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The top 20 college football programs of the last 20 seasons, ranked by number of wins. Where do Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, and others fall on the scale?
There has been plenty of change in the sport of college football over the past 20 seasons. We've witnessed the fall of the BCS era into the four-team College Football Playoff, then saw the playoff expand to twelve teams while paying players became legal.
The sport does not look anything like it did 20 seasons ago, but some of the same teams remain at the top.
Read on to see the top 20 programs of the past 20 seasons, ranked by total number of wins.
20. Oklahoma State Cowboys
Record Since 2006: 166-92
Best Season: 2011 (12-1, Fiesta Bowl champions)
While the last two seasons went poorly for Mike Gundy, his 20-year reign as the head coach at Oklahoma State was quite impressive. Gundy went 170-90 over the course of his career, winning 12 bowl games.
The Cowboys’ 2011 season was special, as they finished ranked third in the AP poll after winning the Fiesta Bowl. A 4-11 record over the past two seasons was enough for Gundy to be let go after just three games in 2025, and Eric Morris is now set to take over the program as he looks to reinstate consistency in Stillwater.
19. Florida Gators
Record Since 2006: 166-91
Best Season: 2006/2008 (13-1, national champions)
We are 18 and 20 years, respectively, removed from Urban Meyer’s national titles at Florida. Since he stepped down after the 2010 season, Florida has been searching for the man to replace him.
The Gators have gone through Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen, and Billy Napier without any luck outside of a few flash-in-the-pan seasons here and there. Coming over from Tulane, Jon Sumrall now has the program in his hands.
18. Cincinnati Bearcats
Record Since 2006: 166-89
Best Season: 2021 (13-1, CFP semifinals)
Being a lower-tier program for so long, Cincinnati has gone through its fair share of coaches. The majority of them were hired by a bigger school, hence why the Bearcats made this list.
Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly, Butch Jones, Tommy Tuberville, Luke Fickell, and now Scott Satterfield round out the list of Bearcat head coaches since 2006. Not a bad list to be on, although Satterfield and the Bearcats have struggled since joining the Big 12 in 2023.
17. Utah Utes
Record Since 2006: 170-83
Best Season: 2009 (13-0, Sugar Bowl champions)
Since being quickly built up by Urban Meyer in 2003, Utah has been a consistently good college football program. Kyle Whittingham was the head coach for the last 21 seasons after directly succeeding Meyer, and he finished his tenure with a 177-88 record. Now headed to Michigan, Whittingham passes the reins to Morgan Scalley to continue the program’s consistency.
16. Texas Longhorns
Record Since 2006: 171-88
Best Season: 2009 (13-1, national championship runner-up)
After a dominant run in the early 2000s under Mack Brown, the Longhorns swung and missed on coaching hires twice between Charlie Strong and Tom Herman. Was the third time the charm with Steve Sarkisian hired as the head man?
Sarkisian has reached double-digit wins in three of his four seasons at the helm, which has been enough for many college football fans to proclaim that Texas is back. Can he lead it back to a national title, which it has not achieved since 2005 under Brown?
HE'S BAAAACKK 🔥
Arch Manning (4 TD, 295 YDS) GOES OFF in Texas home opener 🤘 pic.twitter.com/DFwZvoj2aj
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 6, 2025
15. Michigan Wolverines
Record Since 2006: 172-82
Best Season: 2023 (15-0, national champions*)
The past 20 seasons have been a whirlwind for Michigan football. From the end of the Lloyd Carr era into the short-lived Rich Rodriguez era, followed by Brady Hoke, then Jim Harbaugh, a national championship, a play-stealing scandal, Sherrone Moore, an arrest stemming from an affair, and now into the Kyle Whittingham era, there have been quite a few highs and lows for the Wolverines over the years. Whittingham hopes to instill stability into a program that is currently in much need of it.
14. USC Trojans
Record Since 2006: 173-81
Best Season: 2008 (12-1, Rose Bowl champions)
USC is not the program that it was under Pete Carroll in the early 2000s. From 2001-09 under Carroll, the Trojans were 97-19, not counting vacated NCAA wins. The glory days are now behind them, as they have only reached the 11-win mark twice since Carroll’s departure (2017 under Clay Helton, 2022 under Lincoln Riley).
Finding the right coaching fit has been a struggle for USC, and 2026 is a pivotal season for Riley to prove that he is the guy who can take the Trojans back to their success of the 2000s.
13. Wisconsin Badgers
Record Since 2006: 176-82
Best Season: 2017 (13-1, Orange Bowl champions)
While trending down in recent years, Wisconsin has traditionally been one of the Big Ten’s powers. The Badgers’ best season came in 2017, when their only loss was to Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship, and a true freshman, Jonathan Taylor, rushed for 1,977 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Bret Bielema, Gary Anderson, and Paul Chryst each maintained a level of excellence within the program, but that standard has seemingly dipped with Luke Fickell running the program as the Badgers suffered their only two losing seasons in the past 20 years in 2024 and 2025.
12. TCU Horned Frogs
Record Since 2006: 176-80
Best Season: 2010 (13-0, Rose Bowl champions)
TCU has had its fair share of impressive teams over the past 20 seasons with Gary Patterson at the helm. There is an argument to be had about which team was better: Patterson’s 2010 team that went undefeated and won the Rose Bowl with Andy Dalton under center, or Sonny Dykes’ 2022 team that beat Michigan and made the CFP National Championship, only to lose 65-7 to Georgia. Whether in the Mountain West or the Big 12, the Horned Frogs have had some very strong seasons over the years.
11. BYU Cougars
Record Since 2006: 177-82
Best Season: 2020 (11-1, Boca Raton Bowl champions)
BYU has had just two coaches over the past 20 years: Bronco Mendenhall and Kalani Sitake. Both men have kept the Cougars relevant, as they’ve had just two losing seasons in the past 20 years.
BYU has been one of the nation’s most underheralded college football programs of the past 20 seasons. Despite winning 23 games in the past two seasons, Sitake and the Cougars have yet to qualify for the College Football Playoff.
10. Penn State Nittany Lions
Record Since 2006: 179-79
Best Season: 2024 (13-3, CFP semifinals)
Going back 20 years brings us back to a time when Joe Paterno was still the head coach at Penn State. Paterno was dismissed in 2011 after a 46-year tenure as a result of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and died just a few months later.
Bill O’Brien came in and kept the program afloat despite the fallout from the scandal, but left for the NFL after just two seasons, which led to the hiring of James Franklin.
Franklin scored double-digit wins in six of his 12 seasons at the helm of the program, but ultimately was dismissed this past season after starting 3-3. Matt Campbell will be the next man up in Happy Valley in 2026.
9. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Record Since 2006: 182-76
Best Season: 2024 (14-2, national championship runner-up)
Nine of the 11 past seasons have resulted in double-digit wins for Notre Dame. The Irish have had stability in coaching between Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman, and have made two national championship appearances in the past 20 seasons.
While they’ve been consistently good in the regular season, the Irish have been unable to win the big one. Could that change under Freeman, who is now heading into his fifth season at the helm in South Bend?
8. LSU Tigers
Record Since 2006: 190-70
Best Season: 2019 (15-0, national champions)
LSU has two national titles in the past 20 seasons, one coming in 2007 under Les Miles and the second in 2019 under Ed Orgeron with what many consider the best college football team of all time.
The Tigers have largely struggled to find the right coaching fit post-Miles, as the Brian Kelly experiment came to a close in 2025. Lane Kiffin will hope to propel LSU higher on this list during his tenure, beginning next season.
🐯 Joe Burrow: 5,671 pass yds
🐯 Clyde Edwards-Helaire: 1,414 rush yds
🐯 Ja'Marr Chase: 1,780 rec yds
🐯 Justin Jefferson: 1,540 rec yds@LSUfootball is the only team in FBS history to have a 5,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher & two 1,500-yard receivers in the same season. pic.twitter.com/hVpBb4UP6d— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) January 14, 2020
7. Oregon Ducks
Record Since 2006: 199-63
Best Season: 2010 (12-1, national championship runner-up)
Oregon has undergone its fair share of coaching changes over the last 20 years. From being built up under Mike Bellotti to a strong run under Chip Kelly to a national championship appearance under Mark Helfrich to one season of Willie Taggart into the Mario Cristobal era and then to the modern-day era of Dan Lanning, each Ducks coach has found a level of success, but none have won the big one.
6. Oklahoma Sooners
Record Since 2006: 203-62
Best Season: 2008 (12-2, national championship runner-up)
Oklahoma dominated the Big 12 in Bob Stoops’ reign, winning 10 Big 12 titles. Lincoln Riley stepped in seamlessly and won the Big 12 in four of his five seasons at the helm in Norman.
The Sooners have been dominant in conference play but have only made it to one national championship in the past 20 seasons, losing 24-14 to Florida. Now in the SEC under Brent Venables, conference play has become harder, but the Sooners did crack the CFP field in 2025.
5. Clemson Tigers
Record Since 2006: 206-65
Best Season: 2018 (15-0, national champions)
Dabo Swinney has been at the helm of Clemson’s football program since taking over in 2008. He built the Tigers up into a state where they won double-digit games for 12 straight seasons, with the streak ending in 2023.
Clemson is no longer the dominant program it was in the late 2010s when it went to the national championship four times in five years, and Swinney now finds himself at a crossroads as fans yearn for a return to the glory days.
4. Boise State Broncos
Record Since 2006: 207-54
Best Season: 2009 (14-0, Fiesta Bowl champions)
It may come as a shock to see Boise State so high on this list, but the Broncos are dominant every year in the Mountain West. They have hit double-digit wins in 14 of the past 20 seasons and are just a season removed from their first CFP appearance. Boise State’s best season came in 2009, when it made and won the Fiesta Bowl in its most recent undefeated season.
3. Georgia Bulldogs
Record Since 2006: 211-59
Best Season: 2022 (15-0, national champions)
While Georgia has not been as dominant over the past few seasons as it was in the early 2020s, Kirby Smart is still among the nation’s best coaches, and the Bulldogs remain a perennial contender. Smart won back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022, notching Georgia’s first title since 1980.
2. Ohio State Buckeyes
Record Since 2006: 227-37
Best Season: 2014 (14-1, national champions)
Transitioning from the successful Urban Meyer era to the Ryan Day era, Ohio State is still the team to beat in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes have two national championship wins in the past 20 seasons, and Day hopes to grab another during his tenure.
1. Alabama Crimson Tide
Record Since 2006: 232-44
Best Season: 2009 (14-0, national champions)
Nick Saban’s dominant run at the top of college football for his 17-year stint at Alabama puts the Crimson Tide at No. 1 on this list. While Kalen DeBoer has struggled to keep up to the standard level that Saban created, the Tide did win a playoff game last season and will be on their third starting quarterback in Year 3 of the DeBoer era in 2026.
WHAT. A. GAME.
Tua Tagovailoa to DeVonta Smith ... BALLGAME!!!@AlabamaFTBL WINS THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!! pic.twitter.com/WxmHdRazCQ
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) January 9, 2018
