On Monday, a new college football champion will be named.
In 2024, NRG Stadium in Houston will host the College Football Playoff National Championship between the Michigan Wolverines and the Washington Huskies. Following exciting victories in the CFP semifinals, both teams will want to finish their seasons unblemished.
No. 1 Michigan came from behind to win an overtime thriller against No. 4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl. No. 2 Washington then fended off No. 3 Texas in an exhilarating Sugar Bowl to set up the championship matchup.
While this is the first time either school has participated in the CFP National Championship, Michigan has far more championship experience going into the 2024 championship game. The Wolverines have won nine national titles in their existence; their most recent title came in 1997 as co-champions with Nebraska. The Huskies won the championship alongside Miami in 1991, however they have only been crowned as unanimous winners.
Split titles show that the sport experimented with several methods to identify a best team before settling on the current College Football Playoff structure. With the Michigan-Washington game marking the end of an era for the CFP, there will be more changes soon.
Here’s a look back at previous national title winners and the structures that led to their victories before Monday’s matchup:
Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance champions by year
From 1968 (the year the AP poll began crowning its champion after bowl games) to 1992, the No. 1 and No. 2 teams entering bowl season only matched up in a bowl game six times.
The Bowl Coalition was established starting with the 1992 season, following the announcement of the Consensus National Champions for the 1990 and 1991 seasons. A deal between conferences and bowl games established a national championship game between the top two teams every season, which gave rise to the coalition. The alliance was reorganized after three seasons to become the Bowl Alliance, which also lasted for three seasons.
The Big Ten and Pac-10 were not included in the Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance, which was a serious problem because both conferences had a contractual obligation to play in the Rose Bowl. Whether rated No. 1 or No. 2, the Tournament of Roses Association prohibited both conference champions from competing in the championship game.
The following are the outcomes of the championship games during the Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance years:
….1993 Sugar Bowl: No. 2 Alabama 34, No. 1 Miami 13
….1994 Orange Bowl: No. 1 Florida State 18, No. 2 Nebraska 16
….1995 Orange Bowl: No. 1 Nebraska 24, No. 3 Miami 17
….1996 Fiesta Bowl: No. 1 Nebraska 62, No. 2 Florida 24
….1997 Sugar Bowl: No. 3 Florida 52, No. 1 Florida State 20
….1998 Orange Bowl: No. 2 Nebraska 42, No. 3 Tennessee 17
There was still no unanimous winner despite the Bowl Coalition’s existence. The Coaches’ Poll proclaimed Nebraska the national champion for the 1997 season after the Cornhuskers defeated Tennessee in the Orange Bowl, however the Associated Press named No. 1 Michigan the national winner following the Rose Bowl victory against No. 7 Washington State.
BCS National Championship winners by year
The 1998 season marked the start of the Bowl Championship Series. In order to establish a system that would choose five bowl matchups amongst ten of the top-ranked teams, the Big Ten, Pac-10, and Rose Bowl joined the member conferences of the Bowl Alliance.
The BCS, which is well-known for combining computerized selection techniques with polls, didn’t have a stand-alone championship game until the 2006 campaign. For eight years, the Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Rose Bowl served as the rotating group of four elite bowls where the top two teams faced off for the national championship.
Here are the BCS Championship contests from 1999 through 2006 (games listed by the year in which the game was played, not the season as a whole):
….1999 Fiesta Bowl: No. 1 Tennessee 23, No. 2 Florida State 16
….2000 Sugar Bowl: No. 1 Florida State 46, No. 2 Virginia Tech 29
….2001 Orange Bowl: No. 1 Oklahoma 13, No. 2 Florida State 2
….2002 Rose Bowl: No. 1 Miami 37, No. 2 Nebraska 14
….2003 Fiesta Bowl: No. 2 Ohio State 31, No. 1 Miami 24 (2OT)
….2004 Sugar Bowl: No. 2 LSU 21, No. 1 Oklahoma 14
….2005 Orange Bowl: No. 1 USC 55, No. 2 Oklahoma 19
….2006 Rose Bowl: No. 2 Texas 41, No. 1 USC 38
BCS National Championship Game winners by year
From the 2006 season to the 2013 season, the BCS National Championship Game decided the national champion. It was a stand-alone championship game that decided the top two teams going into bowl season.
The winners of each BCS National Championship Game are listed below (the BCS did not name its championship games according to the season, but rather the year the game was played):
….2007: No. 2 Florida 41, No. 1 Ohio State 14
….2008: No. 2 LSU 38, No. 1 Ohio State 24
….2009: No. 2 Florida 24, No. 1 Oklahoma 14
….2010: No. 1 Alabama 37, No. 2 Texas 21
….2011: No. 1 Auburn 22, No. 2 Oregon 19
….2012: No. 2 Alabama 21, No. 1 LSU 0
….2013: No. 2 Alabama 42, No. 1 Notre Dame 14
….2014: No. 1 Florida State 34, No. 2 Auburn 31
College Football Playoff National Championship winners by year
Starting with the 2014 season, the BCS was replaced by the College Football Playoff system. The top four teams in the CFP rankings are placed in a single-elimination bracket, with bowl games serving as the semifinal venues. In the CFP National Championship, the winners of the two semifinals square off.
The College Football Playoff also names its championship games according to the year in which they are played. Below are the final scores for the CFP National Championship game since it crowned its first champion in the 2014 season:
….2015: No. 4 Ohio State 42, No. 2 Oregon 20
….2016: No. 2 Alabama 45, No. 1 Clemson 40
….2017: No. 2 Clemson 35, No. 1 Alabama 31
….2018: No. 4 Alabama 26, No. 3 Georgia 23 (OT)
….2019: No. 2 Clemson 44, No. 1 Alabama 16
….2020: No. 1 LSU 42, No. 3 Clemson 25
….2021: No. 1 Alabama 52, No. 3 Ohio State 24
….2022: No. 3 Georgia 33, No. 1 Alabama 18
….2023: No. 1 Georgia 65, No. 3 TCU 7
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