Has there been a three peat in college football? Georgia could make history

Georgia has won two straight College Football Playoff national championships. If the Bulldogs can do it again in 2023, they would make history

Georgia is once again the national champion of college football after a historic 65-7 destruction of TCU in the national championship game to close out last season.

That makes it two straight for the budding dynasty, and in historic fashion, trouncing the Horned Frogs by a 58-point margin, the single widest gap in any postseason game, ever.

And with Georgia emerging as the early favorite to win it all again in 2023, it's time to ask a historic question: Has there ever been a three peat in college football?

College football three peat history

The answer to that question comes out of the distant past and the Big Ten: college football has seen one official three peat in its long history, courtesy of Minnesota, which won three straight national championships in 1934, 1935, and 1936.

Minnesota was the college football dynasty of the 1930s / Minnesota Football

Minnesota went 8-0 in two consecutive seasons in 1934 and '35 and was declared the national champion by the major selection agencies of the day.

And in 1936, it made more history, emerging as the No. 1 team in the very first official AP top 25 college football poll.

The Gophers went on to finish 7-1 on the year and were declared the first AP national champion of college football.

Bernie Bierman, the visionary head coach behind the Gophers' success, finished his career with five national champions in total.

Count 'em up: College Football Coaches With Most National Championships

Does Minnesota have any challengers?

As tends to be the case with awarding national championships in the past, there is some disagreement.

Army, for instance, claims three straight national titles in 1944, 1945, and 1946, but the AP only acknowledges the first two, whereas the '46 title was awarded by six other selection organizations. 

But notably not the AP, which awarded the national title to Notre Dame, which tied Army, 0-0, in a famous "Game of the Century" at Yankee Stadium. 

Army finished 9-0-1 and the Fighting Irish 8-0-1, so the Cadets, which went undefeated through 32 games in those three years, may actually have a case.

As a side note, who else has a case for the '46 natty? Georgia, in fact, which finished a perfect 11-0 in 1946, beating four ranked teams, posting the nation's second-best total offense, and defeated No. 9 North Carolina in the Sugar Bowl. But only the Williamson System has awarded Georgia the 1946 title.

Going by the more official organs of college football opinion, we can safely say the sport's only purely uncontested three peat belongs to Minnesota.

Georgia next in line?

That is, unless Georgia has something to say about it. 

And it's had something to say these last two seasons, going 29-1 in that time, losing only the 2021 SEC title game to Alabama, and winning a pair of CFP national championships on the field.

As for predictions, the oddsmakers all favor Georgia will in fact join Minnesota as college football's next three peat.

The Bulldogs are listed as +250 favorites to win the 2023-24 national championship, according to the lines at SI Sportsbook.

What's next for Georgia?

You can see the Bulldogs' full 2023 football schedule here.

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