Since we are already deep in the off-season and have all the time in the world, CBS Sports’ very own Brad Crawford recently dropped a list of the most hated college football teams ever. And quite honestly, it’s stirring up all the old drama. Of-course, both Jim Tressel’s Ohio State and Nick Saban’s Alabama landed right in the middle of it, which isn’t huge news if you’ve been a fan for a while now. Basically, we’re talking about two of the biggest Goliaths in the sport getting called out for being the ultimate villains that everyone else loved to root against.

Ohio State Buckeyes – 2002

Crawford actually put Jim Tressel’s 2002 at 8th most hated team of all time. For Buckeyes, the 2002 was cinema. But for the rest of the world (or America), the infamous ‘Luckeyes.’ Crawford had good reason to put them there. This team was basically the king of the ‘how did they win that?’ category. Jim Tressel’s team wasn’t quite blowing teams out of the water like a typical #1 seed like supposed to do. Instead, the 2002 Buckeyes played seven games that came down to a single possession.

Imagine sitting on your couch every Saturday watching them barely escape unranked teams like Cincinnati or Illinois. It drove fans crazy because it felt like they were living on a prayer. Plus, they had to watch Ohio State’s star freshman Maurice Clarett (1237 yards and 16 TDs) trash-talk and rage-bait before it was even a thing!

The peak source of national hate stems from the 2003 Fiesta Bowl against No. 1 Miami, which some say is still one of the most controversial games ever, if not the most. Miami was the defending champion and loaded with future NFL Hall of Famers left and right. They had every intention and ambition to run it back and become the first team to win back-to-back in the 20th century.

They had the game won in overtime and Buckeye’s QB Craig Krenzel was already on ground accepting the fate…until a late flag changed the trajectory of college football forever and killed the great dynasty of Miami U. A late defensive pass interference call against Miami’s Glenn Sharpe, thrown well after the play appeared to end. The Buckeyes took full advantage of the situation and put 2 scores on Miami to win Jim Tressel’s only national championship in 34-21 dub.

Ever since that night, the Miami Hurricanes have never really recovered from it. To this day, if you bring up that game to a Miami fan, they’d accuse Buckeyes of robbing their natty.

Alabama Crimson Tide – 2011

Now, shifting over to Nick Saban’s 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide. Crawford has them 10th on his hate list. Interestingly, this was the year the ‘SEC Bias’ monster was officially born. Since the beginning of the Saban era, he was already the most hated person (except by his own fanbase) in all of America because Nick Saban and Alabama were winning all the time.

But the reason why 2011 was at the pinnacle of hate is because Bama didn’t even win their own division. Irony at its finest. The Roll Tide lost a brutal, boring 9-6 game to LSU at home during the regular season. And most fans thought, “Okay, they’re out.” But when the final BCS standings came out, the computers snubbed a 12-1 Oklahoma State team to give Alabama a rematch.

It felt like the system was rigged to make sure the SEC always had a seat at the table. Fans across the country were livid because it felt like Alabama was getting a “mulligan” or a do-over that no other team in the country would have ever received.

The actual championship game between Alabama and LSU was the final nail in the coffin for why people hated this team. It was a defensive “slog” that was honestly painful for a casual fan to watch. Alabama won 21-0, and LSU couldn’t even cross the 50-yard line for the first three quarters of the game. It was so boring and repetitive that it actually had the third-lowest TV ratings in BCS history.

People were literally turning off the TV because they were so fed up with seeing the same two teams from the same conference play a game where nobody scored a touchdown until the very end. This game was so widely disliked that it’s credited as the main reason the sport finally ditched the BCS system and moved toward the playoff that we see today.

Ultimately, both Tressel’s Buckeyes and Saban’s Tide ended up on Brad Crawford’s list because they were the Goliaths and found a way to win, regardless. Some say it’s “unfair” to everyone else. The good news is people are entitled to their opinions and can express their freedom of speech in the sports space, at least. Crawford points out that while these teams were undeniably talented and full of future pros, they lacked the “lovable” factor. But any coach in their right mind couldn’t mind trading the ‘most hated team’ tag for a national championship.