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104-470: In 1974, a proposal was presented to create a trophy—a symbol to be awarded annually to Utah's best college basketball team. The concept was accepted and for the first two years the in-state title was awarded to the USU Aggies, although no actual trophy had been determined. In 1977, after Weber State won the title for the first time, an Ogden businessman located a pioneer bucket at a local auction, complete with

208-459: A "counter" as "an individual who is receiving institutional financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport." The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in each sport is listed below. In this table, scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a decimal point ; for equivalency sports, they are listed with a decimal point, with a trailing zero if required. The NCAA also has rules specifying

312-453: A college football playoff were frequently made by head coach Joe Paterno of Penn State , whose independent teams finished the 1968 , 1969 , and 1973 seasons unbeaten, untied, and with Orange Bowl victories yet were left without a single major national title. The 1980s were marked by a succession of satisfying national championship games in the Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl , but

416-674: A conference and show the NCAA it has the financial ability to support a D-I program. Division I athletic programs generated $ 8.7 billion in revenue in the 2009–10 academic year. Men's teams provided 55%, women's teams 15%, and 30% was not categorized by sex or sport. Football and men's basketball are usually a university's only profitable sports, and are called "revenue sports". From 2008 to 2012, 205 varsity teams were dropped in NCAA Division I – 72 for women and 133 for men, with men's tennis, gymnastics and wrestling hit particularly hard. In

520-756: A decimal point. Numbers for equivalency sports are indicated with a decimal point, with a trailing zero if needed. Notes: The following table lists the men's individual D-I sports with at least 1,000 participating athletes. Sports are ranked by number of athletes. D-I college wrestling has lost almost half of its programs since 1982. The following table lists the women's individual D-I sports with at least 1,000 participating athletes. Sports are ranked by number of athletes. NCAA Division I schools have broadcasting contracts that showcase their more popular sports — typically football and men's basketball — on network television and in basic cable channels. These contracts can be quite lucrative, particularly for D-I schools from

624-578: A heavy Eastern bias, with little regard for the South and the West Coast. The Bowl Championship Series used a mathematical system that combined polls (Coaches and AP/Harris) and multiple computer rankings (including some individual selectors listed above) to determine a season ending matchup between its top two ranked teams in the BCS Championship Game. The champion of that game was contractually awarded

728-403: A history of how it had been found. It became the traveling trophy emblematic of Utah college basketball supremacy. The plaque on the bucket includes a map with the names and locations of the four original schools (BYU, U of U, USU, and WSU or WSC for Weber State College). SUU and UVU did not field Division I basketball programs at the time the trophy was created, but have since become members of

832-422: A later vote of the league's school presidents and athletic directors and has since increased to 45. The Patriot League only began awarding football scholarships in the 2013 season, with the first scholarships awarded only to incoming freshmen. Before the conference began its transition to scholarship football, athletes receiving scholarships in other sports were ineligible to play football for member schools. Since

936-636: A merger with International News Service in 1958. The weekly ranking was a joint polling effort between the news agency and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), with UP/UPI sports writers gathering and tabulating the coaches' votes and publishing the results in newspapers across the nation. The UP/UPI rankings were originally conducted by polling 35 of the nation's college football coaches. The coaches were chosen to represent every major football conference, with 5 coaches from each of 7 regions, in an apparent effort to combat

1040-649: A multi-game single-elimination tournament for the first time in college football history. Four teams are seeded by a 13–member selection committee rather than by existing polls or mathematical rankings. The two semifinal games are rotated among the New Year's Six bowl games, and the final is played a week later. The competition awards its own national championship trophy . Although the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has never bestowed national championships in college football at

1144-626: A near-complete membership turnover that saw the conference stripped of all but two of its football-sponsoring members. The two remaining football-sponsoring schools, Idaho and New Mexico State , played the 2013 season as FBS independents before becoming football-only members of the Sun Belt Conference in 2014. Both left Sun Belt football in 2018, with Idaho downgrading to FCS status and adding football to its all-sports Big Sky Conference membership and New Mexico State becoming an FBS independent. The WAC added two more football-sponsoring schools with

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1248-664: A post-bowl champion paid off, as in all three years the losing team had also been the No. 1 team in the pre-bowl penultimate AP rankings. The AP Poll was used as a component of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) computer ranking formula starting in 1998, but without any formal agreement in place like the contract made between the BCS and the Coaches Poll. For the 2003 season the AP Poll caused

1352-467: A result, the public and the media began to take the leading vote-getter in the final AP Poll as the national champion for that season. In the AP Poll's early years, the final poll of sportswriters was taken prior to any bowl games and sometimes even prior to the top teams' final games of the regular season. In 1938 , the poll was extended for one week after Notre Dame , No. 1 in the scheduled "final" poll, subsequently lost to rival USC . Following

1456-410: A specific bowl game bid for which the conference has a tie-in. Some conferences have numbers in their names but this often has no relation to the number of member institutions in the conference. The Big Ten Conference did not formally adopt the "Big Ten" name until 1987, but unofficially used that name when it had 10 members from 1917 to 1946, and again from 1949 forward. However, it has continued to use

1560-531: A split national title and BCS controversy when it awarded its national championship to No. 1 USC instead of BCS champion LSU . In December 2004 the AP opted out of the BCS formula, requesting that the BCS "discontinue its unauthorized use of the AP poll as a component of BCS rankings", in response to three AP voters from Texas elevating Texas above California into the Rose Bowl in the last regular season AP Poll. In

1664-820: A substantial number of players in Championship Subdivision programs are on full scholarships. A former difference was that FCS schools had a limit of 30 players that could be provided with financial aid in a given season, while FBS schools were limited to 25 such additions per season. These limits were suspended in 2020 before being completely eliminated for both subdivisions in 2023. Finally, FCS schools are limited to 95 individuals participating in preseason practices, as opposed to 105 at FBS schools (the three service academies that play FBS football are exempt from preseason practice player limits by NCAA rule). A few Championship Subdivision conferences are composed of schools that offer no athletic scholarships at all, most notably

1768-566: A title game, the NCAA Division I Football Championship . As of the 2018 season, the tournament begins with 24 teams; 10 conference champions that received automatic bids, and 14 teams selected at-large by a selection committee. The postseason tournament traditionally begins on Thanksgiving weekend in late November. When I-AA was formed 46 years ago in 1978, the playoffs included just four teams for its first three seasons, doubling to eight teams for one season in 1981. From 1982 to 1985, there

1872-651: Is not a game where a great national championship is possible or desirable. The very nature of the sport would forbid anything like such a series of contests as are played in baseball." Claimed intercollegiate championships were limited to various selections and rankings, as the nature of the developing and increasingly violent full-contact sport made it impossible to schedule a post-season tournament to determine an "official" or undisputed champion. National championships in this era were well understood to be "mythical" . Beyond rankings in newspaper columns, awards and trophies began to be presented to teams. In 1917 members of

1976-441: Is a list of the national champions of college football since 1869 chosen by NCAA -designated "major selectors" listed in the official Football Bowl Subdivision Records publication. Many teams did not have coaches as late as 1899. The first contemporaneous poll to include teams across the country and selection of a national champions can be traced to Caspar Whitney in 1901. The tie was removed from college football in 1995 and

2080-521: Is considered an FBS member for scheduling purposes. The newest full FBS members are Jacksonville State , James Madison , and Sam Houston , which completed the transition from FCS prior to the 2024 season . The next school to become a full FBS member is Kennesaw State , which joined Conference USA (CUSA) in 2024 and will become a full FBS member a year later. Delaware and Missouri State are set to join CUSA in 2025 and become full FBS members in 2026. Since

2184-567: Is not out of the realm of possibility that a team could win the AP national championship without winning the College Football Playoff's national championship", although that scenario has yet to occur. News agency United Press (UP), the main competitor to the Associated Press, began conducting its own college football ratings during the 1950 season . The wire service came to be known as United Press International (UPI) following

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2288-658: Is the Atlantic Coast Conference . For the first 60 years after its 1953 founding, the ACC consisted entirely of schools in Atlantic Coast states. However, in 2013 , the conference added three new schools, two of which ( Pittsburgh and, for non-football sports, Indiana-based Notre Dame ) were in states without an Atlantic shoreline. The following year saw the ACC add another non-Atlantic school in Louisville . Then, in 2023 ,

2392-513: Is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States , which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with large budgets, more elaborate facilities and more athletic scholarships than Division II and Division III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition. This level

2496-429: The 1947 season the AP held a special post-bowl poll with only two teams on the ballot, Notre Dame and Michigan , but stated that the result would not supersede that of the final poll conducted following the end of the regular season. The rivals , both unbeaten and untied, had been ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the final poll. January voters were impressed by Michigan's 49–0 win over common opponent USC in

2600-407: The 2016 season , all FBS conferences have been allowed to conduct a championship game that does not count against the limit of 12 regular-season contests. Under the current rules, most recently changed in advance of the 2022 season, conferences have complete freedom to determine the participants in their championship games. From 2016 to 2021, FBS rules allowed such a game to be held either (1) between

2704-457: The 2022 season , with all participating in one of 14 conferences. The "I-AA" designation was dropped by the NCAA in 2006, although it is still informally and commonly used. FCS teams are limited to 63 players on scholarship (compared to 85 for FBS teams) and usually play an 11-game schedule (compared to 12 games for FBS teams). The FCS determines its national champion through an NCAA-sanctioned single-elimination bracket tournament , culminating in

2808-609: The College Football Playoff era , the Associated Press has continued to award the AP Trophy to the No. 1 team in the final AP Poll. AP rankings are not incorporated in the CFP selection committee's seeding, and voting AP sportswriters are not obligated to award their title to the winner of the CFP national championship game . In 2015 the Associated Press's global sports editor stated that "it

2912-656: The Football Bowl Subdivision (130 schools in 2017), between 50 and 60 percent of football and men's basketball programs generated positive revenues (above program expenses). However, in the Football Championship Subdivision (124 schools in 2017), only four percent of football and five percent of men's basketball programs generated positive revenues. In 2012, 2% of athletic budgets were spent on equipment, uniforms and supplies for male athletes at NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision school, with

3016-568: The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and those institutions that do not have any football program. FBS teams have more players receiving athletic scholarships than FCS teams and formerly (until 2024) had minimum game-attendance requirements. The FBS is named for its series of postseason bowl games , with various polls ranking teams after the conclusion of these games, while

3120-536: The Houlgate System , Azzi Ratem rankings, Dunkel Power Index , Williamson System , and Litkenhous Ratings . Two short-lived national championship trophies were contemporaries of the Dickinson System awards. The Albert Russel Erskine Trophy was won twice by Note Dame in 1929 and 1930 , as voted by 250 sportswriters from around the country. The large silver Erskine trophy was last awarded to USC on

3224-622: The Ivy League and the Pioneer Football League (PFL), a football-only conference. The Ivy League allows no athletic scholarships at all, while the PFL consists of schools that offer scholarships in other sports but choose not to take on the expense of a scholarship football program. The Northeast Conference also sponsored non-scholarship football, but began offering a maximum of 30 full scholarship equivalents in 2006, which grew to 40 in 2011 after

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3328-668: The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records or may not claim national championship selections that do appear in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (see National championship claims by school below). National championship selectors came to be dominated by two competing news agencies in the later half of the 20th century: the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI). These wire services began ranking college football teams in weekly polls, which were then promptly published in

3432-578: The Rissman Trophy two seasons; thus Notre Dame is engraved on the trophy for 1924 and Dartmouth for 1925 . The Rissman Trophy was retired by Notre Dame's three wins in 1924, 1929, and 1930; the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy was put into competition for 1931 following the untimely death of the legendary coach. The popularity of the Dickinson System kicked off a succession of mathematical rankings carried in newspapers and magazines such as

3536-536: The Rose Bowl and elevated the Wolverines above the Irish in the special post-bowl poll. The AP champion would lose its bowl game five times, following the 1950 , 1951 , 1953 , 1960 , and 1964 seasons . In 1965 the AP decided to delay the season's final poll until after New Year's Day , citing the proliferation of bowl games and the involvement of eight of the poll's current top ten teams in post-season play. In

3640-603: The Williamson System as having selected TCU and LSU as co-champions for 1935. However the system's post-bowl final rankings published in January 1936 show TCU first, SMU second, and LSU third. The accompanying column written by Paul B. Williamson states "There was no undisputable national champion in 1935". The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected LSU in 1936. However

3744-426: The access bowls . FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance. For competitive reasons, a student receiving partial scholarship counts fully against the total of 85. Nearly all FBS schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships. As of the current 2024 college football season, there are 133 full members of Division I FBS, plus one transitional school that

3848-510: The 1934 edition of Spalding's Foot Ball Guide , naming retroactive national champions for the years 1869 to 1932 while naming Michigan and Princeton (his alma mater ) contemporary co-champions for the 1933 season. In all, he selected 94 teams over 61 seasons as "National Champion Foot Ball Teams". For 21 of these teams (at 12 schools), he was the only major selector to choose them. Their schools use 17 of Davis' singular selections to claim national titles. His work has been criticized for having

3952-516: The 1990s began with consecutive split AP Poll and Coaches Poll national titles in 1990 and 1991 . The Bowl Coalition and then Bowl Alliance were formed to more reliably set up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in a bowl game on New Year's Day, but their efforts were hampered by the Rose Bowl's historic draw and contractual matchup between the Big Ten and Pac-10 conference champions. The Bowl Championship Series in 1998 succeeded in finally bringing

4056-400: The 2006 season, it was possible for the number of Bowl Subdivision schools to drop in the future if those schools were not able to pull in enough fans into the games. Additionally, 14 FCS schools had enough attendance to be moved up in 2012. Under current NCAA rules, these schools must have an invitation from an FBS conference in order to move to FBS. The difference in the postseasons in each of

4160-432: The 2014–15 fiscal year, the conferences that earned the most revenues (and that distributed the most revenues to each of their member schools) were: The NCAA has limits on the total financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. It divides sports that are sponsored into two types for purposes of scholarship limitations: The term "counter" is also key to this concept. The NCAA defines

4264-567: The 2020 arrival of Tarleton and Utah Tech (then Dixie State) from Division II; both schools planned to be FCS independents for the foreseeable future. The WAC would reinstate football at the FCS level in 2021, coinciding with the arrival of four new members with FCS football; for its first season, it entered into a formal partnership with the ASUN Conference to give it enough playoff-eligible members to receive an automatic playoff berth. This partnership

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4368-499: The 9–0 Georgia Tech squad were given gold footballs with the inscription "National Champions" by alumni at their post-season banquet. The Veteran Athletes of Philadelphia put up the Bonniwell Trophy for the national championship in 1919 under the stipulation that it was only "to be awarded in such years as produces a team whose standing is so preeminent as to make its selection as champion of America beyond dispute." Notre Dame

4472-1755: The AFCA Coaches Poll Coaches' Trophy was returned. Record does not count wins against UCLA, or against Oklahoma in the BCS Championship game on January 4, 2005, as they were vacated by the NCAA. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Dunkel as having selected LSU, while Dunkel's official website gave USC as its 2007 selection. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists CCR as having selected LSU, while CCR's official website gives USC as its 2003 selection. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists DeVold (DeS) as having selected Florida, while DeVold's official website gives Ohio State as its 2006 selection. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists R(FACT) as having selected Florida, while R(FACT)'s official website gives co-champions Ohio State and Florida as its 2006 selection. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Wolfe as having selected Florida, while Wolfe's official website gives Utah as its 2008 selection. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists CCR as having selected Alabama, while CCR's official website gives LSU as its 2011 selection. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Anderson & Hester (A&H) as having selected LSU, while A&H's official website gives Missouri as its 2007 selection. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists Anderson & Hester (A&H) as having selected Alabama, while A&H's official website gives LSU as its 2011 selection. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists

4576-641: The Associated Press is probably the most well-known and widely circulated among all of history's polls. Due to the long-standing historical ties between individual college football conferences and high-paying bowl games like the Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl , the NCAA has never held a tournament or championship game to determine the champion of what is now the highest division, NCAA Division I , Football Bowl Subdivision (the Division I, Football Championship Subdivision and lower divisions do hold championship tournaments). As

4680-505: The Big Ten and Pac-10 into the fold with the other conferences for a combined BCS National Championship Game rotated among the Fiesta , Sugar , Orange , and Rose bowls and venues. BCS rankings originally incorporated the two major polls as well as a number of computer rankings to determine the end of season No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup. Although the BCS era did regularly produce compelling matchups,

4784-419: The Coaches Poll and National Football Foundation championships. Unlike all selectors prior to 2014, the College Football Playoff does not use math, polls or research to select the participants. Rather, a 13-member committee selects and seeds the teams. The playoff system marked the first time any championship selector arranged a bracket competition to determine whom it would declare to be its champion. Below

4888-573: The Division I Men's Basketball Championship and ticket sales for all championships. That money is distributed in more than a dozen ways — almost all of which directly support NCAA schools, conferences and nearly half a million student-athletes. About 60% of the NCAA's annual revenue — around $ 600 million — is annually distributed directly to Division I member schools and conferences, while more than $ 150 million funds Division I championships" (NCAA 2021). Finances Under NCAA regulations, all Division I conferences defined as "multisport conferences" must meet

4992-619: The FCS from a lower division (or from the NAIA ) are also ineligible for the playoffs. Division I FCS schools are currently restricted to giving financial assistance amounting to 63 full scholarships. As FCS football is an "equivalency" sport (as opposed to the "head-count" status of FBS football), Championship Subdivision schools may divide their allotment into partial scholarships. However, FCS schools may only have 85 players receiving any sort of athletic financial aid for football—the same numeric limit as FBS schools. Because of competitive forces, however,

5096-607: The FCS national champion is determined by a multi-team bracket tournament. For the 2020–21 school year, Division I contained 357 of the NCAA's 1,066 member institutions, with 130 in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), 127 in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and 100 non-football schools, with six additional schools in the transition from Division II to Division I. There was a moratorium on any additional movement up to D-I until 2012, after which any school that wants to move to D-I must be accepted for membership by

5200-609: The I-AA playoffs was Jackson State in 1997 ; the SWAC never achieved success in the tournament, going winless in 19 games in twenty years (1978–97). It had greater success outside the conference while in Division II and the preceding College Division. From 2006 through 2009, the Pioneer Football League and Northeast Conference champions played in the Gridiron Classic . If a league champion

5304-543: The Midwest (Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Notre Dame), Upper South (Louisville, Memphis) and Southwest (Houston, SMU). The non-football conference that assumed the Big East name when the original Big East split in 2013 is another example of this phenomenon, as half of its 10 inaugural schools (Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Marquette, Xavier) are traditionally regarded as being Midwestern. An even more extrema example of this phenomenon

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5408-408: The NCAA Division I. The plaque includes the caption "The Oquirrh Bucket Utah State Collegiate Champ Basketball". Utah (U of U) has won the bucket 14 times, followed by Utah State (USU) and Brigham Young (BYU) with nine victories each, and Weber State (WSU) with four. Neither of the other two schools have ever won the award. On November 15, 2010, it was announced that the trophy would be retired, due to

5512-492: The National Football Foundation. Selectors are listed below with years selected retroactively in italics . Poll selections that constitute a "Consensus National Championship" in 1950 or later, as designated by the NCAA, are listed in bold . College football historian Parke H. Davis is the only selector considered by the NCAA to have primarily used research in his selections. Davis published his work in

5616-498: The United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best college football team. Division I FBS football is the only National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sport for which the NCAA does not host a yearly championship event. As such, it is sometimes referred to as a " mythical national championship ". Due to

5720-593: The addition of Arizona and Arizona State, and "Pac-12" (instead of "Pacific-12") in 2011 when Colorado and Utah joined . Conferences also tend to ignore their regional names when adding new schools. For example, the Pac-8/10/12 retained its "Pacific" moniker even though its four most recent additions (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah) are located in the inland West, and the original Big East kept its name even after adding schools (either in all sports or for football only) located in areas traditionally considered to be in

5824-488: The best football team in the country at the end of the season. One of the earliest such polls was the AP College Football Poll, first run in 1934 (compiled and organized by Charles Woodroof, former SEC Assistant Director of Media Relations, but not recognized in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records ) and then continuously from 1936. The first major nationwide poll for ranking college football teams,

5928-490: The biggest conferences. For example, the Big Ten conference in 2016 entered into contracts with Fox and ESPN that pay the conference $ 2.64 billion over six years. The NCAA also holds certain TV contracts. For example, the NCAA's contract to show the men's basketball championship tournament (widely known as March Madness) is currently under a 14-year deal with CBS and Turner that runs from 2010 to 2024 and pays $ 11 billion. For

6032-454: The calculation of the BCS standing, are listed together. The NCAA records book divides its major selectors into three categories: those determined by mathematical formula, human polls, and historical research. The BCS is additionally categorized as a hybrid between math and polls, and the CFP as a playoff system. Many of the math selection systems were created during the 1920s and 1930s, beginning with Frank Dickinson's system , or during

6136-692: The century" between No. 1 Texas and No. 2 ( AP ) Arkansas , that the winner would receive a presidential plaque commemorating them as national champions despite the fact that Texas and Arkansas still had to play in a bowl game afterward. Texas went on to win, 15–14. While the NCAA has never officially endorsed a championship team, it has documented the choices of some selectors in its official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records publication. In addition, various analysts have independently published their own choices for each season. These opinions can often diverge with others as well as individual schools' claims to national titles, which may or may not correlate to

6240-553: The champions of its East and West divisions. Also, three of its member schools traditionally do not finish their regular seasons until Thanksgiving weekend. Grambling State and Southern play each other in the Bayou Classic , and Alabama State plays Tuskegee (of Division II ) in the Turkey Day Classic . SWAC teams are eligible to accept at-large bids if their schedule is not in conflict. The last SWAC team to participate in

6344-556: The completion of the transition with the 2016 season, member schools have been allowed up to 60 full scholarship equivalents. Several Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision conferences have member institutions that do not compete in football. Such schools are sometimes unofficially referred to as I-AAA. The following non-football conferences have full members that sponsor football: The following Division I conferences do not sponsor football . These conferences still compete in Division I for all sports that they sponsor. Of these,

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6448-580: The conference announced it would expand in 2024 to the Pacific coast with San Francisco Bay Area rivals California and Stanford , and also add SMU from Dallas–Fort Worth . ** – "Big Four" or "Power Four" conferences that had guaranteed berths in the "access bowls" associated with the College Football Playoff before its 2024 expansion to 12 teams *** – "Group of Five" conferences The Division I Football Championship Subdivision ( FCS ), formerly known as Division I-AA , consists of 130 teams as of

6552-506: The dawn of the personal computer age in the 1990s. Selectors are listed below with years selected retroactively in italics . The poll has been the dominant national champion selection method since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936. The National Football Foundation merged its poll with UPI from 1991 to 1992, with USA Today from 1993 to 1996, and with the FWAA since 2014. For many years,

6656-440: The end of the regular season and prior to any bowl games being played. This changed when the AP Poll champion was crowned after the bowls for 1965 and then in 1968 onward. The Coaches Poll began awarding post-bowl championships in 1974. National champions crowned by pre-bowl polls who subsequently lost their bowl game offered an opportunity for other teams to claim the title based on different selectors' awards and rankings, such as

6760-567: The eponymous post-season championship tournament. The Ivy League was reclassified to I-AA (FCS) following the 1981 season , and plays a strict ten-game schedule. Although it qualifies for an automatic bid, the Ivy League has not played any postseason games at all since becoming a conference, citing academic concerns. The Ivy League member to play in a bowl game was Columbia in the 1934 Rose Bowl . The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) has its own championship game in mid-December between

6864-471: The existence of an official NCAA championship in the latter subdivision. Before the 2023 season, the NCAA required that FBS schools average at least 15,000 attendance, allowing schools to report either total tickets sold or the number of persons in attendance at the games. The requirement was a minimum average of 15,000 people in attendance every other year. These numbers are posted to the NCAA statistics website for football each year. With new rules starting in

6968-640: The field in Pasadena following their "national championship game" victory over Tulane in the 1932 Rose Bowl . The Toledo Cup was meant to be a long-running traveling trophy, but was promptly permanently retired by Minnesota's threepeat in 1934 , 1935 , and 1936 . College football's foremost historian Parke H. Davis compiled a list of "National Champion Foot Ball Teams" for the 1934 edition of Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide . Davis selected national champions for each year dating back to college football's inaugural season in 1869 , for which he selected

7072-544: The following criteria: FBS conferences must meet a more stringent set of requirements for NCAA recognition than other conferences: † "Power Four" conferences that had guaranteed berths in the New Year's Six , the bowl games associated with the College Football Playoff , before the playoff's 2024 expansion to 12 teams ‡ "Group of Five" conferences Sports are ranked according to total possible scholarships (number of teams x number of scholarships per team). Scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without

7176-520: The following year, which resulted in a national championship for Minnesota . The AP's main competition, United Press (UP), created the first Coaches Poll in 1950. For that year and the next three, the AP and UP agreed on the national champion. The first "split" national championship between the major polls occurred in 1954, when the writers selected Ohio State and the coaches chose UCLA . The two polls have disagreed 11 times since 1950. Both wire services originally conducted their final polls at

7280-473: The lack of an official NCAA title, determining the nation's top college football team has often engendered controversy. A championship team is independently declared by multiple individuals and organizations, often referred to as "selectors". These choices are not always unanimous. In 1969 even the President of the United States, Richard Nixon , made a selection by announcing, ahead of the season-ending "game of

7384-399: The last consensus champion with a tie in its record was Georgia Tech in 1990. As designated by the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records publication: A letter next to any season, team, record, coach or selector indicates a footnote that appears at the bottom of the table. Parke H. Davis' selection for 1901, as published in the 1934 edition of Spalding's Foot Ball Guide ,

7488-632: The latter of which will move football to the Patriot League in 2025). The MAAC stopped sponsoring football in 2007, after most of its members gradually stopped fielding teams. Among current MAAC members that were in the conference before 2007, only Marist , which plays in the Pioneer Football League, still sponsors football. From 2013 to 2021, the Western Athletic Conference was a non-football league, having dropped football after

7592-501: The median spending per-school at $ 742,000. In 2014, the NCAA and the student athletes debated whether student athletes should be paid. In April, the NCAA approved students-athletes getting free unlimited meals and snacks. The NCAA stated "The adoption of the meals legislation finished a conversation that began in the Awards, Benefits, Expenses and Financial Aid Cabinet. Members have worked to find appropriate ways to ensure student-athletes get

7696-526: The membership totals to 14 in 2023 and 16 effective in 2024. On the other hand, the Pac-12 Conference used names (official or unofficial) that have reflected the number of members from the establishment of its current charter in 1959 until its collapse in 2024 . The conference unofficially used "Big Five" (1959–62), "Big Six" (1962–64), and "Pacific-8" (1964–68) before officially adopting the "Pacific-8" name. The name duly changed to "Pacific-10" in 1978 with

7800-410: The name even after it expanded to 11 members with the addition of Penn State in 1990, 12 with the addition of Nebraska in 2011 , and 14 with the arrival of Maryland and Rutgers in 2014 . The Big 12 Conference was established in 1996 with 12 members, but continues to use that name even after a number of departures and a few replacements left the conference with 10 members, and later expansions brought

7904-457: The national champions of various polls were selected before the annual bowl games were played, by AP (1936–1964 and 1966–1967), Coaches Poll (1950–1973), FWAA (1954), and NFF (1959–1970). In all other latter-day polls, champions were selected after bowl games. During the BCS era, the winner of the BCS Championship Game was automatically awarded the national championship of the Coaches Poll and

8008-483: The next season, 1966 , neither of the top two teams ( Notre Dame and Michigan State ) were attending bowl games so no post-bowl poll was taken, even after two-time defending AP national champion No. 3 Alabama won the Sugar Bowl and finished the season unbeaten and untied. In 1967 the final poll crowning USC national champion was taken before No. 2 Tennessee or No. 3 Oklahoma had even played their final games of

8112-457: The nutrition they need without jeopardizing Pell Grants or other federal aid received by the neediest student-athletes. With their vote, members of the council said they believe loosening NCAA rules on what and when food can be provided from athletics departments is the best way to address the issue." According to the finance section of the NCAA page, "The NCAA receives most of its annual revenue from two sources: television and marketing rights for

8216-399: The post-bowl FWAA Grantland Rice Award or Helms Athletic Foundation title. Post-bowl polls allowed for the possibility of a "national championship game" to finally settle the question on the gridiron . But a number of challenges made it difficult to schedule even the season's top two teams to play in a single post-season bowl game , let alone all of the deserving teams. Calls for

8320-713: The quarterfinals and semifinals are hosted by all of the six partner bowl games , with the final two remaining teams advancing to the College Football Playoff National Championship . The concept of a national championship in college football dates to the early years of the sport in the late 19th century. Some of the earliest contemporaneous rankings can be traced to Caspar Whitney in Harper's Weekly , J. Parmly Paret in Outing , Charles Patterson, and New York newspaper The Sun . "Football, however,

8424-729: The recent changes in conference alignments (Utah leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-12 , BYU leaving the Mountain West for the West Coast Conference ) and changes in scheduling of games among the in-state schools. The Old Oquirrh Bucket was last won by Utah State in both 2008–09 and 2009–10, and will be donated by Utah State University to the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. NCAA Division I NCAA Division I ( D-I )

8528-410: The regular season (as determined by internal rankings, or aggregates of the major polls and other statistics) to compete in what is intended to be the de facto national championship game. The current iteration of this practice, the College Football Playoff , selects twelve teams to participate in a national first round or quarterfinals, with the final four teams advancing to the semifinals. The games of

8632-505: The regular season, and well before those two teams met in the Orange Bowl . In 1968 the final poll was again delayed until after the bowl games so that No. 1 Ohio State could meet No. 2 USC in a "dream match" in the Rose Bowl . Every subsequent season's final AP Poll would be released after the bowl games. UPI did not follow suit until the 1974 season ; in the overlapping years, the Coaches Poll champion lost their bowl game in 1965 , 1970 , and 1973 . The AP's earlier move to crown

8736-477: The same season. The Pioneer Football League earned an automatic bid beginning in 2013. The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) began abstaining from the playoffs with the 2015 season. Like the SWAC, its members are eligible for at-large bids, and the two conferences have faced off in the Celebration Bowl as an alternative postseason game since the 2015 season. Schools in a transition period after joining

8840-403: The selections published elsewhere. Historically, the two most widely recognized national championship selectors are the Associated Press (AP), which conducts a poll of sportswriters , and the Coaches Poll , a survey of active members of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). Since 1992, various consortia of major bowl games have aimed to invite the top two teams at the end of

8944-434: The selectors below are listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book as being "major selectors" of national championships. The criterion for the NCAA's designation is that the poll or selector be "national in scope, either through distribution in newspaper, television, radio and/or computer online". Former selectors, deemed instrumental in the sport of college football, and selectors that were included for

9048-576: The sole competitors Princeton and Rutgers as co-champions. Similar retrospective analysis was undertaken in the 1940s by Bill Schroeder of the Helms Athletic Foundation and in Deke Houlgate's The Football Thesaurus in 1954. The Associated Press (AP) began polling sportswriters in 1936 to obtain rankings. Alan J. Gould , the creator of the AP Poll, named Minnesota , Princeton , and SMU co-champions in 1935, and polled writers

9152-447: The sport in which multi-sport athletes are to be counted, with the basic rules being: Subdivisions in Division I exist only in football . In all other sports, all Division I conferences are equivalent. The subdivisions were recently given names to reflect the differing levels of football play in them. As of the 2023 season, the main distinctions between Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision schools are scholarship policies and

9256-500: The sports sections of each agency's subscribing newspapers across the country. The team ranking No. 1 in each agency's final poll of the season was awarded that agency's national championship. National championships are often stated to be "consensus" when the two major polls are in agreement with their selections. The Associated Press (AP) college football poll has a long history. The news media began running their own polls of sports writers to determine who was, by popular opinion,

9360-570: The subdivisions grant the FCS an advantage to have the best record in college football history, 17–0, while the FBS only allows a 15–0 record. FBS attendance requirements were abolished early in the 2023 season, effective immediately. In their place, Division I added new requirements for athletic funding. Effective in 2027–28, FBS schools must fund the equivalent of at least 210 full scholarships across all of their NCAA sports; spend at least $ 6 million annually on athletic scholarships; and provide at least 90% of

9464-414: The system's post-bowl final rankings show Minnesota first and LSU fourth. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected Pittsburgh in 1937. However the system's post-bowl final rankings show California first and Pittsburgh second. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected TCU alone in 1938. However

9568-611: The system's post-bowl final rankings show a tie between TCU and Tennessee. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Williamson System as having selected Tennessee in 1940. However the system's post-bowl final rankings show Stanford first and Tennessee sixth. The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records book lists the Billingsley Report as having selected Army in 1944 and Ohio State and Army in 1945. According to Billingsley's official website, these selection years are reversed. Kansas' 1960 defeat of Missouri

9672-400: The topmost level, it does maintain an official records book for the sport. The records book, with consultation from various college football historians, contains a list of "major selectors" of national championships from throughout the history of college football, along with their championship selections. While many people and organizations have named national champions throughout the years,

9776-417: The total number of allowed scholarship equivalents across 16 sports, including football. Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ( FBS ), formerly known as Division I-A , is the top level of college football . Schools in Division I FBS compete in post-season bowl games , with the champions of five conferences, along with the highest-ranked champion of the other five conferences, receiving automatic bids to

9880-524: The two that most recently sponsored football were the Atlantic 10 and MAAC. The A-10 football league dissolved in 2006 with its members going to CAA Football, the technically separate football league operated by the all-sports Coastal Athletic Association. In addition, four A-10 schools ( Dayton , Fordham , Duquesne , and Massachusetts ) play football in a conference other CAA Football, which still includes two full-time A-10 members ( Rhode Island and Richmond ,

9984-400: The winners of each of two divisions, with each team having played a full round-robin schedule within its division, or (2) between the conference's top two teams after a full round-robin conference schedule. Before 2016, "exempt" championship games could only be held between the divisional winners of conferences that had at least 12 football teams and split into divisions. The prize is normally

10088-432: The winnowing selection of the top two teams resulted in many BCS controversies , most notably 2003's split national championship caused by the BCS rankings leaving USC , No. 1 in both human polls, out of the Sugar Bowl . The BCS victors were annually awarded The Coaches' Trophy "crystal football" on the field immediately following the championship game. In 2014 the College Football Playoff made its debut, facilitating

10192-427: Was Harvard. The NCAA Records Book states "Yale" for 1901, which is an error that has been perpetuated since the first appearance of Parke H. Davis' selections in the 1994 NCAA records book. The FWAA stripped USC of its 2004 Grantland Rice Trophy and vacated the selection of its national champion for 2004. The BCS also vacated USC's participation in the 2005 Orange Bowl and USC's 2004 BCS National Championship, and

10296-696: Was a 12-team tournament; this expanded to 16 teams in 1986. The playoffs expanded to 20 teams starting in 2010, then grew to 24 teams in 2013. Since the 2010 season, the title game is held in early January at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas . From 1997 through 2009, the title game was played in December in Chattanooga, Tennessee , preceded by five seasons in Huntington, West Virginia . The Football Championship Subdivision includes several conferences which do not participate in

10400-635: Was invited to the national championship playoff as an at-large bid (something the Pioneer league, at least, never received), the second-place team would play in the Gridiron Classic. That game was scrapped after the 2009 season when its four-year contract ran out; this coincided with the NCAA's announcement that the Northeast Conference would get an automatic bid to the tournament starting in 2010. The Big South Conference also received an automatic bid in

10504-608: Was overturned by the Big Eight Conference on December 8 (ineligible player). The reversal erased the only loss on Missouri's record. The national title count listed below is a culmination of all championship awarded since 1869, regardless of "consensus" or non-consensus status, as listed in the table above according to the selectors deemed to be "major" as listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records . The totals can be said to be disputed. Individual schools may claim national championships not accounted for by

10608-640: Was previously called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the lower-level College Division; these terms were replaced with numeric divisions in 1973. The University Division was renamed Division I, while the College Division was split in two; the College Division members that offered scholarships or wanted to compete against those who did became Division II, while those who did not want to offer scholarships became Division III. For college football only, D-I schools are further divided into

10712-534: Was renewed for the 2022 season, with five ASUN and three WAC schools participating, though each conference will play its own schedule. After the 2022 season, the ASUN and WAC announced a full football merger for 2023 and beyond under the banner of the United Athletic Conference . Football Bowl Subdivision Football Championship A national championship in the highest level of college football in

10816-471: Was the first to be awarded the trophy, in 1924 . Professor Frank G. Dickinson of Illinois developed the first mathematical ranking system to be widely popularized. Chicago clothing manufacturer Jack F. Rissman donated a trophy for the system's national championship in 1926 onward, first awarded to Stanford prior to their tie with Alabama in the Rose Bowl . A curious Knute Rockne , then coach of Notre Dame , convinced Dickinson and Rissman to backdate

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