With Super Bowl L — sorry, Super Bowl 50 just a few hours away, I thought it might be fun to rank the best Super Bowls in history alongside the best national championship games.

With so many great games, this list could easily be 20 or 25 games long. But since the headline calls for 10, let’s just cut it off there.

Now, on with the rankings:

10. 1979 Sugar Bowl (Alabama 14, Penn State 7) — Alabama linebacker Barry Krauss stopped Penn State’s Mike Guman on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line to preserve a national title for the Crimson Tide. It was a hit so hard, it briefly stunned the All-American.

“When I hit Guman, there was immediate pain and I was totally paralyzed on my left side,” Krauss said. “I buckled when I hit him. In a split second, Murray Legg, our strong safety, comes running up and he pushes me into Guman’s back away from the goal line. Guman fell for what seemed like five minutes, but it was just a couple of seconds.

“When I came off (the field after the play) to the sideline, I still had no feeling in my arm. I was in a lot of pain. I was just trying to regain composure. I made a hard hit. Also, I was trying to comprehend what we had done.”

What they had done was secure the first of what would be back-to-back national titles, and the last two under legendary coach Bear Bryant.

9. Super Bowl XXXVIII (Patriots 32, Panthers 29) — Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the halftime show may be the lasting memory, but the game itself was pretty compelling.

There were no points for the first 26:55 of the first half, and then 24 of them in the last few minutes before the break. Tom Brady and Jake Delhomme both topped 300 yards passing with three scoring passes. Delhomme tied the game at 29 with a 12-yard strike to Ricky Proehl with just 1:08 remaining.

The first overtime in Super Bowl history seemed possible, but John Kasay’s kickoff sailed out of bounds, setting New England up with good field position on its own 40-yard line. Brady drove them downfield, and Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yard field goal with four seconds left won the game.

8. 1987 Fiesta Bowl (Penn State 14, Miami 10) — I remember this one for the Hurricanes getting off the plane wearing Army fatigues. Miami was a dominant team, loaded with NFL talent. But Penn State picked off Vinny Testaverde five times and forced seven turnovers in all to win Joe Paterno his last national championship.

The final pick of Testaverde came from Nittany Lion linebacker Pete Giftopoulos, who snared an errant pass at the goal line with less than 20 seconds left.

7. Super Bowl XLII (Giants 17, Patriots 14) — Who can forget David Tyree’s catch which helped the Giants spoil the Patriots’ run at a perfect season? New England was an offensive powerhouse that season. Tom Brady passed for 4,806 yards and 50 touchdowns — with 23 of those going to Randy Moss.

But the Giants, who had played the Pats close in the regular season, hung around in the title game and made several big plays, including Tyree’s acrobatic catch, to knock off the heavy favorites.

6. Super Bowl XLIX (Patrots 28, Seahawks 24) — Last year’s Super Bowl was a hard-fought, down-to-the-wire affair that came down to one bizarre play call. Seattle had the ball on the New England one-yard line and instead of handing the ball to Marshawn Lynch — one of the league’s running backs — the Seahawks dialed up a slant pass. Malcolm Butler jumped the route and picked off the pass, sealing another title for Brady and Bill Belichick.

“To be honest with you, I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I was expecting the ball,” Lynch said. “Yes, I was expecting the ball. But in life, these things happen. Like I told a reporter after the game, ‘it’s a team sport.'”

5. 2003 BCS National Championship (Ohio State 31, Miami 24, 2OT) — It wasn’t a great night for “The U.” Standout running back Willis McGahee went down with a gruesome knee injury, and a really late pass interference call at the end of the first overtime extended an Ohio State drive, allowing the Buckeyes to force the second extra session and win the game.

I’ve watched it dozens of times, and still can’t decide if it was a foul. You be the judge:

4. Super Bowl XXV (Giants 20, Bills 19) — This would be as close as the Buffalo Bills would get to winning a Super Bowl, despite playing in four in a row during the 1990s.

Scott Norwood pushed a 47-yard field goal attempt — by no means a given — wide right, allowing Bill Parcells and the Giants to claim the Lombardi Trophy.

It would be the last kick of Norwood’s NFL career, as he was waived the following off-season.

3. 1984 Orange Bowl (Miami 31, Nebraska 30) — Thirty-two years have passed, and people in Nebraska still wonder what would have happened if Tom Osborne had kicked an extra point and taken the tie. The Cornhuskers may have shared that national title if he had elected to do so.

That’s not how it went down, though. After rallying from a 17-0 deficit, Nebraska’s Jeff Smith scored to make it 31-30, Miami, with 48 seconds left. There was no overtime in those days, and an extra point would have likely led to a tie and a split national championship between the schools. Instead, Osborne went for two and the win, and got neither when Tucker Gill’s pass was knocked down.

“We wanted an undefeated season and a clear-cut championship,” said Osborne. “I don’t think we should go for the tie in that case. It never entered my head. I guess I’m not very smart.”

2. Super Bowl XIII (Steelers 35, Cowboys 31) — For this list, perhaps it’s fitting that a classic Super Bowl between two legendary teams was played at the Orange Bowl. It had a little bit of everything. A terrible drop by Dallas’ Jackie Smith, a 75-yard scoring strike from Terry Bradshaw to John Stallworth and a furious rally from the Cowboys behind Roger Staubach that fell just short.

1. 2006 BCS National Championship (Texas 41, USC 38) — For all of its flaws, the BCS produced some high quality national championship games, and Texas’ narrow win over Southern Cal is at the top of that list.

More than 60 future NFL players were on the two rosters, and it was a night for stars at the Rose Bowl. Texas quarterback Vince Young passed for 267 yards and ran for 200 more. He scored three rushing touchdowns on the night, including the game winning scamper from eight yards out with 18 seconds left.

Matt Leinart (365 yards passing), LenDale White (124 rushing yards, 3 TD) and Reggie Bush (177 rushing and receiving yards) were all spectacular for the Trojans, who gambled by going for it on fourth and 2 from its own 45-yard line with just over two minutes left, only to be stopped short of the line to gain.

It was vindication for Young, who lost out to Bush in the Heisman Trophy voting, and Texas’ first title since 1970. It also ended USC’s 34-game winning streak and spoiled the Trojans’ chance to win three straight titles.