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Top College Football Programs of All Time (1901-Present)

This list of the greatest college football programs of all time is based on total top-25 ranking points from 1901 to the present (25 points for each 1st place finish, 24 for 2nd, etc., down to 1 point for each 25th place finish). For this purpose, of course, I am using my fixed AP polls for the seasons 1936-2023, and I am using my fixed hypothetical AP polls for the seasons 1901-1935. Football existed for many years prior to 1901, but in my opinion the sport was too regional, and too small in competent participants, for national top 25s to hold much meaning prior to 1901.

There are any number of ways to measure the greatest college football programs of all time, including total wins, winning percentage, and national championships. But wins and winning percentage do not take into account strength of opposition faced, and national championships put too much emphasis on too few years, allow for much less differentiation among teams when listing them, and for most of college football history, they didn't really exist. Also, teams can be great without winning a national championship, and listing teams by national championships just treats the #2 team in a given season as being the same as the #102 team, and that is just ridiculous.

So here it is, my list of the top college football programs of all time. Teams that currently compete in the top division of college football are in bold.

1	Michigan	1661.5
2	Notre Dame	1523.5
3	Ohio State	1430.5
4	Alabama	1333.5
5	Southern Cal	1188
6	Oklahoma	1139
7	Nebraska	1058
8	Penn State	938.5
9	Texas	923.5
10	Tennessee	903.5
11	Georgia	838.5
12	Louisiana State	785.5
13	Minnesota	784.5
14	Pittsburgh	757
15	Wisconsin	742.5
16	Auburn	727
17	Army	717.5
18	Florida	698.5
19	Washington	637.5
20	Florida State	630.5
21	UCLA	620.5
22	Miami (Florida)	587
23	Georgia Tech	564
24	Michigan State	544
25	Princeton	530
26	Stanford	525.5
27	Iowa	519.5
28	Yale	514.5
29	Navy	510
30	Illinois	497.5
31	Clemson	496
32	Pennsylvania	464.5
33	Harvard	456.5
34	Arkansas	453
35	Dartmouth	442
36	Texas A&M	438
37	Syracuse	430
38	Purdue	428.5
39	California Mississippi	412.5
41	Oregon	392
42	Northwestern	366
43	Texas Christian	356.5
44	Colorado	322
45	Cornell	311.5
46	Missouri	310
47	Chicago	282.5
48	North Carolina	269
49	Duke	264
50	Oklahoma State	263
51	West Virginia	238
52	Arizona State	232.5
53	Virginia Tech	223
54	Maryland	215
55	Baylor	213
56	Tulane	203
57	Southern Methodist	202
58	Colgate	196
59	Vanderbilt	194.5
60	Washington & Jefferson	193.5
61	Kansas State	191
62	Washington State	190.5
63	Mississippi State Brown Carlisle	190
66	Lafayette	187.5
67	Oregon State	183
68	Houston	182.5
69	Boston College	153
70	Brigham Young	149.5
71	Rice	147.5
72	Kentucky	147
73	South Carolina	139
74	Texas Tech	137
75	Boise State Kansas	136
77	St. Mary's (California)	132
78	Fordham	130
79	Utah	129
80	Columbia	128
81	Georgetown	117
82	Santa Clara	111
83	North Carolina State	106
84	Arizona	101
85	Tulsa	96
86	Indiana	93.5
87	Virginia	89
88	Louisville	86
89	Swarthmore	85
90	Rutgers	83.5
91	Cincinnati	77
92	Centre	68
93	Duquesne	60
94	Miami (Ohio)	56
95	Carnegie	54
96	Holy Cross	53
97	Central Florida	52
98	Wyoming	50
99	Iowa State	45.5
100	Air Force	45
101	Amherst	42
102	Lehigh	32
103	Pacific	31
104	Toledo Wake Forest	30
106	Williams	29
107	Memphis	28
108	Villanova Detroit	26
110	Colorado State Louisiana San Diego State New York	23
114	East Carolina	18
115	Gettysburg	16
116	Hawaii Coastal Carolina	15
118	Sewanee	14.5
119	Marshall Nevada Bowling Green Temple Wesleyan Washington (Missouri)	14
125	Liberty	13
126	Colorado College Ursinus	12
128	San Francisco Virginia Military Institute Haskell	11
131	Southern Mississippi Western Michigan Fresno State Marquette	10
135	San Jose State William & Mary Southwestern (Texas)	9
138	Hardin-Simmons Arkansas A&M Centenary South Dakota	8
142	Appalachian State Knox	7
144	New Mexico State Delaware Denver St. Louis	6
148	UTEP Massachusetts Utah State Case	5
152	Washington & Lee	4
153	Ball State Troy Geneva Washburn	3
157	Tufts Trinity (Connecticut) Colorado Mines Ohio Medical Western Reserve	2
162	Ohio South Florida Buffalo West Virginia Wesleyan Vermont Oberlin	1
X	Northern Illinois Central Michigan Western Kentucky Boston George Washington	0

Michigan sits on the throne because of consistency. They were great right from the beginning, tying Wisconsin for #2 in my 1901 top 25, and their down periods have been few and of short duration since then. Harvard was #1 in 1901, so they took the initial lead in the all-time race. Harvard barely held on to that lead after 1902, when they finished #3 and Michigan #2, leaving Harvard just half a point ahead for both seasons combined.

Yale finished #1 in 1902, and they took the all-time lead away from Harvard in 1903 when they finished #2 and Harvard finished #8. Michigan finished tied with Minnesota for #3 that year, so they passed Harvard up as well, but they were 1 point behind Yale for 1901-1903 combined. Yale was the Team of the Aughts, finishing #2 in 1904, then #1, #1, #1, #3, and #1 over the following 5 seasons. That amazing run enabled Yale to remain the top all-time program through 1913.

Harvard recaptured the throne in 1914. Their comeback began with a #1 finish in 1908, and was followed by finishes of #2, #1, #7 (tied), #1, #1, #3, and #2 over the following 7 seasons. Meanwhile, Princeton passed up Michigan in 1913 for 3rd place over the 1901-1913 period. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were known as the "Big Three" back then, so it is little surprise that they were the top 3 programs in ranking points early in the century. They would remain the top 3 through 1924.

Harvard remained #1 in the all-time race from 1914 to 1925, but Michigan overtook them and captured the throne for the first time in their history in 1926. The old guard Eastern powers had started to fade not long after World War 1. Harvard finished unranked every season 1923-1928, and was basically done as a football power. Meanwhile, Michigan finished #4 in 1923, then #13, #2, and #2 over the next 3 seasons.

Michigan remained the top all-time football program from 1926 to 1936, but in 1937 they were briefly overtaken by Minnesota. Minnesota had also been powerful from the beginning, finishing #8 in 1901, but for decades they lagged behind Michigan and the Big Three Eastern powers. But Minnesota had a tremendous decade in the 1930s, including 3 straight national championships 1934-1936. They passed up both Princeton and Harvard in 1934 to secure 3rd place all-time, and they passed up Yale in 1935 to put them in 2nd behind Michigan.

Michigan, meanwhile, sunk into their worst down period to that point in history, finishing unranked for 4 straight seasons 1934-1937. But Minnesota's stay at the top didn't last long. They were #1 all-time for just 2 seasons, 1937 and 1938. In 1939, Minnesota finished unranked and Michigan finished #2, putting the Wolverines back on the all-time throne. And Michigan held on to the throne a very long time, from 1939 to 1966.

The team that passed them up was, of course, Notre Dame. Another Michigan down period had opened the door for this coup, as the Wolverines finished unranked 3 straight seasons 1965-1967. Notre Dame had been a strong minor and mid-major type team early in the 20th century, but in the 1920s they emerged as a major football powerhouse under legendary coach Knute Rockne. Still, the program had a lot of catching up to do, and it took subsequent eras of greatness under Frank Leahy and Ara Parseghian for Notre Dame to finally become the all-time top program.

Notre Dame's stay at the top lasted from 1967 to 1974. After 1974, Ara Parseghian retired, and Notre Dame finished unranked in 1975, Michigan #10, putting the Wolverines back on the throne for good. They have held on to the #1 all-time spot ever since, the longest period of time by far that any team has held the throne. And their lead over most top programs is now so huge, as you can see in the list on the left, that it will likely be decades before anyone overtakes them again, if ever.

NOTES:

Princeton is the top all-time program that is not in the FBS today, and they are still holding on to a spot in the all-time top 25. Yale was knocked out of the all-time top 25 in 2016.

The top 6 non-FBS teams of all time are all Ivy League teams. The 7th is the University of Chicago, which was a Big 10 team until they discontinued their football program in 1939.

Five teams that I have placed at the bottom of the list have zero poll points. These are teams that had been ranked in AP polls, but which I tossed out when fixing those AP polls. These teams are Northern Illinois, Central Michigan, Western Kentucky, George Washington, and Boston University.

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