Prestigious college football programs with current notable championship droughts

Before Bobby Bowden, Florida State football was not relevant, but Bowden turned the program into an annual contender. The Seminoles won two titles in the ‘90s and then won one title in 2013 under head coach Jimbo Fisher. Florida State was led by Heisman winner Jameis Winston that year. Notably, it was also the last title won before the playoff era began. Recent history has been inconsistent for FSU, and the title drought could get to 15 seasons.

Auburn may be the “other” team in the state of Alabama, at least as far as titles go, but Auburn takes a backseat to few programs. Led by Cam Newton in one of the best single seasons in college football history, the Tigers took home their second consensus title in 2010. That’s a reminder that prior to a certain era, you are cataloging “claimed” titles from programs and split championships. Fittingly enough, Auburn lost to Florida State in 2013.

Another SEC school, and another Florida school. The Gators won two titles under Urban Meyer, and don’t forget that 1996 title under Steve Spurrier. Big things are expected for a school like Florida, but the program hasn’t had a title since 2008. The Gators haven’t found the right head coach since Meyer’s final season in 2010, though no organization should lament being rid of Urban Meyer. Maybe Billy Napier will be the guy.

Hype for the Texas Longhorns is high for the 2025 season. Can the team possibly be as good as the magical 2005 squad that upset USC for the title? The team did make the playoffs in 2023 and 2024, so things are on an upswing. Of course, Longhorn fans have been waiting for two decades for a title already. However, and to be fair, Texas’s last title before that was in 1970, and that was a split national title.

Speaking of USC! There was a reason why Texas’s 2005 win was considered an upset. The Trojans had split the championship in 2003, and unless you’re talking to an Auburn fan, they were the champion in 2004. USC lost in 2005, though, and while it was a top-five team for a few more seasons, it has rarely looked like a championship threat. Now, the Trojans also have to play in the stacked Big Ten thanks to realignment.

It hasn’t been a great decade-plus for Florida-based programs, evidently. The Hurricanes, like the Seminoles and Gators, used to be perennial title contenders. “The U” was a brand, a piece of college football iconography. However, Miami hasn’t won a title since 2001. It hasn’t played for a title since 2002. The Hurricanes don’t even have a conference title since joining the ACC! “The U” is no longer the center of the universe.

It feels old school, in a way, that a college football program in Norman, Oklahoma, would be a formidable force. To which we would say: Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Clemson, South Carolina. There is nothing inherently preventing the Sooners, now an SEC team, from contending for titles. Oklahoma hasn’t won a title since 2000, but it played in the title game three times in the 2000s, and it has played in four playoffs. Of course, the Sooners also haven’t won a single playoff game yet.

The Volunteers won a title in 1998, the first year of the BCS. The idea was to end national title claims and to make matters undisputed. It still took a while for that to happen. Tennessee has fallen behind a bit as the SEC soared to the top of the sport. Not entirely, though. The Vols made the playoffs in 2024, though we do have to note that it was the first year of the 12-team playoff.

Sure, you see that Nebraska won two titles in the 1970s, and that tracks. The Cornhuskers feel like an old-school program. However, don’t forget they won three titles in the 1990s. Nebraska was one of the best programs in college football over the last three decades. It is one of those programs that had a defining head coach, Tom Osborne, and it has never quite managed to figure out what to do next.

Skeptical about us including the Washington Huskies? The Huskies have two titles, the most-recent in 1990, and played in the playoffs twice. Washington even played in the championship game in 2023. No, the Huskies don’t have the history of Nebraska or Florida, but the fact they haven’t won a title in over 30 years is significant, and a drought for the program.

Of course, if you’re Notre Dame, you’re thinking, “Washington has a title more recently than us!” The Fighting Irish are interwoven with college football history. Notre Dame is the bluest of blue-blood programs. The Irish’s title in 1988 was the 11th time the program has claimed. Since then, though, it has been a goose egg for Notre Dame. Has the luck of the Irish run out? Don’t be so sure, as the school has played in two title games in the last 15 years.

James Franklin’s ability to lead the Nittany Lions to being really good, but not quite good enough, has frustrated fans of the school to no end. For that, you can blame the fact that the school has two national titles. Those came all the way back in the 1980s, though. When Penn State won in 1986, its last title, it was long enough ago that the school was an independent. Franklin has done great things for the school. He just needs to get it over the hump.

It’s worth mentioning the SMU Mustangs, even if their time as an elite program was brief. That’s because their story remains one of college football’s most-told tales. In the ‘30s and ‘40s, SMU was a top program, winning one title, but then it fell by the wayside. That changed in the 1980s. Between 1980 and 1984, SMU went 49-9-1 and claimed two split national titles. It also paid players. This led to SMU getting the infamous “death penalty,” a never-repeated punishment. The school literally didn’t get to field a team in 1987 or 1988. It took decades for the school to recover.

Pitt doesn’t have the recent history of Penn State, but between 1915 and 1937 claimed at least a split national title eight times. This isn’t merely old-school, though. The Panthers were unanimous national champions in 1976. Of course, we’re now approaching the 50th anniversary of Pittsburgh’s last title. That is a lengthy time without a title.

Michigan has remained one of the top programs in college football throughout the years, but Michigan State used to be right alongside its in-state rivals. The Spartans claim six national championships between 1951 and 1966, though only one of those was unanimous. In the 2010s, Michigan State did win three Big Ten titles, which even led to one playoff appearance in 2015. That still leaves the Spartans behind the Wolverines, of course.

Ole Miss has long been in the mix, if not at the top of the standings, when all is said and done. This is an SEC program with a lot of tradition and pomp and circumstance, and it used to win SEC titles between 1947 and 1963. In that time, Ole Miss also claimed three titles, though in none of those instances did the AP or the coaches vote them number one. Then, things fell off a bit for a while there. Could it be that Ole Miss didn’t integrate its football program until 1972? Who’s to say?

We pair the service academies together because, obviously, neither Army nor Navy will ever win a national title again. That’s just not the way the world of college football works any longer. To be fair, we’re really talking about Army. Navy had some fine seasons, but it only claimed a single national title. Army, on the other hand, claims five, including in 1944, 1945, and 1946. You know, during and after World War II, when a lot of college-aged men were conscripted into service or chose to enlist to fight the Nazis? In 2024, Army was the AAC champion, and that was amazing. That is also pretty much where things cap out now for service academies.