We beat them by 35 points. And 2018 Michigan was in national championship contention until the final week of the season. Those were great wins.

But I agree that those weren't truly elite teams - Helton and Harbaugh and Kelly are all passengers on the same ROY bus with an 0-for-forever record against Saban/Meyer/Swinney.

Not ND. I get that. But who is elite? Alabama and Clemson, certainly. Ohio State under Urban Meyer. Consistently, those are/were three truly elite teams. I'm not sure anyone else qualifies. Other than one close game against Clemson in 2015, ND has had their asses handed to them by all three.

Anyone else? Georgia? Oklahoma?

If someone wants to consider Georgia and Oklahoma elite, I won't put up much of an argument, but I'd like to see them beat someone besides each other in a Playoff game before crowning them.

It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens with Ohio St over the next couple years. Will they take a step back like USC did after Pete Carroll left, or will they get even better like Oklahoma did after Stoops left (so far at least)?

but for some reason I always got the impression that Harbaugh's teams play tight against good competition, including in SF. I like him as a coach, though I think that he's nuts, but he's probably wound too tight for the big game atmosphere.

The one year in SF that they made the Super Bowl they were able to overcome some stuff because they needed to open it up on offense with Justin Smith hurt on defense. Prior to that, they would seemingly just try to keep it close and win with defense, and they did the same formula the next two years as well.