Georgia’s Remarkable Back-to-Back Triumph in College Football Playoff National Championship
Georgia has a unique opportunity to achieve something that no college team has managed in nearly 90 years. The Georgia Bulldogs achieved consecutive victories in a grand style.
Kirby Smart’s team made it to the national title game for the second year in a row after an exciting win over Ohio State in the Peach Bowl. Georgia’s 2022 season reached its pinnacle with the College Football Playoff National Championship showdown against TCU at SoFi Stadium, concluding in a historic domination.
Georgia secured its third national championship and became the first team in more than ten years to defend its title successfully. They clinched a resounding 65-7 victory over TCU. While the Horned Frogs scored a touchdown in the first quarter, making it 10-7, the Bulldogs answered with an incredible 55 unanswered points, securing their second consecutive CFP crown.
But how unusual is it to win back-to-back college football championships? Let’s examine the exclusive group that Georgia joined last year and discover how many teams have achieved more than two consecutive titles:
How Many Teams Have Won Back-to-Back College Football Playoff National Championship?
Since the AP began naming champions in 1936, fourteen teams can boast back-to-back titles, but it’s not that straightforward. College football’s history mostly lacked a clear title game, and various voting bodies designated annual champions, leading to multiple teams claiming a given year’s title.
Even after the introduction of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, co-champions persisted. For example, USC claims the 2003 title despite not playing in the designated title game. Seven teams can assert they were uncontested, back-to-back college football champions, while seven others share co-championships as part of their consecutive titles. Here are those 14 teams:
1. Minnesota – 1940, 1941
2. Army – 1944, 1945
3. Notre Dame – 1946, 1947
4. Oklahoma – 1955, 1956
5. Alabama – 1964, 1965 (both years named co-champions)
6. Michigan State – 1965, 1966 (both years named co-champions)
7. Texas – 1969, 1970 (co-champions with two other teams in 1970)
8. Nebraska – 1970, 1971 (co-champions with two other teams in 1970)
9. Oklahoma – 1974, 1975 (co-champions in 1974)
10. Alabama – 1978, 1979 (co-champions in 1978)
11. Nebraska – 1994, 1995
12. USC – 2003, 2004 (co-champions in 2003, 2004 championship vacated by NCAA)
13. Alabama – 2011, 2012
14. Georgia – 2021, 2022
Has Any College Football Playoff National Championship Team Achieved Three Consecutive Championships?
While six teams have been crowned champions for three consecutive seasons, no Division I college football program has achieved a three-peat in over 80 years. The last team to accomplish this feat was Minnesota, winning three consecutive titles from 1934 to 1936.
Like the back-to-back champions, more than half of the back-to-back-to-back champions benefited from co-champion status. Minnesota and Yale are the only teams to secure three consecutive, undisputed titles. Here are the six teams that claimed titles in three consecutive years:
1. Princeton – 1878, 1879, 1880 (co-champions in 1880)
2. Yale – 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884 (co-champions in 1880)
3. Yale – 1886, 1887, 1888
4. Michigan – 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904 (co-champions in 1903 and 1904)
5. California – 1920, 1921, 1922 (co-champions in 1921 and 1922)
6. Minnesota – 1934, 1935, 1936
