Jack Follman’s Greatest Teams from Current Pac-12 Schools

A ranking of the all-time Top 25 greatest football teams in Conference history

Posted on May 20, 2022


  By Jack Follman, SuperWest Sports

We’ve made it through the greatest conference players and coaches and now it’s time to bring it all together with the greatest teams in Conference history.

We’ll go all the way to 100 years ago and up to just a handful of years ago.

Despite recent struggles, the Conference has historically won a good amount of national championships, and not just USC, though let’s not act like the majority of the top teams aren’t Trojans.

Here are my picks for the best teams in Conference history.

2004 USC Football | via a.espncdn.com

1. 2004 USC
There’s no question here. My only question is where 2004 USC falls on the list of greatest teams in the history of all of college football.

We know the endless accolades and the top one to me is how thoroughly and effortlessly they thrashed undefeated Oklahoma in the BCS Championship Game.

1972 USC Football | USC Athletics

2. 1972 USC
This team was so dominant it’s tempting to put them ahead of 2004 USC. Here are the ranked teams they blew out: No. 3 Ohio State (Rose Bowl), No. 4 Arkansas, No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 14 UCLA, and No. 18 Washington.

1991 Washington Football | Washington Athletics

3. 1991 Washington
The ’91 Huskies went undefeated and won a national championship with a balanced team with a scary defense, one of the greatest players in college football history in DT Steve Emtman, and legendary coach Don James.

Only one team stayed within single digits of them and they blew out No. 4 Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

2005 USC football team | USC Athletics

4. 2005 USC
This team loses a lot of points in most historical rankings I think simply by barely losing the BCS Championship Game to a historic performance by Vince Young and a great Texas team.

Other than that, they were super dominant and were really only taken to the wire on the road against a Top 10 Notre Dame team.

Had they won that their final game, they would have been in the conversation for the top spot.

1979 USC Football | USC Athletics

5. 1979 USC
Iohn Robinson’s best team went undefeated, with one tie, and beat No. 1 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Charles White led the way with a powerful rushing game as they had an impressive run, winning road games against ranked Notre Dame, Washington, and LSU.

2003 USC Football vs Cal | Getty Images

6. 2003 USC
USC’s first national champion had a tough 3OT road loss to Cal but was dominant other than that—blowing out two No. 6 teams and beating No. 4 Michigan by 14 in the Rose Bowl.

1978 USC Football | USC Athletics

7. 1978 USC
This national champion had a blemish with a loss to ASU but destroyed teams outside of that.

They won at top-ranked Alabama and closed out the season, winning four of their last five against ranked teams (No. 19 Washington, No. 14 UCLA, No. 8 Notre Dame, and No. 5 Michigan in the Rose Bowl).

1962 USC Football | USC Athletics

8. 1962 USC
John McKay’s breakout team went undefeated and took home a national championship. They beat No. 8 Duke and No. 9 Washington in the regular season and No. 2 Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

O.J. Simpson and the 1967 USC Football team | Walter Iooss Jr./SI

9. 1967 USC
O.J. Simpson powered this team to a national title despite losing 0-3 to Oregon State late in the season. They beat No. 1 UCLA, No. 4 Indiana (Rose Bowl), No. 5 Notre Dame, and No. 5 Texas.

1954 UCLA Football | UCLA Athletics

10. 1954 UCLA
The greatest Bruins team of all time went undefeated and beat No. 6 Maryland and No. 7 USC. They were only challenged really a couple of times, outscoring opponents 367 to 40.

11. 1974 USC
12. 2008 USC
13. 1969 USC
14. 1984 Washington
15. 1990 Colorado
16. 2012 Oregon
17. 2010 Oregon
18. 2014 Oregon
19. 2002 USC
20. 1932 USC
21. 1975 Arizona State
22. 1931 USC
23. 1940 Stanford
24. 1920 Cal
25. 2008 Utah




—More from Jack Follman—