The pursuit of greatness in college football is the ultimate prize for the players, coaches and programs looking to cement their legacies in the history books. Since the early days of college football in the late 1800s, programs across the nation have vied for the honor of being named national champions.
While the process of naming a champion has changed greatly over the years—from subjective polls to the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) to the College Football Playoff (CFP)—a certain number of programs have found a way to rise above the rest of the field.
Those programs dominated the landscape of college football with legendary coaches and talent, building a legacy of winning that became synonymous with the game itself.
These are the college football teams with the most national championships.
Full List of College Football Teams with the Most National Championships
The Powerhouses: Teams with the Most Consistent Success
Yale: Some teams on this list were probably expected, while others might have been a bit of a surprise. Yale football hasn’t been nationally relevant in quite some time, but the Bulldogs have a storied history that includes two of the first three Heisman Trophy winners and 18 NCAA-recognized national championships between the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Alabama: Bama has become synonymous with collegiate football excellence, particularly in the modern era. The Crimson Tide have won 16 championships, 13 of which came in the poll era. Alabama’s most impressive run saw the Crimson Tide win six championships in an 11-year span between 2006-2020 under Nick Saban.
Princeton: The NCAA officially recognizes 15 championships for Princeton, but the Tigers actually claim a whopping 28 of them. All of Princeton’s success came well before the Great Depression, but the Tigers’ run was undeniably impressive. Seven titles in 11 years is incredibly difficult to accomplish, regardless of the era.
Notre Dame: Notre Dame’s 13 championships are good for fourth-most in history. The Fighting Irish won at least one championship in all but one decade since the 1910s (the program missed out in the 1950s), which is a testament to Notre Dame’s staying power. From Knute Rockne to Frank Leahy to Lou Holtz, the Fighting Irish have been led by a plethora of legendary coaches.
Michigan: The Michigan Wolverines won four straight championships to kick off the 20th Century, then tacked on six more, with the most recent coming in 2023. The Wolverines claim 12 titles, but the NCAA does not recognize the 1932 and 1947 claims.
How National Championships Were Awarded Before the Playoff Era
Before the NCAA approved a four-team (and now a 12-team) playoff system, college football was in the BCS era. The BCS used a mix of polling and computer algorithms to determine the championship matchup.
This was a much improved system compared to the very subjective media polling that often resulted in multiple champions in the same season, but it wasn’t without its own controversies.
The BCS used the Coaches’ Poll, Harris Interactive Poll and six computer algorithms that weighed factors like record, strength of schedule and opponent performance to create a ranking.
Each year would bring new gripes about the system, but 2003 and 2004 were particularly rough.
In 2003, USC was ranked No. 1 in both the AP and Coaches’ Poll, but the Trojans missed out on the BCS title game due to a string of very unlikely events, highlighted by Kansas State upsetting then-No. 1 Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship.
Still, the Sooners made it into the BCS title game alongside the LSU Tigers. LSU defeated Oklahoma 21–14, but the Tigers didn’t win the national championship outright. Instead, the BCS delivered the very thing it was designed to eliminate: a split national championship. In the end, both USC and LSU were recognized as champions.
Just a year later the BCS was once again in trouble. A scenario played out that, frankly, the system didn’t know how to deal with. Multiple teams from power conferences finished undefeated. USC, Oklahoma and Auburn all finished as undefeated conference champions. Utah and Boise State also finished undefeated, but those programs were never considered to be contenders.
The BCS put USC and Oklahoma in the title game, leaving out SEC-champion Auburn altogether. The Trojans blew out the Sooners 55–19.
What is a Split National Championship?
While the BCS had its problems, it was a much cleaner system than what college football was using beforehand.
Before the BCS, champions were determined through some combination of selectors, polls and in some cases, retroactive designations. Before 1936, independent organizations (such as the Helms Athletic Foundation and the National Championship Foundation) used historical data to declare a champion after the season ended.
The AP became the first major ranking system for college football in 1936 and the AP Poll was the sole factor in determining a champion until the 1950s. However, this system was deeply flawed because it would announce the champion before bowl games were played. This led to plenty of instances where a highly ranked team in the AP Poll would be crowned champion, only to lose in a bowl game.
The Coaches’ Poll joined the fray in 1950, pairing with the AP Poll to select a champion. Both polls ranked teams each week and then crowned a champion at the end of the regular season. It took until the mid 1970s for both polls to finally announce a champion after bowl games were played.
But, if these polls disagreed, then it caused some chaos as multiple champions could be declared.
In 1990, both Colorado (AP) and Georgia Tech (Coaches) claimed national championships. A year later Miami (AP) and Washington (Coaches) split the vote again. In 1997 (the final year before the introduction of the BCS), Michigan (AP) and Nebraska (Coaches) were both recognized as champions.
What is a Claimed National Championship?
A claimed national championship is just that. A national championship that the program claims to have won but is not recognized by the NCAA.
In most cases, this happened pre-AP Poll. During this time, multiple selectors around the nation would make declarations about the best team in college football. If it was printed in a major newspaper or magazine, then most programs would just run with it.
The numbers can fluctuate as well, which doesn’t really make things any easier. For example, the NCAA recognizes 16 titles for Alabama. However, the school currently claims 18 titles (1934 and 1941).
But in the 1982 Alabama football media guide (which is given to media members covering the team as a sort of history book/encyclopedia of the program), the only pre-Bear Bryant championship listed is 1934.
However, according to the Birmingham News, a few years later the official media guides started recognizing titles from the 1925, 1926, 1930, 1934 and 1941 seasons.
This isn’t something unique to Alabama, either. Programs across the country did this to make their football team look as historically significant as possible. And before the AP Poll, it was exceptionally easy to sort of fudge the numbers.
Just one syndicated publication needed to list a different No. 1 team for a program to throw it in their history books.
This is why, despite what the individual programs might have to say about it, using the official NCAA recordbook is the most accurate way to go.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as College Football Teams With the Most National Championships.
