College Football Blue Bloods: Ranking The 25 Best Football Schools

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Really, how good is your football school?

A whole lot of big name programs act the part, and they operate like football means everything, but unless the history is there and the wins piled up since the 1800s – or, at least rocked recently – you’re not a blue blood football school.

We did this for basketball, but that’s a different animal. That’s all about the NCAA Tournament – to go along with the success over the years – but college football is college football.

National championships are trickier in college football. Up until 1998, national titles were based on opinions – as opposed to college basketball with the NCAA Tournament providing a definitive answer. Even now there’s a panel of judges with way too much say on the football side.

That’s why the blue blood distinction is mostly about the regular seasons.

We made the criteria basic.

1) How many 10-win college football seasons does your school have? It’s an easy number, and it shows consistency and longevity. Back in the day teams didn’t even play ten games, so this gives some nod to the schools with more recent success.

2) This is only about the 134 schools currently playing in the FBS (no Princeton).

3) ONLY FBS seasons count, so some of the former FCS/D-IAA superstar programs don’t get any love for past greatness.

4) We deemphasize national titles a wee bit. Again, for most of the 150+ years of the game, national championships were based on an opinion at best, a guess at the worst. Also, we only recognize the national titles awarded by the major outlets at the time – don’t get mad at us, Alabama fans.

And by the way, we don’t care about NCAA sanctions or vacated wins.

College Football Schools: 10-Win Seasons

How many ten-win seasons – again, at the FBS level, only – do each of these programs have?

0 10-Win College Football Seasons

Akron, Charlotte, FIU, Georgia State, Indiana, Iowa State, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, North Texas, Sam Houston, Texas State, UConn, ULM, UMass, Vanderbilt

1 10-Win College Football Season

Buffalo, Duke, Eastern Michigan, Georgia Southern, James Madison, Kent State, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, NC State, Nevada, New Mexico, Old Dominion, Purdue, South Alabama, UAB, UNLV, UTEP, Virginia, Western Michigan

2 10-Win College Football Seasons

Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Liberty, New Mexico State, Rutgers, Southern Miss, USF, UTSA, Wake Forest, Western Kentucky

3 10-Win College Football Seasons

Arkansas State, Army (3 national titles), Ball State, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisiana, Mississippi State, Oregon State, Rice, San Jose State, Temple

4 10-Win College Football Seasons

Arizona, Boston College, Central Michigan, Illinois (2 national titles), Kentucky, Memphis, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah State

5 10-Win College Football Seasons

Appalachian State, Colorado State, Navy, Northwestern, Troy, Tulane

6 10-Win College Football Seasons

Bowling Green, Hawaii, Minnesota (6 national titles), Texas Tech, Washington State

7 10-Win College Football Seasons

Baylor, Cal (2 national titles), Louisville, Maryland (1 national title), Missouri, Northern Illinois, SMU, Syracuse (1 national titles), UCF, Wyoming

8 10-Win College Football Seasons

Cincinnati, Colorado (1 national title), Marshall, Miami University, North Carolina, Pitt (5 national titles), Tulsa

9 10-Win College Football Seasons

Georgia Tech (3 national titles), Houston, Michigan State (2 national titles), Ole Miss, San Diego State, Stanford(1 national title), Toledo, UCLA (1 national title), West Virginia

10 to 12 10-Win College Football Seasons

10 Air Force, Utah

11 Fresno State, Iowa, Oklahoma State

12 Arkansas, Texas A&M (2 national titles)

College Football Blue Blood Schools

@ColFootballNews: Here’s how we’re defining the blue blood college football schools – regular season consistency for a long, LONG time. Recent greatness – Miami – is one thing, and past glory with tons of past national titles – Minnesota – is great, but the short bursts don’t really make you a blue blood.

How many times did you come up with ten wins or more? It’s an easy round number to use as a cut-off, and it’s really, really hard to do. For another round number, 20 – that’s how many 10-win seasons are needed to make the “blue blood” cut.

Does that mean LSU and Clemson aren’t elite football schools? OF COURSE NOT – they’re next on the list to get into the VIP club – but …

Elite College Football Schools

Top 25 football schools – based on ranking, followed by number of 10-win seasons

T24 Arizona State 13

T24 Wisconsin 13

T21 Auburn 14

(2 National Titles)

T21 Oregon 14

T21 Virginia Tech 14

T19 Miami 15

(5 National Titles)

T19 Washington 15

(1 National Title)

T17 Florida 16

(3 National Titles

T17 TCU 16

(1 National Title)

T14 Boise State 18

T14 BYU 18

(1 National Title)

T14 LSU 18

(5 National Titles)

13 Clemson 19

(3 National Titles)

College Football Blue Bloods

To be here among the elite of the elite football schools, you need at least 20 seasons with ten wins or more.

12 Tennessee

10-Win Football Seasons: 20

SEC, 2 National Titles

11 Notre Dame

10-Win Football Seasons: 23

ACC, 12 National Titles

10 Texas

10-Win Football Seasons: 25

SEC, 4 National Titles

8 Florida State

10-Win Football Seasons: 26

ACC, 3 National Titles

9 Penn State

10-Win Football Seasons: 26

Big Ten, 4 National Titles

5 Georgia

10-Win Football Seasons: 28

SEC, 3 National Titles

6 Nebraska

10-Win Football Seasons: 28

Big Ten, 5 National Titles

7 USC

10-Win Football Seasons: 28

Big Ten, 9 National Titles

4 Ohio State

10-Win Football Seasons: 31

Big Ten, 6 National Titles

3 Michigan

10-Win Football Seasons: 32

Big Ten, 10 National Titles

2 Oklahoma

10-Win Football Seasons: 42

SEC, 7 National Titles

1 Alabama

10-Win Football Seasons: 44

SEC, 15 National Titles