From Sweet Sixteen to Elite Eight

Nope, not college basketball, but football. In the prior entry, I ran down a list of what ended up by chance being 16 teams from the decade that I felt at least needed further consideration for the top rankings. I should note here that it's not entirely based on win-loss or titles, and not entirely based on pure power.

In the latter case, Michigan State's 1965-'66 squads would have easily made the top five. This group ended up giving the NFL four high first-round draft picks in '67, for instance, and simply mauled much of its opposition.

But the criteria, really, became--following going unbeaten--who did you beat and who did you get close shaves from, with the latter being less important than the former. After all, if those narrow escapes didn't prevent a team from taking the national title, then mostly the only thing counting was the 'W.' Conversely, it makes more of a difference, the way I see it, to knock off top competition. That's one reason the 1961 Alabama team, for instance, didn't go further in this analysis; it simply didn't play enough stellar opponents, even if it won everything put in front of it. We're talkin' comparing top vs top, so there must be some tie-breakers. For that reason, too, the sweat-outs against the puny penalized some teams, but not as much as they were boosted by their triumphs over impressive foes.

Anyway, with that noted, it's down to the "Elite Eight." Kinda interesting to me that four, or half, didn't quite win the national championship. Here, only in order by year and alphabetically, is that smaller group
["Trials" are either setbacks or narrow wins over weaker squads. "Triumphs" are victories over any squad better than 6-4]:

'62 Ole Miss (10-0)-Trials: ahead by just one point with five minutes to go against mediocre Miss State (3-6 W-L) before scoring to make the final 13-6.
Triumphs: over Houston (7-4 record), at LSU (9-1-1), and Arkansas (9-2). *USC won the national title, but as noted in prior entry, felt this Rebels version was sightly better overall, and its coming up a bit short wasn't due to stumbling.

'63 Texas (11-0)-Trials: win at SMU (4-7) and at Texas A&M (2-7-1).
Triumphs: OU (8-2), Baylor (8-3), and Navy (9-2). *Texas the national champ.

'64 Arkansas (11-0)-Trials: home win over Oklahoma State (4-6)
Triumphs: over Tulsa (9-2, Golden Hurricane not powerful, but still good), at Texas (10-1), Nebraska (9-2). *Alabama, due to bowls not counting in the main polls, won the national title. Like with Ole Miss in '62, though, Arkansas did nothing to prevent it from winning. 'Bama just snuck in a hair ahead.

'65 Michigan State (10-1)-(the only one of the finalists with a defeat. Chose it over its better known successor due to the magnificence of its wins, while the '66 group only had one "quality" win to its credit.)
Trials: lost to UCLA, 14-12, in the Rose Bowl that cost it the country's championship. A caveat, though, in that the Spartans defeated the Bruins to start the season. Deeply difficult to beat a stellar opponent twice in the same season. No close contests against so-so opponents.
Triumphs: UCLA (early season), (8-2-1 record), Ohio State (7-2), at Purdue (7-2-1) and at Notre Dame (7-2-1).

'66 Notre Dame (9-0-1)-Trials: tie at Michigan State, if can consider it a setback. Basically blew everyone else off the map.
Triumphs: Purdue (9-2), at USC (7-4) (can consider the MSU game on this side of the ledger too). *National champion

'66 Alabama (11-0)-Trials: none, really
Triumphs: Ole Miss (8-3), at Tennessee (8-3) (one pt win), Nebraska (9-2) (Sugar)

'68 Ohio State (10-0)-shaves at Illinois (1-9), Mich St (5-5), at Iowa (5-5)
Triumphs: SMU (8-3), Purdue (8-2), Michigan (8-2), USC (9-1-1) (Rose for national crown) *National champion

'69 Texas (11-0)-Trials: none vs mediocre opponents
Triumphs: at Arkansas (9-2) (for inside track to national title at end of season), Notre Dame (8-2-1) in Cotton Bowl to clinch *National champion