Teams with most No. 1 appearances in College Football Playoff rankings
In the College Football Playoff era, making it into the final four is everything.
Get there, and you have a shot at the national championship. Don't make it, and you're left scrambling for other ways of defining success.
But how important is it for a team to be No. 1 in the polls? History suggests it doesn't guarantee much, but it doesn't exactly hurt, either.
Which schools are the best at reaching the top of the mountain so far?
Scroll through to see which teams have made it to No. 1 the most in the official CFB Playoff Top 25 poll up to now.
Tennessee
No. 1 rankings: 1
College Football Playoff titles: 0
Head coach Josh Heupel and quarterback Hendon Hooker broke through in their second season together behind the nation's No. 1 overall offense and a statement win over Alabama to earn the school's first and only top ranking in the CFP poll. Tennessee took the No. 1 ranking into a game against SEC East challenger Georgia, but a loss there dropped the Vols out of the top four.
LSU
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No. 1 rankings: 3
College Football Playoff titles: 1
LSU did all of its work as the nation's No. 1 team during the fabled 2019 season, when the Tigers ran through the SEC and everything else in front of them en route to a national championship. Ohio State earned No. 1 honors in three of the six CFP polls that year, but LSU retained the top spot in the final rankings and never looked back.
Mississippi State
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No. 1 rankings: 3
College Football Playoff titles: 0
MSU rattled off nine straight wins to open up the 2014 season, including three straight against top 10 ranked SEC teams, and made history as the initial No. 1 team in the first-ever CFP rankings. A loss to Alabama was the first of two Ls in the Bulldogs' final three games, and the Crimson Tide took over the top spot from there.
Ohio State
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No. 1 rankings: 5
College Football Playoff titles: 1
OSU earned an uninspiring No. 16 spot in the first-ever CFP poll, three spots worse than in the AP Top 25, as voters punished the Buckeyes for a Week 2 home loss to Virginia Tech well into the season. Ohio State won the first CFB Playoff national title, but never made it to No. 1 until 2019, making three appearances there. The committee selected Ohio State as the No. 1 team in their first two rankings in 2023.
Clemson
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No. 1 rankings: 8
College Football Playoff titles: 2
Oddly enough, Clemson didn't rank No. 1 in either year it won the national championship, both times (2016, 2018) playing second fiddle to Alabama, who it beat both times for the CFP title head-to-head those years. Clemson was the top-ranked team six times in 2015, when it lost in the national title game against the Crimson Tide.
Georgia
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No. 1 rankings: 15
College Football Playoff titles: 2
Georgia earned the first two No. 1 spots in the 2017 rankings, but an ugly loss to Auburn ended that run. UGA still made the CFP, playing (and losing to) Alabama in the national title game. But it was 2021 when the Bulldogs truly dominated, ranking No. 1 five times behind a historically dominant defense, dropping from the top spot only after losing the SEC title game (to Alabama), but then going on to win the championship (against Alabama) as the No. 3 team. And they did it again in 2022 by pounding TCU in the national title game by 58 points, the widest margin in a postseason game, ever.
Alabama
No. 1 rankings: 24
College Football Playoff titles: 3
The king of the castle for most of the CFP era, Alabama is far and away the leader of this pack. Bama went wire-to-wire as the top-ranked team in 2016, 2018, and 2020, losing to Clemson in the title game the first two times, and beating Ohio State for the championship the third.
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