Ranking college football's 10 winningest teams all-time

Taking a look at the ultimate college football rankings, counting down the best teams to grace the field since the beginning

The long history of college football has produced its fair share of individual genius and collective domination by a few elite institutions.

How can we determine who did it best?

You can easily count national championships, but even that measuring stick is tainted by the lack of consensus over the years, with multiple shared titles and the introduction of a playoff system only starting in the 21st century.

Counting overall victories is helpful, but some schools have the advantage of time, playing decades longer than other teams, which skewers those results.

A more objective test involves seeing how well schools do at winning the games on their schedule. Scroll through to see which programs are the most successful all-time.

10. Tennessee

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Win pct: .669

Record: 865-414-53

Claimed national championships: 1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998

Need to know: One of the building blocks that brought the SEC to national prominence, Tennessee has produced its fair share of legendary coaches and players over the decades.

General Neyland, the man whose name adorns one of the nation's largest stadiums, coached UT in three separate stints from 1926 to 1952, winning four national championships. Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer built on Neyland's foundations over a course of 31 seasons. Majors starred at halfback for UT in the 50s before coaching his alma mater from 1977 to 1992. Fulmer, who played guard for the Vols from 1968-71, engineered a renaissance with Peyton Manning at quarterback in the 90s, and led Tennessee to the first-ever BCS National Championship in 1998.

9. Nebraska

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Win pct: .678

Record: 917-424-40

Claimed national championships: 1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997

Need to know: Bob Devaney helped build the Huskers into a national dynasty in the early 70s, winning national championships in the 1970 and 1971 seasons. But it was his hire at offensive coordinator that sustained the program for the next generation.

Tom Osborne inherited the job and went on a run of success that culminated in another dynasty in the 90s, winning two consensus national titles and a third in the Coaches Poll. Osborne won at least nine games in every season as Nebraska coach and won 10 games in 15 different years. Every one of his teams finished in the AP Top 25 rankings, and 18 of them finished in the Top 10. Osborne's teams in '94 and '95 are regarded as among the most dominant in college football history.

8. Penn State

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Win pct: .689

Record: 930-409-41

Claimed national championships: 1982, 1986

Need to know: The story of Penn State is largely that of Joe Paterno. His 409 wins are almost half of the school's total and are still the most by a single coach in college football history. PSU won two titles, but some selectors give the program five more, including three during Paterno's tenure. James Franklin has kept the team in the national conversation in the post-Paterno era, since 2014 producing four 10-win seasons and four Top 10 ranked teams.

7. USC

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Win pct: .695

Record: 875-368-54

Claimed national championships: 1928, 1931, 1932, 1939, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978, 2003, 2004

Need to know: Howard Jones and John McKay helped build USC into a college football powerhouse. Jones is credited with winning four national championships, mostly in the 1930s. McKay helped revive the Trojans program in the 60s, and his 1972 team is regarded as one of the greatest in history — from any school. Pete Carroll molded Southern Cal into a dominant force to start the 21st century, finishing with a 109-19 record when not accounting for vacated wins. He won two more titles, with AP voters breaking with the BCS in '03 in favor of the Trojans.

6. Texas

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Win pct: .702

Record: 948-392-33

Claimed national championships: 1963, 1969, 1970, 2005

Need to know: Two coaches have held up the Texas standard in the last half century. Darrell K Royal brought the Longhorns their first three national championships, and Mack Brown the school's most recent.

Royal won 77 percent of his games over 20 seasons, going 167-47-5, and Brown finished with a .767 mark going 158-48 from 1998 to 2013. But the school has struggled since Brown left, going 61-51 since 2014.

5. Oklahoma

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Win pct: .726

Record: 944-340-53

Claimed national championships: 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000

Need to know: Oklahoma is the only school with four 100-win coaches, owns a college football record 47-game win streak during the 1950s, and is the nation's most successful post-war program overall, since 1945 leading the sport in total wins and win percentage. Bob Stoops led OU into the new millennium, becoming the school's winningest coach from 2000-17 and Lincoln Riley picked up the mantle from there, going 55-10 and producing two Heisman Trophy winners at quarterback. Oklahoma has made the College Football Playoff four times, but is yet to win a semifinal game.

4. Notre Dame

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Win pct: .730

Record: 948-337-42

Claimed national championships: 1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988

Need to know: One of the cornerstones of the sport, Notre Dame boasts two 100-win coaches — Knute Rockne brought the Irish their first national championship (1924), and Lou Holtz won the school's most recent (1988). Frank Leahy built a football dynasty during the 1940s that only World War II could interrupt. Ara Parseghian picked things up in the 1960s, and Brian Kelly helped bring ND back into the national picture in recent years, including two College Football Playoff berths.

ND has played in many of the most famous games in college football history, including many dubbed the "Game of the Century". Matchups against Army, Michigan, and USC have been some of the best and most impactful in the game's annals.

3. Alabama

Win pct: .733

Record: 965-337-43

Claimed national championships: 1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1941, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020

Need to know: It would be tough to picture any school surpassing the legacy of Bear Bryant, who built a national championship legacy at Alabama over 24 legendary years., but Nick Saban has done just that, and more: no one has won more championships in college football history than Saban, whose seven titles broke Bryant's former record of six.

Saban's run of dominance — both in the SEC and nationally — is tough to beat. Scores of first-round NFL Draft picks and All-Americans, a record number of College Football Playoff berths and wins, and a run of talent and domination the game sees maybe once or twice in a century.

T-1. Ohio State

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Win pct: .734

Record: 964-333-53

Claimed national championships: 1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002, 2014

Need to know: The best college football program at winning the most games they play, Ohio State has been playing since 1890, emerged as a power in the 1910s, and hasn't looked back.

It's still the boss of the Big Ten, especially on the recruiting front and is in the playoff race almost every season.

Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer eased the Buckeyes program into the 21st century, each winning a national championship and being in the mix a few more times.

Meyer went 82-9 and built OSU into a recruiting behemoth, and Ryan Day has picked up the mantle, ranking in the Top 10 of the final AP poll every season.

T-1. Michigan

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Win pct: .734

Record: 1,004-353-36

Claimed national championships: 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997, 2023

Need to know: No school has won more games than Michigan, the first non-Ivy League program to make a national impression in the early 1900s. Fielding Yost helped build UM into a superpower in those years, including winning the first-ever Rose Bowl. Bo Schembechler won 13 Big Ten crowns from 1969-89, and Lloyd Carr brought the Wolverines their most recent title in 1997.

Jim Harbaugh, a Michigan alum, helped revive the program's fortunes in recent years: His team ended Ohio State's eight-game win streak in The Game, won three straight Big Ten titles, and won the Wolverines' first national championship in the 21st century.

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