5 worst Power Five programs of BCS, College Football Playoff era

We often praise champions and near-champions. Which Power Five college football programs have been the worst since the advent of the BCS era?

Recently we took a look at the five best FBS programs that failed to capture a national championship over the 16-year run of the BCS and the first three years of the College Football Playoff. When the BCS came online in 1998, it furthered the goals of the Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance and created the closest thing possible to a national title game. There have been bumps along the way, and now the system is expanded to a four-team model.

But even with double the access, the system is still rather insular. Only a dozen teams have won the national championship since 1998. Only five others have entered the postseason with a shot at the title. The College Football Playoff has opened the door for teams like Michigan State and Washington to earn a spot at the table in recent years. But Clemson’s CFP title in January was the first time since Auburn in 2010 that a new winner was crowned during this modern era.

That means over 100 FBS programs have effectively been playing for postseason consolation prizes. For the schools on this list, even the expanded number of bowl games on the postseason calendar has often been out of reach. At these programs, it hardly matters whether there are two or four teams in the national championship picture.

Find out which Power Five college football programs have performed the worst over the past two decades.