5 college football teams that could win first-ever national title in 2022

Winning a national title isn’t easy and these five college football teams have found that out the hard way. But that could change in 2022.

National titles don’t just grow on trees — unless you’re Alabama.

The elite programs like Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, Clemson, and Georgia have all won national titles in recent years, but they’re all on a different level than the rest of college football.

There will always be surprise programs rising up and contending for national titles, but most teams that are in contention have won at least one. Most teams have taken home a title because, before the modern era, college football had 5-6 national champions in some seasons.

Somehow it’s possible that there are still FBS programs without a national title to their name.

That could change this season for these five programs.

5. Cincinnati

Cincinnati has never won a national title and the Bearcats came closer than ever to changing that in 2021 by becoming the first-ever Group of Five team to make the playoff.

Luke Fickell has the Bearcats in a good spot heading into the 2022 season but they’re losing Desmond Ridder which might put a damper on the AAC repeat hopes. If the Bearcats want to be the top-ranked Group of Five team yet again, Evan Prater needs to step up to the plate.

The Bearcats look to be a Top 25 team to start the season and I truly believe that Prater is going to be one of the top quarterbacks in the Group of Five before too long.

That defense will be elite again and if the offense keeps pace, there’s no telling how far the Bearcats can go. They’ve shown they can get to the playoff under Fickell and I wouldn’t be shocked if they made another run at it with national title aspirations.