morgan, Andre Johnson, and Clinton Portis.

2005 USC (12-1, Pac-10 Champions)

USC's 2005 squad represented peak Pete Carroll with an offensive juggernaut on the field. The Trojans ran the table in the regular season, piling up crooked numbers to the tune of a 600-256 total scoreline. The team held the No. 1 ranking the entire campaign, and headed to Pasadena to face Texas in the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately for USC, a football-playing alien named Vince Young showed up to play quarterback for the Longhorns and turned in arguably the greatest performance in college football history. Young scampered for the winning touchdown with 19 seconds left, breaking the Trojans' hearts in the process.

*The entire season's results would later be vacated due to the Reggie Bush scandal, but we all know what we saw.

2004 Auburn (13-0, SEC Champions)

Auburn was a victim of one of the most controversial BCS selections ever in 2004. The Tigers ran the table in the regular season posting a 12-0 record, but were passed over for the title game in favor of USC and Oklahoma. Tommy Tuberville's program posed an incredible plus-270 point differential throughout the season and capped it with a 16-13 Sugar Bowl win over Virginia Tech to finish 13-0. It seems unfathomable to imagine an undefeated SEC team not playing for the national championship, but those were the times. Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown, Carlos Rogers, and Jason Campbell were all first-round picks, while Jay Ratliff, Marcus McNeill, and Ben Grubbs would also star in the NFL.

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