Ranking the All-Time Greatest College Football Blue Bloods
- With coaches Bear Bryant and Nick Saban leading the way, Alabama is among the college football blue blood programs.
- The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry has helped propel both schools to elite levels in college football history.
- USC and Notre Dame are among the top college football programs of all time.
The transfer portal and the Name and Image Likeness era have changed the landscape of college football. However, in the 2023 College Football Playoffs, college football blue blood programs were in the title chase, with Michigan winning it all and Alabama falling in the semifinals.
That doesn’t figure to change even as the College Football Playoff field has been expanded from four to 12 teams.
When looking at the most successful college football programs, Yale leads the way with 19 national titles. However, the last of those titles came in 1909, so the Bulldogs will not make the list of college football blue bloods.
Here’s a look at the college football programs considered blue bloods. The BetUS NCAAF sportsbook listed many as top title contenders during the 2024 season.
Looking at the College Football Blue Blood Programs
1. Alabama Crimson Tide
Bear Bryant put Alabama football on the map when he won six national titles while coaching the Crimson Tide from 1958 to 1982. Bryant’s Alabama squad won the SEC title nine times in 11 years.
When he retired, many thought Alabama would never approach that level again. Then Nick Saban came along.
Saban won a national title at LSU in 2003. After a failed stint in the NFL, he returned to college football and led the Crimson Tide to six championships from 2009 to 2020. He won at least ten games in each of his last 16 seasons with the Crimson Tide, which pushes Alabama to the top of the list of college football blue-blood teams.
2. Michigan Wolverines
Except for the 1871 season, when no national champion was recognized, an Ivy League team either won or shared the title from 1869 to 1900. That changed in 1901 when Michigan was the consensus national championship team.
The Wolverines won national titles in 1923, 1933, and 1948 but didn’t win another championship until winning a split national title in 1997. That is more than enough to consider Michigan among the college football blue bloods.
Michigan returned to the top of the college football world with an undefeated season in 2023 before many of its stars and head coach Jim Harbaugh left for the NFL.
Michigan became the first college football program to win at least 1000 games.
3. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame is tied with Ohio State and Oklahoma for second in developing Heisman Trophy winners. It is impossible to write the history of college football without mentioning the Fighting Irish’s impact over the years.
Notre Dame probably would have been a little higher on this list a few decades ago. However, the last national title came in 1988, and the last Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame was receiver Tim Brown in 1987.
The Fighting Irish have won over 73% of their games, and only Alabama, Michigan, and Ohio State can say that. That is the definition of a CFB blue blood.
4. Ohio State Buckeyes
It is easy to remember how recent Ohio State teams have fallen short in the quest to win the national championship and forget how long the Buckeyes have fielded title contenders.
Woody Hayes led the Buckeyes to five national championships from 1954 to 1970.
Ohio State won its first national championship in 1942 and has been a contender to add to the total nearly every decade since.
Running back Archie Griffin is the only two-time winner of the Heisman Trophy, but he is far from the only star player to wear the Buckeyes‘ uniform.
It would be hard to find a rivalry that has withstood the test of time better than the one between Michigan and Ohio State.
5. USC Trojans
The Trojans lag behind some other programs in career wins and winning percentage. However, the Trojans have a record eight Heisman Trophy winners when quarterback Caleb Williams won the award following the 2022 season, which gives the Trojans claim of the No. 5 spot.
USC won two national titles in the 1960s and three more in the 1970s. The Trojans climbed back to the top of the college football world in 2003 and 2004.
Best of the Rest
Miami had an incredible run under Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, and Dennis Erickson but needed to sustain the success longer to make the top five.
Oklahoma and Texas could have easily made the top five as they have been relevant to college football blue-blood programs for decades.
These are challenging times at Nebraska, but the Cornhuskers might have fielded the best college football team of all time, according to the rankings of the top 10 football teams.
A decade from now, Georgia figures to be in the top five if the Bulldogs continue to win at their current pace, while Penn State is another team that has enjoyed sustained success. Penn State’s Joe Paterno still leads the way among the best CFB coaches with the most wins.
What Does A Blue Blood Mean In Sports?
The term “Blue Blood” is more commonly used in college basketball, where programs like Duke, Kansas, and North Carolina have been in the running for national titles in different decades and with other coaches.
When it comes to Blue Blood college football programs, it can be tricky because Ivy League powers Princeton and Yale dominated the sport in the early years. Army was another program that was a title contender decades ago.
Teams change with the times. Miami and Florida State had memorable runs, Clemson has been in the title chase many times since the 1980s, and programs like Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, and Alabama have won games in many different decades.
