College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS
A national championship in the highest level of college football in the United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best college football team. Division I FBS football is the only National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sport for which the NCAA does not sanction a yearly championship event. As such, it is sometimes unofficially referred to as a "mythical national championship".[1][2][3][4]
Current season, competition or edition: 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season | |
 | |
| Sport | American football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1869 |
| Inaugural season | 1869 |
| Country | United States |
| Most recent champion(s) | Georgia (2022) |
| Most titles | Princeton (28 titles) |
| Level on pyramid | 1 |
| Related competitions | Division I (FCS) |
| Official website | ncaa.com/football/fbs |
| Championships |
|---|
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Due to the lack of an official NCAA title, determining the nation's top college football team has often engendered controversy.[5] A championship team is independently declared by multiple individuals and organizations, often referred to as "selectors".[6] These choices are not always unanimous.[5] In 1969 even President of the United States Richard Nixon made a selection by announcing, ahead of the season-ending "game of the century" between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 (AP) Arkansas, that the winner would receive a presidential plaque commemorating them as national champions.[7] Texas went on to win, 15–14.[7]
While the NCAA has never officially endorsed a championship team, it has documented the choices of some selectors in its official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records publication.[6][8] In addition, various analysts have independently published their own choices for each season. These opinions can often diverge with others as well as individual schools' claims to national titles, which may or may not correlate to the selections published elsewhere. Currently, two of the most widely recognized national champion selectors are the Associated Press (AP), which conducts a poll of sportswriters, and the Coaches Poll, a survey of active members of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA).
Since 1992, various consortia of major bowl games have aimed to invite the top two teams at the end of the regular season (as determined by internal rankings, or aggregates of the major polls and other statistics) to compete in what is intended to be the de facto national championship game. The current iteration of this practice, the College Football Playoff, selects four teams to participate in national semi-finals hosted by two of six partner bowl games, with their winners advancing to the College Football Playoff National Championship.
History
| National championship trophies | |
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The concept of a national championship in college football dates to the early years of the sport in the late 19th century.[9] Some of the earliest contemporaneous rankings can be traced to Caspar Whitney in Harper's Weekly, J. Parmly Paret in Outing,[10] Charles Patterson,[11] and New York newspaper The Sun.[12]
"Football, however, is not a game where a great national championship is possible or desirable. The very nature of the sport would forbid anything like such a series of contests as are played in baseball."
Claimed intercollegiate championships were limited to various selections and rankings, as the nature of the developing and increasingly violent full-contact sport made it impossible to schedule a post-season tournament to determine an "official" or undisputed champion.[13] National championships in this era were well understood to be "mythical".[10]
Beyond rankings in newspaper columns, awards and trophies began to be presented to teams. In 1917 members of the 9–0 Georgia Tech squad were given gold footballs with the inscription "National Champions" by alumni at their post-season banquet.[14] The Veteran Athletes of Philadelphia put up the Bonniwell Trophy for the national championship in 1919[15] under the stipulation that it was only "to be awarded in such years as produces a team whose standing is so preeminent as to make its selection as champion of America beyond dispute." Notre Dame was the first to be awarded the trophy, in 1924.[16]
Professor Frank G. Dickinson of Illinois developed the first mathematical ranking system to be widely popularized. Chicago clothing manufacturer Jack F. Rissman donated a trophy for the system's national championship in 1926 onward, first awarded to Stanford prior to their tie with Alabama in the Rose Bowl. A curious Knute Rockne, then coach of Notre Dame, convinced Dickinson and Rissman to backdate the Rissman Trophy two seasons; thus Notre Dame is engraved on the trophy for 1924 and Dartmouth for 1925.[17] The Rissman Trophy was retired by Notre Dame's three wins in 1924, 1929, and 1930; the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy was put into competition for 1931 following the untimely death of the legendary coach. The popularity of the Dickinson System kicked off a succession of mathematical rankings carried in newspapers and magazines such as the Houlgate System, Azzi Ratem rankings, Dunkel Power Index, Williamson System, and Litkenhous Ratings.[10]
Two short-lived national championship trophies were contemporaries of the Dickinson System awards. The Albert Russel Erskine Trophy was won twice by Note Dame in 1929 and 1930, as voted by 250 sportswriters from around the country.[18][19] The large silver Erskine trophy was last awarded to USC on the field in Pasadena following their "national championship game" victory over Tulane in the 1932 Rose Bowl.[20] The Toledo Cup[21] was meant to be a long-running traveling trophy, but was promptly permanently retired by Minnesota's threepeat in 1934, 1935, and 1936.[22][23]
College football's foremost historian Parke H. Davis compiled a list of "National Champion Foot Ball Teams"[24] for the 1934 edition of Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide.[10] Davis selected national champions for each year dating back to college football's inaugural season in 1869, for which he selected the sole competitors Princeton and Rutgers as co-champions.[10] Similar retrospective analysis was undertaken in the 1940s by Bill Schroeder of the Helms Athletic Foundation and in Deke Houlgate's The Football Thesaurus in 1954.[25][10]
The Associated Press began polling sportswriters in 1936 to obtain rankings. Alan J. Gould, the creator of the AP Poll, named Minnesota, Princeton, and SMU co-champions in 1935, and polled writers the following year, which resulted in a national championship for Minnesota.[17] The AP's main competition, United Press, created the first Coaches Poll in 1950. For that year and the next three, the AP and UP agreed on the national champion. The first "split" national championship between the major polls occurred in 1954, when the writers selected Ohio State and the coaches chose UCLA.[26] The two polls have disagreed 11 times since 1950.[26]
Both wire servies originally conducted their final polls at the end of the regular season and prior to any bowl games being played.[10] This changed when the AP Poll champion was crowned after the bowls for 1965 and then in 1968 onward. The Coaches Poll began awarding post-bowl championships in 1974. National champions crowned by pre-bowl polls who subsequently lost their bowl game[27] offered an opportunity for other teams to claim the title based on different selectors' awards and rankings,[10] such as the post-bowl FWAA Grantland Rice Award[28] or Helms Athletic Foundation title.[29]
Post-bowl polls allowed for the possibility of a "national championship game" to finally settle the question on the gridiron.[30] But a number of challenges made it difficult to schedule even the season's top two teams to play in a single post-season bowl game,[31] let alone all of the deserving teams.[32] Calls for a college football playoff were frequently made by head coach Joe Paterno of Penn State, whose independent teams finished the 1968, 1969, and 1973 seasons unbeaten, untied, and with Orange Bowl victories yet were left without a single major national title.[33][34]
The 1980s were marked by a succession of satisfying national championship games in the Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl,[31] but the 1990s began with consecutive split AP Poll and Coaches Poll national titles in 1990 and 1991. The Bowl Coalition[35] and then Bowl Alliance[36] were formed to more reliably set up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in a bowl game on New Year's Day, but their efforts were hampered by the Rose Bowl's historic draw and contractual matchup between the Big Ten and Pac-10 conference champions.[36]
The Bowl Championship Series in 1998 succeeded in finally bringing the Big Ten and Pac-10 into the fold with the other conferences for a combined BCS National Championship Game rotated among the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, and Rose bowls and venues.[17] BCS rankings originally incorporated the two major polls as well as a number of computer rankings to determine the end of season No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup.[37] Although the BCS era did regularly produce compelling matchups, the winnowing selection of the top two teams resulted in many BCS controversies, most notably 2003's split national championship caused by the BCS rankings leaving USC, No. 1 in both human polls, out of the Sugar Bowl.[38] The BCS victors were annually awarded The Coaches' Trophy "crystal football" on the field immediately following the championship game.
In 2014 the College Football Playoff made its debut, facilitating a multi-game single-elimination tournament for the first time in college football history. Four teams are seeded by a 13–member selection committee rather than by existing polls or mathematical rankings.[39] The two semifinal games are rotated among the New Year's Six bowl games, and the final is played a week later. The competition awards its own national championship trophy.[40]
NCAA records book
Although the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has never bestowed national championships in college football at the topmost level, it does maintain an official records book for the sport. The records book, with consultation from various college football historians,[41] contains a list of "major selectors"[6] of national championships from throughout the history of college football, along with their championship selections.[8]
Major selectors
While many people and organizations have named national champions throughout the years, the selectors below are listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book as being "major selectors" of national championships. The criterion for the NCAA's designation is that the poll or selector be "national in scope, either through distribution in newspaper, television, radio and/or computer online".[6] Former selectors, deemed instrumental in the sport of college football, and selectors that were included for the calculation of the BCS standing, are listed together.[6]
The NCAA records book divides its major selectors into three categories: those determined by mathematical formula, human polls, and historical research. The BCS is additionally categorized as a hybrid between math and polls, and the CFP as a playoff system.
Math
Many of the math selection systems were created during the 1920s and 1930s, beginning with Frank Dickinson's system, or during the dawn of the personal computer age in the 1990s. Selectors are listed below with years selected retroactively in italics.
| Selector | Name | Seasons | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|
| A&H | Anderson & Hester [n1 1] | 1997–present | – |
| AS | Alderson System | 1994–1998 | – |
| B(QPRS) | Berryman (QPRS) | 1920–1989, 1990–2011 | – |
| BR | Billingsley Report [n1 2] | 1869–1969, 1970–2019 | – |
| BS | Boand System | 1919–1929, 1930–1960 | Boand trophy[42] |
| CCR | Congrove Computer Rankings | 1993–present | – |
| CM | Colley Matrix | 1992–present | – |
| CW | Caspar Whitney | 1905–1907 | – |
| DeS | DeVold System | 1939–1944, 1945–2006 | – |
| DiS | Dickinson System | 1924[43][44]–1940 | Rissman trophy (1924–1925, 1926–1930) Rockne trophy (1931–1940) |
| DuS | Dunkel System | 1929–2019 | – |
| ERS | Eck Ratings System | 1987–2005 | – |
| HS | Houlgate System | 1885–1926, 1927–1958[45] | Foreman & Clark trophy[46] |
| L | Litkenhous Ratings | 1934–1978, 1981–1984 | Litkenhous trophy[47] (1934–1962) |
| MCFR | Massey College Football Ratings | 1995–present | – |
| MGR | Matthews Grid Ratings | 1966–1972, 1974–2006 | – |
| NYT | The New York Times | 1979–2004 | – |
| PS | Poling System | 1924–1934, 1935–1984 | – |
| R(FACT) | Rothman (FACT) | 1968–c.1970,[48] c.1971–2006 | – |
| SR | Sagarin Ratings | 1919–1977, 1978–present | – |
| W | Wolfe | 1992–present [n1 3] | – |
| WS | Williamson System | 1932–1963 | – |
- Notes
- The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book shows Anderson & Hester listed as "Seattle Times."
- The NCAA records books have contained four distinct sets of Billingsley Report national champions since the system's inclusion as a "major selector" in 1995. Billingsley made several changes to his system's formula over the years, most notably eliminating "Margin of Victory" as a BCS ranking component prior to the 2001 season. The details of the changes can be found at the system's dedicated article; all four sets of champions are included in the table below.
- Wolfe did not provide rankings for the 2020 season, stating that there were not "enough games played to allow meaningful analysis," due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[49]
Poll
The poll has been the dominant national champion selection method since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936. The National Football Foundation merged its poll with UPI from 1991 to 1992, with USA Today from 1993 to 1996, and with the FWAA since 2014.
For many years, the national champions of various polls were selected before the annual bowl games were played, by AP (1936–1964 and 1966–1967), Coaches Poll (1950–1973), FWAA (1954), and NFF (1959–1970). In all other latter-day polls, champions were selected after bowl games.[50]: 112–119
During the BCS era, the winner of the BCS Championship Game was automatically awarded the national championship of the Coaches Poll and the National Football Foundation.
Selectors are listed below with years selected retroactively in italics. Poll selections that constitute a "Consensus National Championship"[51] in 1950 or later, as designated by the NCAA, are listed in bold.[51]
- Notes
- At the request of several schools, the AFCA established a "Blue Ribbon Commission" in 2016 to begin retroactively selecting Coaches' Trophy winners for 1922 through 1949.[52] The trophy is awarded upon application by individual schools.[53] Trophies have been awarded to TCU for 1935 and 1938 and Oklahoma State for 1945.
- United Press first published their poll of coaches in 1950. International News Service published a separate poll between 1952–1957. In 1958 the two news agencies merged, and the Coaches Poll was published by United Press International from 1958–1990 until it was taken over by USA Today in 1991. UPI then published the National Football Foundation poll from 1991–1992 until it too was taken over by USA Today. Finally, UPI published a poll from 1993–1995 that was unaffiliated with either the Coaches Poll or NFF.
- USA Today published its own Top 25 college football poll when the national magazine launched in 1982. In 1983 the poll took on CNN as a voting and broadcast partner. In 1991 USA Today / CNN took over the Coaches Poll from UPI. Between 1993–1996 USA Today additionally published the National Football Foundation poll. USA Today has published the Coaches Poll since 1991, with partners CNN from 1991–1996, ESPN from 1997–2004, and Amway since 2014.
- The Football Writers Association of America merged its poll with that of the National Football Foundation members beginning in 2014; as a result, the Grantland Trophy was retired and the FWAA/NFF national champion now receives the MacArthur Bowl.[50]: 113–114
- The Harris Interactive College Football Poll was contracted by the BCS to help formulate its standings. It did not conduct a final poll following the BCS National Championship Game or award or name a national champion on its own, so is not included in the table of national championship selections.[6]
Research
College football historian Parke H. Davis is the only selector considered by the NCAA to have primarily used research in his selections.[50]: 117 Davis published his work in the 1934 edition of Spalding's Foot Ball Guide,[24] naming retroactive national champions for the years 1869 to 1932 while naming Michigan and Princeton (his alma mater) contemporary co-champions for the 1933 season. In all, he selected 94 teams over 61 seasons as "National Champion Foot Ball Teams".[24] For 21 of these teams (at 12 schools), he was the only major selector to choose them. Their schools use 17 of Davis' singular selections to claim national titles. His work has been criticized for having a heavy Eastern bias, with little regard for the South and the West Coast.[56]
| Selector | Name | Seasons | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|
| PD | Parke H. Davis | 1869–1932, 1933 | – |
Hybrid
The Bowl Championship Series used a mathematical system that combined polls (Coaches and AP/Harris) and multiple computer rankings (including some individual selectors listed above) to determine a season ending matchup between its top two ranked teams in the BCS Championship Game. The champion of that game was contractually awarded the Coaches Poll and National Football Foundation championships.
| Selector | Name | Seasons | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|
| BCS | Bowl Championship Series | 1998–2013 | The Coaches' Trophy |
Playoff
Unlike all selectors prior to 2014, the College Football Playoff does not use math, polls or research to select the participants. Rather, a 13-member committee selects and seeds the teams.[57] The playoff system marked the first time any championship selector arranged a bracket competition to determine whom it would declare to be its champion.
| Selector | Name | Seasons | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|
| CFP | College Football Playoff | 2014–present | CFP National Championship Trophy[40] |
Yearly national championship selections from major selectors
Below is a list of the national champions of college football since 1869 chosen by NCAA-designated "major selectors" listed in the official Football Bowl Subdivision Records publication.[6]
Many teams did not have coaches as late as 1899. The first contemporaneous poll to include teams across the country and selection of a national champions can be traced to Caspar Whitney in 1901.[11] The tie was removed from college football in 1995 and the last consensus champion with a tie in its record was Georgia Tech in 1990.
As designated by the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records publication:
- Champions included in this table are exclusively those named by an NCAA-designated "major selector" for the given year.
- Teams and selectors listed in italics indicate retroactively-applied championships.
- Teams listed in bold reflect the NCAA's designation as "Consensus National Champions" by virtue of their selection from 1950 onward by one or more of the following selectors: Associated Press, United Press/UPI, Football Writers Association of America, National Football Foundation, and USA Today.[51]
A letter next to any season, team, record, coach or selector indicates a footnote that appears at the bottom of the table.
| Season | Champion(s) | Record | Coach | Selector(s)[8][58] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1869 | Princeton | 1–1 | BR, NCF, PD | |
| Rutgers | 1–1 | PD | ||
| 1870 | Princeton | 1–0 | BR, NCF, PD | |
| 1871 | None | No games played | ||
| 1872 | Princeton | 1–0 | BR, NCF, PD | |
| Yale | 1–0 | PD | ||
| 1873 | Princeton | 2–0 | BR, NCF, PD | |
| 1874 | Harvard | 1–1 | PD | |
| Princeton | 2–0 | BR, PD | ||
| Yale | 3–0 | NCF, PD | ||
| 1875 | Columbia | 4–1–1 | PD | |
| Harvard | 4–0 | NCF, PD | ||
| Princeton | 2–0 | BR, PD | ||
| 1876 | Yale | 3–0 | BR, NCF, PD | |
| 1877 | Princeton | 2–0–1 | BR, PD | |
| Yale | 3–0–1 | BR,[59] NCF, PD | ||
| 1878 | Princeton | 6–0 | Woodrow Wilson[24] | BR, NCF, PD |
| 1879 | Princeton | 4–0–1 | BR, NCF, PD | |
| Yale | 3–0–2 | PD | ||
| 1880 | Princeton | 4–0–1 | NCF, PD | |
| Yale | 4–0–1 | BR, NCF, PD | ||
| 1881 | Princeton | 7–0–2 | BR, PD | |
| Yale | 5–0–1 | NCF, PD | ||
| 1882 | Yale | 8–0 | BR, NCF, PD | |
| 1883 | Yale | 9–0 | BR, HAF, NCF, PD | |
| 1884 | Princeton | 9–0–1 | BR, PD | |
| Yale | 8–0–1 | BR,[59] HAF, NCF, PD | ||
| 1885 | Princeton | 9–0 | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1886 | Princeton | 7–0–1 | BR, PD | |
| Yale | 9–0–1 | BR,[59] HAF, NCF, PD | ||
| 1887 | Yale | 9–0 | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1888 | Yale | 13–0 | Walter Camp | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| 1889 | Princeton | 10–0 | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1890 | Harvard | 11–0 | George C. Adams, George A. Stewart | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| 1891 | Yale | 13–0 | Walter Camp | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| 1892 | Yale | 13–0 | Walter Camp | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| 1893 | Princeton | 11–0 | BR, HAF, HS, NCF | |
| Yale | 10–1 | William Rhodes | PD | |
| 1894 | Penn | 12–0 | George Washington Woodruff | PD |
| Princeton | 8–2 | HS | ||
| Yale | 16–0 | William Rhodes | BR, HAF, NCF, PD | |
| 1895 | Penn | 14–0 | George Washington Woodruff | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| Yale | 13–0–2 | John A. Hartwell | PD | |
| 1896 | Lafayette | 11–0–1 | Parke H. Davis | NCF, PD |
| Princeton | 10–0–1 | Franklin Morse | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1897 | Penn | 15–0 | George Washington Woodruff | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| Yale | 9–0–2 | Frank Butterworth | PD | |
| 1898 | Harvard | 11–0 | William Cameron Forbes | BR, HAF, HS, NCF |
| Princeton | 11–0–1 | PD | ||
| 1899 | Harvard | 10–0–1 | Benjamin Dibblee | BR,[59] HAF, HS, NCF |
| Princeton | 12–1 | BR, PD | ||
| 1900 | Yale | 12–0 | Malcolm McBride | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| 1901 | Harvard | 12–0 | Bill Reid | BR, PDa[24] |
| Michigan | 11–0 | Fielding H. Yost | BR,[59] HAF, HS, NCF | |
| 1902 | Michigan | 11–0 | Fielding H. Yost | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| Yale | 11–0–1 | Joseph R. Swan | PD | |
| 1903 | Michigan | 11–0–1 | Fielding H. Yost | BR,[59] NCF |
| Princeton | 11–0 | Art Hillebrand | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1904 | Michigan | 10–0 | Fielding H. Yost | BR,[59] NCF |
| Minnesota | 13–0 | Henry Williams | BR | |
| Penn | 12–0 | Carl S. Williams | HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1905 | Chicago | 10–0 | Amos Alonzo Stagg | BR, HAF, HS, NCF |
| Yale | 10–0 | Jack Owsley | CW, PD | |
| 1906 | Princeton | 9–0–1 | William Roper | HAF, NCF |
| Vanderbilt | 8–1 | Dan McGugin | BR[59] | |
| Yale | 9–0–1 | Foster Rockwell | BR, CW, PD | |
| 1907 | Penn | 11–1 | Carl S. Williams | BR[59] |
| Yale | 9–0–1 | William F. Knox | BR, CW, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1908 | Harvard | 9–0–1 | Percy Haughton | BR |
| LSU | 10–0 | Edgar Wingard | NCF | |
| Penn | 11–0–1 | Sol Metzger | BR,[59] HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1909 | Yale | 10–0 | Howard Jones | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| 1910 | Auburn | 6–1 | Mike Donahue | BR[59] |
| Harvard | 8–0–1 | Percy Haughton | BR, HAF, HS, NCF | |
| Michigan | 3–0–3 | Fielding H. Yost | BR[60] | |
| Pittsburgh | 9–0 | Joseph H. Thompson | NCF | |
| None | – | – | PD[24] | |
| 1911 | Minnesota | 6–0–1 | Henry L. Williams | BR |
| Penn State | 8–0–1 | Bill Hollenback | NCF | |
| Princeton | 8–0–2 | William Roper | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| Vanderbilt | 8–1 | Dan McGugin | BR[59] | |
| 1912 | Harvard | 9–0 | Percy Haughton | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| Penn State | 8–0 | Bill Hollenback | NCF | |
| Wisconsin | 7–0 | William Juneau | BR[59] | |
| 1913 | Auburn | 8–0 | Mike Donahue | BR |
| Chicago | 7–0 | Amos Alonzo Stagg | BR, PD | |
| Harvard | 9–0 | Percy Haughton | HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1914 | Army | 9–0 | Charles Daly | HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| Illinois | 7–0 | Robert Zuppke | BR, PD | |
| Texas | 8–0 | Dave Allerdice | BR | |
| 1915 | Cornell | 9–0 | Albert Sharpe | HAF, HS, NCF, PD |
| Minnesota | 6–0–1 | Henry L. Williams | BR | |
| Nebraska | 8–0 | Ewald O. Stiehm | BR[59] | |
| Oklahoma | 10–0 | Bennie Owen | BR | |
| Pittsburgh | 8–0 | Glenn "Pop" Warner | PD | |
| 1916 | Army | 9–0 | Charles Daly | PD |
| Georgia Tech | 8–0-1 | John Heisman | BR | |
| Pittsburgh | 8–0 | Glenn "Pop" Warner | BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| 1917 | Georgia Tech | 9–0 | John Heisman | BR, HAF, HS, NCF |
| 1918 | Michigan | 5–0 | Fielding H. Yost | BR, NCF |
| Pittsburgh | 4–1 | Glenn "Pop" Warner | HAF, HS, NCF | |
| 1919 | Centre | 9–0 | Charley Moran | SR |
| Harvard | 9–0–1 | Bob Fisher | CFRA, HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| Illinois | 6–1 | Robert Zuppke | BR, BS, CFRA, PD, SR | |
| Notre Dame | 9–0 | Knute Rockne | NCF, PD | |
| Texas A&M | 10–0 | Dana X. Bible | BR, NCF | |
| 1920 | California | 9–0 | Andy Smith | CFRA, HAF, HS, NCF, SR |
| Georgia | 8–0–1 | Herman Stegeman | B(QPRS) | |
| Harvard | 8–0–1 | Bob Fisher | BS | |
| Notre Dame | 9–0 | Knute Rockne | BR, PD | |
| Princeton | 6–0–1 | William Roper | BS, PD | |
| 1921 | California | 9–0–1 | Andy Smith | BR, BS, CFRA, SR |
| Cornell | 8–0 | Gil Dobie | HAF, HS, NCF, PD | |
| Iowa | 7–0 | Howard Jones | BR, PD | |
| Lafayette | 9–0 | Jock Sutherland | BS, PD | |
| Vanderbilt | 7–0–1 | Dan McGugin | B(QPRS) | |
| Washington & Jefferson | 10–0–1 | Greasy Neale | BS | |
| 1922 | California | 9–0 | Andy Smith | BR, HS, NCF, SR |
| Cornell | 8–0 | Gil Dobie | HAF, PD | |
| Iowa | 7–0 | Howard Jones | BR | |
| Princeton | 8–0 | William Roper | BS, CFRA, NCF, PD, SR | |
| Vanderbilt | 8–0–1 | Dan McGugin | B(QPRS) | |
| 1923 | California | 9–0–1 | Andy Smith | HS |
| Cornell | 8–0 | Gil Dobie | SR | |
| Illinois | 8–0 | Robert Zuppke | BS, CFRA, HAF, NCF, PD, SR, B(QPRS) | |
| Michigan | 8–0 | Fielding H. Yost | BR, NCF | |
| Yale | 8–0 | Tad Jones | B(QPRS) | |
| 1924 | Notre Dame | 10–0 | Knute Rockne | BR, BS, CFRA, DiS,[44] HAF, HS, NCF, PS, SR, B(QPRS) |
| Penn | 9–1–1 | Lou Young | PD | |
| 1925 | Alabama | 10–0 | Wallace Wade | BR, BS, CFRA, HAF, HS, NCF, PS, SR, B(QPRS) |
| Dartmouth | 8–0 | Jesse Hawley | DiS,[43] PD | |
| Michigan | 7–1 | Fielding H. Yost | SR | |
| 1926 | Alabama | 9–0–1 | Wallace Wade | BR, CFRA, HAF, NCF, PS, B(QPRS) |
| Lafayette | 9–0 | Herb McCracken | PD | |
| Michigan | 7–1 | Fielding H. Yost | SR | |
| Navy | 9–0–1 | Bill Ingram | BS, HS | |
| Stanford | 10–0–1 | Glenn "Pop" Warner | DiS, HAF, NCF, SR | |
| 1927 | Georgia | 9–1 | George Cecil Woodruff | BS, PS, B(QPRS) |
| Illinois | 7–0–1 | Robert Zuppke | BR, DiS, HAF, NCF, PD | |
| Notre Dame | 7–1–1 | Knute Rockne | HS | |
| Texas A&M | 8–0–1 | Dana X. Bible | SR | |
| Yale | 7–1 | Thomas Jones | CFRA | |
| 1928 | Detroit | 9–0 | Gus Dorais | PD |
| Georgia Tech | 10–0 | William Alexander | BR, BS, CFRA, HAF, HS, NCF, PD, PS, SR, B(QPRS) | |
| USC | 9–0–1 | Howard Jones | DiS, SR | |
| 1929 | Notre Dame | 9–0 | Knute Rockne | BR, BS, CFRA, DiS, DuS, HAF, NCF, PS, SR |
| Pittsburgh | 9–1 | Jock Sutherland | PD | |
| USC | 10–2 | Howard Jones | HS, SR, B(QPRS) | |
| 1930 | Alabama | 10–0 | Wallace Wade | CFRA, PD, SR, B(QPRS) |
| Notre Dame | 10–0 | Knute Rockne | BR, BS, DiS, DuS, HAF, HS, NCF, PD, PS | |
| 1931 | Pittsburgh | 8–1 | Jock Sutherland | PD |
| Purdue | 9–1 | Noble Kizer | PD | |
| USC | 10–1 | Howard Jones | BR, BS, CFRA, DiS, DuS, HAF, HS, NCF, PS, SR, B(QPRS) | |
| 1932 | Colgate | 9–0 | Andrew Kerr | PD |
| Michigan | 8–0 | Harry Kipke | DiS, PD, SR | |
| USC | 10–0 | Howard Jones | BR, BS, CFRA, DuS, HAF, HS, NCF, PD, PS, SR, WS, B(QPRS) | |
| 1933 | Michigan | 7–0–1 | Harry Kipke | BR, BS, CFRA, DiS, HAF, HS, NCF, PD, PS, SR, B(QPRS) |
| Ohio State | 7–1 | Sam Willaman | DuS | |
| Princeton | 9–0 | Fritz Crisler | PD | |
| USC | 10–1–1 | Howard Jones | WS | |
| 1934[24] | Alabama | 10–0 | Frank Thomas | BR,[59] DuS, HS, PS, WS, B(QPRS) |
| Minnesota | 8–0 | Bernie Bierman | BR, BS, CFRA, DiS, HAF, L, NCF, SR | |
| 1935[61] | Minnesota | 8–0 | Bernie Bierman | BR, BS, CFRA, HAF, L, NCF, PS |
| Princeton | 9–0 | Fritz Crisler | DuS | |
| SMU | 12–1 | Matty Bell | DiS, HS, SR, B(QPRS) | |
| TCU | 12–1 | Dutch Meyer | BRC,[62] WSo[63] | |
| 1936[64] | Duke | 9–1 | Wallace Wade | B(QPRS) |
| LSU | 9–1–1 | Bernie Moore | SR | |
| Minnesota | 7–1 | Bernie Bierman | AP, BR, DiS, DuS, HAF, L, NCF, PS, WSp[65] | |
| Pittsburgh | 8–1–1 | Jock Sutherland | BS, CFRA, HS | |
| 1937 | California | 10–0–1 | Stub Allison | DuS, HAF, WSq[66] |
| Pittsburgh | 9–0–1 | Jock Sutherland | AP, BR, BS, CFRA, DiS, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR, B(QPRS) | |
| 1938 | Notre Dame | 8–1 | Elmer Layden | DiS |
| TCU | 11–0 | Dutch Meyer | AP, BRC,[67] HAF, NCF, WSr[68] | |
| Tennessee | 11–0 | Robert Neyland | B(QPRS), BR, BS, CFRA, DuS, HS, L, PS, SR, WSr[68] | |
| 1939 | Cornell | 8–0 | Carl Snavely | BR,[60] L, SR |
| Texas A&M | 11–0 | Homer Norton | AP, BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, NCF, PS, SR, WS, B(QPRS) | |
| USC | 8–0–2 | Howard Jones | DiS | |
| 1940 | Minnesota | 8–0 | Bernie Bierman | AP, B(QPRS), BR,[59] BS, CFRA, DeS, DiS, HS, L, NCF, SR |
| Stanford | 10–0 | Clark Shaughnessy | BR, HAF, PS, WSs[69] | |
| Tennessee | 10–1 | Robert Neyland | DuS | |
| 1941 | Alabama | 9–2 | Frank Thomas | HS |
| Minnesota | 8–0 | Bernie Bierman | AP, BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, L, NCF, PS, SR | |
| Texas | 8–1–1 | Dana X. Bible | B(QPRS), WS | |
| 1942 | Georgia | 11–1 | Wally Butts | B(QPRS), BR, DeS, HS, L, PS, SR, WS |
| Ohio State | 9–1 | Paul Brown | AP, BR,[59] BS, DuS, CFRA, NCF | |
| Wisconsin | 8–1–1 | Harry Stuhldreher | HAF | |
| 1943 | Notre Dame | 9–1 | Frank Leahy | AP, B(QPRS), BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR, WS |
| 1944 | Army | 9–0 | Earl Blaik | AP, B(QPRS), BR,t[70] BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR, WS |
| Ohio State | 9–0 | Carroll Widdoes | BR,t[70] NCF, SR | |
| 1945 | Alabama | 10–0 | Frank Thomas | NCF |
| Army | 9–0 | Earl Blaik | AP, B(QPRS), BR,t[70] BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR, WS | |
| Oklahoma A&M | 9–0 | Jim Lookabaugh | BRC[71] | |
| 1946 | Army | 9–0–1 | Earl Blaik | BR, BS, CFRA, HAF, HS, PS |
| Georgia | 11–0 | Wally Butts | WS | |
| Notre Dame | 8–0–1 | Frank Leahy | AP, B(QPRS), BR,[59] BS, DeS, DuS, HAF, L, NCF, PS, SR | |
| 1947 | Michigan | 10–0 | Fritz Crisler | B(QPRS), BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR |
| Notre Dame | 9–0 | Frank Leahy | AP, HAF, WS | |
| 1948 | Michigan | 9–0 | Bennie Oosterbaan | AP, B(QPRS), BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR, WS |
| 1949 | Notre Dame | 10–0 | Frank Leahy | AP, B(QPRS), BR, BS, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR, WS |
| Oklahoma | 11–0 | Bud Wilkinson | BR,[59] CFRA | |
| 1950 | Kentucky | 11–1 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | SR |
| Oklahoma | 10–1 | Bud Wilkinson | AP, B(QPRS), HAF, L, UP, WS | |
| Princeton | 9–0 | Charley Caldwell | BS, PS | |
| Tennessee | 11–1 | Robert Neyland | BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HS,[45] NCF, SR | |
| 1951[72] | Georgia Tech | 11–0–1 | Bobby Dodd | B(QPRS), BS, HS[45] |
| Illinois | 9–0–1 | Ray Eliot | BS | |
| Maryland | 10–0 | Jim Tatum | BR,[59] CFRA, DeS, DuS, NCF, SR | |
| Michigan State | 9–0 | Biggie Munn | BR, HAF, PS | |
| Tennessee | 10–1 | Robert Neyland | AP, L, UP, WS | |
| 1952 | Georgia Tech | 12–0 | Bobby Dodd | B(QPRS), BR, HS,[45] INS, PS, SR |
| Michigan State | 9–0 | Biggie Munn | AP, BR,[59] BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, L, NCF, SR, UP, WS | |
| 1953 | Maryland | 10–1 | Jim Tatum | AP, INS, UP |
| Notre Dame | 9–0–1 | Frank Leahy | BR, BS, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS,[45] L, NCF, PS, SR, WS | |
| Oklahoma | 9–1–1 | Bud Wilkinson | B(QPRS), CFRA | |
| 1954 | Ohio State | 10–0 | Woody Hayes | AP, B(QPRS), BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, HAF, HS,[45] INS, NCF, PS, SR, WS |
| UCLA | 9–0 | Henry Sanders | BR,[59] CFRA, DuS, FWAA, HAF, L, NCF, UP | |
| 1955 | Michigan State | 9–1 | Duffy Daugherty | BS |
| Oklahoma | 11–0 | Bud Wilkinson | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FWAA, HAF, HS,[45] INS, L, NCF, PS, SR, UP, WS | |
| 1956 | Georgia Tech | 10–1 | Bobby Dodd | B(QPRS), HS,[45] SR |
| Iowa | 9–1 | Forest Evashevski | CFRA | |
| Oklahoma | 10–0 | Bud Wilkinson | AP, BR, BS, DeS, DuS, FWAA, HAF, INS, L, NCF, PS,[73] SR, UP, WS | |
| Tennessee | 10–1 | Bowden Wyatt | SR | |
| 1957 | Auburn | 10–0 | Ralph Jordan | AP, BR, CFRA, HAF, HS,[45] NCF, PS, SR, WS |
| Michigan State | 8–1 | Duffy Daugherty | BR,[59] DuS | |
| Ohio State | 9–1 | Woody Hayes | BS, DeS, FWAA, INS, L, UP | |
| Oklahoma | 10–1 | Bud Wilkinson | B(QPRS) | |
| 1958 | Iowa | 8–1–1 | Forest Evashevski | FWAA |
| LSU | 11–0 | Paul Dietzel | AP, B(QPRS), BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, HAF, HS,[45] L, NCF, PS, SR, UPI, WS | |
| 1959 | Ole Miss | 10–1 | Johnny Vaught | B(QPRS), BR,[59] DuS, SR |
| Syracuse | 11–0 | Ben Schwartzwalder | AP, BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, NCF, NFF, PS, SR, UPI, WS | |
| 1960[74] | Iowa | 8–1 | Forest Evashevski | B(QPRS), BR,[59] BS, L, SR |
| Minnesota | 8–2 | Murray Warmath | AP, FN, NFF, UPI | |
| Ole Miss | 10–0–1 | Johnny Vaught | BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FWAA, NCF, WS | |
| Missouri | 11–0u | Dan Devine | PS | |
| Washington | 10–1 | Jim Owens | HAF | |
| 1961 | Alabama | 11–0 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, HAF, L, NCF, NFF, SR, UPI, WS |
| Ohio State | 8–0–1 | Woody Hayes | FWAA, PS | |
| 1962 | Alabama | 10–1 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | BR[59] |
| LSU | 9–1–1 | Charles McClendon | B(QPRS) | |
| Ole Miss | 10–0 | Johnny Vaught | BR, L, SR | |
| USC | 11–0 | John McKay | AP, B(QPRS), CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF, PS, UPI, WS | |
| 1963[75] | Texas | 11–0 | Darrell Royal | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, NCF, NFF, PS, SR, UPI, WS |
| 1964 | Alabama | 10–1 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | AP, B(QPRS), L, UPI |
| Arkansas | 11–0 | Frank Broyles | BR, CFRA, FWAA, HAF, NCF, PS, SR | |
| Michigan | 9–1 | Bump Elliott | DuS | |
| Notre Dame | 9–1 | Ara Parseghian | DeS, FN, NFF | |
| 1965 | Alabama | 9–1–1 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | AP, BR,[59] CFRA, FWAA, NCF |
| Michigan State | 10–1 | Duffy Daugherty | B(QPRS), BR, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, NFF, PS, SR, UPI | |
| 1966[76] | Alabama | 11–0 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | B(QPRS), SR |
| Michigan State | 9–0–1 | Duffy Daugherty | CFRA, HAF, NFF, PS | |
| Notre Dame | 9–0–1 | Ara Parseghian | AP, BR, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, MGR, NCF, NFF, PS, SR, UPI | |
| 1967 | Notre Dame | 8–2 | Ara Parseghian | DuS |
| Oklahoma | 10–1 | Chuck Fairbanks | PS | |
| USC | 10–1 | John McKay | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, FN, FWAA, HAF, MGR, NCF, NFF, SR, UPI | |
| Tennessee | 9–2 | Doug Dickey | L | |
| 1968 | Georgia | 8–1–2 | Vince Dooley | L |
| Ohio State | 10–0 | Woody Hayes | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF, PS, R(FACT), SR, UPI | |
| Texas | 9–1–1 | Darrell Royal | DeS, MGR, SR | |
| 1969 | Ohio State | 8–1 | Woody Hayes | MGR |
| Penn State | 11–0 | Joe Paterno | R(FACT), SR | |
| Texas | 11–0 | Darrell Royal | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, NCF, NFF, PS, R(FACT), SR, UPI | |
| 1970 | Arizona State | 11–0 | Frank Kush | PS |
| Nebraska | 11–0–1 | Bob Devaney | AP, BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, NCF, R(FACT), SR | |
| Notre Dame | 10–1 | Ara Parseghian | MGR, R(FACT), SR | |
| Ohio State | 9–1 | Woody Hayes | NFF | |
| Texas | 10–1 | Darrell Royal | B(QPRS), L, NFF, R(FACT), UPI | |
| 1971[77] | Nebraska | 13–0 | Bob Devaney | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, MGR, NCF, NFF, PS, R(FACT), SR, UPI |
| 1972[78] | USC | 12–0 | John McKay | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, MGR, NCF, NFF, PS, R(FACT), SR, UPI |
| 1973[79] | Alabama | 11–1 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | B(QPRS), L,[80] UPI |
| Michigan | 10–0–1 | Bo Schembechler | NCF, PS | |
| Notre Dame | 11–0 | Ara Parseghian | AP, BR, FN, FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF | |
| Ohio State | 10–0–1 | Woody Hayes | NCF, PS, R(FACT), SR | |
| Oklahoma | 10–0–1 | Barry Switzer | BR,[81] CFRA, DeS, DuS, SR | |
| 1974[82] | Ohio State | 10–2 | Woody Hayes | MGR |
| Oklahoma | 11–0 | Barry Switzer | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, HAF, L, NCF, PS, R(FACT), SR | |
| USC | 10–1–1 | John McKay | FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF, UPI | |
| 1975[83] | Alabama | 11–1 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | MGR |
| Arizona State | 12–0 | Frank Kush | NCF, SN | |
| Ohio State | 11–1 | Woody Hayes | B(QPRS), HAF, L,[84] MGR, PS, R(FACT) | |
| Oklahoma | 11–1 | Barry Switzer | AP, BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF, R(FACT), SR, UPI | |
| 1976 | Michigan | 10–2 | Bo Schembechler | L[85] |
| Pittsburgh | 12–0 | Johnny Majors | AP, BR,[81] FN, FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF, PS, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI | |
| USC | 11–1 | John Robinson | B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, MGR | |
| 1977 | Alabama | 11–1 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | CFRA |
| Arkansas | 11–1 | Lou Holtz | R(FACT) | |
| Notre Dame | 11–1 | Dan Devine | AP, BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, MGR, NCF, NFF, PS, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI | |
| Texas | 11–1 | Fred Akers | B(QPRS), L,[86] R(FACT), SR | |
| 1978 | Alabama | 11–1 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | AP, CFRA, FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF, R(FACT) |
| Oklahoma | 11–1 | Barry Switzer | BR,[81] DeS, DuS, HAF, L, MGR, PS, R(FACT), SR | |
| USC | 12–1 | John Robinson | B(QPRS), BR, FN, HAF, NCF, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI | |
| 1979 | Alabama | 12–0 | Paul "Bear" Bryant | AP, B(QPRS), BR, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, PS, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI |
| USC | 11–0–1 | John Robinson | CFRA | |
| 1980 | Florida State | 10–2 | Bobby Bowden | R(FACT) |
| Georgia | 12–0 | Vince Dooley | AP, B(QPRS), BR, FN, FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF, PS, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI | |
| Nebraska | 10–2 | Tom Osborne | R(FACT) | |
| Oklahoma | 10–2 | Barry Switzer | BR,[81] DuS, MGR | |
| Pittsburgh | 11–1 | Jackie Sherrill | CFRA, DeS, NYT, R(FACT), SR | |
| 1981[87] | Clemson | 12–0 | Danny Ford | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, PS, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI |
| Nebraska | 9–3 | Tom Osborne | NCF | |
| Penn State | 10–2 | Joe Paterno | DuS | |
| Pittsburgh | 11–1 | Jackie Sherrill | NCF | |
| SMU | 10–1 | Ron Meyer | NCF | |
| Texas | 10–1–1 | Fred Akers | NCF | |
| 1982[88] | Nebraska | 12–1 | Tom Osborne | B(QPRS), L[89] |
| Penn State | 11–1 | Joe Paterno | AP, BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, PS, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT | |
| SMU | 11–0–1 | Bobby Collins | HAF | |
| 1983[90] | Auburn | 11–1 | Pat Dye | BR, CFRA, NYT, R(FACT), SR |
| Miami (FL) | 11–1 | Howard Schnellenberger | AP, BR,[81] DuS, FN, FWAA, NCF, NFF, SN, UPI, USAT/CNN | |
| Nebraska | 12–1 | Tom Osborne | B(QPRS), DeS, L, MGR, PS, R(FACT), SR | |
| 1984 | BYU | 13–0 | LaVell Edwards | AP, BR, CFRA, FWAA, NCF, NFF, PS, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN |
| Florida | 9–1–1 | Galen Hall | BR,[81] DeS, DuS, MGR, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR | |
| Nebraska | 10–2 | Tom Osborne | L | |
| Washington | 11–1 | Don James | B(QPRS), FN, NCF | |
| 1985[91] | Florida | 9–1–1 | Galen Hall | SR |
| Michigan | 10–1–1 | Bo Schembechler | MGR | |
| Oklahoma | 11–1 | Barry Switzer | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, UPI, USAT/CNN | |
| 1986[92] | Miami (FL) | 11–1 | Jimmy Johnson | R(FACT) |
| Oklahoma | 11–1 | Barry Switzer | BR,[81] B(QPRS), CFRA, DeS, DuS, NYT, SR | |
| Penn State | 12–0 | Joe Paterno | AP, BR,[81] FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, NFF, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN | |
| 1987[93] | Florida State | 11–1 | Bobby Bowden | B(QPRS) |
| Miami (FL) | 12–0 | Jimmy Johnson | AP, BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN | |
| 1988[94] | Miami (FL) | 11–1 | Jimmy Johnson | B(QPRS) |
| Notre Dame | 12–0 | Lou Holtz | AP, BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN | |
| 1989[95] | Florida State | 10–2 | Bobby Bowden | BR[81] |
| Miami (FL) | 11–1 | Dennis Erickson | AP, BR,[81] CFRA, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, UPI, USAT/CNN | |
| Notre Dame | 12–1 | Lou Holtz | B(QPRS), ERS, R(FACT), SR | |
| 1990[96] | Colorado | 11–1–1 | Bill McCartney | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, NFF, R(FACT), SN, USAT/CNN |
| Georgia Tech | 11–0–1 | Bobby Ross | DuS, NCF, R(FACT), SR, UPI | |
| Miami (FL) | 10–2 | Dennis Erickson | BR,[81] ERS, NYT, R(FACT), SR | |
| Washington | 10–2 | Don James | R(FACT) | |
| 1991[97] | Miami (FL) | 12–0 | Dennis Erickson | AP, BR, CFRA, ERS, NCF, NYT, SN, SR |
| Washington | 12–0 | Don James | B(QPRS), BR,[81] DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, R(FACT), SR, UPI/NFF, USAT/CNN | |
| 1992[98] | Alabama | 13–0 | Gene Stallings | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CFRA, DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI/NFF, USAT/CNN |
| Florida State | 11–1 | Bobby Bowden | SR | |
| 1993[99] | Auburn | 11–0 | Terry Bowden | NCF |
| Florida State | 12–1 | Bobby Bowden | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CCR,[100] DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, NCF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN, USAT/NFF | |
| Nebraska | 11–1 | Tom Osborne | NCF | |
| Notre Dame | 11–1 | Lou Holtz | MGR, NCF | |
| 1994[101] | Florida State | 10–1–1 | Bobby Bowden | DuS |
| Nebraska | 13–0 | Tom Osborne | AP, AS, B(QPRS), BR,[81] FN, FWAA, NCF, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN, USAT/NFF | |
| Penn State | 12–0 | Joe Paterno | BR,[81] CCR,[102] DeS, ERS, MGR, NCF, NYT, R(FACT), SR | |
| 1995[81] | Nebraska | 12–0 | Tom Osborne | AP, AS, B(QPRS), BR, CCR,[103] DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR,[104] MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN |
| 1996[59] | Florida | 12–1 | Steve Spurrier | AP, B(QPRS), BR, CCR,[105] DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR,[104] MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, USAT/CNN |
| Florida State | 11–1 | Bobby Bowden | AS | |
| 1997[106] | Michigan | 12–0 | Lloyd Carr | AP, BR, FN, FWAA, NCF, NFF, SN |
| Nebraska | 13–0 | Tom Osborne | A&H, AS, B(QPRS), BR, CCR,[107] DeS, DuS, ERS, MCFR,[104] MGR, NCF, NYT, R(FACT), SR, USAT/ESPN | |
| 1998[108] | Ohio State | 11–1 | John Cooper | SRb |
| Tennessee | 13–0 | Phillip Fulmer | A&H, AP, AS, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR, MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, USAT/ESPN | |
| 1999[109] | Florida State | 12–0 | Bobby Bowden | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR, MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, USAT/ESPN |
| 2000[60] | Miami (FL) | 11–1 | Butch Davis | NYT |
| Oklahoma | 13–0 | Bob Stoops | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR, MGR, NCF, NFF, R(FACT), SN, SR, USAT/ESPN | |
| 2001[110] | Miami (FL) | 12–0 | Larry Coker | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR, MGR, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, USAT/ESPN, W |
| 2002[111] | Ohio State | 14–0 | Jim Tressel | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, DeS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, USAT/ESPN, W |
| USC | 11–2 | Pete Carroll | DuS, MGR, SR | |
| 2003[112] | LSU | 13–1 | Nick Saban | A&H, BCS, BR, CM, DeS, DuS, MCFR, NFF, R(FACT), SR, USAT/ESPN, W |
| Oklahoma | 12–2 | Bob Stoops | B(QPRS) | |
| USC | 12–1 | Pete Carroll | AP, CCR,f[113] ERS, FWAA, MGR, NYT, SN | |
| 2004[114] | USCc | 11–0d | Pete Carroll | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BR, CCR, CM, DeS, DuS, ERS, MCFR, MGR, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, W |
| Vacatedc | – | – | BCS, FWAA, USAT/ESPN | |
| 2005[115] | Texas | 13–0 | Mack Brown | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, DeS, DuS, ERS, FWAA, MCFR, MGR, NFF, R(FACT), SN, SR, USAT, W |
| 2006[116] | Florida | 13–1 | Urban Meyer | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, MGR, NFF, R(FACT), SN, SR, USAT, W |
| Ohio State | 12–1 | Jim Tressel | DeS,g[117] R(FACT)h[118] | |
| 2007[119] | LSU | 12–2 | Les Miles | AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W |
| Missouri | 12–2 | Gary Pinkel | A&Hm[120] | |
| USC | 11–2 | Pete Carroll | DuSe[121] | |
| 2008[122] | Florida | 13–1 | Urban Meyer | AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT |
| Utah | 13–0 | Kyle Whittingham | A&H, Wi[123] | |
| 2009[124] | Alabama | 14–0 | Nick Saban | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W |
| 2010[125] | Auburn | 14–0 | Gene Chizik | A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W |
| TCU | 13–0 | Gary Patterson | CCR | |
| 2011[126] | Alabama | 12–1 | Nick Saban | AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CFRA, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W |
| LSU | 13–1 | Les Miles | A&H,n[127] CCRk[128] | |
| Oklahoma State | 12–1 | Mike Gundy | CM | |
| 2012[129] | Alabama | 13–1 | Nick Saban | A&H, AP, BCS, BR, CCR, CFRA, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W |
| Notre Dame | 12–1 | Brian Kelly | CM | |
| 2013[130] | Florida State | 14–0 | Jimbo Fisher | A&H, AP, BCS, BR, CCR, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W |
| 2014[131] | Ohio State | 14–1 | Urban Meyer | A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W |
| 2015[132] | Alabama | 14–1 | Nick Saban | A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W |
| 2016[133] | Alabama | 14–1 | Nick Saban | CM |
| Clemson | 14–1 | Dabo Swinney | A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W | |
| 2017[134] | Alabama | 13–1 | Nick Saban | A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W |
| UCF | 13–0 | Scott Frost | CM | |
| 2018[135] | Clemson | 15–0 | Dabo Swinney | A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W |
| 2019[136] | LSU | 15–0 | Ed Orgeron | A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W |
| 2020[137] | Alabama | 13–0 | Nick Saban | A&H, AP, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY |
| 2021[138] | Georgia | 14–1 | Kirby Smart | A&H, AP, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W |
| 2022[139] | Georgia | 15–0 | Kirby Smart | A&H, AP, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W |
aParke H. Davis' selection for 1901, as published in the 1934 edition of Spalding's Foot Ball Guide, was Harvard.[24] The NCAA Records Book states "Yale" for 1901, which is an error that has been perpetuated since the first appearance of Parke H. Davis' selections in the 1994 NCAA records book.[101]
bThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Sagarin as having selected Tennessee,[8] while Sagarin's official website gives Ohio State as its 1998 selection.[140]
cThe FWAA stripped USC of its 2004 Grantland Rice Trophy and vacated the selection of its national champion for 2004. The BCS also vacated USC's participation in the 2005 Orange Bowl and USC's 2004 BCS National Championship, and the AFCA Coaches Poll Coaches' Trophy was returned.[141][142]
dRecord does not count wins against UCLA, or against Oklahoma in the BCS Championship game on January 4, 2005, as they were vacated by the NCAA.[143]
eThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Dunkel as having selected LSU,[8] while Dunkel's official website gives USC as its 2007 selection.[121]
fThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists CCR as having selected LSU,[8] while CCR's official website gives USC as its 2003 selection.[113]
gThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists DeVold (DeS) as having selected Florida,[8] while DeVold's official website gives Ohio State as its 2006 selection.[117]
hThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists R(FACT) as having selected Florida,[8] while R(FACT)'s official website gives co-champions Ohio State and Florida as its 2006 selection.[118]
iThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Wolfe as having selected Florida,[8] while Wolfe's official website gives Utah as its 2008 selection.[123]
kThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists CCR as having selected Alabama,[8] while CCR's official website gives LSU as its 2011 selection.[128]
mThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Anderson & Hester (A&H) as having selected LSU,[8] while A&H's official website gives Missouri as its 2007 selection.[120]
nThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Anderson & Hester (A&H) as having selected Alabama,[8] while A&H's official website gives LSU as its 2011 selection.[127]
oThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected TCU and LSU as co-champions for 1935. However the system's post-bowl final rankings published in January 1936 show TCU first, SMU second, and LSU third.[63] The accompanying column written by Paul B. Williamson states "There was no undisputable national champion in 1935".[63]
pThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected LSU in 1936. However the system's post-bowl final rankings show Minnesota first and LSU fourth.[65]
qThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected Pittsburgh in 1937. However the system's post-bowl final rankings show California first and Pittsburgh second.[66]
rThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected TCU alone in 1938. However the system's post-bowl final rankings show a tie between TCU and Tennessee.[68]
sThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected Tennessee in 1940. However the system's post-bowl final rankings show Stanford first and Tennessee sixth.[69]
tThe NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Billingsley Report as having selected Army in 1944 and Ohio State and Army in 1945. According to Billingsley's official website, these selection years are reversed.[70]
uKansas' 1960 defeat of Missouri was overturned by the Big Eight Conference on December 8 (ineligible player). The reversal erased the only loss on Missouri's record.[144]
Total championship selections from major selectors by school
The national title count listed below is a culmination of all championship awarded since 1869, regardless of "consensus"[51] or non-consensus status, as listed in the table above according to the selectors deemed to be "major"[6] as listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records.[8]
The totals can be said to be disputed. Individual schools may claim national championships not accounted for by the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records or may not claim national championship selections that do appear in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (see National championship claims by school below).
| Championships | Schools |
|---|---|
28 | Princeton |
27 | Yale |
24 | Alabama |
22 | Notre Dame |
18 | Michigan |
17 | Oklahoma, USC |
16 | Ohio State |
12 | Harvard, Nebraska |
11 | Pittsburgh |
9 | Florida State, Miami (FL), Minnesota, Texas |
8 | Georgia, LSU |
7 | Georgia Tech, Penn, Penn State, Tennessee |
6 | Auburn, Michigan State |
5 | Army, California, Cornell, Florida, Illinois, Iowa |
4 | Vanderbilt, Washington |
3 | Clemson, Lafayette, Ole Miss, SMU, TCU, Texas A&M |
2 | Arizona State, Arkansas, Chicago, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Wisconsin |
1 | BYU, Centre, Colgate, Colorado, Columbia, Dartmouth, Detroit, Duke, Kentucky, Navy, Purdue, Rutgers, Syracuse, UCF, UCLA, Utah, Washington & Jefferson |
Major polls
National championship selectors came to be dominated by two competing news agencies in the later half of the 20th century: the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI).[145]
These wire services began ranking college football teams in weekly polls, which were then promptly published in the sports sections of each agency's subscribing newspapers across the country. The team ranking No. 1 in each agency's final poll of the season was awarded that agency's national championship.
National championships are often stated to be "consensus" when the two major polls are in agreement with their selections.[146]
AP Poll
The AP college football poll has a long history. The news media began running their own polls of sports writers to determine who was, by popular opinion, the best football team in the country at the end of the season. One of the earliest such polls was the AP College Football Poll, first run in 1934 (compiled and organized by Charles Woodroof, former SEC Assistant Director of Media Relations, but not recognized in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records) and then continuously from 1936. The first major nationwide poll for ranking college football teams, the Associated Press is probably the most well-known and widely circulated among all of history's polls.[147] Due to the long-standing historical ties between individual college football conferences and high-paying bowl games like the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl, the NCAA has never held a tournament or championship game to determine the champion of what is now the highest division, NCAA Division I, Football Bowl Subdivision (the Division I, Football Championship Subdivision and lower divisions do hold championship tournaments). As a result, the public and the media began to take the leading vote-getter in the final AP Poll as the national champion for that season.
In the AP Poll's early years, the final poll of sportswriters was taken prior to any bowl games and sometimes even prior to the top teams' final games of the regular season.[148][149] In 1938, the poll was extended for one week[148] after Notre Dame, No. 1 in the scheduled "final" poll,[150] subsequently lost to rival USC.[148]
Following the 1947 season the AP held a special post-bowl poll[151] with only two teams on the ballot, Notre Dame and Michigan, but stated that the result would not supersede that of the final poll conducted following the end of the regular season.[151][152] The rivals, both unbeaten and untied, had been ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the final poll. January voters were impressed by Michigan's 49–0 win over common opponent USC in the Rose Bowl and elevated the Wolverines above the Irish in the special post-bowl poll.[152]
The AP champion would lose its bowl game five times, following the 1950, 1951, 1953, 1960, and 1964 seasons.[27]
In 1965 the AP decided to delay the season's final poll until after New Year's Day, citing the proliferation of bowl games and the involvement of eight of the poll's current top ten teams in post-season play.[153][154] In the next season, 1966, neither of the top two teams (Notre Dame and Michigan State) were attending bowl games so no post-bowl poll was taken,[155] even after two-time defending AP national champion No. 3 Alabama won the Sugar Bowl and finished the season unbeaten and untied. In 1967 the final poll crowning USC national champion was taken before No. 2 Tennessee or No. 3 Oklahoma had even played their final games of the regular season,[149] and well before those two teams met in the Orange Bowl.
In 1968 the final poll was again delayed until after the bowl games so that No. 1 Ohio State could meet No. 2 USC in a "dream match" in the Rose Bowl.[30] Every subsequent season's final AP Poll would be released after the bowl games. UPI did not follow suit until the 1974 season;[156] in the overlapping years, the Coaches Poll champion lost their bowl game in 1965, 1970, and 1973. The AP's earlier move to crown a post-bowl champion paid off, as in all three years the losing team had also been the No. 1 team in the pre-bowl penultimate AP rankings.
The AP Poll was used as a component of the Bowl Championship Series computer ranking formula starting in 1998, but without any formal agreement in place like the contract made between the BCS and the Coaches Poll.[38] For the 2003 season the AP Poll caused a split national title and BCS controversy when it awarded its national championship to No. 1 USC instead of BCS champion LSU.[38] In December 2004 the AP opted out of the BCS formula, requesting that the BCS "discontinue its unauthorized use of the AP poll as a component of BCS rankings", in response to three AP voters from Texas elevating Texas above California into the Rose Bowl in the last regular season AP Poll.[38]
In the playoff era, the Associated Press has continued to award the AP Trophy to the No. 1 team in the final AP Poll. AP rankings are not incorporated in the CFP selection committee's seeding, and voting AP sportswriters are not obligated to award their title to the winner of the CFP national championship game.[39] In 2015 the Associated Press's global sports editor stated that "it is not out of the realm of possibility that a team could win the AP national championship without winning the College Football Playoff's national championship", although that scenario has yet to occur.[39]
Coaches Poll
News agency United Press (UP), the main competitor to the Associated Press, began conducting its own college football ratings during the 1950 season.[157] The wire service came to be known as United Press International (UPI) following a merger with International News Service in 1958.
The weekly ranking was a joint polling effort between the news agency and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), with UP/UPI sports writers gathering and tabulating the coaches' votes and publishing the results in newspapers across the nation.[158]
The UP/UPI rankings were originally conducted by polling 35 of the nation's college football coaches.[157] The coaches were chosen to represent every major football conference, with 5 coaches from each of 7 regions, in an apparent effort to combat the perceived East Coast bias of the rival AP Poll's constituent sports writers.
Their votes will provide the only football rating based on the opinion of the men who know the sport best. The nature of the board, giving each section of the country equal representation, avoids the sectional bias and ballot box stuffing for which other football polls have been criticized.
— United Press Football Ratings announcement, September 1950[157]
Each season's final Coaches Poll was initially published following the regular season and did not take bowl game results into account; the UP/UPI national champion lost its bowl game 8 times between 1950 and 1973. Since the 1974 season the poll has awarded its national championship following the postseason bowls.[159] That same year the AFCA voted to thereafter not rank any team currently under NCAA or conference-sanctioned probation.[159][160]
Following the decline of UPI in the 1980s, the AFCA ended their 42-year relationship with the wire service in 1991.[161][158] The Coaches Poll continued, with new sponsorship and distribution partners, as the USA Today/CNN poll (1991–1996), USA Today/ESPN poll (1997–2004), USA Today poll (2005–2014), and USA Today/Amway poll (2014–present).
The Bowl Championship Series included the Coaches Poll as a major factor in its ranking formula.[162] In return, voting AFCA members were contractually obligated to award their Coaches Poll national championship selections to the winner of the BCS National Championship Game. Lacking its own dedicated trophy, the BCS champion was awarded The Coaches' Trophy on the field immediately following the game.
Poll era national championships by school (1936–present)
The following table contains the national championships that have been recognized by the final AP or Coaches Poll. Originally both the AP and Coaches poll champions were crowned after the regular season, but since 1968 and 1974 respectively, both polls crown their champions after the bowl games are completed (with the exception of the 1965 season). The BCS champion was automatically awarded the Coaches Poll championship. Of the current 120+ Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, formerly Division I-A) schools, only 30 have won at least a share of a national title by the AP or Coaches poll. Of these 30 teams, only 20 teams have won multiple titles. Of the 20 teams, only 7 have won five or more national titles: Alabama, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USC, Miami (FL), Nebraska, and Ohio State. The years listed in the table below indicate a national championship selection by the AP or Coaches Poll. The selections are noted with (AP) or (Coaches) when a national champion selection differed between the two polls for that particular season, which has occurred in twelve different seasons (including 2004, for which the coaches selection was rescinded) since the polls first came to coexist in 1950.
| School | Championships | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 13 | 1961, 1964, 1965 (AP), 1973 (Coaches), 1978 (AP), 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020 |
| Notre Dame | 8 | 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973 (AP), 1977, 1988 |
| Oklahoma | 7 | 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974 (AP), 1975, 1985, 2000 |
| USC | 7 | 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974 (Coaches), 1978 (Coaches), 2003 (AP), 2004 (AP)† |
| Ohio State | 6 | 1942, 1954 (AP), 1957 (Coaches), 1968, 2002, 2014 |
| Miami (FL) | 5 | 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991 (AP), 2001 |
| Nebraska | 5 | 1970 (AP), 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997 (Coaches) |
| LSU | 4 | 1958, 2003 (Coaches), 2007, 2019 |
| Texas | 4 | 1963, 1969, 1970 (Coaches), 2005 |
| Minnesota | 4 | 1936, 1940, 1941, 1960 |
| Clemson | 3 | 1981, 2016, 2018 |
| Florida | 3 | 1996, 2006, 2008 |
| Florida State | 3 | 1993, 1999, 2013 |
| Georgia | 3 | 1980, 2021, 2022 |
| Army | 2 | 1944, 1945 (AP) |
| Auburn | 2 | 1957 (AP), 2010 |
| Michigan | 2 | 1948, 1997 (AP) |
| Michigan State | 2 | 1952, 1965 (Coaches) |
| Penn State | 2 | 1982, 1986 |
| Pittsburgh | 2 | 1937, 1976 |
| Tennessee | 2 | 1951, 1998 |
| TCU | 2 | 1935 (Coaches)‡,[62] 1938[67] |
| BYU | 1 | 1984 |
| Colorado | 1 | 1990 (AP) |
| Georgia Tech | 1 | 1990 (Coaches) |
| Maryland | 1 | 1953 |
| Oklahoma State | 1 | 1945 (Coaches)‡[52] |
| Syracuse | 1 | 1959 |
| Texas A&M | 1 | 1939 |
| UCLA | 1 | 1954 (Coaches) |
| Washington | 1 | 1991 (Coaches) |
† USC's 2004 BCS National Championship was vacated by the BCS and the AFCA Coaches Trophy returned.[163]
‡ Retroactively awarded by AFCA Blue Ribbon Commission.[52][53][62][67]
Split national championships
The AP Poll and Coaches Poll have picked different final national poll leaders at the end of 11 different seasons since their first concurrent polls in 1950.[26] This situation is referred to as a "split" national championship.[164]
| Season[26] | Champion | Record | Wire service poll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Ohio State | 10–0 | AP |
| UCLA | 9–0 | Coaches | |
| 1957 | Auburn | 10–0 | AP |
| Ohio State | 9–1 | Coaches | |
| 1965 | Alabama | 9–1–1 | AP |
| Michigan State | 10–1 | Coaches | |
| 1970 | Nebraska | 11–0–1 | AP |
| Texas | 10–1 | Coaches | |
| 1973 | Notre Dame | 11–0 | AP |
| Alabama | 11–1 | Coaches | |
| 1974 | Oklahoma | 11–0 | AP |
| USC | 10–1–1 | Coaches | |
| 1978 | Alabama | 11–1 | AP |
| USC | 12–1 | Coaches | |
| 1990 | Colorado | 11–1–1 | AP |
| Georgia Tech | 11–0–1 | Coaches | |
| 1991 | Miami (FL) | 12–0 | AP |
| Washington | 12–0 | Coaches | |
| 1997 | Michigan | 12–0 | AP |
| Nebraska | 13–0 | Coaches | |
| 2003 | USC | 12–1 | AP |
| LSU | 13–1 | Coaches | |
National championship games
College football fans and administrators have long sought to match the No. 1 vs. No. 2 teams in an end-of-season national championship game to determine an undisputed national champion on the gridiron.[35]
Historic occurrences
Throughout most of the 20th century, a number of challenges made it impossible to ordinarily schedule the two top teams for a single post-season title fight:
- Some schools, most notably Notre Dame, declined to play in bowl games for many years.[32]
- Conference tie-ins prevented certain conference champions from ever meeting in a post-season bowl game.
- "No repeat" rules prevented teams from playing in their conference's bowl two seasons in a row.[165]
- At-large bowl game invitations were extended in mid-November, locking in teams with subsequent late-season losses.[166]
Through luck and fortuitous scheduling, a "national championship game" was occasionally able to settle the matter on the field, as described in some contemporaneous reports.[31]
| Season | National championship game | Winning team | Score | Losing team | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | Rose Bowl[167][168] | No. 2 USC | 21–12 | No. 1 Tulane | Title game for Erskine Trophy[170] |
| 1943 | Notre Dame vs. Iowa Pre-Flight[171][172] | No. 1 Notre Dame | 14–13 | No. 2 Iowa Pre-Flight | Game played November 20. Each played another regular season game November 27, which for Notre Dame was a loss to Great Lakes Navy. |
| 1944 | Army–Navy Game | No. 1 Army | 23–7 | No. 2 Navy | Final regular season game. Navy finished 6–3 ranked No. 4. |
| 1945 | Game of the Century[174] | No. 1 Army | 32–13 | No. 2 Navy | |
| 1962 | Rose Bowl[175][176][177] | No. 1 USC | 42–37 | No. 2 Wisconsin | FWAA only; USC had already been named No. 1 in the final AP and Coaches Polls four weeks earlier. [178] |
| 1963 | Cotton Bowl[179][176][177] | No. 1 Texas | 28–6 | No. 2 Navy | FWAA only; Texas had already been named No. 1 in the final AP and Coaches Polls three weeks earlier.[180] |
| 1965 | Orange Bowl[181][182] | No. 4 Alabama | 39–28 | No. 3 Nebraska | Became AP Poll championship game after No. 1 and 2 teams lost the Rose and Cotton Bowl games earlier in the day. |
| 1966 | Game of the Century[183][184] | No. 1 Notre Dame | 10–10 | No. 2 Michigan State | The following week Notre Dame defeated USC in its last regular season game.[187] |
| 1967 | Game of the Century[188][189] | No. 4 USC | 21–20 | No. 1 UCLA | Game played November 18. UCLA played another regular season game November 25. |
| 1968 | Rose Bowl[190][177] | No. 1 Ohio State | 27–16 | No. 2 USC | |
| 1969 | Game of the Century[7] | No. 1 Texas | 15–14 | No. 2 (AP) Arkansas | Winner was to be awarded a presidential plaque by game attendee Richard Nixon declaring them "the number-one college football team in college football's one-hundredth year."[7] This was the final regular season game, and it determined the Coaches Poll title. Entering the game, Arkansas ranked No. 3 in the Coaches Poll and remained #3.[191][192] |
| 1971 | Game of the Century | No. 1 Nebraska | 35–31 | No. 2 Oklahoma | Game played November 25 for Coaches Poll title, compiled before bowl games and released December 6. Each played another regular season game December 4.[193] |
| Orange Bowl[194][195] | No. 1 Nebraska | 38–6 | No. 2 Alabama | Title game for NFF MacArthur Bowl[196] | |
| 1972 | Rose Bowl[197] | No. 1 USC | 42–17 | No. 3 Ohio State | One-loss Oklahoma, #2 in final regular season polls, won the Sugar Bowl and remained #2 after the bowls. |
| 1973 | Sugar Bowl[198][199] | No. 3 Notre Dame | 24–23 | No. 1 Alabama | Title game for NFF MacArthur Bowl; #2 Oklahoma finished 10–0–1, was on probation and ineligible for a bowl game.[200] |
| 1978 | Sugar Bowl[176][201] | No. 2 Alabama | 14–7 | No. 1 Penn State | National championship was split; #3 USC finished atop Coaches Poll.[202] |
| 1982 | Sugar Bowl[203] | No. 2 Penn State | 27–23 | No. 1 Georgia | |
| 1983 | Orange Bowl[204] | No. 5 Miami (FL) | 31–30 | No. 1 Nebraska | No. 2 Texas and No. 4 Illinois had lost earlier in the day.[204] No. 3 Auburn won the Sugar Bowl played at the same time. |
| 1984 | Orange Bowl[205][206] | No. 4 Washington | 28–17 | No. 2 Oklahoma | BYU won national titles in both AP and Coaches Polls. [207] |
| 1985 | Orange Bowl[208] | No. 2 Oklahoma | 25–10 | No. 1 Penn State | |
| 1986 | Fiesta Bowl[31] | No. 2 Penn State | 14–10 | No. 1 Miami (FL) | |
| 1987 | Orange Bowl[31] | No. 2 Miami (FL) | 20–14 | No. 1 Oklahoma | |
| 1988 | Fiesta Bowl[209] | No. 1 Notre Dame | 34–21 | No. 3 West Virginia | [210] |
Bowl Coalition (1992–1994)
Following back-to-back years of split AP and Coaches Poll national champions in 1990, between Colorado (AP) and Georgia Tech (Coaches), and 1991, between Miami (FL) (AP) and Washington (Coaches), the Bowl Coalition was formed in 1992 to increase the probability of a No. 1 vs. No. 2 national championship game matchup in one of the Coalition's participating bowls.[35]
The Coalition's rules retained traditional bowl game conference tie-ins but provided some flexibility for scheduling a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup between two teams selected from among the champions of the ACC, Big East, Big Eight, SEC, and SWC conferences, or independent Notre Dame, in the Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, or Sugar Bowl.
The Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences were notably not members of the Bowl Coalition, with their champions retaining their traditional and contractual matchup in the Rose Bowl. Likewise, mid-major teams had no route to the Bowl Coalition National Championship Game.
| Season | Bowl | Winning team | Score | Losing team | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Sugar Bowl | No. 2 Alabama | 34–13 | No. 1 Miami (FL) | |
| 1993 | Orange Bowl | No. 1 Florida State | 18–16 | No. 2 Nebraska | |
| 1994 | Orange Bowl | No. 1 Nebraska | 24–17 | No. 3 Miami (FL) | [211] |
Bowl Alliance (1995–1997)
In 1995 the Bowl Alliance replaced the Bowl Coalition.[36] Going further than the Coalition, the Alliance guaranteed a postseason matchup of the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams of its same five conference champions plus Notre Dame. Beginning in 1996, the Big 12 champion joined the Alliance in place of the champions of the disbanded Big Eight and Southwest conferences.
Unlike the Coalition, the Alliance eliminated traditional conference tie-ins to its associated bowls. The Bowl Alliance national championship game would be rotated amongst the Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Orange Bowl, with the Cotton Bowl dropped from the slate. The Bowl Alliance also awarded its own trophy to the winner of its national championship game.[212]
The Rose Bowl remained independent of the Alliance, leaving open the possibility of a national title going to the Big Ten or Pac-10 Rose Bowl champion rather than the Alliance's champion.[213] This occurred in 1997, when No. 1 Michigan won the Rose Bowl and retained their top ranking in the AP Poll.[213] The Bowl Alliance National Championship Game[213] winner Nebraska split the championship when they passed Michigan in the final Coaches Poll (a result denied by the Coaches Poll to Penn State three years earlier in the same situation).
| Season | Bowl | Winning team | Score | Losing team | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Fiesta Bowl | No. 1 Nebraska | 62–24 | No. 2 Florida | |
| 1996 | Sugar Bowl | No. 3 Florida | 52–20 | No. 1 Florida State | [214] |
| 1997 | Orange Bowl | No. 2 Nebraska | 42–17 | No. 3 Tennessee | [215] |
Bowl Championship Series (1998–2013)
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS), starting in 1998, finally succeeded in bringing the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences together with the former Coalition and Alliance members for a combined national championship game.
Following the regular season, the BCS paired its No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams to play for the title in the BCS National Championship Game. This designation initially rotated in order between four BCS Bowls: the Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Rose Bowl. For the 2006 season onward the BCS National Championship Game became its own separate contest, played one week later at the site of the bowl in the same rotation.
The original BCS formula incorporated the AP Poll and Coaches Poll along with an average of various computer rankings.[37] The formula underwent many adjustments over the years, including a large overhaul following the 2004 season in which the AP Poll was replaced with the Harris Interactive College Football Poll.[216]
The winners of the BCS National Championship Game were crowned the Coaches Poll national champions and were awarded the Coaches' Trophy on the field following the game. They were also awarded the MacArthur Bowl by the National Football Foundation.
BCS National Championships by school
| School | Championships | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 3 | 2009, 2011, 2012 |
| Florida | 2 | 2006, 2008 |
| Florida State | 2 | 1999, 2013 |
| LSU | 2 | 2003, 2007 |
| Auburn | 1 | 2010 |
| Miami (FL) | 1 | 2001 |
| Ohio State | 1 | 2002 |
| Oklahoma | 1 | 2000 |
| Tennessee | 1 | 1998 |
| Texas | 1 | 2005 |
| USC | 0† | 2004 |
† USC's victory in the 2005 Orange Bowl and corresponding 2004–05 BCS National Championship was vacated by the BCS.[142][163]
College Football Playoff (2014–present)
The College Football Playoff (CFP) was designed as a replacement for the BCS. While the NCAA still does not officially sanction the event, organizers sought to bring a playoff system similar to all other levels of NCAA football to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The College Football Playoff relies on a 13-member selection committee to choose the top four teams to play in a two-round single-elimination playoff bracket.[39] The winner of the final game is awarded the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy.[40]
CFP National Championships by school
| School | Championships | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 3 | 2015, 2017, 2020 |
| Clemson | 2 | 2016, 2018 |
| Georgia | 2 | 2021, 2022 |
| LSU | 1 | 2019 |
| Ohio State | 1 | 2014 |
National championship claims
The following tables list schools' known national championship claims at the highest level of play in college football. Some of these schools no longer compete at the highest level, which is currently NCAA Division I FBS, but nonetheless maintain claims to titles from when they did compete at the highest level.
Because there is no one governing or official body that regulates, recognizes, or awards national championships in college football, and because many independent selectors of championships exist, many of the claims by the schools listed below are shared, contradict each other, or are controversial.[5][217]
"There is no official standard because there is no official national champion. It all depends on the standard the school wishes to utilize. The national champion is in the eye of the beholder."
The majority of these claims, but not all, are based on championships awarded from selectors listed as "major" in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records publication.[6][8] Not all championships awarded by third party selectors, nor all those listed in the NCAA records book, are necessarily claimed by each school.[n3 1] Therefore, these claims represent how each individual school sees their own history on the subject of national championships.
The tables below include only national championship claims originating from each particular school and therefore represent the point-of-view of each individual institution. Each total number of championships, and the years for which they are claimed, are documented by the particular school on its official website, in its football media guide, on a prominent stadium sign, or in other official publications or literature (see Source). If a championship is not mentioned by a school for any particular season, regardless of whether it was awarded by a selector or listed in a third-party publication such as the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records, it is not considered to be claimed by that institution.
Claims by school
| School | Claims | Claimed national championship seasons | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princeton | 28 | 1869, 1870, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1889, 1893, 1894, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1906, 1911, 1920, 1922, 1933, 1935, 1950 | [219] |
| Yale | 27 | 1872, 1874, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1897, 1900, 1901,[n3 2] 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909, 1927 | [220][221] |
| Alabama | 18 | 1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1941, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020 | [222] |
| Michigan | 11 | 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997 | [223][224] |
| Notre Dame | 11 | 1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988 | [225][226] |
| USC | 11 | 1928, 1931, 1932, 1939, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978, 2003, 2004[n3 3] | [228][229] |
| Pittsburgh | 9 | 1915, 1916, 1918, 1929, 1931, 1934,[n3 4] 1936, 1937, 1976 | [230][231] |
| Ohio State | 8 | 1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002, 2014 | [232][233] |
| Harvard | 7 | 1890, 1898, 1899, 1910, 1912, 1913, 1919 | [234][235] |
| Minnesota | 7 | 1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, 1960 | [236][237] |
| Oklahoma | 7 | 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000 | [238][239] |
| Penn | 7 | 1894, 1895, 1897, 1904, 1907,[n3 5] 1908, 1924 | [240] |
| Michigan State | 6 | 1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1965, 1966 | [241][242] |
| Tennessee | 6 | 1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998 | [243][244] |
| California | 5 | 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1937 | [245] |
| Cornell | 5 | 1915, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1939 | [246][247] |
| Illinois | 5 | 1914, 1919, 1923, 1927, 1951 | [248][249] |
| Iowa | 5 | 1921, 1922, 1956, 1958, 1960 | [250] |
| Miami | 5 | 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001 | [251][252] |
| Nebraska | 5 | 1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997 | [253][254] |
| Georgia | 4 | 1942, 1980, 2021, 2022 | [255][256] |
| Georgia Tech | 4 | 1917, 1928, 1952, 1990 | [257][258] |
| LSU | 4 | 1958, 2003, 2007, 2019 | [259][260] |
| Texas | 4 | 1963, 1969, 1970, 2005 | [261][262] |
| Army | 3 | 1944, 1945, 1946 | [263][264] |
| Clemson | 3 | 1981, 2016, 2018 | [265][266] |
| Florida | 3 | 1996, 2006, 2008 | [267][268] |
| Florida State | 3 | 1993, 1999, 2013 | [269][270] |
| Lafayette | 3 | 1896, 1921, 1926 | [271] |
| Ole Miss | 3 | 1959, 1960, 1962 | [28][272] |
| SMU | 3 | 1935, 1981, 1982 | [273] |
| Texas A&M | 3 | 1919, 1927, 1939 | [274][275] |
| Auburn | 2 | 1957, 2010 | [276][277] |
| Chicago | 2 | 1905, 1913 | [278] |
| Columbia | 2 | 1875, 1933[n3 6] | [279] |
| Penn State | 2 | 1982, 1986 | [280][281] |
| Stanford | 2 | 1926, 1940 | [282][283] |
| TCU | 2 | 1935, 1938 | [284][285] |
| Washington | 2 | 1960, 1991 | [29][286] |
| Arkansas | 1 | 1964 | [287] |
| Boston College | 1 | 1940[n3 7] | [292] |
| BYU | 1 | 1984 | [293][294] |
| Centre | 1 | 1919 | [295] |
| Colorado | 1 | 1990 | [296][297] |
| Dartmouth | 1 | 1925 | [298] |
| Detroit | 1 | 1928 | [299] |
| Kentucky | 1 | 1950 | [300] |
| Maryland | 1 | 1953 | [301][302] |
| Navy | 1 | 1926 | [303] |
| Oklahoma State | 1 | 1945 | [304]: [52] [305] |
| Rutgers | 1 | 1869 | [306] |
| Syracuse | 1 | 1959 | [307][308] |
| UCF | 1 | 2017 | [309][310] |
| UCLA | 1 | 1954 | [311][312] |
- Notes
- The following schools either make no apparent statement or claim regarding national championships, or clearly state no claims on a national championship, despite the listing of a national championship for that school in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records: Arizona State, Colgate, Duke, Missouri, Purdue, Utah,[218] Vanderbilt, and Washington & Jefferson.
- No major selectors chose Yale for 1901. The original source for Parke H. Davis' "National Champion Foot Ball Teams" states "1901 Harvard".[24]
- USC's January 4, 2005 win over Oklahoma in the BCS Championship Game was vacated as mandated by the NCAA, its 2004 BCS National Championship vacated by the BCS, and its AFCA Coaches' Trophy returned. NCAA sanctions mandate that "any reference to the vacated results, including championships, shall be removed." USC still retains the 2004 Associated Press National Championship and has not abandoned its claim to a 2004 national championship.[163][227]
- No major selectors chose Pittsburgh for 1934. Parke H. Davis died in June, 1934; his successor selected Pitt but is not designated as a major selector by the NCAA.
- The Billingsley Report originally named Penn as champions for 1907 and the team was listed in the 1996[59]–2003[112] NCAA records books. However the team was dropped from subsequent NCAA records books when Billingsley updated his system's formula to remove the Margin of Victory component.
- No major selectors chose Columbia for 1933. Columbia's media guide states that the team "was referred to as a national champ."[279]
- No major selectors chose Boston College for 1940. Final AP Poll and several other selections preceded bowl games. Boston College defeated Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl in a battle of unbeatens.[288][289][290][291]
Claims by year
Other selectors
In addition to the NCAA-designated "major selectors" listed above, various other people and organizations have selected national champions in college football. Selections from such notable selectors are listed below.
Unique championship selections from non-major selectors
Teams in the following table were selected by notable national championship selectors not listed as a "major selector" in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book.
In the interest of brevity, this table contains only teams that were not also selected by any NCAA-designated major selector for the given year.
- Teams listed in italics indicate retroactively-applied championships.
References
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- Viehman, Harold H., ed. (1939). The 1939 Owl. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh. p. 276. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
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- "National Champion Major Selections (1896 to Present)". 2022 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (PDF). Indianapolis: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. July 2022. pp. 112–114. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
The criteria for being included in this historical list of poll selectors is that the poll be national in scope, either through distribution in newspaper, television, radio and/or computer online. The list includes both former selectors, who were instrumental in the sport of college football, and selectors who were among the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) selectors.
- Weinreb, Michael (June 18, 2013). "Tricky Dick's Trick Play". Grantland. ESPN Internet Ventures. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
In 1969, President Nixon was the decider of the national championship
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[Carlisle was] defeated by Harvard last Saturday, which gives the Crimson the best chance for national championship honors this year.
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Coaches of top teams have long pretended they did not care about national rankings, but Notre Dame vs. Michigan State has changed that, and this season's excitement centers on the battle to be No. 1
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With the football season at an end, the critics are busily engaged in reviewing the various big games and in rating the leading elevens according to merit.
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Football, however, is not a game where a great national championship is possible or desirable. The very nature of the sport would forbid anything like such a series of contests as are played in baseball.
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To each member of the team was presented from admiring alumni gold footballs with the inscription, "National Champions."
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[The Bonniwell Trophy] is "to be awarded in such years as produces a team whose standing is so preeminent as to make its selection as champion of America beyond dispute."
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- Written at South Bend, Indiana. "Football Award will be made at Pittsburgh" (PDF). The Reflector. Vol. VIII, no. 17. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana Central College. February 7, 1930. p. 3. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
The Albert Russell [sic] Eskine Trophy, emblematic of the national football championship as determined by 250 sports writers, will be presented to Notre Dame, 1929 winner, at the Pittsburgh–Notre Dame basketball game in this city, February 8.
- "Notre Dame Receives Erskine Award" (PDF). The Notre Dame Alumnus. Vol. IX, no. 5. South Bend, Indiana: The Alumni Association of the University of Notre Dame. January 1931. p. 169. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
Nation's sports writers pick Notre Dame football team as champions by record vote; Trophy awarded in New York January second.
- "Trojans Get Erskine 1931 Grid Award". Los Angeles Times. January 2, 1932. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
Southern California's 21–12 victory over Tulane brought the Trojans the Albert Russell Erskine football trophy and the national grid championship for 1931. Presentation of the trophy was made in front of the Trojan rooting section following the game by William R. Moorehouse, member of the Erskine award board. The Erskine award brought a Studebaker President eight sedan to Coach Howard Jones, an engraved cup to the University of Southern California and a scroll signifying the national championship to the Trojan team.
- Toledo Cup — National Collegiate Football Championship (Trophy). Gibson-Nagurski Athletic Center, University of Minnesota. January 6, 2023. Archived from the original on May 6, 2023. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
1934, 1935, 1936 — University of Minnesota
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List of the 11 split national titles since 1950: 1954, 1957, 1965, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1991, 1997, 2003
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1950 Oklahoma, 1951 Tennessee, 1953 Maryland, 1960 Minnesota, 1964 Alabama
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Washington officially claims two national championships in football: 1960 and 1991.
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That Dream Match—the No. 1 team against the No. 2 outfit in the Rose Bowl—remained a reality today... but just barely. [...] Because the race is so tight, the final AP poll of the season won't be released until after the Jan. 1 bowl games.
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Only luck ensures one of the many current bowl games gets the No. 1 and No. 2 teams to play each other.
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...under an agreement hammered out yesterday by the College Football Bowl Coalition that also provides enhanced opportunity for a national championship game.
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Briefly, the Bowl Coalition has been replaced by the Bowl Alliance, which will spread five conference champions (ACC, Big East, Big Eight, Southeastern, Southwest) plus Notre Dame around three different bowls. The championship game between the Nos. 1 and 2 alliance teams will be rotated among the Fiesta (this year), Sugar (1996) and Orange (1997) bowls. Unlike the coalition, the alliance has eliminated conference tie-ins to its respective bowls.
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Handcrafted piece of art to serve as new, iconic symbol of postseason college football
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - "The William F. Boand trophy". The Baytown Sun. Baytown, Texas. International News Service. February 2, 1955. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
The William F. Boand trophy... in recognition of the Bucks as the No. 1 football team of 1954 according to Board's Azzi Ratem system. Byron F. Boyd, editor of the Football News, will make the presentation
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Places Dartmouth at the top of the column
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In the Huddle with Deke Houlgate: College Football from 1869 through 1953; Annual Supplements for 1954–1958
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The Foreman and Clark trophy, emblematic of the National football championship, won by SMU in 1935, will be sent to LSU. The Tigers were awarded the trophy for the past season under the ratings of Deke Houlgate, Los Angeles, grid statistician.
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The Difference By Score System
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Around April of 1970 or 1971, I came up with the method now used. [...] Championships have been awarded on this basis by the Foundation for the Analysis of Competitions and Tournaments since the 1970s, and retroactive to 1968.
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Since 1950 — AP, UPI, FW, NFF, USA/CNN, USA/ESPN, USA
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The American Football Coaches Association Honors The National Football Champion — Texas Christian University — 1935
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No Undisputable National Champions Picked; Sugar Bowl Game One of Best
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At the curtain of the 1936 football season, again like for 1935, the Williamson Rating System does not name any team that could be consistently called the out and out national football champion.
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Alabama 123.0, Ohio State 122.8, Notre Dame 116.5
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Dr. Litkenhous traditionally determines his system's national champion after the regular season ends. Texas won in 1977.
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- 2022 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2022. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
- Sagarin, Jeff. "FINAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL 1998 Ratings thru results of MONDAY, January 3, 1999". USA Today. Archived from the original on June 17, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- "USC loses Grantland Rice Trophy". ESPN. August 26, 2010. Archived from the original on August 27, 2010. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- "BCS Group vacates USC 2004–05 national championship following NCAA denial of appeal" (Press release). Bowl Championship Series. June 6, 2011. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
- "University of Southern California Public Interactions Report" (PDF). USA Today. NCAA. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Morey, Earl (December 9, 1960). "Big Eight voted 5-3 to strip KU's title in Bert Coan action". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. (Kansas). p. 1.
The move gave MU a 10-0 season record and a 7-0 record in league play.
- Benagh, Jim (October 6, 1985). "Top Spot in Poll Draws Reward". The New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
When the University of Iowa rose to No. 1 in The Associated Press and the United Press International college football rankings last week, it was reason for elation across the state. ... The polls, since the first one began 50 years ago this month, have been the prime measuring stick for determining the champion, albeit an unofficial one.
- "Major polls agree: Sooners consensus national champions". The Fresno Bee. January 3, 1986. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
- "Football Bowl Subdivision Records" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
- Middleton, Drew (December 6, 1938). Written at New York. "Texas Christian, Duke and Tennessee Top in Nation; Notre Dame Falls to Fifth". The Indianapolis News. Indianapolis. Associated Press. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
The poll was extended for another week because of the select quality of last Saturday's games, three of which had a direct bearing on the ranking.
- Written at Los Angeles. "USC, Vols 1–2 in AP poll". Honolulu Star–Bulletin. Honolulu, Hawaii. Associated Press. November 30, 1967. p. 71. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
Southern California is king of 1967 college football. [...] Tennessee, 8–1 with one regular season game remaining before its Orange Bowl date with Oklahoma, received 11 first-place votes.
- Fullerton, Hugh S. Jr. (November 29, 1938). Written at New York. "Irish Still Top Scribes' Ballot". The Indianapolis News. Indianapolis. Associated Press. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
In the final Associated Press football ranking poll of the year, ninety sports writers and editors chose Notre Dame as the nation's No. 1 team with Duke in third place. Texas Christian, which hoped for a Rose bowl bid, came in between them.
- Written at New York. "AP Conducts Special Poll; Only Notre Dame, Michigan In Running". The La Crosse Tribune. La Crosse, Wisconsin. Associated Press. January 3, 1948. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
The AP's final poll of the top ten teams, released Dec. 8 at the conclusion of the regulation season, resulted in Notre Dame Winning first place with 1,410 points. Michigan was second with 1,289. While the latest poll—which will be released to afternoon papers of Tuesday, Jan. 6—will not supersede the regular season-end poll, it is intended to serve as a final summing up of the opinion on the two teams.
- Chandler, John (January 7, 1948). Written at New York. "Scribes of Nation Pick Michigan". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City. Associated Press. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
This post-season poll, conducted by the Associated Press by popular demand after Michigan thumped Southern California in the Rose bowl, 49–0, doesn't supersede the weekly A. P. poll held during the regular season. The final poll released Dec. 8 gave Notre Dame 1410 points for first place, with Michigan 1289 for second. The Irish had just polished off Southern California 38–7.
- Grimsley, Will (November 23, 1965). "MSU Tightens No. 1 Grip". St. Cloud Times. Associated Press. Retrieved August 21, 2022.
Another poll will be staged after this week's few remaining games and the final balloting, determining the national championship, will be held after the bowl games on New Year's Day. The decision to delay the final poll until after the New Year was made because of the broad growth of the post-season attractions and the involvement of most of the teams in the Top Ten. Actually, eight of the Top Ten will be in action after the regular season.
- Green, Bob (January 4, 1966). "Crimson Tide Named National Collegiate Football Champions — Third Title in Five Years". Fort Collins Coloradoan. Associated Press. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
Ironically, when the Tide won last year, the poll was taken at the close of the regular season and 'Bama went on to lose to Texas in the Orange Bowl. This year the final poll of the season was conducted after the New Year's bowl games—the first time it had been held until after the bowls—because the six top teams were in action New Year's Day.
- Rapoport, Ron (December 31, 1966). "Bear Bryant Still Figures His Team Is Best in Land". Sun-Journal. Lewiston, Maine. Associated Press. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
Last year, the AP took a post-Bowl game poll because Michigan State and Alabama were involved in Bowl games. This year, with the No. 1 and 2 teams not in Bowl games, so no post-season poll is planned.
- Whittingham, Richard (2001). Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football. Simon and Schuster. p. 46. ISBN 9780743222198. Archived from the original on April 26, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
- Petersen, Leo H. (September 13, 1950). "United Press Will Poll Coaches for Ratings on Leading College Elevens". Coshocton Tribune. Vol. XLII, no. 21. New York. United Press. p. 8. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
Thirty-five of the nation's foremost football coaches will rate the country's top collegiate football teams each week for the United Press this coming season.
- "UPI to Exclude Coaches' Votes From National Football Poll". Los Angeles Times. United Press International. June 4, 1991. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
"After more than six months' discussion, UPI and AFCA have ended the joint polling effort which began in 1950," said Milt Capps, senior vice president for UPI, a wire service agency. For more than 40 years, UPI sportswriters gathered votes from coaches each week, tallied the results and reported them. But UPI's rankings now will be determined by the votes of the sportswriters independent of the AFCA, which will produce its own, separate coaches rankings.
- "Sports News Briefs — U.P.I. Poll to Include Bowl Results". The New York Times. January 17, 1974. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
The American Football Coaches Association, acting on a proposal by United Press International, has voted to permit member coaches to extend their future U.P.I. rankings of the top 10 teams to include results of postseason bowl games. Since their Inception in 1950, rankings by the U.P.I. board of 35 coaches—five from each of the nation's seven geographical areas—have ended each year with the final Saturday of the regular season. This action will conform with the practice of the Associated Press, whose final ratings based on the votes of sports writers and broadcasters, include the bowl results. — A.F.C.A. members for many years expressed preference for including only regular-season games in the U.P.I. board's final rankings, A factor in the decision was the circumstance of first-ranked Alabama losing to fourth-ranked Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl this season. — In a separate action, the A.F.C.A. recommended that no votes be cast by them or anyone else for football teams the National Collegiate A.A. has placed on probation, with sanctions, for violating the N.C.A.A. code.
- "Amway Coaches Poll". American Football Coaches Association. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Written at Dallas. "'USA Today' gets UPI coaches' poll". Austin American-Statesman. Austin. Associated Press. June 3, 1991. p. D2. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
The college football coaches poll, carried by United Press International since 1950, will now be distributed by USA Today.
- "FBS coaches' poll will continue every week despite BCS going away". Associated Press. January 13, 2013. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- "BCS strips Southern California of 2004 national championship". USA Today. June 6, 2011. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
- Shapiro, Leonard (January 3, 1992). "Miami, Washington Earn Split Decision for No. 1". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
The triumphant Miami and Washington teams exulted on separate coasts yesterday, each celebrating the outcome of at least one major poll that proclaimed it the national college football champion for 1991.
- Written at Chicago. "Leahy Says Bruins Should Play Bucks in Rose Bowl for National Championship". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. Los Angeles. United Press. November 30, 1954. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
The clause prohibits a team from playing in the [Rose Bowl] more than once in two years
- Lee, Victor (November 18, 1990). Written at Miami. "Notre Dame's loss is Orange Bowl's loss". The Palm Beach Post. West Palm Beach, Florida. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
This is a classic example of the Orange Bowl extending the invitation too early when they could have had the national championship game. The Orange Bowl has done this two years in a row.
- Written at New York. "Rose Bowl Winner Will be Awarded Erskine Trophy". The Tampa Times. Tamp, Florida. December 26, 1931. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
- Roberts, Don (January 1, 1932). "Trojans, Tulane Fight for National Crown". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. Los Angeles. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
With the Albert Russell Erskine national football championship at stake, Tulane University's Green Wave today met the University of Southern California Trojans at the Pasadena Rose Bowl.
- "Tulane Leads Erskine Voting — Trojans Close Behind". The South Bend Tribune. December 18, 1931. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
- The Erskine poll's preliminary ballot ranked No. 1 Tulane and No. 2 USC.[169] Rather than hold a final vote, it was decided that the teams would compete for the Albert Russel Erskine Trophy at the Rose Bowl;[167] the trophy was presented to USC on the field following the game.
- Written at Chicago. "Irish and Seahawks Pointing for Game — Undefeated Opponents of Saturday Meet in Unofficial National Championship Game at South Bend, Ind". The Knoxville News–Sentinel. Knoxville, Tennessee. Associated Press. November 18, 1943. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
The result should establish one or the other definitely as the country's greatest football team—college or service. A crowd of 50,000 is expected to watch this unofficial championship battle at Notre Dame Stadium.
- Game of the Year of the Day, 1943: Notre Dame 14, Iowa Pre-Flight 13 " This was college football's national title game in 1943."
- On This Date in Sports December 1, 1945: Army-Navy for the Nation "For the second straight season, the fate of the National Championship is on the line in the Army-Navy Game in Philadelphia."
- Los Angeles Times "The national championship was at stake - USC was ranked No. 1 and Wisconsin No. 2"
- 1979 Sugar Bowl (Television production). Louisiana Superdome: ABC. January 1, 1979.
The Game for the National Championship — No. 1 Penn State vs. No. 2 Alabama [...] Bowl Games for the National Championship: 1963 Rose Bowl, 1964 Cotton Bowl, 1969 Rose Bowl, 1972 Orange Bowl
- Jenkins, Dan (December 23, 1968). "Bouquets of Roses for No. 1". Sports Illustrated. Vol. 29, no. 26. Chicago. pp. 22–23. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
The nation's two top teams, Ohio State and Southern California, get a rare opportunity to settle which is the best as an entire season of undefeated play comes down to their face-to-face clash in Pasadena.
- After the Rose Bowl, USC received the FWAA's Grantland Rice national championship trophy.[10]
- Washingtonian "the Middies (Navy) in that year's Army game–an invitation to the Cotton Bowl and a chance to play Texas for the national championship."
- After the Cotton Bowl, Texas received the FWAA's Grantland Rice national championship trophy.[10]
- Smothers, Jimmy (January 2, 1966). "Bama shoots for No. 1 spot". The Gadsden Times. p. 21. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
- Green, Bob (January 4, 1966). "Tide keeps AP title trophy". The Tuscaloosa News. Associated Press. p. 7. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- "Remember that time Notre Dame beat Michigan State, 10-10?". September 16, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
- "Upside-Down Game: 1996 Notre Dame-Michigan State". Sports Illustrated Vault | Si.com.
- "Polls give No. 1 nod to Notre Dame". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. December 6, 1967. p. 3B.
- Meyers, Jeff (November 29, 1966). "Notre Dame is No. 1 in final UPI balloting". Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). UPI. p. 26.
- After the 10–10 tie, Notre Dame and Michigan State retained their No. 1 and No. 2 rankings in the final AP and Coaches Polls.[185][186]
- "The Great One Confronts O.j." Sports Illustrated Vault | Si.com.
- "A Run for the Roses : O.J. Simpson's 64-Yarder Against UCLA Helped Send USC on to Pasadena and a National Championship". Los Angeles Times. November 19, 1992.
- Written at Pasadena, California. "Collegiate Football Title At Stake In Rose Bowl". Palladium–Item. Richmond, Indiana. Associated Press. January 1, 1969. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
- "State in top billing battle". Reading Eagle. Pennsylvania. United Press International. December 2, 1969. p. 32.
Texas, the nation's No. 1 team, will play Arkansas the No. 3 club, while Penn State, ranked second, waits for either to falter. The UPI national championship will be decided next Tuesday. Ratings are based on regular season performances and do not include post season play.
- "Final No. 1". Reading Eagle. Pennsylvania. United Press International. December 9, 1969. p. 36.
- The final Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, in early December.
- "College 'Super Bowl' Set Up: Nebraska, Alabama Rank 1–2 in Both Polls". Lincoln Journal Star. Compiled from News Wires. November 30, 1971. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
...college football's version of the Super Bowl. It will take place on New Year's Night in Miami's Orange Bowl when the two leaders clash for the national championship.
- Written at New York. "Award for top team delayed". The Times-News. Twin Falls, Idaho. United Press International. December 7, 1971. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
...it was decided not to award a championship by ballot but rather to let these teams meet on the field and play for the MacArthur Bowl.
- National Football Foundation announced on December 7 that the winner of the Orange Bowl would receive the MacArthur Bowl, and that Nebraska and Alabama would be co-champions in the case of a tie.[195] The trophy was awarded to Nebraska on the field following the game.
- Prugh, Jeff (January 1, 1973). "ROSE BOWL COACHES AGREE: Trojans, Bukeyes Battle for No. 1". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
Well, the college football world can stop arguing about who will be No. 1 after today's Rose Bowl game.
- Written at New York. "Title at Stake in Sugar Bowl". The Kansas City Times. Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press. December 3, 1973. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
"A championship can only truly be settled on the playing field." Richard Kazmaier, chairman of the awards committee, said in announcing that this year the committee would not vote for the MacArthur Bowl winner.
- Nissenson, Herschel (December 31, 1973). "In Sugar Bowl Grid Title Decided Tonight". The Palladium–Item. Richmond, Indiana. Associated Press. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
- National Football Foundation announced on December 2 that the winner of the Sugar Bowl would receive the MacArthur Bowl, and that Alabama and Notre Dame would be co-champions in the case of a tie.[198]
- Written at New York. "UPI Coaches Select USC No. 1". The Crowly Post–Signal. Crowley, Louisiana. UPI. January 3, 1979. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
Alabama, 11–1, toppled previously top-ranked Penn State, 14–7, in the Sugar Bowl game that was billed as the battle for the championship because the Nittany Lions went into the game ranked No. 1 and Alabama was rated No. 2.
- Game was billed as the national championship game for both major polls, each ranking Penn State No. 1 and Alabama No. 2.[201] The AP Poll consequently awarded their national championship to the winner.
Despite the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in their own poll, the Coaches Poll instead selected No. 3 USC (who in September had handed Alabama their only loss of the season) following the bowls.
After hearing the news a disappointed Bear Bryant stated: "The UPI Board of Coaches demonstrated a lack of consistency with this vote, as their No. 1 and No. 2 teams played in what the vast majority of the nation viewed as their national championship game."[201] - Written at Dallas. "Mustangs Not Counting Out National Title Bid". The Times Recorder. Zanesville, Ohio. Associated Press. January 1, 1983. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
No. 1–ranked unbeaten and untied Georgia and No. 2–ranked once-beaten Penn State meet in the Sugar Bowl New Year's night for what is being billed as "the national championship game."
- 1984 Orange Bowl (Television production). Miami Orange Bowl: NBC. January 2, 1984.
Orange Bowl Next — For the National Championship — #4 Miami vs #1 Nebraska
- Nissenson, Herschel (December 16, 1984). "Who's No. 1? The controversy abounds". The Times of Northwest Indiana. Associated Press. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
Brigham Young's opponents as a group have a losing record; how can a team like that be the national champion?" said Nick Crane, chairman of the team selection committee. "As far as the Orange Bowl is concerned, we think ours is a national championship game (between No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 4 Washington).
- Gastineau, Mike. Fear No Man: Don James, the '91 Huskies, and the Seven-year Quest for a National Football Championship. University of Washington Press. p. 7.
- No. 1 Brigham Young won the Holiday Bowl on December 21. No. 3 Florida would not play in a bowl game due to NCAA sanctions.
- Davis, Ken (January 1, 1986). Written at Miami. "Numbers Game Comes Down To One-on-One". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
In the minds of most people, tonight's Orange Bowl game between No. 1 Penn State and No. 3 Oklahoma will decide the national championship. ... here in sunny and warm Miami everyone is calling the Orange Bowl the national championship game.
- Wine, Steven (January 2, 1989). Written at Miami. "'Canes need big win to have shot". The Times–News. Twin Falls, Idaho. Associated Press. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
Monday afternoon's Fiesta Bowl between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 West Virginia, both 11–0, is billed as the national championship game.
- Winner would be the season's only undefeated team; one-loss No. 2 Miami held out slim hope to be voted No. 1 in the case of a West Virginia win.[209]
- No. 2 Penn State won the Rose Bowl.
- 1998 Orange Bowl (Television production). Miami Orange Bowl: CBS. January 2, 1998.
Also here, commissioner of the Big-12 conference, Steve Hatchell to present the Alliance trophy.
- Rosenblatt, Richard (December 8, 1997). "Bowl Alliance hopes for best: Without Michigan, Orange Bowl cheers for Washington State". The Daily News–Journal. Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Associated Press. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
We're billing this as the alliance national championship, which it is. Obviously if Michigan loses, it becomes the national championship. If they win, we're hoping for a split in the polls.
- No. 2 Arizona State lost the Rose Bowl on January 1, making the January 2 Sugar Bowl a true national championship game.[213]
- No. 1 Michigan won the Rose Bowl and would be voted national champions by the AP Poll. Lacking the No. 1 team, the Orange Bowl was billed as the "Alliance National Championship".[213]
- Wieberg, Steve. "New Harris poll to replace AP in BCS formula". USA Today Sports. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Coyne, Tom (December 30, 2012). Written at South Bend, Indiana. "National titles: Who decides? Mostly, the schools". Hattiesburg American. Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Associated Press. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
No wonder "mythical" is the word that often precedes national title. "There is no official standard because there is no official national champion," said Kent Stephens, historian at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend. "It all depends on the standard the school wishes to utilize. The national champion is in the eye of the beholder."
- "Utes Finish No. 2 in AP Rankings" (Press release). Salt Lake City: University of Utah. January 9, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
On Not Finishing No. 1 – "While there is certainly some disappointment about not finishing No. 1, we prefer to look on the positive side."
- "Princeton Football National Championships". Go Princeton Tigers. Princeton University. Archived from the original on February 4, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
- Conn, Steve (2009). 2009 Yale Football Media Guide (PDF). Yale University. pp. 106–112. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- "Yale Official Athletic Site – Football by Year". Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Maxon, Josh; Moore, Cami; Paré, Jessica; Thompson, Alex (2021). 2021 Alabama Football Media Guide (PDF). University of Alabama. pp. 3, 108–128. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 28, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
National Championships – 18 – 1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1941, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020
- Eisendrath, Zach; Satterfield, Derek, eds. (2014). 2014 University of Michigan Football Media Guide (PDF). University of Michigan. pp. 2, 183. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Michigan Stadium scoreboard National Champions 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997 (Stadium Sign). Michigan Stadium: University of Michigan. November 24, 2001. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
- Bertsch, Michael; Masters, Chris; Torbin, Leigh (2014). Notre Dame Football 2014 Media Guide. University of Notre Dame. pp. 2, 157. Archived from the original on April 30, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish football National Champions 1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988 (Stadium Sign). Notre Dame Stadium locker room: University of Notre Dame. 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- "NCAA University of Southern California Public Infractions Report" (PDF). Indianapolis: National Collegiate Athletic Association. June 10, 2010. p. 58. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- USC Sports Information Office (2014). 2014 USC Football Media Guide (PDF). University of Southern California. p. 114. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 4, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- USC Trojans National Champions 1928, 1931, 1932, 1939, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978, 2003, 2004 (Stadium Sign). Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: University of Southern California. October 24, 2009. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
- Borghetti, E.J.; Feeley, Ted; Welsh, Celeste; et al., eds. (2014). 2014 Pitt Football Media Guide (PDF). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh. p. 130. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 30, 2018. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Pitt Football Nine-Time National Champions (Stadium Sign). Heinz Field: University of Pittsburgh. 2009. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
- "Ohio State Football Championship Teams & National Award Winners" (PDF). The Ohio State University Department of Athletics. 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
Ohio State's National Champion Teams: 2014, 2002, 1970, 1968, 1961, 1957, 1954, 1942
- Ohio State Buckeyes football National Champions 1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002, 2014 (Stadium Sign). Ohio Stadium: Ohio State University. 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- "Media Center: Harvard Crimson Football – National Championships". Official Website of Harvard Athletics. Harvard University. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Harvard Crimson football National Champions 1890, 1898, 1899, 1910, 1912, 1913, 1919 (Stadium Sign). Harvard Stadium: Harvard University. 2004. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
- "Golden Gophers National Champions – University of Minnesota Athletics". University of Minnesota Athletics Department. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
- Minnesota Golden Gophers football National Championships 1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, 1960 (Stadium Sign). Huntington Bank Stadium: University of Minnesota. 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- "OU History & Tradition – 7 National Championships". SoonerSports.com. University of Oklahoma Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- University of Oklahoma National Champions 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000 (Stadium Sign). Memorial Stadium: University of Oklahoma. 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- Cunha, Steve (September 14, 2021). 2021 Penn Football Fact Book (PDF). University of Pennsylvania Office of Athletic Communications. pp. 6, 60–61. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
Seven-Time National Champions
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- Michigan State Spartans football 6 National Championships 1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1965, 1966 (Stadium Sign). Spartan Stadium: Michigan State University. 2013. Archived from the original on March 9, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
- "Tennessee National Championships — Football (6) — 1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998". University of Tennessee Athletics. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
- Tennessee Volunteers football National Champions 1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998 (Stadium Sign). Neyland Stadium: University of Tennessee. 2010. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
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1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1937
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- Cornell University — Football Champions — 1915, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1939 (Trophies). Schoellkopf Field: Cornell University. August 17, 2015. Archived from the original on October 7, 2015. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
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- Illinois Fighting Illini football National Champions 1914, 1919, 1923, 1927, 1951 (Stadium Sign). Memorial Stadium: University of Illinois. 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
- 2022 Iowa Football Media Guide (PDF). University of Iowa Athletic Department. 2022. pp. 2, 151, 196, 202. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
Iowa Quick Facts – National Champions: 1921, 1922, 1956, 1958, 1960 | the Hawkeyes were named national champions by the Football Writers Association in 1958, and by various rating services in 1921, 1922, 1956, and 1960. | Mythical National Champions – Iowa football has been voted mythical national champions by different media services on five occasions. 1921, 1922, 1956, 1958, 1960
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The 1927, 1946, 1968 teams were also recognized as National Champions but these were not consensus and thus not officially recognized as National Championships.
- Georgia Bulldogs football National Champions 1942, 1980, 2021, 2022 (Stadium Sign). Sanford Stadium: University of Georgia. 2023. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
{{cite sign}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - "2018 Information Guide" (PDF). ramblinwreck.com. Georgia Tech Athletics. pp. 149–150. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football National Champions 1917, 1928, 1952, 1990 (Stadium Sign). Bobby Dodd Stadium: Georgia Institute of Technology. 2004. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
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- LSU Tigers football National Champions 1958, 2003, 2007, 2019 (Stadium Sign). Tiger Stadium: Louisiana State University. 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
- Bianco, John (2014). 2014 Texas Football AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl Guide (PDF). University of Texas at Austin. p. 120. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
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- Florida State Seminoles football National Champions 1993, 1999, 2013 (Stadium Sign). Doak Campbell Stadium: Florida State University. 2017. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
- LaBella, Phil (2014). 2014 Lafayette Football Media Guide (PDF). Lafayette Athletics Communications. p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Ole Miss Rebels football National Champions '59, '60, '62 (Stadium Sign). Vaught–Hemingway Stadium: University of Mississippi. 2017. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
- Olsen, Lindsey; Sutton, Brad; Hudson, Herman, eds. (2022). 2022 SMU Football Media Guide (PDF). Southern Methodist University Athletics. pp. 1, 96, 113. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 17, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
National Championships: 3 (1935, 1981 & 1982)
- "2018 Media Guide" (PDF). 12thman.com. Texas A&M Athletics. pp. 45–47. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- Texas A&M Aggies football National Champions 1919, 1927, 1939 (Stadium Sign). Kyle Field: Texas A&M University. 2012. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
- "Auburn National Championships". Auburn University Athletics. 2019. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
2 - Football: 2010, 1957
- Auburn Tigers National Champions 1957 2010 (Stadium Sign). Jordan-Hare Stadium: Auburn University. 2018. Archived from the original on March 9, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
- "Feature Story: Chicago Football Eras". University of Chicago Campus and Student Life. October 8, 2012. Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- "Columbia Football 2021 Record Book" (PDF). Columbia University Athletics. pp. 240–241, 244. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 9, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
Columbia has claimed two mythical national championships: in 1875 and 1933. The 1875 team went 4-1-1 and was named national champions, while the 1933 squad defeated Stanford and was referred to as a national champ.
- "Championship History - Penn State University Athletics". Pennsylvania State Athletics. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
- Penn State Nittany Lions football honored seasons, including 1982 and 1986 national championships (Stadium Sign). Beaver Stadium: Pennsylvania State University. 2007. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- "Stanford Football History". Stanford University Department of Athletics. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Swegan, Scott; Lowery, Nate (2021). 2021 Stanford Football Media Guide (PDF). Stanford University Athletic Communications Department. p. 76. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
National Championships – 1926, 1940
The 1926 team was declared national champions by the Dickinson System, Helms Athletic Foundation, National Championship Foundation and Sagarin Ratings. Although Minnesota was declared national champions in the final 1940 Associated Press Poll, which was the best-known and most widely circulated poll of sportswriters and broadcasters in determining the national champion, Stanford was recognized as national champions by the Billingsley Report, Helms Athletic Foundation and Poling System. - Cohen, Mark (2014). 2014 TCU Football Fact Book. TCU Athletics Media Relations Office. pp. 2, 129. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- TCU Horned Frogs football National Champions 1935, 1938 (Stadium Sign). Amon G. Carter Stadium: Texas Christian University. 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
- Washington Huskies football National Champions 1960, 1991 (Stadium Sign). Husky Stadium: University of Washington. 2007. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- Parkinson, Kyle; Grigg, Oliver; Tafolla, Grace, eds. (2022). "1964 National Champions". Arkansas Razorbacks 2022 Media Guide (PDF). University of Arkansas and Learfield. pp. 4, 114. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
- Oslin, Reid (November 10, 2015). "The 1940 Team of Destiny". bceagles.com. Boston College Athletics. Retrieved June 1, 2022.
Boston College, Minnesota and Stanford were all crowned as "National Champions" by various media outlets – and each school has a case for the right to fly the 1940 championship banner. In the East and South, sentiment was strong in favor of the Eagles: the sports editor of the New York Herald Tribune wrote that the victory over Tennessee "entitled Boston College to be the undefeated champions of the United States." Twenty-five years after the Sugar Bowl game, in 1966, The Boston Globe sponsored a gala downtown honoring the declared 1940 National Champions. [...] But now – 75 years later – let's all raise our glasses and our voices to a National Championship pennant that can fly proudly and rightfully in Chestnut Hill.
- Harris, Otis (December 2, 1940). "As we were saying". The Shreveport Journal. Vol. 44, no. 285. Shreveport, Louisiana. p. 14. Retrieved March 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
[T]he game will come closer than any other that will be played to identifying the national champion.
- Digby, Fred (January 1, 1941). "The Game Today". Seventh Annual Sugar Bowl Classic Souvenir Program. pp. 27, 71. Retrieved March 5, 2023 – via Digital Public Library of America.
Each will be out to the limit in speed, stamina and spirit to capture the honors in this classic which could rightfully be heralded as for the national football championship.
- Written at New Orleans. "Boston College homebound after joyous celebration in New Orleans following Sugar Bowl win". The Shreveport Times. Vol. LXVIII, no. 213. Shreveport, Louisiana. January 3, 1941. p. 10. Retrieved March 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
'The Eagles not only earned the national championship but they proved the greatest team ever to play in the Sugar Bowl,' said Fred Digby of the New Orleans Item.
- "Boston College Football 2021 Record Book" (PDF). Boston College Athletics Department. 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 5, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
1940 — An undefeated (11-0) season, capped by the Sugar Bowl championship and the claim of a national championship made this arguably the greatest season in Eagle football annals. [...] On Jan. 1, the Eagles would lay claim to the national championship with a 19-13 victory over Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl.
- "1984 National Championship". BYUCougars.com: The Official Site of Brigham Young Athletics. 2011. Archived from the original on April 10, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- BYU Cougars football 1984 National Champions (Stadium Sign). LaVell Edwards Stadium: Brigham Young University. 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- "Centre College to be inducted into Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame". January 1, 2014. Archived from the original on December 16, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
- "1990 National Champions". CUBuffs.com. Archived from the original on March 21, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
- Colorado Buffaloes football 1990 National Champions (Stadium Sign). Folsom Field: University of Colorado. 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- "Dartmouth — National Champions (Teams) — Football — 1925". Dartmouth College Athletics. September 27, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
- "Detroit Titans Football". University of Detroit Mercy Athletics. Archived from the original on April 29, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
The undefeated 1928 U-D squad was deemed a Co-national champion, along with Georgia Tech, by Parker [sic] Davis.
- "2015 Football Media Guide". University of Kentucky Athletics. August 2015. p. 100. Archived from the original on August 6, 2015. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
- "Terrapin Team Titles: University of Maryland National Championships". Maryland Athletics, University of Maryland. 2015. Archived from the original on October 10, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Maryland Terrapins football National Championships 1953 (Stadium Sign). Maryland Stadium: University of Maryland. 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- 2021 Navy Football Media Guide (PDF). Naval Academy Athletic Association. 2021. pp. 8–9. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
In today's modern era, three undefeated teams with nearly identical records would cause a stir among fans and pollsters alike. This was the case when Navy earned its lone national championship in 1926, as the Midshipmen shared the honor with Stanford and Alabama.
A 7-7 tie between Alabama and Stanford in the 1926 Rose Bowl gave the Cardinal a 10-0-1 mark, while the Crimson Tide and the Mids each had identical 9-0-1 records.
The [Army–Navy Game] tie gave the Midshipmen a share of the national championship, as a pair of polls (sic), Boand and Houlgate, named Navy the national champion. - "AFCA Recognizes Oklahoma State as 1945 National Champion". October 13, 2016. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- Oklahoma State 1945 National Champions (Stadium Sign). Boone Pickens Stadium: Oklahoma State University. 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- "National Championships". Rutgers University Athletics. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
- Edson, Sue Cornelius, ed. (2014). 2014 Syracuse University Football Media Guide (PDF). Syracuse University Athletic Communications Department. pp. 6, 107. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- Syracuse Orange football National Champions 1959 (Stadium Banner). Carrier Dome: Syracuse University. 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- "2018 Football Media Guide" (PDF). UCFKnights.com. UCF Athletics. p. 89. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 22, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
- UCF Knights 2017 National Champions (Stadium Sign). Spectrum Stadium: University of Central Florida. 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
- 2014 UCLA Football Media Guide (PDF). UCLA Sports Information Office. 2014. pp. 90, 108. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
- UCLA National Champions 1954 (Stadium Sign). Rose Bowl press box: University of California, Los Angeles. September 1, 2008. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
- This table uses the same sources as those listed in the Claims by school table above.
- Koger, Jim (1970). "The history of the National Intercollegiate Football Championship ... 1900–1969". National Champions. Columbus, Georgia: Atlantic Publishing Company.
1903: Michigan, Minnesota, Princeton | 1913: Chicago, Harvard, Notre Dame
- "Yale's was the best football eleven". Harrisburg Star-Independent. December 31, 1904. p. 4. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- Libby, Bill (1975). Champions of College Football. Hawthorne Books, Inc. pp. 11–14. ISBN 0-8015-1196-8.
- "World Almanac Selections". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
Data created by: World Almanac
- "Football, Intercollegiate Season, 1914.". The World Almanac (1915). 1915. p. 865.
- "Alexander Weyand Selections". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
Data created by: Alexander M. Weyand — Data obtained from: "The Real National Champions"
- Weyand, Alexander M. (1926). American Football, Its History and Development. New York: D. Appleton and Company. p. 278.
Harvard and the Army Powerful, 1914 | Although the Army was the only one of the larger teams to win all games, the majority of the critics favored Harvard for the championship.
(Note: The author, Alexander Weyand, was an All-American player on the Army team in 1914.) - "SR 8715 — Honoring the 99th Anniversary of the National Champion 1915 Washington State College Football Team". Resolution of March 7, 2014. Washington State Senate.
- Weyand, Alexander M. (1926). American Football, Its History and Development. New York: D. Appleton and Company. p. 321.
1917 The famous 'Golden Tornado' of Georgia 'Tech.' coached by John W. Heisman (Pennsylvania) gained national recognition through the overwhelming defeat of Pennsylvania, and was entitled to rank with Pittsburgh as the best in the nation.
- Weyand, Alexander M. (1926). American Football, Its History and Development. New York: D. Appleton and Company. p. 381.
Undoubtedly the most spectacular team was Notre Dame, ranked by some critics as the strongest team in the country at the close of the season.
- Wood, Frank E. (December 8, 1931). "Tulane Is National Champion, Wood Says". Wisconsin State Journal. Central Press. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
Tulane University, the pride of the south, is gridiron champion of the United States, the national football standings show.
- Boyd, John Kent (1931). Jerry Dalrymple and His Tulane 1931 Green Wave National Champions. Snider Publishing Agency.
- Levandusky, J. F. (January 11, 1935). "Here's a little incident that happened after the Rose Bowl game". Waukegan News-Sun. Waukegan, Illinois. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
Last year Stanford was [Houlgate's] choice and the presentation of the trophy was scheduled to take place after the Alabama–Stanford battle.
- "Massey Ratings (1930–1998)". MasseyRatings.com. Archived from the original on March 14, 2016. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
- Michelson, Paul (November 30, 1936). Written at New York. "Gridiron Hits Dizziest Year; Bearcats Win Title". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, AZ. Associated Press. p. 11. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
- Written at New York. "Mathematically St. Vincent Champion". The Indiana Gazette. Indiana, PA. Associated Press. December 1, 1936. p. 6. Retrieved July 1, 2023.
the St. Vincent College Bearcats of Latrobe, Pa., are the undisputed national champions: By arithmetic
- "Houlgate Lists Tulane First". Chattanooga Daily Times. December 17, 1939. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
Final ratings: 1. Tulane, B, 36
- Baker, Dr. L. H. (1945). "The Nation's Leading Teams, 1869–1944 | College and Service Teams' 1944 Ratings and Ranks (Compiled by Dr. L. H. Baker)". Football: Facts & Figures. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. pp. 644–645.
No. 1 Randolph Field 958, No. 2 Army 951 — The ratings listed here have been computed by a method devised by the author. It consists of a combination of a modification of the Dickinson method plus one used by the author for several years. This combination has proved highly accurate.
- "Washington Touchdown Club Selections". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- "DC Touchdown Club Award Winners". DC Touchdown Club. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- "2010 Foundation for the Analysis of Competitions and Tournaments Selections ("FACT")". Archived from the original on September 30, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
1 Auburn — 72.49 — Co-Champion* | 2 Oregon — 71.42 — Co-Champion* | *David Rothman wrote: "Teams within 1.8 points of the leader automatically share FACT's title. Any other teams within 3.0 points of the leader share at my discretion."
- "2014 Foundation for the Analysis of Competitions and Tournaments Selections ("FACT")". Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
1 Ohio State — 81.81 — FACT Cochampion* | 2 Oregon — 80.67 — FACT Cochampion* | 3 Alabama – 79.45 – FACT Cochampion* | 4 TCU – 79.35 – FACT Cochampion* | *David Rothman wrote: "Teams within 1.8 points of the leader automatically share FACT's title. Any other teams within 3.0 points of the leader share at my discretion."
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