This is the tale of the 10 best programs of the last decade, in some of their worst moments.
10. Oklahoma State (90-39, .698)
It’s pretty easy to spot Oklahoma State’s most embarrassing loss of the last ten years. That would be their 30-27 home loss to Central Michigan in 2016. And this was not a bad Okie Lite team either; they won 10 games and finished in the top 15. In conclusion, never take a bad team lightly. Everyone wants the W, especially the bad teams.
9. LSU (90-37, .709)
Who can forget the Troy Trojans winning in Baton Rouge in 2017? Outside of his championship season in 2019, Ed Orgeron’s Troy debacle was probably his most noteworthy moment at LSU.
8. Wisconsin (93-36, .721)
Finding an embarrassing loss for Wisconsin in the last ten years was challenging. But after a thorough examination, I had to go with their 2019 road loss at Illinois. The Badgers were 6-0 and had a win over a good Michigan team. So yes, they were getting a little bit of CFP talk. But unfortunately, Illinois took the air out of that balloon.
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7. Notre Dame (97-31, .758)
The Irish have a few losses to below .500 teams during this span, but I’m not worried about any of those. The most embarrassing, devastating loss for the Irish in the last ten years was the 41-8 loss at Miami in 2017. This was a tremendous opportunity for an Irish team that had seemingly proved their worth earlier in the season against a great Georgia team. Nevertheless, it was all lost in a pathetic performance against a slightly above-average Miami football team. Thus, if they win at Miami, they probably go into the Stanford game with a playoff spot on the line.
6. Oregon (91-27, .771)
A chance at redemption against the Utes did not bode well for the Ducks in 2021. A 31-point loss in November became a 28-point loss in December’s PAC Championship Game. So I could think of none other than this rematch for the most embarrassing loss for Oregon. In conclusion, Mario must have had other stuff on his mind.
5. Georgia (106-28, .791)
For the Dawgs, I’m not looking to their most considerable upset losses, as there were a few. Their most embarrassing defeat, however, came against Texas in the 2019 Sugar Bowl. First, the loss came after Kirby Smart went on a rant after losing the SEC title game to Alabama. Consequently, a rant in which he said that 2-loss Georgia SHOULD BE one of the 4 CFP seeds. He declared that Georgia was one of the best four teams in the nation after the loss. As a result, that set Georgia up in a must-win vs. a 4-loss Texas team.
4. Oklahoma (107-24, .817)
This one was easy for me. The worst Oklahoma performance of the last 20 seasons was the 2014, 40-6 Citrus Bowl loss to Clemson. This may be the game that indicated that Clemson had arrived, but it was still a bad Oklahoma performance. Losing was acceptable, but not showing up at all was not.
3. Clemson (121-17, .877)
It took me about 45 seconds to decide that Clemson’s most embarrassing loss of the last 10 seasons was their 2013 51-14 home loss to FSU. This was a battle of top 5 teams, and Clemson did not show up in their own backyard. What could be more embarrassing than that?
2. Ohio State (116-13, .899)
This is tough for me, between the 2017 Iowa road loss and the 2018 Purdue road loss. Both losses cost them a CFP spot, but I’m choosing Purdue as the most embarrassing. That ’17 Iowa team was an 8-win team, but ’18 Purdue was below .500. It became a regular event for Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes to take a day off at least once a year, during a game, of course.
1. Alabama (128-13, .908)
Without hesitation, it’s the A&M upset from 2021. Forget the hype around Jimbo and A&M’s new NIL recruiting success, there is no way they should have been able to play with Alabama in ’21. Consequently, it was a partial game collapse for the Crimson Tide. Pardon the cliché, but if these two teams had played ten times, ‘Bama would have won 9. And another interesting tidbit – this was Bama’s first loss to an unranked team since 2007. It doesn’t get any more embarrassing than that.
