by Kyle Golik
Inspiration can come from many places. Case in point On3’s Andy Staples made me take a double take on his thoughts on who were the blue bloods of the sport.
https://twitter.com/On3sports/status/1810704640968946155
Staples’ Blue Bloods: Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Michigan, Georgia, Notre Dame, Texas, Southern California, Penn State
Staples’ Contenders: Florida State, LSU, Nebraska, Clemson, Miami, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Oregon
My Take: The resumes of Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, and Southern California speak for themselves. That I can agree on.
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Georgia’s recent dominance is being weighed too heavy here considering the near 40 year abyss from being a true national elite post Herschel Walker up to the Kirby Smart era. Grant you Mark Richt had the Dawgs flirting with it, but the thing with blue bloods are they don’t flirt with being elite, they just are.
Penn State is a program that is extremely consistent and I will tackle later when I revisit my list from last year as I will Florida State, who in their short history might surprise you of just how strong that program has been.
From a contenders perspective, Nebraska losing their blue blood status is justified. I made the analogy last year to Minnesota, if in the 1960’s and 1970’s – Minnesota would be a consensus Top 10 program ever with their six national championships and those who remember the Bernie Bierman dynasty, it was still fresh in a lot of people’s minds.
Since winning the national championship in 1960, Minnesota has had two 10+ win seasons in the last 60 plus years and haven’t appeared in a New Year’s Six bowl. Somewhere along the way, they lost their status.
I feel at this point, we are 20+ years from Nebraska really being nationally relevant and elite. While I do feel Matt Rhule will have Nebraska back amongst the national elite, that feeling isn’t a lock I am willing to make with my friends in the desert – as Brent Musburger would say, but it also isn’t enough capital to maintain their blue blood status.
Right now, Nebraska is just as far from the Osborne era as Minnesota was from the Bierman era when they could claim blue blood status.
While Oregon is everyone’s flavor of the month, they don’t have a single national championship. For a better part of their history post Len Casanova to Rich Brooks miracle 1994 run, Oregon was awful at football but somehow managed to beat Oregon State. The Ducks went nearly 30 years in that span between bowl games, that isn’t part of the heritage of a blue blood.
Not trying to pour salt to the Oregon faithful, but their hated rival Washington has more national championships, wins, conference championships, bowls, double the number of consensus All-Americans and weeks at AP No. 1 spot, 81 more players drafted by the NFL and 115 more weeks in the AP Poll but isn’t being considered.
Revisiting My List From Last Year
If you want to read what I thought last year, here is a link to it. I am going to adjust things a bit but not too much. Again one year’s performance doesn’t take someone from contender to blue blood unless they were on the fringe.
The first thing you have to buy into is blue blood status is something that isn’t eternal. If that were the case, schools like Pitt, Minnesota, Army, and Georgia Tech would be bluebloods
For those new to how I do things, I break it down into four quadrants:
- Blue Blood – Secure: School is a blue blood and that status is secure. The school is seen as a consensus blue blood with little doubt about their resume.
- Blue Blood – Not Secure: School is a blue blood but the state they have been in to maintain that status is in question. Typically a program hasn’t been elite in a long time and subpar/poor seasons have been prevalent.
- Not Blue Blood – Borderline: School is not blue blood but they have been very good or close for a long time. They also may have been blue blood but have lost it recently. Typically this school has a lot of success but is missing championships to enter the blue blood status.
- Not Blue Blood -Access Denied: Where everyone else falls into nationally, but I use this section to point out schools who get suggested to be blue bloods – see above with Andy Staples suggesting Oregon is a “contender” to be a blue blood.
2024 Blue Blood Statuses
Blue Blood – Secure
Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Michigan
Blue Blood – Not Secure
Southern California, Texas, Notre Dame, Florida State
Not Blue Blood – Border Line
Georgia, Penn State, Nebraska, LSU, Tennessee
Not Blue Blood – Access Denied
Clemson, Miami, Auburn, Oregon
Key Takes
#1 Michigan secured its blue blood status – Yes Michigan has dubious wins against Ann Arbor HS, Camp Grant, Detroit Industrial Team, Grand Rapids HS, a team called “Physicians & Surgeons” from Illinois, and a 6-12 record against Andy Bernard’s alma mater, Cornell. That doesn’t change, it also doesn’t change the fact they won their first sole national championship since Harry S. Truman was president – something Scott Van Pelt pointed out numerous times in the Wolverines national championship coverage. If there was one thing Michigan had to do to secure their blue blood status, they did it. They won the Big Ten, made the College Football Playoff, retired Nick Saban, and won the national championship. While I don’t feel Sherrone Moore will have Michigan perennially in the Top 10 moving forward, Moore will have Michigan as a Top 15 program with flirtations with the top and an expanded playoff is always dangerous with a physical team like Moore will have.
#2 Southern California has lost their security with blue blood status. To be honest, I had them on the fringe last year, I bet that Caleb Williams would have had another spectacular season and the Trojans would have closed out Pac-12 play with a Pac-12 championship or at least playing for one. That backfired horribly on my part. While I am high on the defensive staff Lincoln Riley brought in, it doesn’t take away the disaster it was last year and quite frankly the turbulence the Trojans have endured since Pete Carroll left. Riley has the tools to fix this, the Trojans are still blue bloods for now, but I question their status moving forward.
#3 Florida State earned unsecured blue blood status and to me it has been a long time coming. Last season, Florida State completed its sixth undefeated regular season since 1979 (1979, 1996, 1999, 2013, 2014, 2023) a feat only matched three times each by FSU’s other unsecured blue bloods of Southern California (1979, 2004, 2005), Notre Dame (1988, 2012, 2018), and Texas (1983, 2005, 2009). One of the jeers I received over my greatest coaches list came from Nebraska fans who boasted about Tom Osborne never finishing under 9-3, an amazing feat in itself. In 70 seasons they have played football at Florida State they have won 9 or more games in 33 of those seasons or 47.1% of their seasons. When you look at my secure blue blood teams, FSU has a higher percentage than each of the secure blue bloods: Alabama at 46.7%, Ohio State 40.2%, Oklahoma 43.5%, Michigan 35.1%. FSU being a blue blood in college football is like how many argued for UConn in college basketball, ultimately it is hard to ignore the excellence they have achieved. To me, if you continue to ignore what FSU achieves on the field, much like with UConn they will just make it more inconvenient for you until you relent.
#4 Penn State is that program that makes it inconvenient to recognize them as blue blood. They have all the credentials and feats that scream yes they are blue blood. They have participated in all six of the New Year’s Six bowl games, they are in the Top 10 in wins, bowls, draft picks, and weeks in the polls. They are just outside the Top 10 in Consensus All-Americans, First Round draft picks, and weeks at No. 1. While they check a lot of boxes, it’s what they don’t check that keeps them off. The lack of championships is a big one. Hall of fame coach Joe Paterno was an immortal in Eastern football and dominated the space for four decades, When Penn State entered the Big Ten, Paterno had one of his coaching opuses in 1994 but after that, the Big Ten made Paterno into a mere mortal and Penn State has been a consistent Tier 2 program in the conference with a few surprises sprinkled here and there. James Franklin’s record against top teams also doesn’t inspire much change for the Nittany Lions’ status in the Big Ten, let alone as a blue blood.
