Later this month, either Ohio State or Notre Dame will make history as the first College Football Playoff national champion from the 12-team era. Both teams will have done so blazing a four-game playoff path that started with a home game in the first round and included taking out conference champions from the Big Ten (Ohio State over Oregon) and SEC (Notre Dame over Georgia) in the quarterfinals, as well as the runners-up (Penn State and Texas) from those leagues in the semifinals.
That one-of-a-kind path through the College Football Playoff in what will be a 16-game season will automatically qualify either Ohio State or Notre Dame as one of the most resilient and impressive national championship teams in the CFP era. But until we see how things play out on Jan. 20 in Atlanta, it will be difficult to know exactly where the winner slots among the national champions we have seen since the format debuted in 2014.
We had 10 years of the CFP with a four-team format, and each of those 10 champions have their own claim as one of the best teams of the era. However, there can only be one No. 1, and that’s our goal for today as we rank each of the 10 champions from the four-team playoff era against each other.
Some of the process here was scientific, utilizing objective ratings for each title as a way to set some tiers in place. The final decisions, however, relied much more on context that includes the makeup of the roster, the team’s path to winning it all and more. It’s an imperfect task splitting hairs between teams that each finished at the top of the mountain, but doing so highlights the kind of teams that emerged from the four-team CFP era as the sport’s first-ever FBS playoff continued to evolve across the first decade of its existence.
10. 2016 Clemson (14-1)
If we were only ranking teams based on their playoff and national title game performance, Clemson would have jumped ahead of several other teams on this list. The Tigers shut out Ohio State 31-0 in the national semifinal and overcame two different 10-point deficits in the second half of the title game win against reigning champion Alabama. The 2015 Clemson team traded paint with the Crimson Tide and came up short, and it seemed as though that would be the Tigers’ fate again until Deshaun Watson found Hunter Renfrow in the end zone for a game-winning touchdown with one second left on the clock.
But we are not ranking title games or title game winners here. Clemson was a top-five team throughout the 2016 season but was very much in the process of leveling up from a personnel standpoint. The story of 2015-16 was a Clemson team that delivered heroics as it was punching up on the way to the top. The real juggernaut Tigers squad would arrive a few years later.
9. 2014 Ohio State (14-1)
For the purposes of this ranking, the Buckeyes hold a unique position in having a roster that in retrospect was loaded with NFL Draft picks but did not stand out as the season’s best team until the conclusion of the College Football Playoff. Ohio State was ranked outside of the top 15 at the start of November, still recovering from an early season home loss to Virginia Tech, and only jumped into the top four of the CFP Rankings on Selection Day after a 59-0 thrashing of Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game.
Once the Buckeyes made the playoff, the talent showed out. A group that boasted 17 future NFL Draft picks in the starting lineup went on to upset Alabama as a 7.5-point underdog, and then kept the momentum rolling with a 42-20 win against previously undefeated Oregon as a 5.5-point underdog in national title. It marked Ohio State’s first national championship since beating Miami in the BCS Championship Game at the end of the 2002 season, and the most recent title for a Buckeyes program looking to win their ninth overall on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
8. 2017 Alabama (13-1)
The title game itself was among the most legendary moments in the CFP’s first decade. Nick Saban elected to put in freshman Tua Tagovailoa in place of Jalen Hurts at halftime when Georgia led 13-0. Tagovailoa, joined by several other young stars, including Najee Harris and DeVonta Smith, orchestrated a comeback for the ages as the Tide outscored the Bulldogs 20-7 in the second half and then won the game with a walk-off 41-yard touchdown pass from Tagovailoa to Smith on second-and-25 during the second possession of overtime.
As usual, Saban’s team was loaded up with NFL Draft picks on both sides of the ball at every line of the depth chart. They also spent nearly the entire regular season ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 before getting upset in the Iron Bowl by Auburn. That loss kept Alabama out of the SEC Championship Game and dropped the Tide to No. 6 in the CFP Rankings, but conference title game results compelled the committee to move the Tide back up to No. 4 and opened the door for one of the most iconic wins of Saban’s career.
7. 2015 Alabama (14-1)
While the title game itself was a 45-40 instant classic against Clemson, the first of four CFP showdowns between Saban and Dabo, the 2015 campaign was largely dominated by Derrick Henry and a defense that wasn’t just stacked with NFL Draft picks, but specifically first- and second-round picks. It was also the final season with Kirby Smart as defensive coordinator; Georgia would announce Smart’s hire shortly after the SEC Championship Game. There was an early season upset against Ole Miss that knocked Alabama back in the rankings, but the Tide responded with top-10 road wins against Georgia and Texas A&M in October before cementing their status as a title contender with a 30-16 win against then-No. 2 LSU in Tuscaloosa in early November. Henry was named the Heisman Trophy winner and finished with 2,219 yards and 28 touchdowns on the year, and Saban had another one of his title game master class calls with an onside kick to steal to steal a possession in a hectic fourth quarter that featured 40 combined points between the Tide and the Tigers.
6. 2023 Michigan (15-0)
As predicted by Jim Harbaugh, Michigan did make a run at the record but ultimately finished with 13 players selected in the NFL Draft off their national title team at the end of a tumultuous and dramatic season in Ann Arbor. Harbaugh missed the first three games of the regular season serving a suspension for recruiting violations and the final three games of the regular season due to the sign-stealing scandal, yet the Wolverines never wavered from their winning ways during a 15-0 campaign that flipped the balance of power in the Big Ten and affirmed Michigan’s place in the modern era of college football. Coming off back-to-back Big Ten title wins and College Football Playoff appearances, Michigan was always among the top contenders in 2023. It was also a group that appeared to have the clutch gene in some of the biggest games, delivering the game-changing plays in the toughest games against Penn State, Ohio State and Alabama.
5. 2021 Georgia (14-1)
After falling short in heart breaking fashion against Alabama in the 2017 CFP title game, the 2018 SEC Championship Game and then again in the 2021 SEC Championship Game, Kirby Smart’s Georgia program finally got their breakthrough against who else but Saban and the Crimson Tide in the CFP title game. With a staff that included future Oregon coach Dan Lanning and future Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Georgia absolutely hammered its opponents throughout the regular season on the way to a 12-0 record. The Bulldogs never allowed an opponent to score more than 17 points in the regular season with three shutouts while also fielding a top-10 scoring offense with future NFL Draft picks like James Cook and George Pickens contributing.
Speaking of draft picks, Georgia had 15 players off this team selected in the 2022 NFL Draft, setting a record for draft picks from a single school in the seven round era. All five of Georgia’s first-round picks off this team were from that FBS-leading defense, including Travon Walker at No. 1 overall. Bryce Young might have gotten the best of that defense in the SEC title game, but the Bulldogs got their revenge with a 33-18 win in the CFP title game.
4. 2022 Georgia (15-0)
It speaks to the recruiting operation that Kirby Smart has in Athens that Georgia lost a record-setting 15 NFL Draft picks and returned with a squad that went 15-0 to claim back-to-back national titles — becoming just the second program of the BCS/CFP era to repeat. The Bulldogs’ playoff run was a roller-coaster, first mounting a late comeback against Ohio State in the semifinals in thrilling fashion and then thrashing TCU in a 58-point title game win. All but one of Georgia’s 13 games heading into the playoff were double-digit wins, bookended by a 49-3 win against Oregon in the opener and a 50-30 dismantling of LSU in the SEC Championship Game.
It was not a group that flooded the award circuit with handfuls of All-Americans and trophy winners (though Jalen Carter was named an All-American and Brock Bowers did receive the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end), but instead it was a group that won because of the sum of its parts and their ability to play at a high level together in the most important moments of the season.
3. 2018 Clemson (15-0)
The first college football team to finish with a 15-0 record since 1897, the 2018 Tigers have an argument not just as one of the best teams of the last 10 years, but as one of the 10 best teams of the 21st Century. Trevor Lawrence was outstanding in his first year as starting quarterback, but it was Travis Etienne, in his sophomore season, who was named the ACC Player of the Year after rushing for 1,658 yards and an FBS-leading 24 touchdowns. The defense also had nine future NFL Draft picks in the starting lineup with defensive linemen who were able to bring the experience of multiple playoff runs to lead the way. Clemson won 13 of its 15 games by at least 20 points, with an average of victory on the season of 32 points per game. The 44-16 dismantling of Alabama in a national championship game that featured two 14-0 teams only further cemented how far ahead the Tigers were from the rest of the competition in that season.
2. 2019 LSU (15-0)
The 2019 Tigers were a supernova that college football will remember forever as one of the most electric teams of the modern era. Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy after a record-setting season at quarterback, and his ability to command a passing attack that was headlined by both Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson at wide receiver looks, in retrospect, like a lineup that would win any modern fantasy league.
But while we would know the multiple Pro Bowls and All-Pro awards that would coming the way of this group, what we did know was that LSU was continually put in the biggest games of the week and flexed their muscles as one of the best teams in the country at every turn. If you include the College Football Playoff, seven of LSU’s 15 opponents were top-10 teams at the time of the game, and four of those contests (including both CFP wins) were double-digit victories.
Not only did Chase and Jefferson each eclipse 1,500 receiving yards over the course of the season, but the high-octane offense was balanced by a 1,400-yard season from running back Clyde Edward-Helaire. The defense may not have had the statistical profile of some of the other title winners of the last decade, but it had star power (10 of the 11 starters were NFL Draft picks) and the ability to deliver stops in big moments on the way to an undefeated season.
1. 2020 Alabama (13-0)
Everyone has their own way of trying to qualify the results of a disjointed 2020 season impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And while some programs have results that are overlooked, excused or given an asterisk, I think it would be irresponsible to dock Alabama points in the conversation of all-time greats when the Crimson Tide had to deal with many of the same hiccups and irregularities as everyone else.
Five Alabama players were unanimous All-Americans, two were Heisman Trophy finalists and DeVonta Smith made history as the first wide receiver to win the award since Tim Brown. A 52-46 shootout win against Florida in the SEC Championship Game was the only one-score result of Alabama’s 13-game campaign; the Crimson Tide defeated opponents by an average of 29.1 points per game. The offense bowled over everyone, scoring 38 or more in every regular-season game. Even the most-hyped contests, like showdowns with top-five Georgia or top-15 Texas A&M, were turned into blowouts that showcased how Alabama was playing on a different tier than everyone else in the sport.
