Over college football’s long history, there have been 30 definitive national championship games. Here is how we rank each performance.
College football only set up the mechanisms to guarantee that the top two teams would face one another in a national championship game over the past 25 years. And even then, determining which two teams are the best two has often been a matter of debate.
Every era has had its own methods by which we can say a team was the national champion. Leading up to the BCS era, it was always an inexact science and the top two teams in the AP poll rarely faced off against one another in a decisive showdown. The eight rare occasions that it did occur between the early 1960s and late 1980s were gems that offered fans a definitive answer at the end of the season.
The first attempts to rectify the uncertainty came in 1992, when the Bowl Coalition managed to pair #1 Miami against #2 Alabama in the 1993 Sugar Bowl. But without the Pac-10 and Big Ten in the mix, the Bowl Coalition and its successor Bowl Alliance only succeeded in pairing the top two teams against one another in three of their six combined seasons of existence.
Since the introduction of the Bowl Championship Series in the 1998-1999 season, there has been one game in which a (mostly) undisputed national champion has been crowned. The College Football Playoff plus-one system replaced the BCS three years ago.
In total, we have received a solid answer just 30 times. We’ve evaluated each game using a combination of College Football Reference’s SRS scores for each of the 60 teams and the results of the games. (To learn more about the methodology and see a Google spreadsheet of the calculations, click through to the final slide.) Here is how each of the 30 national championship games have stacked up over the past 50-plus years at the top level of modern college football history.
30. 2013 BCS National Championship
#2 Alabama d. #1 Notre Dame 42-14
BEFORE THE GAME
There was little surprise in the selection for the BCS National Championship game after the 2012-2013 season. Three weeks before the end of the season in mid-November, Kansas State and Oregon were leading the BCS rankings. But on November 17, both teams lost in prime time, the Ducks in overtime at home to Stanford and the Wildcats by 28 on the road at Baylor. Into their place moved 11-0 Notre Dame and 10-1 Alabama in the November 18 rankings.
Alabama closed out its regular season with a 49-0 rout of rival Auburn at home over Thanksgiving weekend. The Iron Bowl allowed them to lock down a spot in the SEC championship. In Atlanta, Nick Saban’s team found itself in a fight against third-ranked Georgia. The Bulldogs came up just short in their upset bid, as Aaron Murray’s last pass of the game found Chris Conley five yards short of the goal line as time ran out. At 12-1, Alabama secured the conference title and guaranteed it would stay at #2 in the final BCS rankings.
Notre Dame had already made sure it would be in Miami for the game against the Crimson Tide. After ascending to the top spot in the rankings, they finished off the only undefeated regular season in the country by taking down USC 22-13 in Los Angeles. In Brian Kelly’s third season in South Bend, he had put the Fighting Irish in position to compete for their first national championship in decades.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
The two teams entered the game with the top two scoring defenses in the country. Only one actually performed like a top unit. Alabama scored on their first three possessions of the game, while the Tide defense clamped down on a Notre Dame offense that stayed undefeated despite an offense that averaged fewer than 27 points per game. Everett Golson threw for 270 yards with a touchdown and a pick, and also ran for another score. But the Irish running game finished with only 32 net yards on 19 attempts as they could never generate any comeback momentum.
Meanwhile everything was working for the Crimson Tide offense. AJ McCarron threw for 264 yards and four touchdowns on 20-of-28 passing. The one time he had to scramble, he gained nine yards. Both Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon rushed for over 100 yards and a touchdown apiece. It all added up to nearly perfect balance on offense, as they finished with 264 passing yards and 265 rushing yards. The game plan also kept the defense fresh, with Alabama enjoying over 16 more minutes of possession than Notre Dame. After plenty of hype, the game itself failed to live up to expectations.
29. 1993 Sugar Bowl
#2 Alabama d. #1 Miami 34-13
BEFORE THE GAME
Split national championships in 1990 (Colorado and Georgia Tech) and 1991 (Miami and Washington) inspired the formation of the Bowl Coalition beginning in the 1992-1993 season. The union of the Big 8, SWC, SEC, ACC, and Big East along with independent Notre Dame was formed in hopes that two of their teams would finish in the top two spots of the polls each year. There was a risk that there could still be a split championship due to the fact that the Big Ten and Pac-10 were still contractually linked to the Rose Bowl and would not join the Coalition.
The first season was a success, as Big Ten champ Michigan and Pac-10 champ Washington had only 17 wins combined. (Michigan was 8-0-3 after ties against Notre Dame, Illinois, and Ohio State. The Huskies had lost to Arizona and Washington State.) Thus the Coalition was able to match up number-one Miami out of the Big East against second-ranked SEC champion Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
Both teams were undefeated, with the Crimson Tide having played a 12th game in the inaugural SEC championship game. Miami had won the AP national championship the year before after a perfect 12-0 season. They featured Heisman-winning quarterback Gino Torretta and an offense that averaged 32.4 points per game heading into the Sugar Bowl. Alabama was given little chance as the Hurricanes seemed destined to extend their winning streak to 30 games dating back to the 1990-1991 season.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Instead of the Miami blowout that most expected, a Tide defense that had held opponents to 9.1 points per game en route to the SEC title kept Miami’s offense in check. Torretta threw three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. The Hurricanes managed just 48 rushing yards and added another fumble, ending the game with 12 fewer minutes of possession. Gene Stallings coached his team to grind out the clock, and that’s exactly what they did.
Alabama threw for just 18 yards as quarterback Jay Barker completed 4-of-13 with two interceptions of his own. The Tide won the national championship on the ground, punishing Miami’s front seven by rushing the ball 60 times for 267 yards. Lead back Derrick Lassic finished with 28 carries for 135 yards and two scores. The three-touchdown blowout is one of just eight times that a definitive title-game matchup has been won by at least 20 points.
28. 2002 Rose Bowl
#1 Miami d. #2 Nebraska 37-14
BEFORE THE GAME
As they finished the regular season as the only unbeaten team in the country, Miami handily locked down the top spot in the BCS rankings. The Hurricanes had been shut out of the national championship game the previous year despite knocking off eventual finalist Florida State, and they came back in 2001 motivated to leave no question about their right to play for the title. In Larry Coker’s first season at the helm, Miami held eight of their 11 regular-season opponents under 10 points. They had run away with the Big East, surviving Virginia Tech by two points in Blacksburg to ensure their spot in Pasadena
There was heavy debate about whether or not Nebraska deserved to be in the 2002 Rose Bowl opposite top-ranked Miami. The Cornhuskers were obliterated 62-36 by Colorado in a game that decided the Big 12 North. The loss meant that Frank Solich’s team failed to win its division, much less the conference, in a situation that somewhat echoes Ohio State in 2016. But despite being ranked fourth in both human polls, the formula in place at the time boosted Nebraska up to second in the final BCS standings ahead of the Big 12-winning Buffaloes and Pac-12 champion Oregon.
In the end Nebraska got the nod, though the controversy remains to this day — especially after Oregon took down Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl 38-16 to finish second in the AP poll. At the time, though, the debate centered on Huskers versus Buffaloes, and the computers decision rang counter to the head-to-head result. By only 0.05 points in a convoluted formula that included eight computers, a separate schedule strength component, a nebulous “quality wins” tally and a penalty for losses, Solich’s squad booked their tickets to southern California.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
It was evident almost immediately that the BCS had made a bad choice in elevating Nebraska ahead of the other two candidates for the national championship. Ken Dorsey hit Andre Johnson with a 50-yard touchdown pass midway through the first quarter, opening the floodgates on a rout. By halftime the Hurricanes had built a 34-0 lead and pulled off the gas in the second half. Dorsey, who had finished third in the Heisman voting behind Nebraska’s Eric Crouch, ended the contest with 362 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.
Meanwhile Crouch was locked down by the strong Miami defense. The option-style Heisman winner notched 114 rushing yards but managed just 5-of-15 passing for 62 yards and a pick. Despite having nearly 10 more minutes of possession, the Cornhuskers were held to nearly 200 fewer yards by the Canes. Nebraska managed to keep from being shut out with a 14-yard Judd Davies rushing touchdown and a 71-yard DeJuan Groce punt return score in the second half, but by then it was too little too late as all the interest had already drained away from this afterthought game.
27. 2008 BCS National Championship
#2 LSU d. #1 Ohio State 38-24
BEFORE THE GAME
The 2008 BCS National Championship culminated the season of the upset. The game featured two teams that took advantage of chaos on the final weekend of the regular season. Top-ranked Missouri lost 38-17 to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship. Second-ranked West Virginia inexplicably collapsed 13-9 to 4-7 Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl. That was enough to move third-ranked Ohio State into the top spot of the BCS rankings. The question then became who the Buckeyes would play in the title game at the Superdome in New Orleans.
The debate came down to a slew of two-loss teams. There was 11-2 ACC champion Virginia Tech. West Virginia had been relegated to co-champion status with Connecticut after losing to Pitt, making their 10-2 look less formidable. 11-2 Oklahoma had a case to make after taking down Missouri. Then again, so did an 11-1 Kansas team that didn’t get a chance to play in the Big 12 championship. USC, the Pac-12 champions at 10-2, also factored in the discussion.
But Les Miles made the most ingenious move of his LSU coaching career, lobbying pollsters to move the Tigers back up to the #1 spot they had occupied two weeks earlier. Arguing that his Tigers hadn’t “lost a game in regulation” after both of their defeats came in triple overtime, Miles convinced the voters in the Harris and Coaches polls to bump LSU up above the other major-conference champions into the title game.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Ohio State actually took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but then LSU scored 31 unanswered points before the Buckeyes found the endzone again. The Bayou Bengals defense held Ohio State to 3-of-13 on third downs and forced three turnovers. Jim Tressel’s team could not maintain possession, as every scoring drive took less than three minutes. The three times that they did manage to keep the ball for more than three minutes, Ohio State punted twice and threw a pick the third time around.
A Buckeyes defense had held opponents to fewer than 11 points per game on average during the regular season also came up short. LSU’s offense had averaged just over 38 points per game to win the SEC and they hit that average in the 38-24 victory. Matt Flynn was an efficient 19-of-27 passing for 174 yards and four touchdowns for LSU, while Jacob Hester rushed for 86 yards and a score in the victory. The Tigers hit their season scoring average to run away with their second national title of the BCS era and the first two-loss national champion since Minnesota in 1960.
26. 1964 Cotton Bowl
#1 Texas d. #2 Navy 28-6
BEFORE THE GAME
The second-oldest game on this list took place in Dallas less than six weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the city, and is the last time that a service academy was in the running for a national title. Technically the game was merely an exhibition of the two best teams in the country, as both the AP and UPI polls refrained from releasing a post-bowl ranking at the time. No matter what happened Texas would remain first in perpetuity, though history would certainly place an asterisk next to that title.
Navy was invited to the game by the Cotton Bowl committee after taking down Army on the first Saturday of December in Philadelphia. The decision was left up to the Midshipmen squad, who in unison cheered the invitation and expressed their unabashed desire to participate in the contest. They would get the chance to return to the scene of their only loss of the season, a 32-28 loss to an SMU team that would win just three more games throughout the year.
It was no sure thing that the top two teams would meet. The Cotton Bowl was also in preliminary discussions with 9-1 Pittsburgh, 8-2 Syracuse, 9-1 Auburn, 8-2 Alabama, and 7-0-2 Ole Miss. They also considered bringing Army to Dallas had they beat Navy to finish the regular season 8-2. The fact that the Midshipmen featured Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Roger Staubach surely assisted their case before the committee, as did their victory over the Cadets.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
On the opening drive, Texas quarterback Duke Carlisle launched a bomb to Phil Harris that went 58 yards for the first touchdown less than three minutes into the game. The two connected again on a 63-yard passing touchdown in the second quarter, and Carlisle added a running score with just over two minutes remaining in the first half. Late in the third quarter, Texas expanded its lead to 28-0 on a short Harold Philipp touchdown run.
Navy finally scored early in the fourth quarter as Staubach ran in from two yards out at the end of a 14-play drive. After failing on the two-point attempt, the Midshipmen would fail to get in scoring range again. Texas finished with over 400 yards of offense while holding Navy to negative rushing yardage (-14 yards on 29 carries). Despite eight penalties to two for Navy, there was nothing that Texas could do to sabotage their run to a perfect season. Knowing their national title would be questioned with a loss, Darrell Royal’s team finally brought the first recognized national championship to football-mad Austin.
25. 2005 Orange Bowl
#1 USC d. #2 Oklahoma 55-19
BEFORE THE GAME
The 2004 season revealed the limitations of the BCS model, as three power-conference teams finished with undefeated records. With only two spots available for its championship game, one of these three league winners would end up as the odd program out. No matter who was left out, that team would wonder if it might have been a national champion. For the second straight year, there was also the risk that the AP would go against the BCS championship and select the first team out as its top team.
The year before it had been USC that ended up as the AP champion after getting leapfrogged by LSU in the final BCS rankings. Locked into the top spot since the first 2004 rankings on October 18, the Trojans secured their position in the big game by taking down rival UCLA in the final game of the regular season. The question came down to whether Tommy Tuberville’s 12-0 SEC champion Auburn squad or Bob Stoops’ 12-0 Big 12 champs Oklahoma should face USC.
The order had been USC, Oklahoma, and Auburn ever since Miami’s loss at North Carolina on October 30. With each passing week, the three teams remained locked in that hierarchy. Despite both playing four games against teams that ended up ranked in the final BCS Top 25, Oklahoma’s schedule was deemed slightly stronger by the BCS computers and they also benefitted from going wire-to-wire as the second-ranked team in both human polls. Auburn would go on to win a tight defensive contest against ACC champ Virginia Tech and finish second in the final AP and Coaches polls.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Oklahoma had made it to Miami, and they even seemed ready to give USC a game. The Sooners scored first midway through the first quarter as 2003 Heisman winner Jason White found Travis Wilson for a five-yard touchdown pass. Their lead would last all of 3:17, as the Trojans marched downfield and 2004 Heisman winner Matt Leinart found Dominique Byrd for a 33-yard TD reception. With metronomic regularity USC scored thrice more to lead 28-7 less than six minutes into the second quarter. Oklahoma kicked a field goal, but they were still down 38-10 at halftime after coughing up two more late scores before the break.
USC didn’t let up in the second half, as Leinart won the first-ever duel of Heisman-winning quarterbacks in a national championship game. He completed just 18 of his 35 attempts for his lowest completion percentage of the year, but he made up for it with 332 yards and five touchdowns. By comparison, the Trojans defense allowed White to complete 24 of 36 — but he only managed to gain 244 yards and two touchdowns while also tossing three interceptions. A late Oklahoma safety and quick touchdown on the ensuing drive made the score a little more respectable, but there was no dissent as to who was national champion after the performance.
24. 2007 BCS National Championship
#2 Florida d. #1 Ohio State 41-14
BEFORE THE GAME
A year before reaching the BCS championship against LSU, the Buckeyes were in the big game facing a different SEC champion. Ohio State and Michigan played one another as the top two teams in the country, both undefeated when they met for the season finale in Columbus on November 18. The Buckeyes fended off a comeback attempt by their rivals, holding on for a 42-39 victory. Both teams remained in the top two spots after the game, setting up the potential for an all-Big Ten BCS National Championship.
But Michigan slid down the rankings as other teams played out the rest of their seasons. USC leapfrogged the Wolverines after beating Notre Dame on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The Trojans missed their chance to play in the big game after falling to cross-town rival UCLA on the first weekend of December. Louisville won the Big East by beating Connecticut on the same day, but they could gain no traction in the BCS rankings despite just one loss against ranked Rutgers. ACC champion Wake Forest and Big 12 champion Oklahoma, both 11-2, were also unable to reach even the top five.
The Buckeyes were ultimately paired against SEC champion Florida. The Gators were the only other major-conference champion besides Louisville and Ohio State to finish the year with one loss or less. Unlike the Cardinals, they had played a 13th game for the SEC title against eighth-ranked Arkansas. Their only loss had come at Auburn, who finished the regular season 10-2. The extra data point was enough to bump Urban Meyer’s team over Michigan into the championship against the Buckeyes.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Ohio State got off to a blistering start, as Ted Ginn, Jr. took the opening kickoff 93 yards to put the Buckeyes ahead 7-0 just 14 seconds into the game. But Ginn was injured in the celebration and unable to play the rest of the game, a complete 180 of fortunes. On the ensuing kickoff to Florida, a face mask penalty on the Buckeyes furthered the misery, as the Gators got to start their first drive in enemy territory. Chris Leak capped the seven-play drive with a TD pass to Dallas Baker, and Meyer’s crew never trailed again.
By halftime the Gators were up 34-14, and the second half played out as a formality. Heisman winner Troy Smith was held to 35 yards and an interception on 4-of-14 passing, as Ohio State finished the game with just 131 total yards of offense. Leak won the MVP award after leading the Florida offense with 213 passing yards and a score, while Tim Tebow made his presence felt with 11 touches for 40 yards and two scores (one passing, one rushing).
23. 1996 Fiesta Bowl
#1 Nebraska d. #2 Florida 62-24
BEFORE THE GAME
Nebraska was enjoying one of the most storied runs of its vaunted history in the early 1990s. The team had finished 11-0 in the regular season to play Florida State for the national championship in 1993, though they lost a tight 18-16 game to the Seminoles. They came back the following year and ran the table, though they played one-loss #3 Big East champ Miami in the Orange Bowl instead of undefeated #2 Big Ten winner Penn State. Since the Bowl Coalition had failed to incorporate the Big Ten and Pac-10 along with the Rose Bowl, they faltered in forming a definitive pairing in their last year of existence.
This time around, Nebraska benefitted from the fact that those two leagues produced 8-2-1 USC and 11-1 Ohio State as their two champions. The Bowl Alliance replaced the Coalition that season, and they were able to pair undefeated SEC champion Florida against the Cornhuskers in the Fiesta Bowl. The two teams were a no-brainer selection for the Alliance. It seemed as though things were looking up for the system, with or without the two intransigent Rose Bowl devotees.
Of course, this would be the only time that the Bowl Alliance actually managed to create a 1-vs.-2 pairing in its three years of existence. The following year they pitted #1 Florida in a rematch against #3 Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, while #2 Ohio State took on #4 Arizona State in the Rose Bowl. 1997 resulted in a split national championship as top-ranked Michigan won the Rose Bowl over #8 Washington State and the Bowl Alliance matched #2 Nebraska against #3 Tennessee. But this one time, everything converged for the Alliance.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Nebraska entered the game averaging 52.4 points per game as it ran the table for the second straight year. More importantly, their formidable defense was conceding just 13.6 points per outing. Florida’s scoring stats were nearly as impressive, as they won their average regular-season contest by a score of 45-17. The Gators actually scored first on a short Bart Edmiston field goal, and added a touchdown on Danny Wuerffel’s short QB run for a touchdown. Steve Spurrier’s team led 10-6 after one quarter, and looked to make a contest of it. Then Nebraska unleashed the full power of its classic Tommie Frazier-led option offense.
The Cornhuskers scored 36 unanswered in the second and third quarters to open up a 42-10 lead. Spurrier’s squad managed two more touchdowns, but they couldn’t even keep pace with the high-octane Huskers offense. Frazier was a force against Florida, keeping the ball 16 times on the option for 199 rushing yards and two scores and going 6-of-14 passing for another 105 yards and another TD. Lawrence Phillips racked up 165 yards and two rushing touchdowns, backup Ahman Green added another 68 rushing yards and a score on just nine carries, and the Huskers finished with a ridiculous 524 rushing yards to cap their 24th consecutive victory and second straight national championship.
22. 1969 Rose Bowl
#1 Ohio State d. #2 USC 27-16
BEFORE THE GAME
The Rose Bowl for a long time thwarted the creation of an annual national championship game at the top level of college football. However, the oldest bowl game of them all also provided a unique opportunity for postseason games featuring the top two teams in the country — at least when those two teams were the champions of the Big Ten and Pac-8/Pac-10 conferences. 1968 was one such year, as Ohio State and USC stormed undefeated through the regular season.
The Buckeyes opened their season by demolishing a top-15 SMU team by three touchdowns. They stormed through an Oregon team that finished below .500, but schedule strength counted for far less than victories in the days of the purely poll-driven national championship. Woody Hayes’ team allowed just 16.3 points per game in Big Ten play, including a 13-0 shutout of then-#1 Purdue and a 50-14 win over then-#4 rival Michigan.
Penn State, an independent program in Joe Paterno’s third season as head coach, had a case to be made as the only other undefeated and untied team in the land. But the polls felt that USC’s 21-21 tie against top-10 Notre Dame was not enough to put them below the Nittany Lions. Instead Penn State survived a 15-14 Orange Bowl against Kansas and was forced to settle for second in the final AP poll. For the second time in the decade, the Rose Bowl would serve as a de facto national championship game.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
The game kicked off a celebration of college football’s centennial celebrations, and the two teams seemed to take some time to get up to speed in Pasadena. The first quarter passed in a scoreless tie, but the Trojans soon found their stride. They seemed poised to take a 10-0 lead into the locker room at halftime, but then a momentum swing in the final two minutes saw Ohio State tie the game up before the intermission. Things slowed back down after halftime, and a Buckeyes field goal separated the two teams heading into the fourth quarter.
A USC fumble opened the door for the Buckeyes to take control of the game in the final frame. Rex Kern found Leo Hayden just over a minute into the fourth quarter, and another fumble gave Ohio State another easy touchdown five minutes in. With a 17-point lead, the OSU defense continued to tee off on the Trojans, who finished the game with five total turnovers. While Penn State had also won their bowl game and finished the year with one more victory, the voters in both the AP and Coaches polls kept the Buckeyes at the top of the rankings after taking down O.J. Simpson and crew.
21. 2000 Sugar Bowl
#1 Florida State d. #2 Virginia Tech 46-29
BEFORE THE GAME
After some mild skepticism in its first year of operation, the BCS was gift-wrapped an easy decision in its sophomore season. Only two of the Big Six conference teams managed to finish the regular season undefeated. There was no parsing out the merits of flawed champions. Once Penn State lost its first game of the year to Minnesota in early November and Tennessee fell the following week at Arkansas, nobody else was going to pass the teams with the perfect records.
Florida State scored more than 36 points per game en route to the ACC title, while Bobby Bowden’s defense coughed up just 16 points on average. Seven of their 11 regular-season opponents scored two touchdowns or fewer, as the Seminoles went wire-to-wire atop the AP Top 25 and never fell from first in the BCS rankings. Second-year starting quarterback Chris Weinke matured as a junior, completing over 61 percent of his passes to lead the Seminoles into their second straight title game.
This time their opponents were Virginia Tech, the unbeaten Big East champions. Under the management of Michael Vick, the Hokies averaged more than 41 points per game on offense to lead the nation in scoring. Vick finished third in the Heisman voting as a redshirt freshman, electrifying the college football world with his preternatural speed and strong arm. The VT defense held up its end of the bargain as well, allowing just 10.5 points on average and never more than 20 in a single game.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Florida State took the lead late in the first quarter, as Peter Warrick hauled in a Weinke pass for a 64-yard score. The Seminoles doubled their lead when Jeff Chaney pounced on a blocked punt and carried it in for the touchdown. Vick found Andre Davis on a 49-yard pass with 30 seconds left in the quarter, but FSU extended its lead to 28-7 by halftime thanks to another long Weinke touchdown pass and a 49-yard punt return score by Warrick. Vick ran in a touchdown right before the intermission, but Virginia Tech was still down by 14 at the break having already given up more points in two quarters than they had to any other opponent all year long..
Virginia Tech adjusted at halftime and seemed to have answered the Seminoles defense. Shayne Graham kicked a short field goal midway through the third quarter, and two Andre Kendrick touchdown runs gave the Hokies a 29-28 lead heading into the fourth. Weinke threw two more touchdown passes and Sebastian Janikowski added a 32-yard field goal to take back the lead for good. The Hokies finished the game with over 100 more yards of offense than Florida State, but they also coughed up two more turnovers to cede the momentum to the Seminoles.
20. 2010 BCS National Championship
#1 Alabama d. #2 Texas 37-21
BEFORE THE GAME
The Bowl Championship Series had one of the least contentious selections of its 16-year history in the 2009-2010 season. That year three power-conference teams went undefeated over the course of the season, though two were perceived as playing a much higher level of football than the third wheel. At that point the Big East had been gutted, and Cincinnati’s perfect regular season was viewed in a similar light to the unbeaten runs of WAC champion Boise State and MWC champion TCU than the two teams that made the cut.
Alabama reached the top spot in the rankings after a 1-vs-2 showdown against Florida in the SEC championship game. The Gators and Crimson Tide were both undefeated heading into the league title game, and the winner was effectively guaranteed to land one of the two spots in the BCS national championship. Florida pulled within six points of the Tide heading into halftime, but Alabama shut out Tim Tebow and the Gators in the second half. Touchdowns by Colin Peek and Heisman winner Mark Ingram gave the conference to Alabama, and they were headed to Pasadena for the 2010 national championship at the Rose Bowl.
Texas was the last of the five teams to run the table in the regular season. The Longhorns, led by Colt McCoy at quarterback, featured an offense that averaged over 40 points per game. The defense was allowing just 15 points per game, and they survived a scare against Nebraska to secure the Big 12 title. Cincinnati wasn’t going to slide in ahead of Texas, and neither Boise State nor TCU ever had a chance. Two-time Heisman finalist McCoy had the chance to finish his college career with a national championship opportunity.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Texas suffered a severe blow to its title hopes when Colt McCoy was knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury on the fifth Longhorns play from scrimmage. Mack Brown’s team still managed to take a first quarter lead with two field goals, but Alabama soon found its stride against the Longhorns defense. Ingram and Trent Richardson each had rushing touchdowns in the second quarter, Leigh Tiffin added a 49-yard field goal, and Marcell Dareus returned an interception 23 yards right before halftime. By the intermission, the Tide had turned things around and went to the locker room with an 18-point lead.
Jordan Shipley began to connect with backup quarterback Garrett Gilbert in the second half, as the two paired up for two scoring strikes. The second, coming with 6:15 remaining, pulled Texas back within a field goal of the Tide. But Alabama got two scores in the final two minutes, as Ingram and Richardson each scored a second rushing touchdown apiece. Though Nick Saban has five national titles, this is the only team of the bunch that managed to take the crown with a perfect record.
19. 2015 CFP National Championship
#4 Ohio State d. #2 Oregon 42-20
BEFORE THE GAME
This was the first year of the College Football Playoff, providing four teams an opportunity to play for the national title. There was inevitably some controversy in the final weekend, as TCU went from third to sixth in the final committee rankings and Ohio State was elevated ahead of both the Horned Frogs and Big 12 co-champion Baylor. It was really the only question left in an otherwise straightforward selection process.
The Buckeyes faced Alabama in the Sugar Bowl semifinal as a heavy underdog. The Crimson Tide had lost on the road against a ranked Ole Miss team in early October and struggled the following week in a narrow victory at Arkansas. Otherwise they won every game on the way to the SEC title. Playing in the Crimson Tide’s home territory, Urban Meyer’s team stunned top-seeded Alabama 42-35. Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 230 yards and two touchdowns and third-string quarterback Cardale Jones had 243 passing yards on the Tide secondary to reach the title game.
Oregon squared off against defending national champion Florida State in the Rose Bowl. The game featured the past two Heisman winners, 2013 victor Jameis Winston and that season’s recipient Marcus Mariota. The reigning Heisman outshone his predecessor in Pasadena, finishing the game with 400 total yards (338 passing, 62 rushing) and three touchdowns. Winston passed for 348 yards and a touchdown, but the Ducks defense forced four fumbles and an interception on the first six Seminoles drives of the second half to run away with the game. Oregon set records for most points (59) and total yards of offense (638) in Rose Bowl history in taking down the defending champs.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Thus the championship game technically featured the teams that entered the playoff seeded second and fourth, the only game on this list to not feature the teams ranked one and two prior to the postseason. The Ducks came out and scored on the opening drive, using just 2:39 to run 11 plays for 75 yards. Then Oregon’s defense started allowing Elliott and Jones to begin working the Buckeyes downfield. The score was still 21-10 at halftime, though, and the Ducks had plenty of reason to think they could reverse their fortunes in the second half.
Oregon intercepted Jones on the first drive of the third quarter, and on the next play Mariota hit Byron Marshall for a 70-yard touchdown. They sacked Jones on the next drive, forcing a fumble that was converted into three points. But it ended up being the last points Oregon would score on the night, as Elliott began going to work. The workhorse back carried 36 times for 246 yards and four touchdowns. Ohio State ran away with the 42-20 victory, winning the first College Football Playoff national championship as a fourth seed.
18. 1988 Orange Bowl
#2 Miami d. #1 Oklahoma 20-14
BEFORE THE GAME
Catholics versus Convicts is always remembered most vividly as a defining rivalry of the 1980s, but the battle between Oklahoma and Miami might have been even more intense. The Orange Bowl in 1988 featured two of the decade’s most dominant teams. Third-ranked Florida State had already lost to the Hurricanes in the regular season, negating any case they might have to usurp either team’s position in the biggest game of the year.
Syracuse entered the postseason as the only other undefeated and untied team in the country, but the Orangemen had played just the 58th-hardest schedule in the country and played just two teams that ended the regular season ranked, #24 Pittsburgh and #25 Penn State. (Both teams dropped out of the rankings in the final AP and Coaches polls after losing their bowl games.) It was hard to make a compelling case for Syracuse, and they would ultimately tie their finale against Auburn in the Sugar Bowl to remain undefeated.
The game ultimately came down to two recent national champions. Miami had won the school’s first-ever title in the 1984 Orange Bowl against Nebraska. Two years later, Oklahoma’s freshman quarterback Jamelle Holieway propelled the Sooners to the national title despite a regular-season loss to Miami. The following year, the Hurricanes took down Oklahoma yet again. Their home-and-home series had concluded in 1987, but the Orange Bowl got the chance to host another national championship game in the pre-Coalition era and reunite these 1980s rivals for a rubber match for the crystal pigskin.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Playing before a partisan crowd on their home turf, Miami set the tone early by forcing five straight Oklahoma punts in the first half. The Sooners managed to keep things tied at 7-7 heading into halftime thanks to Anthony Stafford’s one-yard touchdown run. But they could only hold the floodgates closed for so long against an offense that averaged over five touchdowns per game heading into the national championship showdown.
The Sooners broke in the third quarter as Miami built an insurmountable 17-7 lead. Greg Cox hit a 56-yard field goal to set a new Orange Bowl record, and Steve Walsh found Michael Irvin for a 23-yard touchdown. Cox hit another field goal, this time from 48 yards out, to seal up the victory. Barry Switzer called the Fumblerooski in the fourth quarter, and senior guard Mark Hutson churned in the ball for a 29-yard touchdown to pull back within six. But the Sooners would get no closer, and Miami won its second national championship in five years in front of a home crowd.
17. 1983 Sugar Bowl
#2 Penn State d. #1 Georgia 27-23
BEFORE THE GAME
Nobody emerged from the regular season undefeated and untied except top-ranked Georgia. The Bulldogs boasted Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, who finally won the award in 1982 after finishing third as a freshman and second as a sophomore. He ran for 1752 yards and 16 touchdowns to surpass the 5000-yard mark for his college career, arriving in New Orleans on a 10-game streak of games with 100 or more rushing yards. Though rather one-dimensional on offense, the Bulldogs also featured a defense that gave up 12.1 yards per game.
Behind the Bulldogs lay a slew of one-loss teams. ACC champion Clemson opened the year with a loss to Georgia and also had a tie against Boston College on their record. Pac-12 champ UCLA had fallen to Washington and tied at Arizona. Big 8 winner Nebraska was 11-1, but they had lost to Penn State and were locked into the Orange Bowl. Penn State was also in the running, also 11-1, with their only loss coming against Alabama in Birmingham.
In this period independents held outsized sway in determining whether a de facto national championship would take place. Penn State could have played a rematch against Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. The could also have faced 10-0-1 SWC champion SMU in the Cotton Bowl, another game that would have held undoubted national title interests. Instead they opted to play a 1-vs-2 showdown in New Orleans, setting up a second national championship in five years at the Sugar Bowl.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Penn State drew first blood in the Sugar Bowl, as Curt Warner ran in the first of his two touchdowns on the day. Warner added his second score in the second quarter, as the Nittany Lions built up a 20-3 lead. The Bulldogs managed to score a touchdown before halftime, but still found themselves down 20-10 heading into the third quarter. Walker pulled Georgia within a field goal on a one-yard TD run after halftime, but for most of the game he was a relative non-factor. He finished the day with 103 yards on 28 carries.
Warner outdueled his Heisman-winning counterpart on the ground, finishing with 18 carries for 117 rushing yards and the two touchdowns. Todd Blackledge guided the Penn State offense through the air as well, finishing 13-of-23 for 228 yards and a touchdown. A fumbled punt return late in the game gave Georgia hope as they pulled within four, but Blackledge and the PSU offense ground down the clock with several drive-extending plays to secure the first national championship in school history.
16. 2016 CFP National Championship
#2 Alabama d. #1 Clemson 45-40
BEFORE THE GAME
The second edition of the College Football Playoff offered the easiest possible decision-making process for the selection committee out of its first three seasons of operation. Four major-conference champions finished the year either undefeated or with only one loss to fill out the bracket. Stanford won the Pac-12, but with two losses they were kept out by the committee without much argument. Iowa and Ohio State also ended the regular season with only one loss, but both had fallen to Big Ten champion Michigan State.
Clemson was the lone team to run the table among the semifinalists. The 13-0 Tigers earned the top seed and matched up in the Orange Bowl against Big 12 champion Oklahoma. The Sooners actually held a 17-16 halftime lead after Baker Mayfield hit Mark Andrews for an 11-yard touchdown in the final minute of the second quarter. Everything turned around after halftime, as Dabo Swinney’s Tigers came out and scored 21 unanswered points for a runaway victory into the national championship game.
Alabama had lost once during the regular season, an early upset at home in a shootout against Ole Miss, but they recovered to win 10 straight as they claimed another SEC title. The Crimson Tide went to the Cotton Bowl to take on Big Ten champion Michigan State. Nick Saban’s team dominated the Spartans at AT&T Stadium, holding them to just 29 rushing yards and forcing two turnovers. Heisman winner Derrick Henry rushed for 75 yards and two scores as Alabama steamrolled Michigan State in a 38-0 shutout.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
A 50-yard touchdown run by Henry opened up the scoring midway through the opening quarter, but Clemson struck back with two scoring strikes from Deshaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow to take a 14-7 lead after 15 minutes. Henry scored his second touchdown of the game five minutes into the second quarter, and the two teams headed to the locker room at halftime tied at 14 apiece. Both teams missed 44-yard field goals, Alabama in the first quarter and Clemson on a block close to halftime.
On their first drive of the second half, Alabama ran a play that allowed tight end O.J. Howard to get behind the defense for a 53-yard touchdown reception from Jake Coker. The Tigers took back the lead with a field goal and a short Wayne Gallman TD run, and were up 24-21 heading into the final quarter. But the fourth is when the game got craziest. The two teams combined to score 40 points in the last 15 minutes, with Alabama running out to an 11-point lead before Clemson kept chipping away at the deficit. Watson threw his fourth TD pass of the night with 12 seconds remaining, but the Tigers failed to recover an onside kick and Alabama held on for the 45-40 victory.
15. 2014 BCS National Championship
#1 Florida State d. #2 Auburn 34-31
BEFORE THE GAME
The last game of the Bowl Championship Series era proved to be one of the most exciting contests during its 16-year run. The SEC came into the final year before the College Football Playoff having won seven straight national titles, and it was inevitable that the league’s top team would be represented in the final edition of the BCS. What was unexpected, however, was which team managed to snatch the SEC championship.
Florida State blazed a trail toward the final BCS championship thanks to redshirt freshman quarterback Jameis Winston, who won the Heisman Trophy in his first year as a starter. The Seminoles ran the table as Winston threw for over 3800 yards and accounted for 42 total touchdowns during the regular season. Their run to the title included blowouts such as their 63-0 win over Maryland, a 51-14 demolition at Clemson, 41-14 over Miami, and 37-7 against Florida. As soon as they’d defeated Duke 45-7 to claim the ACC title, the Seminoles were beginning to book their tickets to Pasadena for the last BCS national championship.
All season long, it appeared as though Alabama was on a collision course to face the Seminoles in California. The defending BCS champions started the season 11-0 and arrived in Auburn for the Iron Bowl on a 15-game winning streak. The game went back and forth, with the Tigers tying the game at 28-28 with 32 seconds remaining. There was still enough time for Alabama to drive downfield and put Cade Foster in position for a 57-yard field goal attempt. The kick fell short, Chris Davis fielded the attempt in the endzone, and Auburn won the game on a wild swing as he returned the ball over 100 yards for the winning touchdown. The win gave the SEC West to Auburn instead of Alabama, and a 17-point win over Missouri locked up the spot opposite FSU.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Florida State scored first on a Roberto Aguayo field goal, but Nick Marshall threw two touchdown passes and rushed for another to give Auburn a 21-3 lead in the second quarter. Devonta Freeman finally broke the drought with a three-yard scoring run 88 seconds before halftime. The touchdown pulled the Seminoles back within 11 at the break, but it still seemed as though the SEC was 30 minutes away from winning its eighth straight national title to close out the BCS era.
That script seemed to be falling into place as the Tigers held Florida State to just three points on another Aguayo field goal in the third quarter. Winston hit Chad Abram for an 11-yard scoring strike early in the fourth quarter to pull the Seminoles back within one point of Auburn, but the Tigers reopened a four-point lead with a Cody Parkey field goal with less than five minutes remaining. Kermit Whitfield returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards to give FSU a three-point lead, and the teams traded touchdowns in the final minutes. Winston found Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds remaining for the winning points, and the SEC’s streak had been broken right before the College Football Playoff came online.
14. 2004 Sugar Bowl
#2 LSU d. #1 Oklahoma 21-14
BEFORE THE GAME
The BCS found itself second-guessing its formula after the 2003 season ended in exactly what it had been designed to prevent: a split national championship. Three major-conference champions arrived at the end of the regular season with one loss apiece. The BCS formula that season weighted the computer averages equally to a composite of the AP and Coaches polls, added in a separate strength of schedule component, subtracted points for losses, and also added in a “quality wins” component that was basically a self-reinforcing mechanism within the system. All would prove significant in the end.
Oklahoma entered the Big 12 championship as the only undefeated team in the country, going wire-to-wire with both the best scoring offense and scoring defense in the country. Then the Sooners went to Kansas City to face 9-3 North Division champ Kansas State in the title game. Oklahoma scored first on the opening drive of the game, but the Wildcats intercepted quarterback Jason White twice to keep the Sooners out of the endzone again. White won the Heisman Trophy despite the conference championship defeat, and the Sooners remained in the #2 spot in the BCS standings thanks to the computer-weighted formula.
The human polls both had USC at #1 in the country. The Trojans had lost to Aaron Rodgers and Cal on the road in Berkeley in late September, but they had steadily molded into championship form through October and November as they went on an eight-game winning streak to close out the regular season. When Oklahoma fell, USC was lofted right up into their spot in the polls. LSU lurked right behind as the Sooners dropped to third. But the computers still loved Oklahoma, rating their schedule the third toughest in the country and keeping them atop the composite rankings. LSU ended up bouncing USC to third by 0.16 points despite having their own loss at home to Florida.
USC would go on to play in the 2004 Rose Bowl against Big Ten champion Michigan, beating the Wolverines in a traditional matchup of Midwestern and Pacific champions in Pasadena. The 28-14 win cemented the Trojans’ place atop the final AP poll. The polls split the national championship, as the Coaches poll kept its obligation as the steward of the crystal pigskin and awarded it to the Sugar Bowl winner.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Skyler Green opened the scoring for LSU after a wild opening sequence where the Tigers fumbled after a quick march downfield, only to intercept the ball right back from the Sooners, and score as though they had never lost the ball. Jason White looked lost against the LSU defense, as he completed only 13 of his 37 passing attempts for a total of 102 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions. Against Kansas State he had at least moved the ball, but against Nick Saban’s defense White had no chance to get comfortable after taking seven sacks and getting hurried numerous other times.
The nation’s most dangerous offense managed just 154 total yards all game, and the Tigers kept pounding the ball on the ground with freshman back Justin Vincent. He finished the day with 117 rushing yards and a score in the second quarter, helping LSU control the clock until a furious late push by the Sooners. After halftime Marcus Spears picked off White and returned the ball 20 yards to extend the Tigers lead to 14. Oklahoma turned a Matt Mauck interception early in the fourth quarter into Kejuan Jones’ second short touchdown run of the day to pull back within seven. They marched down into the LSU red zone in the final five minutes, but the Tigers held the Sooners scoreless on downs to cement at least a share of the national championship.
13. 1999 Fiesta Bowl
#1 Tennessee d. #2 Florida State 23-16
BEFORE THE GAME
The 1998-1999 season marked the first year of the Bowl Championship Series. Where previous attempts at creating an annual national championship had fallen short, the BCS succeeded in unifying the disparate I-A power players into a cohesive unit. For the first time, the Rose Bowl was incorporated into the championship bowl structure along with the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences. Now the biggest leagues at the top level of the sport could provide at least a modicum of certainty that they would pair the top two teams against one another to play for the national title.
In the first season, only one of the Big Six conference champions ran the table to finish the regular season undefeated. Tennessee won the SEC despite the graduation of Peyton Manning, scoring nearly 34 points per game with Tee Martin leading the offense. The defense was just as stout, holding opponents to an average of just over 14 points per game. After taking down Mississippi State 24-14 in the SEC championship game, there was no doubt that the Volunteers would be playing in the inaugural BCS championship at the Fiesta Bowl.
The question was who they would face. Kansas State was in the second spot heading into the final weekend, but they dropped after losing the Big 12 championship 36-33 in overtime to Texas A&M. That opened the door for UCLA to jump up to face the Vols, but instead they too fell in a 49-45 thriller at Miami in a year where the Hurricanes finished in a three-way tie for second in the Big East. The question came down to Florida State versus Ohio State, and the Seminoles were next in line in the preceding ranking. The algorithm held true to the human polls, and Bobby Bowden got his shot at a second national title in the 1990s.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Neither team scored in the first quarter, easing into this brave new world of college football history. Tennessee started driving late in the first quarter, and Martin hit Shawn Bryson with a four-yard touchdown pass to open up the scoring less than a minute after switching sides for the second quarter. Then Marcus Outzen tried to hit Peter Warrick, and Dwayne Goodrich hauled in an interception and returned the pick 56 yards to build a 14-0 Volunteers lead. Florida State came back to pull within 14-9 at halftime, but they never came any closer to victory.
Martin found Peerless Price for a 79-yard scoring reception six minutes into the fourth quarter, and Jeff Hall added a short field goal on the next drive to build Tennessee’s lead to 23-9. The Seminoles pulled back within a touchdown on Outzen’s seven-yard scoring run with 3:42 left, and Travis Henry fumbled on the ensuing drive to give FSU some hope in the waning minutes. But Outzen was picked off by Steve Johnson, and Phillip Fulmer’s team held on for the one-score victory and maintained their undefeated status to earn their national championship.
12. 2003 Fiesta Bowl
#2 Ohio State d. #1 Miami 31-24 (2OT)
BEFORE THE GAME
At the end of the 2002 season, only two undefeated teams remained among the 117 I-A schools. Once Oklahoma lost at Texas A&M to eliminate the possibility of three undefeated major-conference champions emerging at the end of the regular season, it made the job easy for the BCS. After the controversies of the past few seasons, things played out in perhaps the tidiest fashion they ever did during the system’s 16-year run.
Top-ranked Miami was the defending national champion after demolishing Nebraska in the 2002 Rose Bowl to cap an undefeated season. They arrived at the 2003 Fiesta Bowl on a 34-game winning streak and averaged just under six touchdowns per game. The Hurricanes boasted two-time Heisman finalist Ken Dorsey at quarterback and 1000-yard receiver Andre Johnson, the MVPs of the prior year’s Rose Bowl victory. Dorsey’s center was Rimington Trophy winner Brett Romberg. The offense was balanced by Willis McGahee, who rushed for nearly 1700 yards and finished with over 2000 yards of total offense in the regular season.
They would take on Big Ten champion Ohio State, which played nine of its 13 regular-season games in its home state. Jim Tressel’s defense had allowed just 12.2 points per game as they went 13-0, including a 25-7 home victory over Pac-10 champion Washington State. Instead of a rematch against the Cougars in the Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes were an easy pick for both the human pollsters and the computer calculations to match up opposite the Hurricanes 375 miles east of Pasadena in the Fiesta Bowl.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Miami entered the game as a two-touchdown favorite, and Roscoe Parrish put the Hurricanes on the scoreboard first on a 25-yard TD pass from Dorsey near the end of the first quarter. Ohio State responded in the second frame, as quarterback Craig Krenzel and running back Maurice Clarett each rushed for a score. The Buckeyes found themselves heading to the locker room up 14-7 at halftime, as their defense had largely won the battle against Miami’s high-flying offense.
Tressel’s team extended its lead to 10 points on a 44-yard Mike Nugent field goal midway through the third quarter. That seemed to awaken Larry Coker’s squad, and McGahee began to respond. He pulled the Canes back within one score on a nine-yard touchdown run, but then disaster struck when the running back suffered a horrific knee injury on a screen pass early in the fourth quarter. Battling without their workhorse in the backfield, Miami managed to set up a game-tying 40-yard field goal as time expired to force overtime.
It was the first time in history that a national championship went to extra time. Miami got the ball first and scored a touchdown, forcing Ohio State to reach the endzone. The Hurricanes and their fans thought they had won the game when Krenzel’s 4th-and-3 pass bounced off Chris Gamble’s hands and fell incomplete. But a late flag for a controversial defensive holding call gave the Buckeyes new life, and they capitalized three plays later on a Krenzel sneak. Maurice Clarett scored for Ohio State in the second overtime. The OSU defense made a goal-line stand, and the Big Ten champs completed the upset.
11. 1972 Orange Bowl
#1 Nebraska d. #2 Alabama 38-6
BEFORE THE GAME
Notre Dame had technically opened the season #1 in the preseason poll, but Nebraska leapfrogged into the top spot right away after playing their first game a week earlier than the Fighting Irish. They were the defending national champions and ended their season with a 31-game unbeaten streak after winning all 12 games on their regular-season schedule. Once they went over Notre Dame in the polls, Bob Devaney’s team went wire-to-wire to finish the year as the best team in the country.
But they got the chance not only to claim their supremacy but to prove it against undefeated SEC champion Alabama. The Crimson Tide averaged nearly 33 points per game during the regular season, with Johnny Musso rushing for over 1000 yards and 16 touchdowns. The defense was performing at just as high a level, holding opponents to fewer than eight points per game. Bear Bryant’s squad had finally broken the color barrier in Tuscaloosa, and it was beginning to pay dividends as they navigated to a perfect regular season.
The only other team to finish its regular season undefeated was Michigan, who was slated to play a three-loss Stanford team thanks to their Rose Bowl obligations. They entered the game ranked third behind not only Nebraska and Alabama, but the Wolverines sputtered against Jim Plunkett and a tough Stanford defense. For the first time in its history, the Orange Bowl was laying claim to providing the stage for a national champion to be crowned in college football.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Nebraska quickly asserted its dominance, scoring four touchdowns before halftime. The most electric came on a 77-yard punt return by Johnny Rodgers, who would parlay his success in this game into the Heisman Trophy the following season. The Cornhuskers were up 28-0 on their overmatched opponent by the intermission, and there was nothing that Bryant could do to inspire better play from his charges in the face of the Husker juggernaut.
A third-quarter touchdown run by Terry Davis eliminated the shutout for the Tide, but Alabama would not find its way back into the endzone for the rest of the game. Nebraska added a touchdown and a field goal after Bama pulled within three scores, putting an exclamation point on a perfect 13-0 season. The win also capped the dominance of the Big 8, which finished 1-2-3 in the post-bowl polls after Oklahoma finished 11-1 and Colorado finished 10-2 with the three combined losses all coming to one another.
10. 2012 BCS National Championship
#2 Alabama d. #1 LSU 21-0
BEFORE THE GAME
The BCS generated perhaps the greatest controversy of its entire existence after the 2011 regular season, when its calculations decided upon an SEC rematch for the national championship. Alabama had lost to LSU 9-6 in overtime in their regular-season matchup in Tuscaloosa. The Tigers went on to win the SEC West and knock off Georgia for the conference title. LSU was a no-brainer for the BCS championship game, with a team that won by an average of four touchdowns per game and the only undefeated record among power-conference schools.
11-1 Alabama was another story, however. The Crimson Tide finished ahead of several other 11-1 teams to get their rematch against LSU. Big 12 champion Oklahoma State fell out of the second spot after the Cowboys lost at Iowa State in the penultimate game of their regular season. Their Bedlam win over Oklahoma wasn’t enough to push Mike Gundy’s team into the national championship.
Despite dealing with the same division loss issue as Alabama, Stanford was also waved aside in favor of the Crimson Tide. The Cardinal crime was losing 53-30 at home to Pac-12 champion Oregon. The Ducks dropped out of contention a week after taking down Stanford, losing at home against USC. Had they swept their conference schedule, it might have been Chip Kelly’s Oregon squad that got the rematch against the Tigers after losing 40-27 in the season opener at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. Instead, the committee settled on another duel between Nick Saban’s Tide and Les Miles’ Bayou Bengals.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Even with the game taking place in LSU’s backyard in New Orleans, the Tigers came out tight against Alabama. Unable to gain any traction on offense, LSU ran just 17 plays, gained a total of 33 yards, and punted on all of their five first-half drives. But their defense was keeping them in the contest, as they kept holding Alabama to field goals. Jeremy Shelley went 3-for-4, hitting from 23 and 34 yards as well as a 41-yarder on the final play of the half. His 42-yard attempt early in the second quarter was blocked, though, and Alabama led just 9-0 at halftime.
Shelley was called upon to kick four more times in the second half. He went 2-for-3 on field goals once again, connecting from 35 and 44 but missing from 41. The kicker also missed the extra point after Trent Richardson’s 34-yard touchdown run iced the game with less than five minutes to play. Alabama vindicated the BCS’s decision to put them opposite LSU in the national championship, holding the Tigers to just 82 total yards of offense.
9. 1994 Orange Bowl
#1 Florida State d. #2 Nebraska 18-16
BEFORE THE GAME
The Bowl Coalition had succeeded in putting together a definitive national championship in its first year of existence, and the Big Ten and Pac-10 cooperated yet again to provide a pair of flawed champions. 9-1-1 Wisconsin met 8-3 UCLA on New Year’s Day on the Bruins’ home field, neither in the hunt for the national title. Thus the Orange Bowl gained the opportunity to feature its first national championship game since 1972.
Florida State had opened the season at number one in the polls to start the 1993 season, and only a 31-24 loss at #2 Notre Dame in mid-November blemished an otherwise stellar Seminoles season. Once the Fighting Irish fell at home to Boston College the following week, Florida State was right back in the top spot of the rankings. The ACC champs finished the year 11-1 and were locked into the Orange Bowl.
The Orange Bowl and Bowl Coalition couldn’t really go wrong regardless of which way the polls went after the final weekend. Ultimately it was 11-0 Big 8 champion Nebraska who got the nod ahead of 11-0 Big East champ West Virginia after taking down Oklahoma 21-7 in their regular season finale. The duel brought together the same two teams that had played in the Orange Bowl a year earlier. That time Florida State had taken down the Cornhuskers 27-14. This time it would not prove as easy.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Two of the top five offenses in the country were shut down by the respective defenses in a low-scoring championship game. Neither team could get in scoring range in the first quarter. Florida State scored first on a 34-yard Scott Bentley field goal midway through the second quarter. Nebraska needed less than two minutes to take the lead as Tommie Frazier found Reggie Baul for a 34-yard touchdown pass. Bentley kicked another field goal before halftime, and the two teams were a point apart at the intermission. Florida State scored on the opening drive of the second half, retaking the lead after William Floyd took it the last yard over the goal line. Scott Bentley kicked his third field goal of the game later in the third quarter to give Florida State a 15-7 lead.
The Cornhuskers snapped out of their funk as Lawrence Phillips scored on a 13-yard run early in the fourth quarter, and they thought they had the game won when Byron Bennett kicked a 27-yard field goal with 1:16 remaining to take a 16-15 lead. But they left the Seminoles too much time, and Bobby Bowden’s crew worked downfield to set up a chip shot for Bentley’s fourth field goal of the day. He knocked the 22-yard attempt through with 21 seconds remaining, and the FSU defense held on to secure the school’s first national championship.
8. 1979 Sugar Bowl
#2 Alabama d. #1 Penn State 14-7
BEFORE THE GAME
It was almost a manufactured 1-vs-2 championship that falls flat in the retelling. USC, champions of the newly expanded Pac-10, were locked into the Rose Bowl against Michigan. The Trojans had gone to Alabama and knocked off the Crimson Tide at Legion Field in Birmingham, but they had zero chance of playing Penn State. That head-to-head win would prove critical in the final voting, as the two human polls deciding on different national champions.
Penn State held all the cards heading into the postseason. The Nittany Lions were the only team to finish the regular season undefeated, and as an independent they were not locked into a particular destination. Joe Paterno’s offense, led by quarterback Chuck Fusina and a multifaceted running game, averaged just under 30 points per game. The defense was holding opponents to nine points per game, though they had also done so against a schedule that ranked outside the 30 toughest of that season.
The Nittany Lions were originally looking to face off against Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, but Bear Bryant lobbied to bring them to New Orleans instead. The previous year Bryant’s team had missed out on a national championship when Notre Dame passed Alabama to move from fifth to first in the final polls after a win over top-ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl. He wanted to make sure that would not happen again, and the result was the first 1-vs-2 showdown in New Orleans at the new Superdome.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Alabama’s elephant mascot Big Al officially debuted at this bowl game for the AP national championship, and Tide fans in attendance had plenty to celebrate. They witnessed a defensive battle in which the Penn State offense was held completely in check through the first half. Bryant’s team had little success moving the ball as well, finally breaking the scoreless deadlock eight seconds before halftime as Bruce Bolton dove for a 30-yard Jeff Rutledge strike in the endzone. Bama took a 7-0 lead into the locker room.
Penn State came out in the second half and looked at least a little more competent on offense. Fusina tied the game in the third quarter with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Scott Fitzkee. Later in the period, though, PSU’s special teams gave up a 62-yard punt return to set up Alabama’s go-ahead touchdown. Penn State missed several chances to tie the game, as Fusina threw for just 163 yards with four picks. Yet the Nittany Lions still had a shot to win in the closing moments, with the ball on the Tide 1 and three chances to punch it in.
Bryant’s defense held firm, preventing Paterno’s charges from tying the contest. But even after engineering the 1-vs-2 matchup, Alabama had to settle for only a share of the national title. The Coaches poll, remembering the head-to-head win by the Trojans on the road in the Yellowhammer State, crowned the Rose Bowl victors the national champions over the Sugar Bowl winners.
7. 2001 Orange Bowl
#1 Oklahoma d. #2 Florida State 13-2
BEFORE THE GAME
The third year of the Bowl Championship Series was fraught with curious decisions. Oklahoma had run the table to win the Big 12, scoring 39 points per game with an offense that featured Heisman runner-up Josh Heupel at quarterback. The Sooners knocked off Texas, Kansas State, and Nebraska in October to rise up the polls, putting them in pole position for the rest of the year in the BCS rankings.
The question was who they would face in the title game. Florida State entered 2000 as the defending BCS national champions and were an overwhelming favorite to return to the title game for a third straight season. Things eventually played out to put the Seminoles into position to defend their crown, but there was plenty of controversy surrounding their selection to face Oklahoma by the end of the season.
The Seminoles were selected ahead of a Miami team that had defeated them head-to-head in early October. But Miami had themselves lost to Pac-10 co-champion Washington in September, and the Huskies also had a strong case at 10-1. But UW was hurt by the fact that Oregon State and Oregon had also finished with 7-1 records in league play to share the Pac-10 title. Ultimately Florida State got the nod once again as a top-two team, pitting Heisman winner Chris Weinke against the undefeated quarterback he beat for the individual award.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
The 2001 Orange Bowl is the lowest-scoring national championship game on this list, as the two teams combined for just 15 total points. Second-year head coach Bob Stoops engineered a game plan that clamped down on Weinke and the Seminoles offense. Weinke completed fewer than half of his passes, averaging 5.4 yards per attempt and throwing two interceptions. The Seminoles held Oklahoma to just one Tim Duncan field goal in the first half, though, and they were locked in a 3-0 defensive struggle at halftime.
Duncan kicked a second field goal to put Oklahoma up 6-0 heading into the fourth quarter. Weinke had the ball knocked out of his hands on the following drive by Rocky Calmus, and Roy Williams recovered the fumble on the FSU 15. Quentin Griffin punched in the ball two plays later for a 13-0 lead with less than eight minutes remaining. The Seminoles avoided the shutout with a safety late in the game, but the Sooners controlled the ball for 13 more minutes than their opponents and kept Florida State from ever recovering its way back into the contest.
6. 1987 Fiesta Bowl
#2 Penn State d. #1 Miami 14-10
BEFORE THE GAME
College football was presented with an interesting situation in 1986, as the top two teams in the country were both undefeated independent powerhouses. With the Orange Bowl committed to the Big 8 champion, the Sugar Bowl locked into hosting the SEC champion, the SWC guaranteed a spot in the Cotton Bowl, and both the Big Ten and Pac-10 secure in their Rose Bowl affiliation, there were a limited number of places where the first and second teams in the polls might square off against one another.
Enter the Fiesta Bowl. Formed in the 1970s to provide a guaranteed annual destination for the WAC champion, the Fiesta Bowl had turned into one of the preeminent bowls in the country. Only the Citrus Bowl in Orlando also had the capability of featuring a national championship between independent schools, and the two aspiring bowls battled to land the pair. Eventually they decided on Arizona for their destination, and for the only time prior to the Coalition/Alliance era the Fiesta Bowl hosted a national championship game.
The game was advertised as a battle between “Good” Penn State and “Evil” Miami. The Hurricanes reveled in their villain status, arriving in the desert in fatigues to hype the showdown as warfare. Throughout the week leading up to the game, the enmity built until things had boiled over by gametime. Both teams were vying to win a second national championship in the 1980s, and the Fiesta Bowl would set new TV viewing records for a college game.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
The two defenses took center stage at the beginning of the Fiesta Bowl. Miami had a much easier time gaining leverage against the Nittany Lions, but they couldn’t translate that success into points. Penn State had a much tougher time moving the ball, and they would ultimately finish the game with fewer than 200 total yards of offense. But as the game advanced toward halftime, Melvin Bratton put Miami on the scoreboard first with a short touchdown run with less than seven minutes in the second quarter. Penn State responded with less than two minutes remaining as John Shaffer tied things up on a quarterback run.
Miami didn’t score again until less than 12 minutes remained in regulation, taking a 10-7 lead on a 38-yard Mark Seelig field goal. D.J. Dozier restored the Penn State lead two and a half minutes later on an eight-yard TD run. The Hurricanes outgained their opponents nearly three-to-one on offense, but seven total turnovers proved Miami’s downfall. Vinny Testaverde threw five interceptions, the last intercepted in the red zone in the waning seconds of the game. The last turnover sealed the second national championship in five years for Paterno and the Nittany Lions.
5. 2011 BCS National Championship
#1 Auburn d. #2 Oregon 22-19
BEFORE THE GAME
Only two major conference teams managed to finish the 2010 regular season undefeated, and there was no way that the BCS was going to let Mountain West champion TCU pip either of their positions in the national championship game. The Horned Frogs were the only other unbeaten team, and they were forced to settle for a date with Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Two years before realigning with the Big 12, Gary Patterson’s team demonstrated both the advances that BCS Busters had made over the past five years as well as the limits that remained on smaller schools.
With transfer quarterback Cam Newton executing offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn’s game plan, the Auburn Tigers averaged more than six touchdowns per game as they ran the table and won the SEC. The defense was allowing over 24 points per game, with similar splits at home and on the road away from the Plains. With the SEC having won the four previous BCS titles, there was no way that the Tigers would be kept out of the championship game after running the table.
Their opponents were Pac-12 champions Oregon. In his second year as a head coach, Chip Kelly had the Ducks running on all cylinders. The offense ranked first in the nation, scoring an average of more than seven touchdowns per game on its way to an undefeated regular season. The defense, long a point of contention in Eugene, featured a top-20 unit that specialized in bending rather than breaking. Added all up, the Ducks were a surefire opponent to square off against Auburn in Arizona.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
One of the most competitive BCS championships featured four lead changes before halftime. Neither team managed to get in scoring range during the first quarter, and Oregon scored first on a Rob Beard field goal less than a minute into the second frame. Newton found Kodi Burns for a 35-yard touchdown catch a few minutes later to give Auburn its first lead of the game. LaMichael James regained the lead for the Ducks when he hauled in Darron Thomas’ TD pass 62 seconds after the Auburn score, but that lead evaporated right before halftime on another Newton scoring strike.
Oregon tied the game up with two and a half minutes remaining, and it seemed as though the Ducks would force overtime. Then Michael Dyer was tackled without actually hitting the ground, the whistle never rang, and he returned upright to rush into field goal range. The Tigers worked downfield and set up Wes Byrum for a 19-yard attempt to win the game on the final play of regulation. The kick was true through the uprights, and Auburn finally won its first national championship since the late 1950s. After going undefeated in 1993 and 2004 without a title to show for their troubles, the third time was a charm for Auburn.
4. 2009 BCS National Championship
#2 Florida d. #1 Oklahoma 24-14
BEFORE THE GAME
The BCS was faced with the specter of several strong teams after the final weekend of the 2008 regular season. Between November 16 and December 7, the last four BCS rankings of the year featured five different teams in the top two spots. No team finished the year without a loss on its record, and it came down to the human polls and the computer rankings to parse out which among the flawed conference champions was most worthy of the chance to play for the crystal pigskin.
Pac-10 champion USC lost at Oregon State on the last Thursday of September, but since that time they had rattled off nine straight wins to run away with the conference title. SEC champion Florida was taken down by Ole Miss at home two days after the Trojans lost in Corvallis, and their win over then-undefeated Alabama in the SEC title game effectively eliminated the Tide from contention. Penn State lost by a point at Iowa in late November. All three lost to opponents that finished the season 9-4, but it was the Gators who ultimately got the benefit of the doubt after winning the title two years earlier.
They faced an Oklahoma team that was ranked first overall but that had questions of its own. The Big 12 South was the most contentious division in the FBS in 2008, as the Sooners finished in a three-way tie with Texas and Texas Tech. Oklahoma had lost to the Longhorns in the Red River Shootout by 10 and defeated the Red Raiders by 44 in Norman. Texas Tech had knocked off the Longhorns by six in Lubbock. The BCS rankings were used to decide which of the trio played Missouri in the Big 12 championship, and Oklahoma leapfrogged Texas in the penultimate rankings of the season. Getting to play in the title game, Bob Stoops’ squad obliterated Mizzou and moved into the top spot vacated by Alabama.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
The past two Heisman winners were set to battle in Miami for the top prize in college football. Tim Tebow, the 2007 recipient, got his team on the board first when he found Louis Murphy for a 20-yard score less than a minute into the second quarter. Sam Bradford, the reigning holder of the Heisman, responded by finding Jermaine Gresham on the following drive for a six-yard touchdown. The defenses otherwise held firm for the rest of the first half, and the Sooners and Gators were gridlocked at 7-7 at halftime.
Percy Harvin capped a long Florida drive with a two-yard scoring run midway through the third quarter to give the Gators a seven-point lead. Oklahoma had a 49-yard field goal attempt blocked on the ensuing drive, but the next time the Sooners got the ball Bradford and Gresham connected again to tie the score at 14-14 early in the fourth quarter. Florida regained the lead on a field goal, and then Bradford was intercepted in Gators territory on the next series. That allowed Tebow to ice the game with his second TD pass of the game, this time to David Nelson from four yards out, and the UF defense forced a four-and-out on Oklahoma’s last drive to seal the school’s second national championship in three seasons.
3. 2006 Rose Bowl
#2 Texas d. #1 USC 41-38
BEFORE THE GAME
USC and Texas were on a collision course for one another from the preseason onward. Both the AP and Coaches Top 25 had the Trojans and Longhorns locked into their top two spots from the first poll to the last, and no other team seemed able to assert itself enough to merit consideration. Losses to Miami and Florida State knocked Virginia Tech out of the running. Penn State’s loss at Michigan blemished their chances. And if Virginia Tech was out, so too was the West Virginia team that won the Big East but lost out of conference to the Hokies.
Really, though, the choice was simple. Two teams finished the regular season, and those two teams squared off for the national championship. USC headed to Pasadena with a 34-game winning streak, having won the AP national championship in 2003 and an undisputed crown in 2004. Pete Carroll’s star-studded squad featured two Heisman winners, quarterback Matt Leinart and running back Reggie Bush, in the same backfield. They beat opponents by an average score of 50-21 as they sought a third straight national title.
They faced Heisman finalist Vince Young and the Big 12 champion Longhorns. Texas had been even more formidable offensively, scoring one more point per game during the regular season than USC. They also boasted a much stronger defense, one that gave up just 14.6 points on average. Mack Brown’s team headed west after a 67-point blowout of Colorado in the Big 12 championship game, and they had won 19 straight entering their second straight Rose Bowl appearance.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Texas and USC showed why they were clearly the top two teams in the country in a down-to-the-wire thriller. The Trojans scored on their opening drive, with LenDale White getting the touchdown on the ground two and a half minutes into the game. The defenses took over for the next quarter as things remained close. Then the Longhorns scored 16 unanswered points before Mario Danelo kicked a 46-yard field goal in the waning moments to tightened USC’s deficit to 16-10 at the intermission.
There were three lead changes in the third quarter, as White scored two more rushing touchdowns and Young notching his first score of the game. Reggie Bush gave USC an eight-point lead less than four minutes into the final frame, and when Matt Leinart found Dwayne Jarrett with just over six minutes remaining to put the Trojans up 38-26 it appeared as though Carroll’s crew had pulled through in the end. But Young had other ideas, as he ran in his second touchdown of the game with four minutes left.
The defense got the ball back for Young and the Texas offense after stopping a fourth-down play, and Young earned MVP honors by capping his 467 total yards of offense with the game-winning touchdown with 19 seconds remaining. Many are likely to still consider this the most iconic and memorable championship showdown in college football history, though two others also merit consideration.
2. 1963 Rose Bowl
#1 USC d. #2 Wisconsin 42-37
BEFORE THE GAME
Until the 1963 Rose Bowl, the two teams that finished the regular season ranked first and second in the AP poll had never met one another in a postseason bowl game. Back then polls still ended with the regular season, and thus this game was not officially a national championship game. The oldest bowl game on the calendar was celebrating its 60th season that year, and it managed to land the premier matchup of the 1962-1963 postseason.
USC was the top-ranked team in the country. The Trojans had won the AAWU, which had formed a few years earlier in the wake of the Pacific Coast Conference’s dissolution. Without either Oregon school it was essentially the Pac-6. In John McKay’s third season, USC ran the table and was one of just three teams to go undefeated and untied throughout 1962. During the regular season they pitched three shutouts and held opponents to an average of 5.5 yards per game.
It wasn’t a guarantee that their opponent, Wisconsin, would be rated second in the polls. The Badgers had lost once in Big Ten play, 14-7 at Ohio State, but the Buckeyes would also end the year 13th in the coaches poll (the AP poll only released a top 10 at that time). Wisconsin boasted the highest-powered offense in the country, averaging more than 30 points per game even before the shootout at the Rose Bowl. The Badgers beat out 9-0 SEC champion Ole Miss and 9-0-1 SWC champ Texas for the second spot in both polls. Thus the first 1-vs.-2 matchup was arranged in a bowl game.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
The showdown certainly lived up to its hype as a Game of the Century. USC scored first on a 13-yard pass from Pete Beathard to Ron Butcher. Wisconsin tied things up in the first quarter thanks to a plunge over the line by fullback Ralph Kurek, but the Trojans added two more touchdowns before halftime and scored right away in the third quarter to build a 28-7 lead. By early in the fourth quarter, USC had a 42-14 lead and looked like a definitive #1 team.
Then Ron Vander Kelen took over the game. The Wisconsin quarterback led three touchdown drives and USC gifted two more points on a bad snap that resulted in a safety as the Badgers furiously fought for a comeback. Vander Kelen finished the game with a then-record 33-of-48 performance for 401 yards and two scores through the air along with a 17-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter, but he also threw three interceptions in the narrow loss.
Wisconsin set a Rose Bowl record with 32 first downs, as one of the greatest Rose Bowls in history ended in a five-point Trojan victory. Modern offensive numbers obscure just how stunning and ahead of its time this game was, and help to explain why it rates just ahead of the USC/Texas Rose Bowl on this list of championship games.
1. 2017 CFP National Championship
#2 Clemson d. #1 Alabama 35-31
BEFORE THE GAME
The most recent national championship game featured the two teams that had met the previous year, the first time a title game rematch had been engineered. The big questions heading into the third College Football Playoff were not Alabama and Clemson but rather the two teams they faced in the semifinals. For the first time, two out of the five major-conference champions were left out of the four-team field in favor of a team that failed to win its division, and one conference nearly landed two teams in the bracket.
Ohio State, which lost its only game of the season against Big Ten champion Penn State, was slotted into the third seed and faced Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. The last slot came down to a question of the Nittany Lions or Pac-12 winners Washington. With one fewer loss, the Huskies earned the right to face Alabama in the Peach Bowl. Oklahoma, which had lost in September against the Buckeyes, was held out of the discussion despite winning the Big 12.
In the Peach Bowl, Alabama shut down Jake Browning and the Huskies offense and got a huge rushing performance from Bo Scarborough to advance to the title game for the second straight year. The 24-7 win booked the Tide’s trip to Tampa for the title game. Clemson did even better in Arizona, holding Ohio State to the first shutout of Urban Meyer’s coaching career on its way to a 31-0 blowout of the Buckeyes. Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney brought their teams to the home of the Buccaneers with another national championship on the line.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Scarborough got things off to a quick start, scoring just over five minutes into the game on a 25-yard run into the endzone. The sturdy back had broken out in the Peach Bowl, and he appeared the key to Alabama’s championship hopes in Tampa. Early in the second quarter he added a second touchdown run, this time from 37 yards out, and the Crimson Tide appeared to be rolling along to another easy win after being pushed to the brink by Clemson the previous year. But Deshaun Watson drove the Tigers down in response, running in the ball himself for the touchdown to halve the halftime deficit at 14-7.
Things opened up in the second half. A Clemson fumble was converted into three points on a short Adam Griffith field goal. Watson found Hunter Renfrow for a 24-yard touchdown strike, but then left tight end O.J. Howard streaking completely free up the sideline for a 68-yard touchdown pass from Jalen Hurts. The Alabama touchdown put the Tide up 24-14 heading into the fourth quarter. Watson threw another touchdown pass to Mike Williams early in the final frame, and the Tigers took their first lead of the game on Wayne Gallman’s short touchdown run with less than five minutes remaining.
Hurts rushed for a go-ahead touchdown that put Alabama up by three with two minutes remaining. Watson, the Heisman runner-up playing in his final college game, drove Clemson to the shadow of the goal line. A pass interference call moved the Tigers to the Bama 2, and a rub route opened the way for Renfrow to catch the winning score with one second remaining. Swinney called a successful onside attempt on the ensuing kickoff, and Watson took one last knee before rising at the final whistle as a national champion. The combination of team quality and excitement level elevate this game to the greatest national championship contest in college football history.
Explaining Methodology Behind Championship Rankings
As mentioned briefly in the introduction, these rankings are an attempt to take a more measured approach toward remembering and ranking the greatest championship games from across over five decades of history. By no means is any ranking going to be perfectly objective, but what we have done is work from a few critical points of statistical analysis to try to avoid such issues as recency bias.
Before explaining how the rankings were calculated, here is the spreadsheet of data from which everything you have read is based:
The key columns for calculation purposes are as follows:
- WP = Winning Points
- LP = Losing Points
- MOV = Margin of Victory
- W/SRS = Winner’s SRS score from College Football Reference
- L/SRS = Loser’s SRS score from College Football Reference
- UPSET = Gap between W/SRS and L/SRS to determine favorite/underdog success rate
- SRS VALUE = SRS of both participants combined with Upset value
- SCORING = Percentage valuation of competitiveness based on Margin of Victory
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The final score is determined by multiplying the SRS Value with the Scoring component. Closer games are given more weight than blowouts under this method. SRS is a normalizing metric that allows for weighting the quality of teams across disparate periods of time. As such it was utilized here as a means of comparing games from the three decades when polls alone determined whether a game pitted number one versus number two; the first attempts to create an annual championship under the Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance system; the shifting calculations of the Bowl Championship Series era; and the modern plus-one model of the College Football Playoff.