Best of the best: Ranking the top Games of the Century

The mere idea of trying to rank the greatest “games of the century” doesn’t make sense, which makes it perfect for college football.

There were only two qualifiers: The pick had to be a regular-season game and it had to match No. 1 vs. No. 2 in a major poll.

That’s why the 2006 Rose

Bowl national title game between Texas and Southern California does not make the cut. Vince Young’s takedown of the Trojans might be the greatest college football game ever played, but the BCS orchestrated it. A Game of the Century needs to occur organically.

Voters submitted a top five in order. First-place votes were worth five points, four for second and so on. So here it is:

NO. 1: NO. 1 NEBRASKA 35, NO. 2 OKLAHOMA 31, 1971 (21 FIRST-PLACE VOTES, 144 POINTS).

For about two decades, a case could be made that Oklahoma-Nebraska was the most important rivalry in college football. From 1971-88, the Sooners and Cornhuskers played 15 top-five matchups.

This game launched that period of dominance in college football and it still stands as the best of the bunch. Big Eight rivals Nebraska and Oklahoma were 1-2 in the AP poll for seven weeks leading up to their famous Thanksgiving

Day showdown.

NO. 2: NO. 1 TEXAS 15, NO. 2 ARKANSAS 14, 1969 (4 FIRST-PLACE VOTES, 74 POINTS).

The Longhorns’ fourthquarter comeback led by quarterback James Street erased Arkansas’ 14-0 lead and sent Texas unbeaten into the Cotton Bowl.

NO. 3: NO. 2 MIAMI 17, NO. 1 FLORIDA STATE, 16, 1991 (4 FIRST-PLACE VOTES, 58 POINTS).

Seminoles kicker Gerry Thomas’s potential gamewinning field goal from 34 yards out with 29 second left just missed. It even had Florida State coach Bobby Bowden fooled for just a moment.