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]

National championships
NCAA Division I FBS

Current season, competition or edition: 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season
Sport	American football
Founded	1869; 154 years ago (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

1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1990 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

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 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
	Bonniwell (1924–1930) Rissman (1926–1930) Erskine (1929–1931) Rockne (1931–1940) Toledo (1934–1936) Williams (1941–1947) O'Donnell (1948–1956) Grantland Rice (1954–2013) AP (since 1957) MacArthur (since 1959) Jones (1962–1969) Coaches' (since 1986) Bowl Alliance (1995–1997) College Football Playoff (since 2014)

 

The Sun was among the first to publish a year-end college football ranking, in 1901

The concept of a national championship in college football dates to the early years of the sport in the late 19th century,^[9] and the earliest contemporaneous polls can be traced to Caspar Whitney, Charles Patterson, and The Sun in 1901.^[10] Therefore, the concept of polls and national champions predated mathematical ranking systems, but it was Frank Dickinson's math system that was one of the first to be widely popularized. His system named 10–0 Stanford the national champion of 1926, prior to their tie with Alabama in the Rose Bowl. A curious Knute Rockne, then coach of Notre Dame, had Dickinson backdate two seasons, which produced Notre Dame as the 1924 national champion and Dartmouth in 1925.^[11]

A number of other mathematical systems were born in the 1920s and 1930s and were the only organized methods selecting national champions until 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.^[11] 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" championship occurred in 1954, when the writers selected Ohio State and the coaches chose UCLA.^[11] The two polls also disagreed in 1957, 1965, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1991, 1997, and 2003.

Though some of the math systems selected champions after the bowl games, both of the major polls released their rankings after the end of the regular season until the AP polled writers after the bowls in 1965, resulting in what was perceived at the time as a better championship selection (Alabama) than UPI's (Michigan State).^[11] After 1965, the AP again voted before the bowls for two years, before permanently returning to a post-bowl vote in 1968. The coaches did not conduct a vote after the bowls until 1974, in the wake of awarding their 1973 championship to Alabama, who lost to the AP champion, undefeated Notre Dame, in the Sugar Bowl.^[11] The AP and Coaches polls remain the major rankings to this day.

From the 1930s to the advent of the College Football Playoff, each top team played a single postseason bowl game per season. The process of selecting a national champion during this period was complicated by the fact that the champions of major conferences were tied to specific bowls (for example, the Big 8 champion was tied to the Orange Bowl), and the top two teams in the nation often played in different bowls. A few bowls over the years featured a #1 vs. #2 matchup; one example was the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, played January 2 following the 1986 season.

Two attempts to annually crown a champion on the field were the Bowl Coalition (1992–1994) and Bowl Alliance (1995–1997). However, their effort to host a national championship was hampered by the lack of participation of the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions, who had a contractual obligation to play in the Rose Bowl.^[12]

The Bowl Championship Series, famous for its use of math, was the successor of the Coalition and Alliance.^[13] Besides the many adjustments it underwent during its tenure, including a large overhaul following the 2004 season that included the replacement of the AP Poll with the Harris poll, the BCS remained a mixture of math systems and human polls since its inception in 1998, with the goal of matching the best two teams in the nation in a national championship bowl game which rotated yearly between the Sugar, Fiesta, Rose, and Orange Bowls from 1998 to 2005, and later a standalone game titled the BCS National Championship Game (2006 to 2013).^[11] The winner of the BCS Championship Game was awarded the national championship of the Coaches Poll thus winning the AFCA National Championship Trophy. The BCS winner also received the MacArthur Bowl from the National Football Foundation.^[14] Neither the AP Poll, nor other current selectors, had contractual obligations to select the BCS champion as their national champion.^[15] The BCS resulted in a number of controversies, most notably after the 2003 season, when the BCS championship game did not include eventual AP champion USC, the only time the two championships have diverged since the advent of the BCS. After many seasons of controversy, the BCS was replaced with the College Football Playoff, a Plus-One system aimed at reducing the controversy involved in which teams get to play in a championship game through use of a tournament.

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, 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

The mathematical system is the oldest systematic selector of college football national champions. Many of the math selectors were created during the "championship rush"^{[citation needed]} of the 1920s and 1930s, beginning with Frank Dickinson's system, or during the dawn of the computer age in the 1990s. Selectors are listed below with years selected retroactively in italics.

Selector	Name	Seasons
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
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, 1925^[17]–1940
DuS	Dunkel System	1929–2019
ERS	Eck Ratings System	1987–2005
HS	Houlgate System	1885–1926, 1927–1958^[18]
L	Litkenhous Ratings	1934–1976^[19]^[20]^[21], 1978, 1981–1984
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, 1935–1955, 1957–1984
R(FACT)	Rothman (FACT)	1968–c.1970,^[22] c.1971–2006
SR	Sagarin Ratings	1919–1977, 1978–present
W	Wolfe	2001–present ^[n1 3]
WS	Williamson System	1932–1963

Notes

1. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book shows Anderson & Hester listed as "Seattle Times."
2. The Billingsley Report also provides an alternate selection that uses margin-of-victory in its calculation. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book notes both selections in years where they disagree.^{[16]: 112–119}
3. 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.^[23]

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.^{[16]: 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.

Selector	Name	Seasons
AP	Associated Press	1936–present
Coaches   BRC   UP   UPI   USAT/CNN   USAT/ESPN   USAT   USAT/AMWAY	American Football Coaches Association   AFCA Blue Ribbon Commission   United Press   United Press International   USA Today/CNN   USA Today/ESPN   USA Today   USA Today/Amway	1950–present, 1945   1922–1949^[n2 1]   1950–1957   1958–1990^[n2 2]   1991–1996^[n2 2]^[n2 3]   1997–2004   2005–2013^[n2 2]   2014–present
CFRA	College Football Researchers Association	1919–1981, 1982–1992, 2009–present
FN	Football News	1958–2002
FWAA	Football Writers Association of America	1954–2013 ^[n2 4]
FWAA/NFF	FWAA-NFF Grantland Rice Super 16	2014–present ^[n2 4]
HICFP	Harris Interactive	2005–2013 ^[n2 5]
HAF	Helms Athletic Foundation	1883–1940, 1941–1982
INS	International News Service	1952–1957
NCF	National Championship Foundation	1869–1979, 1980–2000
NFF   NFF   UPI/NFF   USAT/NFF   NFF	National Football Foundation   NFF   United Press International/NFF   USA Today/NFF   NFF	1959–2013   1959–1990   1991–1992^[n2 6]   1993–1996^[n2 7]   1997–2013^[n2 4]
SN	Sporting News	1975–2006
UPI	United Press International	1993–1995 ^[n2 8]
USAT	USA Today	1982 ^[n2 3]
USAT/CNN	USA Today/CNN	1983–1990 ^[n2 3]

Notes

1. At the request of several schools, the AFCA established a "Blue Ribbon Commission" in 2016 to begin retroactively selecting Coaches' Trophy winners from 1922 through 1949.^[24] Oklahoma State was the only team to apply for any of the 28 years considered (1945).^[25] As yet, there are no selections for years other than 1945.
2. Served as the Coaches Poll during the designated years, but also conducted their own poll at different times
3. USA Today conducted its own poll of college football sportswriters in 1982, then joined with CNN to do their own joint poll until they took over the Coaches Poll starting with the 1991 season.
4. 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.^{[16]: 113–114}
5. 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]
6. UPI conducted the Coaches Poll through the 1990 season, which was subsequently taken over by CNN/USA Today. UPI then conducted a poll of National Football Foundation members in 1991 and 1992, the winner of which was designated by the NFF as its national champion and received the MacArthur Bowl.
7. USA Today took over, from the UPI, the poll of the National Football Foundation's members in 1993, and its winner was designated by the NFF as its national champion and received the MacArthur Bowl. The poll was conducted by USA Today through the 1996 season, although national championship selections in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records do not distinguish the NFF from the USAT/NFF poll in 1995 and 1996. Not to be confused with the USA Today/CNN Coaches Poll, which USA Today conducted separately.
8. UPI conducted its own poll from 1993 to 1995, after the National Football Foundation Poll was taken over by USA Today.

Research

College football historian Parke H. Davis is the only selector considered by the NCAA to have primarily used research in his selections.^[16]: 117 Davis published his work in the 1934 edition of Spalding's Foot Ball Guide,^[26] 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".^[26] 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.^[27]

Selector	Name	Seasons	Trophy
PD	Parke H. Davis	1869–1932, 1933	–

Hybrid

Main article: Bowl Championship Series

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

Main article: College Football 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.^[28] 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

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.^[10] The last retroactive selection in the list is Clyde Berryman's choice of Notre Dame for 1989. 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 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.^[29]

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]
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		NCF, PD
1878	Princeton	6–0		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		HAF, NCF, PD
1885	Princeton	9–0		BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD
1886	Princeton	7–0–1		BR, PD
	Yale	9–0–1		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	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, PD^a^[26]
	Michigan	11–0	Fielding H. Yost	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	NCF
	Princeton	11–0	Art Hillebrand	BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD
1904	Michigan	10–0	Fielding H. Yost	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
	Yale	9–0–1	Foster Rockwell	BR, CW, PD
1907	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	HAF, HS, NCF, PD
1909	Yale	10–0	Howard Jones	BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD
1910	Harvard	8–0–1	Percy Haughton	BR, HAF, HS, NCF
	Pittsburgh	9–0	Joseph H. Thompson	NCF
	None	–	–	PD^[26]
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
1912	Harvard	9–0	Percy Haughton	BR, HAF, HS, NCF, PD
	Penn State	8–0	Bill Hollenback	NCF
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
	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, 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,^[17] 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	Alabama	10–0	Frank Thomas	DuS, HS, PS, WS, B(QPRS)
	Minnesota	8–0	Bernie Bierman	BR, BS, CFRA, DiS, HAF, L, NCF, SR
1935	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	WS^o^[30]
1936	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, WS^p^[31]
	Pittsburgh	8–1–1	Jock Sutherland	BS, CFRA, HS
1937	California	10–0–1	Stub Allison	DuS, HAF, WS^q^[32]
	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, HAF, NCF, WS^r^[33]
	Tennessee	11–0	Robert Neyland	B(QPRS), BR, BS, CFRA, DuS, HS, L, PS, SR, WS^r^[33]
1939	Cornell	8–0	Carl Snavely	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), BS, CFRA, DeS, DiS, HS, L, NCF, SR
	Stanford	10–0	Clark Shaughnessy	BR, HAF, PS, WS^s^[34]
	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, 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, BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR, WS
	Ohio State	9–0	Carroll Widdoes	NCF, SR
1945	Alabama	10–0	Frank Thomas	NCF
	Army	9–0	Earl Blaik	AP, B(QPRS), BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, DuS, HAF, HS, L, NCF, PS, SR, WS
	Ohio State	7–2	Carroll Widdoes	BR
	Oklahoma A&M	9–0	Jim Lookabaugh	BRC
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), 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	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,^[18] NCF, SR
1951	Georgia Tech	11–0–1	Bobby Dodd	B(QPRS), BS, HS^[18]
	Illinois	9–0–1	Ray Eliot	BS
	Maryland	10–0	Jim Tatum	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,^[18] INS, PS, SR
	Michigan State	9–0	Biggie Munn	AP, 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,^[18] 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,^[18] INS, NCF, PS, SR, WS
	UCLA	9–0	Henry Sanders	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,^[18] INS, L, NCF, PS, SR, UP, WS
1956	Georgia Tech	10–1	Bobby Dodd	B(QPRS), HS,^[18] SR
	Iowa	9–1	Forest Evashevski	CFRA
	Oklahoma	10–0	Bud Wilkinson	AP, BR, BS, DeS, DuS, FWAA, HAF, INS, L, NCF, SR, UP, WS
	Tennessee	10–1	Bowden Wyatt	SR
1957	Auburn	10–0	Ralph Jordan	AP, BR, CFRA, HAF, HS,^[18] NCF, PS, SR, WS
	Michigan State	8–1	Duffy Daugherty	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,^[18] L, NCF, PS, SR, UPI, WS
1959	Ole Miss	10–1	Johnny Vaught	B(QPRS), DuS, SR
	Syracuse	11–0	Ben Schwartzwalder	AP, BR, BS, CFRA, DeS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, NCF, NFF, PS, SR, UPI, WS
1960	Iowa	8–1	Forest Evashevski	B(QPRS), 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	11–0^t	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	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	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, CFRA, FWAA, NCF
	Michigan State	10–1	Duffy Daugherty	B(QPRS), BR, DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, HAF, L, NFF, PS, SR, UPI
1966	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	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	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	Alabama	11–1	Paul "Bear" Bryant	B(QPRS), L,^[19] 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	CFRA, DeS, DuS, SR
1974	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	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,^[20] 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^[21]
	Pittsburgh	12–0	Johnny Majors	AP, BR, 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), R(FACT), SR
1978	Alabama	11–1	Paul "Bear" Bryant	AP, CFRA, FWAA, HAF, NCF, NFF, R(FACT)
	Oklahoma	11–1	Barry Switzer	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	DuS, MGR
	Pittsburgh	11–1	Jackie Sherrill	CFRA, DeS, NYT, R(FACT), SR
1981	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	Nebraska	12–1	Tom Osborne	B(QPRS), L^[35]
	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	Auburn	11–1	Pat Dye	BR, CFRA, NYT, R(FACT), SR
	Miami (FL)	11–1	Howard Schnellenberger	AP, 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	DeS, DuS, MGR, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR
	Nebraska	10–2	Tom Osborne	L
	Washington	11–1	Don James	B(QPRS), FN, NCF
1985	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	Miami (FL)	11–1	Jimmy Johnson	R(FACT)
	Oklahoma	11–1	Barry Switzer	B(QPRS), CFRA, DeS, DuS, NYT, SR
	Penn State	12–0	Joe Paterno	AP, BR, FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, NFF, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN
1987	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	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	Miami (FL)	11–1	Dennis Erickson	AP, BR, 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	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	ERS, NYT, R(FACT), SR
	Washington	10–2	Don James	R(FACT)
1991	Miami (FL)	12–0	Dennis Erickson	AP, BR, CFRA, ERS, NCF, NYT, SN, SR
	Washington	12–0	Don James	B(QPRS), DeS, DuS, FN, FWAA, MGR, NCF, R(FACT), SR, UPI/NFF, USAT/CNN
1992	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	Auburn	11–0	Terry Bowden	NCF
	Florida State	12–1	Bobby Bowden	AP, B(QPRS), BR, CCR,^[36] 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	Florida State	10–1–1	Bobby Bowden	DuS
	Nebraska	13–0	Tom Osborne	AP, AS, B(QPRS), BR, FN, FWAA, NCF, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN, USAT/NFF
	Penn State	12–0	Joe Paterno	CCR,^[37] DeS, ERS, MGR, NCF, NYT, R(FACT), SR
1995	Nebraska	12–0	Tom Osborne	AP, AS, B(QPRS), BR, CCR,^[38] DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR,^[39] MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, UPI, USAT/CNN
1996	Florida	12–1	Steve Spurrier	AP, B(QPRS), BR, CCR,^[40] DeS, DuS, ERS, FN, FWAA, MCFR,^[39] MGR, NCF, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, USAT/CNN
	Florida State	11–1	Bobby Bowden	AS
1997	Michigan	12–0	Lloyd Carr	AP, BR, FN, FWAA, NCF, NFF, SN
	Nebraska	13–0	Tom Osborne	A&H, AS, B(QPRS), BR, CCR,^[41] DeS, DuS, ERS, MCFR,^[39] MGR, NCF, NYT, R(FACT), SR, USAT/ESPN
	Tennessee	11–2	Phillip Fulmer	CM^[42]
1998	Ohio State	11–1	John Cooper	SR^b
	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	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	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	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	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	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^[43] ERS, FWAA, MGR, NYT, SN
2004	USC^c	11–0^d	Pete Carroll	A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BR, CCR, CM, DeS, DuS, ERS, MCFR, MGR, NFF, NYT, R(FACT), SN, SR, W
	Vacated^c	–	–	BCS, FWAA, USAT/ESPN
2005	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	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^[44] R(FACT)^h^[45]
2007	LSU	12–2	Les Miles	AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CM, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W
	Missouri	12–2	Gary Pinkel	A&H^m^[46]
	USC	11–2	Pete Carroll	DuS^e^[47]
2008	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, W^i^[48]
2009	Alabama	14–0	Nick Saban	A&H, AP, B(QPRS), BCS, BR, CCR, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W
2010	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	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^[49] CCR^k^[50]
	Oklahoma State	12–1	Mike Gundy	CM
2012	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	Florida State	14–0	Jimbo Fisher	A&H, AP, BCS, BR, CCR, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA, MCFR, NFF, SR, USAT, W
2014	Ohio State	14–1	Urban Meyer	A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W
2015	Alabama	14–1	Nick Saban	A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W
2016	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	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	Clemson	15–0	Dabo Swinney	A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W
2019	LSU	15–0	Ed Orgeron	A&H, AP, BR, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, DuS, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W
2020	Alabama	13–0	Nick Saban	A&H, AP, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY
2021	Georgia	14–1	Kirby Smart	A&H, AP, CCR, CFP, CFRA, CM, FWAA/NFF, MCFR, SR, USAT/AMWAY, W
2022	Georgia	15–0	Kirby Smart	A&H,^[51] AP,^[52] CCR,^[53] CFP,^[54] CFRA,^[55] CM,^[56] FWAA/NFF,^[57] MCFR,^[58] SR,^[59] USAT/AMWAY,^[60] W^[61]

^aParke H. Davis' selection for 1901, as published in the 1934 edition of Spalding's Foot Ball Guide, was Harvard.^[26] 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 NCAA book about 1995.
^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.^[62]
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.^[63][64]
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.^[65]
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.^[47]
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.^[43]
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.^[44]
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.^[45]
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.^[48]
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.^[50]
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.^[46]
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.^[49]
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.^[30] The accompanying column written by Paul B. Williamson states "There was no undisputable national champion in 1935".^[30]
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.^[31]
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.^[32]
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.^[33]
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.^[34]
tKansas' 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.^[66]

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"^[29] 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).

School	Championships
Princeton	28
Yale	27
Alabama	23
Notre Dame	22
Michigan	17
Ohio State	17
Oklahoma	17
USC	17
Harvard	12
Nebraska	11
Pittsburgh	11
Miami (FL)	9
Minnesota	9
Texas	9
Florida State	8
Georgia	8
LSU	8
Tennessee	8
Georgia Tech	7
Penn State	7
Michigan State	6
Penn	6
Iowa	5
Army	5
Auburn	5
California	5
Cornell	5
Florida	5
Illinois	5
Washington	4
Clemson	3
Lafayette	3
Ole Miss	3
SMU	3
TCU	3
Texas A&M	3
Arizona State	2
Arkansas	2
Chicago	2
Maryland	2
Missouri	2
Oklahoma State	2
Stanford	2
Vanderbilt	2
BYU	1
Centre	1
Colgate	1
Colorado	1
Columbia	1
Dartmouth	1
Detroit	1
Duke	1
Kentucky	1
Navy	1
Purdue	1
Rutgers	1
Syracuse	1
UCF	1
UCLA	1
Utah	1
Washington & Jefferson	1
Wisconsin	1

Poll era (1936–present)

 

Map of U.S. college football champions, 1936-2019

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).^[67]

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 popularly considered^{[by whom?]} to be "consensus" when both of these polls are in agreement with their national championship selections, although other selectors exist and do make alternative selections.

AP Poll

Main article: AP Poll

See also: AP Trophy

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.^[68] 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.

 

AP National Championship Trophy

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.^[69][70] In 1938, the poll was extended for one week^[69] after Notre Dame, No. 1 in the scheduled "final" poll,^[71] subsequently lost to rival USC.^[69]

Following the 1947 season the AP held a special post-bowl poll^[72] 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.^[72][73] 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.^[73]

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.^[74][75] In the next season, 1966, neither of the top two teams were attending bowl games so no post-bowl poll was taken,^[76] 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,^[70] 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.^[77] Every subsequent season's final AP Poll would be released after the bowl games going forward. The UPI did not follow suit with the Coaches Poll until the 1974 season.^[78]

Until the 1968 NCAA University Division football season, the final AP Poll of the season was released following the end of the regular season, with the exception of the 1965 season. In 1964, Alabama was named the national champion in the final AP Poll following the completion of the regular season, but lost in the Orange Bowl to Texas, leaving Arkansas as the only undefeated, untied team after the Razorbacks defeated Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl Classic. In 1965, the AP's decision to wait to crown its champion paid off, as top-ranked Michigan State lost to UCLA in the Rose Bowl, number two Arkansas lost to LSU in the Cotton Bowl Classic, and fourth-ranked Alabama defeated third-ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, vaulting the Crimson Tide to the top of the AP's final poll. Michigan State was named national champion in the final United Press International poll of coaches, which did not conduct a post-bowl poll.

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.^[79] 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.^[79] 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.^[79]

Coaches Poll

Main article: Coaches Poll

See also: The Coaches' Trophy

 

The AFCA National Championship Trophy

News agency United Press (UP), the main competitor to the Associated Press, began conducting its own college football ratings during the 1950 season.^[80] 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.^[81]

The UP/UPI rankings were originally conducted by polling 35 of the nation's college football coaches.^[80] 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^[80]

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.^[82] That same year the AFCA voted to thereafter not rank any team currently under NCAA or conference-sanctioned probation.^[82][83]

Following the decline of UPI in the 1980s, the AFCA ended their 42-year relationship with the wire service in 1991.^[84][81] 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.^[85] 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
BYU	1	1984
Colorado	1	1990 (AP)
Georgia Tech	1	1990 (Coaches)
Maryland	1	1953
Oklahoma State	1	1945 (Coaches)‡
Syracuse	1	1959
TCU	1	1938
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.^[86]
‡ Retroactively awarded in 2016 by AFCA Blue Ribbon Panel.^[24] Oklahoma State was the only school to apply for the award.^[25]

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. This situation is referred to as a "split" national championship.^[87][88]

Season	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.^[89]

Historic occurrences

Throughout most of the 20th century, bowl game conference tie-ins made it impossible to automatically schedule the two top teams for a single post-season game.^[90]

Through luck and fortuitous scheduling, a "national championship game" was occasionally able to settle the matter on the field.^[90]

Season	National championship game	Winning team	Score	Losing team	Notes
1943	Notre Dame vs. Iowa Pre-Flight^[91]	No. 1 Notre Dame	14–13	No. 2 Iowa Pre-Flight
1944	Army–Navy Game^[92]	No. 1 Army	23–7	No. 2 Navy
1945	Game of the Century^[93]	No. 1 Army	32–13	No. 2 Navy
1962	Rose Bowl^[94]^[95]^[96]	No. 1 USC	42–37	No. 2 Wisconsin	^[98]
1963	Cotton Bowl^[99]^[95]^[96]	No. 1 Texas	28–6	No. 2 Navy	^[100]
1965	Orange Bowl^[101]^[102]	No. 4 Alabama	39–28	No. 3 Nebraska
1966	Game of the Century^[103]^[104]	No. 1 Notre Dame	10–10	No. 2 Michigan State	^[107]
1967	Game of the Century^[108]^[109]	No. 4 USC	21–20	No. 1 UCLA
1968	Rose Bowl^[110]^[96]	No. 1 Ohio State	27–16	No. 2 USC
1969	Game of the Century^[7]	No. 1 Texas	15–14	No. 2 Arkansas
1971	Game of the Century^[111]	No. 1 Nebraska	35–31	No. 2 Oklahoma	^[112]
	Orange Bowl^[113]	No. 1 Nebraska	38–6	No. 2 Alabama	^[114]
1972	Rose Bowl^[115]	No. 1 USC	42–17	No. 3 Ohio State
1973	Sugar Bowl^[116]	No. 3 Notre Dame	24–23	No. 1 Alabama	^[117]
1977	Cotton Bowl^[118]^[119]	No. 5 Notre Dame	38–10	No. 1 Texas
1978	Sugar Bowl^[120]	No. 2 Alabama	14–7	No. 1 Penn State
1981	Orange Bowl^[121]^[122]	No. 1 Clemson	22–15	No. 4 Nebraska
1982	Sugar Bowl^[123]	No. 2 Penn State	27–23	No. 1 Georgia
1983	Orange Bowl^[124]^[125]	No. 5 Miami (FL)	31–30	No. 1 Nebraska
1984	Orange Bowl^[126]^[127]	No. 4 Washington	28–17	No. 2 Oklahoma	^[128]
1985	Orange Bowl^[129]	No. 2 Oklahoma	25–10	No. 1 Penn State
1986	Fiesta Bowl^[90]	No. 2 Penn State	14–10	No. 1 Miami (FL)
1987	Orange Bowl^[90]	No. 2 Miami (FL)	20–14	No. 1 Oklahoma
1988	Fiesta Bowl^[130]	No. 1 Notre Dame	34–21	No. 3 West Virginia	^[131]

Bowl Coalition (1992–1994)

Main article: Bowl Coalition

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.^[89]

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)	^[132]

Bowl Alliance (1995–1997)

Main article: Bowl Alliance

In 1995 the Bowl Alliance replaced the Bowl Coalition.^[133] 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.^[134]

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.^[135] This occurred in 1997, when No. 1 Michigan won the Rose Bowl and retained their top ranking in the AP Poll.^[135] The Bowl Alliance National Championship Game^[135] 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	^[136]
1997	Orange Bowl	No. 2 Nebraska	42–17	No. 3 Tennessee	^[137]

Bowl Championship Series (1998–2013)

Main article: Bowl Championship Series

See also: BCS National Championship Game

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 BCS formula varied over the years, with the final version relying on a combination of the Coaches and Harris polls and an average of various computer rankings to determine relative team rankings.

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.^[14]

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.^[138][139]

College Football Playoff (2014–present)

Main article: College Football Playoff

See also: College Football Playoff National Championship

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. The winner of the final game is awarded the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy.

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

 

Tennessee's national championship claims, as posted in their Neyland Stadium

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][140]

In addition, because there is no one body overseeing national championships, no standardized requirements exist in order for a school to make a claim on a national championship, as any particular institution is free to make any declaration it deems to be fit.^[140] 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.^[6][8] Not all championships awarded by third party selectors, nor those listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records, are necessarily claimed by each school.^{[n 1]} Therefore, these claims represent how each individual school sees their own history on the subject of national championships. For the pre-poll era from 1901 through 1935, 41 major selections of teams from 20 schools have not been used to make national title claims.

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.^{[n 2]}

Claims by school

School	Claimed national championships	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	^[142]
Yale	27	1872, 1874, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1897, 1900, 1901^[n3 1], 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1909, 1927	^[143]^[144]
Alabama	18	1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1941, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020	^[145]
Michigan	11	1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997	^[146]^[147]
Notre Dame	11	1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988	^[148]^[149]
USC	11	1928, 1931, 1932, 1939, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978, 2003, 2004^[n3 2]	^[151]
Pittsburgh	9	1915, 1916, 1918, 1929, 1931, 1934^[n3 3], 1936, 1937, 1976	^[152]^[153]
Ohio State	8	1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002, 2014	^[154]^[155]
Harvard	7	1890, 1898, 1899, 1910, 1912, 1913, 1919	^[156]^[157]
Minnesota	7	1904, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, 1960	^[158]^[159]
Oklahoma	7	1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000	^[160]^[161]
Penn	7	1894, 1895, 1897, 1904, 1907^[n3 4], 1908, 1924	^[162]
Michigan State	6	1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1965, 1966	^[163]^[164]
Tennessee	6	1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998	^[165]^[166]^[167]
California	5	1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1937	^[168]
Cornell	5	1915, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1939	^[169]
Illinois	5	1914, 1919, 1923, 1927, 1951	^[170]^[171]
Iowa	5	1921, 1922, 1956, 1958, 1960	^[172]^[better source needed]
Miami	5	1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001	^[173]^[174]
Nebraska	5	1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997	^[175]^[176]
Georgia	4 ^[n3 5]	1942, 1980, 2021, 2022	^[178]^[180]^[181]
Georgia Tech	4	1917, 1928, 1952, 1990	^[182]^[183]
LSU	4	1958, 2003, 2007, 2019	^[184]^[185]
Texas	4	1963, 1969, 1970, 2005	^[186]^[187]
Army	3	1944, 1945, 1946	^[188]^[189]
Clemson	3	1981, 2016, 2018	^[190]^[191]
Florida	3	1996, 2006, 2008	^[192]^[193]
Florida State	3	1993, 1999, 2013	^[194]^[195]
Lafayette	3	1896, 1921, 1926	^[196]
Ole Miss	3	1959, 1960, 1962	^[197]^[198]
SMU	3	1935, 1981, 1982	^[199]
Texas A&M	3	1919, 1927, 1939	^[200]^[201]
Auburn	2 ^[n3 6]	1957, 2010	^[202]^[203]
Chicago	2	1905, 1913	^[204]
Columbia	2	1875, 1933^[n3 7]	^[205]
Penn State	2	1982, 1986	^[206]^[207]
Stanford	2	1926, 1940	^[208]^[209]
TCU	2	1935, 1938	^[210]^[211]
Washington	2	1960, 1991	^[212]^[213]
Arkansas	1	1964	^[214]
Boston College	1	1940^[n3 8]	^[215]^[216]
BYU	1	1984	^[217]^[218]
Centre	1	1919	^[219]
Colorado	1	1990	^[220]^[221]
Dartmouth	1	1925	^[222]
Detroit	1	1928	^[223]
Kentucky	1	1950	^[224]
Maryland	1	1953	^[225]^[226]
Navy	1	1926	^[227]
Oklahoma State	1	1945	^[228]^: [24]^[229]
Rutgers	1	1869	^[230]
Syracuse	1	1959	^[231]^[232]
UCF	1	2017	^[233]^[234]
UCLA	1	1954	^[235]

Notes

1. No major selectors chose Yale for 1901. The original source for Parke H. Davis' "National Champion Foot Ball Teams" states "1901 Harvard".^[26]
2. 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.^[138][150]
3. 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.
4. No major selectors chose Penn for 1907. Penn's football fact book states that the Billingsley Report named the 1907 team National Champions,^[162] but other sources show Billingsley naming Yale for 1907.
5. Georgia's website has multiple pages which list national championships by sport and only spells out four seasons for football (1942, 1980, 2021, and 2022).^{[177][178][179]} The Georgia football media guide contains a year-by-year results section in which six seasons (1927, 1942, 1946, 1968, 1980, 2021) have "National Champions" headers paired with selector callouts,^{[180]: 169–174} but also a "Championship History" page which places 1942, 1980, and 2021 into a "The Consensus National Champions" section and groups 1927, 1946, and 1968 together as "The other three..." without description as national champions beyond identification of those specific selectors.^[180]: 207
6. Auburn's website notes to five titles that appear in the NCAA Record Book, while not claiming three of them (1913, 1983, and 1993).
7. No major selectors chose Columbia for 1933. Columbia's media guide states that the team "was referred to as a national champ."^[205]
8. No major selectors chose Boston College for 1940.

Claims by year

Season	Claims	Claimants^[236]	Record
1869	2	Princeton	1–1
		Rutgers	1–1
1870	1	Princeton	1–0
1871	0	None
1872	2	Princeton	1–0
		Yale	1–0
1873	1	Princeton	2–0
1874	2	Princeton	2–0
		Yale	3–0
1875	2	Columbia	4–1–1
		Princeton	2–0
1876	1	Yale	3–0
1877	2	Princeton	2–0–1
		Yale	3–0–1
1878	1	Princeton	6–0
1879	2	Princeton	4–0–1
		Yale	3–0–2
1880	2	Princeton	4–0–1
		Yale	4–0–1
1881	2	Princeton	7–0–2
		Yale	5–0–1
1882	1	Yale	8–0
1883	1	Yale	9–0
1884	2	Princeton	9–0–1
		Yale	8–0–1
1885	1	Princeton	9–0
1886	2	Princeton	7–0–1
		Yale	9–0–1
1887	1	Yale	9–0
1888	1	Yale	13–0
1889	1	Princeton	10–0
1890	1	Harvard	11–0
1891	1	Yale	13–0
1892	1	Yale	13–0
1893	2	Princeton	11–0
		Yale	10–1
1894	3	Penn	12–0
		Princeton	8–2
		Yale	16–0
1895	2	Penn	14–0
		Yale	13–0–2
1896	2	Lafayette	11–0–1
		Princeton	10–0–1
1897	2	Penn	15–0
		Yale	9–0–2
1898	2	Harvard	11–0
		Princeton	11–0–1
1899	2	Harvard	10–0–1
		Princeton	12–1
1900	1	Yale	12–0
1901	2	Michigan	11–0
		Yale	11–1–1
1902	2	Michigan	11–0
		Yale	11–0–1
1903	2	Michigan	11–0–1
		Princeton	11–0
1904	3	Michigan	10–0
		Minnesota	13–0
		Penn	12–0
1905	2	Chicago	10–0
		Yale	10–0
1906	2	Princeton	9–0–1
		Yale	9–0–1
1907	2	Penn	11–1
		Yale	9–0–1
1908	1	Penn	11–0–1
1909	1	Yale	10–0
1910	1	Harvard	8–0–1
1911	1	Princeton	8–0–2
1912	1	Harvard	9–0
1913	2	Chicago	7–0
		Harvard	9–0
1914	1	Illinois	7–0
1915	2	Cornell	9–0
		Pittsburgh	8–0
1916	1	Pittsburgh	8–0
1917	1	Georgia Tech	9–0
1918	2	Michigan	5–0
		Pittsburgh	4–1
1919	4	Centre	9–0
		Harvard	9–0–1
		Illinois	6–1
		Texas A&M	10–0
1920	2	California	9–0
		Princeton	6–0–1
1921	4	California	9–0–1
		Cornell	8–0
		Iowa	7–0
		Lafayette	9–0
1922	4	California	9–0
		Cornell	8–0
		Iowa	7–0
		Princeton	8–0
1923	4	California	9–0–1
		Cornell	8–0
		Illinois	8–0
		Michigan	8–0
1924	2	Notre Dame	10–0
		Penn	9–1–1
1925	1	Dartmouth	8–0
1926	4	Alabama	9–0–1
		Lafayette	9–0
		Navy	9–0–1
		Stanford	10–0–1
1927	3	Illinois	7–0–1
		Texas A&M	8–0–1
		Yale	7–1
1928	3	Detroit	9–0
		Georgia Tech	10–0
		USC	9–0–1
1929	2	Notre Dame	9–0
		Pittsburgh	9–1
1930	2	Alabama	10–0
		Notre Dame	10–0
1931	2	Pittsburgh	8–1
		USC	10–1
1932	2	Michigan	8–0
		USC	10–0
1933	3	Columbia	8–1–1
		Michigan	7–0–1
		Princeton	9–0
1934	3	Alabama	10–0
		Pittsburgh	8–1
		Minnesota	8–0
1935	4	Minnesota	8–0
		Princeton	9–0
		SMU	12–1
		TCU	12–1
1936	2	Minnesota	7–1
		Pittsburgh	8–1–1
1937	2	California	10–0–1
		Pittsburgh	9–0–1
1938	2	TCU	11–0
		Tennessee	11–0
1939	3	Cornell	8–0
		Texas A&M	11–0
		USC	8–0–2
1940	4	Boston College	11–0
		Minnesota	8–0
		Stanford	10–0
		Tennessee	10–1
1941	2	Alabama	9–2
		Minnesota	8–0
1942	2	Georgia	11–1
		Ohio State	9–1
1943	1	Notre Dame	9–1
1944	1	Army	9–0
1945	2	Army	9–0
		Oklahoma A&M	9–0
1946	2	Army	9–0–1
		Notre Dame	8–0–1
1947	2	Michigan	10–0
		Notre Dame	9–0
1948	1	Michigan	9–0
1949	1	Notre Dame	10–0
1950	4	Kentucky	11–1
		Oklahoma	10–1
		Princeton	9–0
		Tennessee	11–1
1951	3	Illinois	9–0–1
		Michigan State	9–0
		Tennessee	10–1
1952	2	Georgia Tech	12–0
		Michigan State	9–0
1953	1	Maryland	10–1
1954	2	Ohio State	10–0
		UCLA	9–0
1955	2	Michigan State	9–1
		Oklahoma	11–0
1956	2	Iowa	9–1
		Oklahoma	10–0
1957	3	Auburn	10–0
		Michigan State	8–1
		Ohio State	9–1
1958	2	Iowa	8–1–1
		LSU	11–0
1959	2	Ole Miss	10–1
		Syracuse	11–0
1960	4	Iowa	8–1
		Minnesota	8–2
		Ole Miss	10–0–1
		Washington	10–1
1961	2	Alabama	11–0
		Ohio State	8–0–1
1962	2	Ole Miss	10–0
		USC	11–0
1963	1	Texas	11–0
1964	2	Alabama	10–1
		Arkansas	11–0
1965	2	Alabama	9–1–1
		Michigan State	10–1
1966	2	Michigan State	9–0–1
		Notre Dame	9–0–1
1967	2	USC	10–1
		Tennessee	9–2
1968	1	Ohio State	10–0
1969	1	Texas	11–0
1970	3	Nebraska	11–0–1
		Ohio State	9–1
		Texas	10–1
1971	1	Nebraska	13–0
1972	1	USC	12–0
1973	2	Alabama	11–1
		Notre Dame	11–0
1974	2	Oklahoma	11–0
		USC	10–1–1
1975	1	Oklahoma	11–1
1976	1	Pittsburgh	12–0
1977	1	Notre Dame	11–1
1978	2	Alabama	11–1
		USC	12–1
1979	1	Alabama	12–0
1980	1	Georgia	12–0
1981	2	Clemson	12–0
		SMU	10–1
1982	2	Penn State	11–1
		SMU	11–0–1
1983	1	Miami	11–1
1984	1	BYU	13–0
1985	1	Oklahoma	11–1
1986	1	Penn State	12–0
1987	1	Miami	12–0
1988	1	Notre Dame	12–0
1989	1	Miami	11–1
1990	2	Colorado	11–1–1
		Georgia Tech	11–0–1
1991	2	Miami	12–0
		Washington	12–0
1992	1	Alabama	13–0
1993	1	Florida State	12–1
1994	1	Nebraska	13–0
1995	1	Nebraska	12–0
1996	1	Florida	12–1
1997	2	Michigan	12–0
		Nebraska	13–0
1998	1	Tennessee	13–0
1999	1	Florida State	12–0
2000	1	Oklahoma	13–0
2001	1	Miami	12–0
2002	1	Ohio State	14–0
2003	2	LSU	13–1
		USC	12–1
2004	1	USC	13–0
2005	1	Texas	13–0
2006	1	Florida	13–1
2007	1	LSU	12–2
2008	1	Florida	13–1
2009	1	Alabama	14–0
2010	1	Auburn	14–0
2011	1	Alabama	12–1
2012	1	Alabama	13–1
2013	1	Florida State	14–0
2014	1	Ohio State	14–1
2015	1	Alabama	14–1
2016	1	Clemson	14–1
2017	2	Alabama	13–1
		UCF	13–0
2018	1	Clemson	15–0
2019	1	LSU	15–0
2020	1	Alabama	13–0
2021	1	Georgia	14–1
2022	1	Georgia	15–0

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.

Season	Champion(s)	Record	Coach	Selector(s)
1904	Yale	10–1	Charles D. Rafferty	Caspar Whitney^[237]
1910	Washington	6–0	Gil Dobie	Bill Libby (BL)^[238]
1911	Carlisle	11–1	Glenn "Pop" Warner	BL
1913	Notre Dame	7–0	Jesse Harper	BL
1914	Harvard	7–0–2	Percy Haughton	World Almanac,^[239]^[240] Alexander Weyand (AW)^[241]^[242]
1915	Washington State	7–0	William "Lone Star" Dietz	Bruce McLellan,^[243] Washington State Senate^[244]
1917	Pittsburgh	10–0	Glenn "Pop" Warner	AW^[245]
1921	Notre Dame	10–1	Knute Rockne	AW^[246]
1929	Tulane	9–0	Bernie Bierman	BL
1931	Tennessee	9–0–1	Robert Neyland	BL
	Tulane	11–1	Bernie Bierman	John Kent Boyd^[247]
1934	Pittsburgh	8–1	Jock Sutherland	Spalding's Foot Ball Guide^[248] (editor Walter R. Okeson)
1935	Stanford	8–1	Tiny Thornhill	Kenneth Massey (MCFR)^[249]
1936	Northwestern	7–1	Pappy Waldorf	BL
	Santa Clara	8–1	Buck Shaw	MCFR
1941	Duquesne	8–0	Aldo Donelli/Steve Sinko	MCFR
1942	Georgia Navy Pre-Flight	7–1–1	Raymond Wolf	MCFR
1943	March Field	9–1	Paul J. Schissler	MCFR
1944	Randolph Field	12–0	Frank Tritico	Dr. L. H. Baker^[250]
1947	Texas	10–1	Blair Cherry	MCFR
1953	Michigan State	9–1	Biggie Munn	MCFR
1955	Ole Miss	10–1	Johnny Vaught	MCFR
1963	Navy	9–2	Wayne Hardin	Washington Touchdown Club^[251]^[252]
1974	Alabama	11–1	Paul "Bear" Bryant	Washington Touchdown Club^[252]
1978	Penn State	11–1	Joe Paterno	Washington Touchdown Club^[252]
2010	Oregon (co-champion)	12–1	Chip Kelly	R(FACT)^[253]
2014	Alabama (co-champion)	12–2	Nick Saban	R(FACT)^[254]
	Oregon (co-champion)	12–1	Chip Kelly
	TCU (co-champion)	12–1	Gary Patterson

• Teams listed in italics indicate retroactively-applied championships.

See also

•  College football portal

• List of NCAA college football rankings
• List of NCAA Division I FBS football programs

Notes

1. 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,^[141] Vanderbilt, and Washington & Jefferson.
2. All National Championships listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records were checked for claims by the applicable schools. Although every care was taken to be thorough and accurate, it can not be assumed that there are no missing or misrepresented claims due to potential limitations of the available source material for any one institution.

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70. 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.
71. 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.
72. 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.
73. 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.
74. 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.
75. 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.
76. 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.
77. "Poll Matches Rose Foes – 'One-Two' Fracas Set". Moberly Monitor–Index. Moberly, Missouri. Associated Press. December 3, 1968. p. 8. Retrieved August 25, 2022. 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.
78. Whittingham, Richard (2001). Rites of Autumn: The Story of College Football. Simon and Schuster. p. 46. ISBN 9780743222198. from the original on April 26, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
79. Schlabach, Mark (December 22, 2004). "AP Opts Out Of Formula For BCS". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
80. 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.
81. "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.
82. "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.
83. . American Football Coaches Association. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
84. 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.
85. "FBS coaches' poll will continue every week despite BCS going away". Associated Press. January 13, 2013. from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
86. "BCS strips Southern California of 2004 national championship". USA Today. June 6, 2011. from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
87. 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.
88. "Split National Championships | College Poll Archive".
89. Fachet, Robert (January 24, 1992). "Bowl Deal Set with Coalition". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 10, 2022. ...under an agreement hammered out yesterday by the College Football Bowl Coalition that also provides enhanced opportunity for a national championship game.
90. Barbati, Carl; Cannizzaro, Mark (January 3, 1988). "Should there be college Super Bowl?". The Courier–News. Bridgewater, New Jersey. Retrieved October 24, 2022. Only luck ensures one of the many current bowl games gets the No. 1 and No. 2 teams to play each other.
91. 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."
92. "Army Defeats Navy, 23 To 7, Before 70,000 In Stadium". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. December 3, 1944. p. 1. Retrieved April 3, 2022 – via Newspapers.com  .
93. 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."
94. Los Angeles Times "The national championship was at stake - USC was ranked No. 1 and Wisconsin No. 2"
95. "Bowl Games for the National Championship"
96. Jenkins, Dan (December 23, 1968), "Bouquets of Roses for No. 1", Sports Illustrated, Chicago, IL, vol. 29, no. 26, 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.
97. Jenkins, Dan (September 11, 1967). "This Year The Fight Will Be In The Open". Sports Illustrated. Chicago: Time Inc. 27 (11): 30–33. Retrieved February 8, 2016. On this and the following pages is a complete list of college football's mythical champions as selected by every recognized authority since 1924 [sic]. The selectors represented are the Parke H. Davis Selections (1924-1935) [sic], the Dickinson System (1924-1940), The Football Annual (1924-1941), The Football Thesaurus (1927-1958), the Helms Athletic Foundation (1924-1966), the Dunkel System (1929-1966), the Litkenhous System (1934-1966), the Williamson System (1932-1963), Associated Press (1936-1966), United Press International (1950-1966), the Football Writers' Association (1954-1966) and the National Football Hall of Fame (1959-1966).
98. After the Rose Bowl, USC received the FWAA's Grantland Rice national championship trophy.^[97]
99. 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."
100. After the Cotton Bowl, Texas received the FWAA's Grantland Rice national championship trophy.^[97]
101. Smothers, Jimmy (January 2, 1966). "Bama shoots for No. 1 spot". The Gadsden Times. p. 21. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
102. Green, Bob (January 4, 1966). "Tide keeps AP title trophy". The Tuscaloosa News. Associated Press. p. 7. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
103. "Remember that time Notre Dame beat Michigan State, 10-10?". September 16, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
104. "Upside-Down Game: 1996 Notre Dame-Michigan State".
105. "Polls give No. 1 nod to Notre Dame". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. December 6, 1967. p. 3B.
106. Meyers, Jeff (November 29, 1966). "Notre Dame is No. 1 in final UPI balloting". Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). UPI. p. 26.
107. 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.^[105][106]
108. "The Great One Confronts O.j."
109. "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.
110. 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.
111. Madden, Bill (December 7, 1971). "Coaches agree". Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). UPI. p. 32.
112. The final Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, in early December.
113. Reed, Delbert (January 2, 1972). "Cornhuskers kill Crimson Tide dream, 38-6". Tuscaloosa News. (Alabama). p. 1B.
114. The final AP Poll was released after the bowl games in early January.
115. 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.
116. Nissenson, Herschel (December 31, 1973). "In Sugar Bowl Grid Title Decided Tonight". The Palladium–Item. Richmond, Indiana. Associated Press. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
117. No. 2 Oklahoma was on probation and was ineligible to play in a bowl game.
118. "Cotton Bowl should decide who's tops". Nashua Telegraph. (New Hampshire). UPI. December 31, 1977. p. 16.
119. Bock, Hal (January 3, 1978). "Devine feels Irish No. 1 after easy victory". Youngstown Vindicator. (Ohio). p. 16.
120. Parascenzo, Marino (January 2, 1979). "Penn State loses bid for national crown". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 15.
121. "Clemson locks up national title on 22-15 victory". Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). Associated Press. January 2, 1982. p. 10.
122. "Battle for the National Championship"
123. "Sugar Bowl foes eye No. 1 test". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). January 1, 1983. p. 15.
124. Smizik, Bob (January 3, 1983). "Miami claims No. 1 after beating Nebraska". Pittsburgh Press. p. D1.
125. "The Orange Bowl...for the National Championship"
126. 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).
127. 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.
128. No. 1 Brigham Young won the

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