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College Football Blue Bloods 2026: Ranking the 25 Best Programs
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- College Football Blue Bloods 2026: Ranking the 25 Best Programs
What are the true college football blue bloods?
Did you, or do you, go to a real football school? And after Indiana won the national championship, what does that really mean anymore?
Yeah, there might be several schools that are good at football now, but for a sport that first started in the 1800s, it takes more than just a few amazing years to be a true blue blood.
What Defines a College Football Blue Blood?
Sep 20, 2025; Norman, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma Sooners Sooner Schooner enters the field before the game against the Auburn Tigers at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. © Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
Being a college football school means that it really, really
cares about the sport.
Of course, the place should be defined by the academics, research, and the truly important things that happen there, but ...
Everyone has fun when their alma mater is good at football.
To try to define this, basically, you have to have lots and lots of wins over a long period of time to achieve blue blood status. Here's our basic criteria.
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1) How many 10-win or more college football seasons does your school have?It's an easy number, and it shows consistency and longevity. Teams didn't even play ten games for a long period of time, so this gives a little more respect to the recent stars.
2) This only includes the 136 schools currently playing in the FBS(so no Princeton or Yale).
3) ONLY FBS seasons count. This is only about the ten-win seasons at the highest of levels.
4) Yes, national titles matter. We only recognize the national titles awarded by the major outlets at the time
, and not every championship claimed by the schools. But this is more about greatness over time, and to be honest, for most of college football history, national titles were awarded on a guess.
College Football Schools: 10-Win Seasons
How many seasons with ten or more wins - again, at the FBS level, only- do each of these programs have? (Teams in bold and italic changed status.)
0
Akron, Charlotte, Delaware, FIU, Georgia State, Jacksonville State, Missouri State, Texas State, UConn, ULM, UMass
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1
Buffalo, Duke, Eastern Michigan, Georgia Southern, Iowa State, Kennesaw State , Kent State, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, NC State, Nevada, New Mexico, North Texas , Purdue, Sam Houston, South Alabama, UAB, UTEP, Vanderbilt
2
Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Indiana , James Madison , Liberty, New Mexico State, Old Dominion , Rutgers, Southern Miss, USF, UTSA, Virginia , Wake Forest, Western Kentucky, Western Michigan
3
Arkansas State, Ball State, Kansas, Kansas State, Mississippi State, Oregon State, Rice, San Jose State, Temple, UNLV
4
Arizona, Army (3 national titles), Boston College, Central Michigan, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah State
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5
Appalachian State, Colorado State, Illinois (2 national titles), Memphis, Northwestern, Ohio, Troy
6
Bowling Green, Hawaii, Minnesota (6 national titles), Tulane , Washington State
7
Baylor, Cal (2 national titles), Louisville, Maryland (1 national title), Navy , Northern Illinois, Texas Tech , UCF, Wyoming
8
Cincinnati, Colorado (1 national title), Miami University, Missouri , North Carolina, Pitt (5 national titles), SMU, Syracuse (1 national title), Tulsa
9
Georgia Tech (3 national titles), Marshall, Michigan State (2 national titles), San Diego State, Stanford (1 national title), Toledo, UCLA (1 national title), West Virginia
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10 to 12
10Air Force, Houston
11Fresno State, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss
, Utah
12Arkansas
True Football Schools
Dec 31, 2025; Arlington, TX, USA; Miami Hurricanes mascot Sebastian the Ibis celebrates in the fourth quarter against the Ohio State Buckeyes during the 2025 Cotton Bowl and quarterfinal game of the College Football Playoff at AT&T Stadium.© Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
Here's the bottom end of the top 25 football schools that just missed out on being among the blue bloods. This is based on ranking, followed by the number of seasons with ten more wins.
They might be true football schools, but they haven't hit the 20-season mark needed to make our cut of the elite of the elite blue bloods.
T25 Texas A&M
10-Win Football Seasons:13
Last Year: Not Ranked
T25 Wisconsin
10-Win Football Seasons:13
Last Year: 25
T22 Arizona State
10-Win Football Seasons:14
Last Year: T22
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T22 Virginia Tech
10-Win Football Seasons:14
Last Year: T22
T22 Auburn
10-Win Football Seasons:14
(2 National Titles)
Last Year: T22
21 Washington
10-Win Football Seasons:15
(1 National Title)
Last Year: T20
T19 TCU
10-Win Football Seasons:16
(1 National Title)
Last year: T17
T19 Oregon
10-Win Football Seasons:16
Last Year: T20
T17 Miami
10-Win Football Seasons:17
(5 National Titles)
Last Year: T17
T17 Florida
10-Win Football Seasons:16
(3 National Titles)
Last Year: T17
16 LSU
10-Win Football Seasons:18
(5 National Titles)
Last Year: 16
15 Boise State
10-Win Football Seasons:19
Last Year: T14
College Football Blue Bloods
Nov 29, 2025; Provo, Utah, USA; The BYU Cougars warm up before the game against the UCF Knights at LaVell Edwards Stadium. © Rob Gray-Imagn Images
To be here among the elite of the elite football schools, you need at least 20 seasons with ten wins or more.
We start with a brand new member ...
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T13. BYU
10-Win Football Seasons:20
(1 National Title)
Last Year: T14
1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2021, 2024, 2025
Welcome to the club, BYU. The program has played football for over 100 years, but it's a relatively new blue blood with all the 10-win seasons coming since 1979. Winning 11 in 2024 and 12 in 2025 got it here.
T13 Clemson
10-Win Football Seasons:20
ACC, (3 National Titles)
Last Year: 13
1948, 1978, 1981, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024
Clemson got in last year after its ACC Championship 10-4 season. The 11-0 season of 1948 started it all off, but the program took off in the late 1970s. Dabo, of course, took things to a whole other level.
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12 Tennessee
10-Win Football Seasons:21
SEC, 2 National Titles
Last Year: 12
1938, 1939, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1956, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1987, 1989, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2022, 2024
Tennessee's huge success has come in waves. It became a monster in the late 1930s under General Neyland, but there were plenty of gaps to go along with big runs of success.
11 Notre Dame
10-Win Football Seasons:25
ACC, 12 National Titles
Last Year: 11
1921, 1924, 1930, 1949, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2002, 2006, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025
There aren't as many double-digit win seasons as you might think for this
program, but it's still impressive. With Notre Dame, it's more about consistent winning, with just 12 losing seasons in 119 years.
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10 Florida State
10-Win Football Seasons:26
ACC, 3 National Titles
Last Year: T9
1977, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2022, 2023
A relatively new blue blood, there were some amazing years under Jimbo Fisher - everyone forgets that he had six seasons with double-digit wins - in his first seven years, but of course, this is Bobby Bowden's program.
T8 Texas
10-Win Football Seasons:27
SEC, 4 National Titles
Last Year: T9
1947, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1990, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2018, 2023, 2024, 2025
Steve Sarkisian has brought the glory back, but the nine straight double-digit win seasons under Mack Brown and the great years under Darrell Royal put Texas firmly on the blue blood list.
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T8 Penn State
10-Win Football Seasons:27
Big Ten, 4 National Titles
Last Year: 8
1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024
Don't dismiss just how many big seasons Penn State had under James Franklin - six of the 12 with ten or more. But of course, Joe Paterno owns most of the huge campaigns.
T6 Nebraska
10-Win Football Seasons:28
Big Ten, 5 National Titles
Last Year: T6
1902, 1903, 1963, 1965, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012
It's been 13 years since Nebraska has won ten games or more, but it's still among the Big Red is still among the blue bloods, thanks to its steady dominance from the early 1960s to 2001.
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T6 USC
10-Win Football Seasons:28
Big Ten, 9 National Titles
Last Year: T6
1922, 1925, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1952, 1962, 1967, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1988, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2022
When USC is good, it's among the elite of the elite, but it's been spotty since Gus Henderson cranked up a 10-1 season in 1922. The Pete Carroll era was still the dominant era with seven straight double-digit win seasons.
5 Georgia
10-Win Football Seasons:30
SEC, 3 National Titles
Last Year: 5
1942, 1946, 1959, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
A relatively new blue blood, yeah, there were moments back in the 1940s, and then under Vince Dooley, but this got really rolling under Mark Richt and then Kirby Smart.
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4 Michigan
10-Win Football Seasons:32
Big Ten, 10 National Titles
Last Year: T3
1898, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1947, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023
It might not be at the top of the college football blue blood list, but when your 32 10-win seasons span from 1898 to 2023, you've been very good for a very, very long time.
3 Ohio State
10-Win Football Seasons:33
Big Ten, 7 National Titles
Last Year: T3
1954, 1968, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1979, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Ohio State beat Michigan on the field this year, and in the ranking of college football blue bloods taking the No. 3 spot all for itself. But here's the wild part - this is sort of new. Take out 2020 - it was only an eight-game season - and Ohio State has just one year without winning ten games since 2004.
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2 Oklahoma
10-Win Football Seasons:43
SEC, 7 National Titles
Last Year: 2
1915, 1938, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1987, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025
The Sooners are back with a great 2025 run to solidify their spot as the No. 2 college football blue blood. Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops, and Lincoln Riley were 10-win regulars, but it all started with Bennie Owen's 10-0 year in 1915.
1 Alabama
10-Win Football Seasons:45
SEC, 15 National Titles
Last Year: 1
1920, 1925, 1930, 1934, 1945, 1952, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2019, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025
It's Alabama. It's as college football as it gets when it comes to historical success, and it wasn't just Bear Bryant and Nick Saban. When you have 45 seasons with ten wins or more, big seasons are the norm.
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Related: Who Won the Most College Football National Titles? Complete List
This story was originally published by College Football News on Jan 31, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add College Football News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
