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Fun Stat Nerd Tidbit: North Carolina

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Because the last 12 months haven't been all that kind to North Carolina fans, and because the coming years probably won't be either, I figured I'd be nice in this space today and talk about the best football UNC has produced.

Top 15 North Carolina Teams of All-Time
Rk Team Record Postseason
1 1925 North Carolina 7-1-1
2 1997 North Carolina 11-1 Gator Bowl (UNC 42, Va. Tech 3)
3 1996 North Carolina 10-2 Gator Bowl (UNC 20, W. Virginia 13)
4 1980 North Carolina 11-1 Bluebonnet Bowl (UNC 16, Texas 7)
5 1922 North Carolina 9-1
6 1935 North Carolina 8-1
7 1948 North Carolina 9-1-1 Sugar Bowl (Oklahoma 14, UNC 6)
8 1939 North Carolina 8-1-1
9 1938 North Carolina 6-2-1
10 1981 North Carolina 10-2 Gator Bowl (UNC 31, Arkansas 27)
11 1972 North Carolina 11-1 Sun Bowl (UNC 32, Texas Tech 28)
12 1947 North Carolina 8-2
13 1937 North Carolina 7-1-1
14 1929 North Carolina 9-1
15 1934 North Carolina 7-1-1

So basically, the Heels were at their best in the 1920s-1940s, in Lawrence Taylor's time, and at the end of Mack Brown's tenure. This is consistent, actually, with a lot of ACC teams. Programs like North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, etc., established themselves in the period from the 1920s to the early-1950s, then vanished from the face of the earth when the SEC emerged as the nation's pre-eminent football conference in the mid-1950s. The ACC began to have its moments again beginning in the early-1980s, but obviously it hasn't been quite as consistently strong as that other southern conference.