With all of these considerations, we created a formula (noted at the bottom of the page) to rank college football's greatest programs across all divisions using one metric. And the first 50 years, for all they gave us, were just a shadow of today's sport due to large-scale scheduling inequities and rules and a scoring system that were still in flux. The previous 50 years (the middle 50) were less so due to segregation and some regionalized scheduling that still allowed for occasional games against non-college teams. In our judgment, integration and scholarship limitations has made the past 50 years the most competitive the game has seen. Fortunately, the NCAA decided that issue for us with its official list of major-college champions. While some early game outcomes are even disputed between teams, national titles are subject to far greater debate.

Teams should be judged by winning games and winning championships, since those records exist all the way back to the early years.

Our goal: Honor the accomplishments of teams across 150 seasons and all divisions, while rewarding successful programs at the highest level in the sport's most competitive era. Several months ago, our Stats & Information Group was presented with a huge challenge: to rank the top programs in college football history.

Best history programs college