The 2024 college football season is well underway as well over 100 programs vie for the next of the College Football Playoff national titles. According to Winsipedia, 42 active FBS programs have won at least one national championship at the FBS level.
With conference realignment taking hold this fall, who takes over the mantle of “Conference of Champions,” at least in terms of football? The Pac-12 dissolved and was cannibalized. The SEC has dominated the game since the turn of the millennium.
Let’s take a look at each conference and how many FBS titles the current makeup has won. In parentheses, we will note how many CFP titles won.
Should the NCAA go back and audit old titles? Perhaps that’s a discussion for another day…
Ranking the College Football Conferences by National Titles
Big Ten Conference: 65 (2)
Michigan: 12 (1)*
USC: 11
Ohio State: 8 (1)
Minnesota: 7
Michigan State: 6
Illinois: 5
Iowa: 5
Nebraska: 5
Penn State: 2
Washington: 2
Maryland: 1
UCLA: 1
The new “Conference of Champions?” The Big Ten clocks in under this new makeup with 65 titles all-time. And, to make it better, they have the reigning champion for the time being.
There are only four programs with more than 10 claimed national titles and two of them now reside in the Big Ten conference.
Yes, Minnesota has seven titles. They won five between 1934 and 1941.
With how it’s currently made up, the Big Ten has become one of the two Big 2 conferences with the SEC and will likely fight with the SEC for most CFP bids this year. Ohio State, Oregon, and Penn State have looked like serious contenders while USC and Nebraska are looking to make a little noise.
Southeastern Conference: 56 (6)
Alabama: 18 (3)
Oklahoma: 7
Tennessee: 6
Georgia: 4 (2)
LSU: 4 (1)
Texas: 4
Florida: 3
Ole Miss: 3
Texas A&M: 3
Auburn: 2
Arkansas: 1
Kentucky: 1
Since the advent of the BCS system, the SEC has won 15 national titles. Then, if you want to include the new programs, that number increases to 17 in 26 seasons. There was a stretch there at the end of the BCS that the SEC won seven in a row.
While Alabama and Nick Saban have owned college football in that time, those 17 titles were won by seven different programs. One of those (2019 LSU) is widely considered to be among the greatest college football teams assembled in history.
What else is to say? The SEC had periods of dominance way back when. However, once titles were decided on the field and not just by vibes and random polls, they cleaned house.
Are there some less-than-scrupulous titles sprinkled in there (1941 Alabama, 1973 Alabama, 1967 Tennessee, etc.)? Sure! But, like certain titles that should be stripped due to cheating or bogus random polls in the playoff era, they still stand. Enjoy the banners!
Atlantic Coast Conference: 36 (2)
Pitt: 9
California: 5
Miami (FL): 5
Georgia Tech: 4
Clemson: 3 (2)
Florida State: 3
SMU: 3
Stanford: 2
Boston College: 1
Syracuse: 1
The ACC may not exist in five years. However, as it stands, they own the third most titles as a group!
Pitt leads the way thanks to eight titles from 1915 through 1937.
At the beginning of the BCS era, it was all about the U. Although, even at its hight in the early 2000s, the Hurricanes only won one title. Given, that 2001 Miami (FL) team rivals the 2019 LSU team as the greatest team assembled. Too bad they weren’t able to win back-to-back titles…
The new ACC programs add 10 titles, so this could have been significantly worse.
Independents: 11
Notre Dame: 11
For the 2024 season, there are just three FBS Independents left: Notre Dame, UConn, and UMass (set to join the MAC).
Obviously, Notre Dame leads the way.
The Fighting Irish earned their blueblood status thanks to seven national titles from 1924 though 1949. Since then, Notre Dame was awarded titles in 1966, 1973, 1977, and 1988. Ever since they made teams earn titles on the football field, however, the Irish are noticeably absent from the ranks…
Big 12 Conference: 6
TCU: 2
BYU: 1
Colorado: 1
Oklahoma State: 1
UCF: 1
The Big 12 was picked over and this is what is left.
They have the same number of titles as a conference that was created just over a decade ago.
And they’re only tied thanks to an interesting decision to give UCF a title in 2017. Yes, they went undefeated, but were they beating Alabama that year?
American Athletic Conference: 6
Army: 5
Navy: 1
Finally, two of the three service academies have taken home national titles. Oddly enough, around the same time we were winning WWI and WWII, the Black Knights were taking home the hardware!
Navy’s lone title was in 1926.
