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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/ItsJellyJosh on 2025-08-04 22:47:40+00:00.
I woke up this morning thinking about how unfair it is that so many teams have multiple CFB National Championship trophies while my team doesn’t even have one. There must be a way we can manipulate history to give more teams a trophy in the spirit of fairness. What if the championship trophy got passed down to the highest remaining team that hasn’t won it all yet?
Methodology
For this exercise, I decided it was appropriate to start with the BCS era, as championship claims prior to that point are a lot less concrete. Not to mention, I see championship claims going back just over 150 years ago. If we’re going back to the beginning, then we’ll be dipping into FCS teams by the time we hit present day. The BCS era seems like a reasonable starting point. Any claimed championship titles prior to 1998 were not considered.
Updating the winners was straightforward. That is, until I remembered National Championship winner LSU and Final AP #1 USC from the 2003 season. Depending on who you consider the actual “winner” of that season, we create two separate timelines of winners from that point on. So that’s exactly what I did.
One timeline follows a reality where the final AP Rank is prioritized to determine the winner (AP Rank Timeline). In this timeline, USC is declared the winner of the 2003 season. In years following, if the champion has already won in the past, then the trophy goes to the next highest team on the final AP poll that hasn’t won before.
The other timeline follows a reality where the BCS/CFP championship game is prioritized to determine the winner (Championship Game Timeline). In this timeline, LSU is declared the winner of the 2003 season. In the years following, if the champion has won in the past, it first would go to the team they beat in the championship game if they haven’t won before. If the runner-up has won before, at that point it goes to the highest team on the AP poll without a win in the past.
All that being said, let’s see how different this fair and just system would look:
| Season | AP Rank Timeline Winner (Record) | Championship Game Timeline Winner (Record) | Championship Game Result | Surpassed Teams, (Only AP Timeline), [Only Championship Timeline] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 1 Tennessee (13-0) | 1 Tennessee (13-0) | Tennessee 23-16 Florida State | |
| 1999 | 1 Florida State (12-0) | 1 Florida State (12-0) | Florida State 46-29 Virginia Tech | |
| 2000 | 1 Oklahoma (13-0) | 1 Oklahoma (13-0) | Oklahoma 13-2 Florida State | |
| 2001 | 1 Miami (12-0) | 1 Miami (12-0) | Miami 37-14 Nebraska | |
| 2002 | 1 Ohio State (14-0) | 1 Ohio State (14-0) | Ohio State 31-24 Miami | |
| 2003 | 1 USC (12-1) | 2 LSU (12-1) | LSU 21-14 Oklahoma (USC AP #1) | |
| 2004 | 2 Auburn (13-0) | 1 USC (13-0) | USC 55-19 Oklahoma | (USC, Oklahoma) |
| 2005 | 1 Texas (13-0) | 1 Texas (13-0) | Texas 41-38 USC | |
| 2006 | 1 Florida (13-1) | 1 Florida (13-1) | Florida 41-14 Ohio State | |
| 2007 | 1 LSU (12-2) | 2 Georgia (12-2) | LSU 38-24 Ohio State | [LSU, Ohio State] |
| 2008 | 2 Utah (13-0) | 2 Utah (13-0) | Florida 24-14 Oklahoma | Florida, Oklahoma |
| 2009 | 1 Alabama (14-0) | 1 Alabama (14-0) | Alabama 37-21 Texas | |
| 2010 | 2 TCU (13-0) | 1 Auburn (14-0) | Auburn 22-19 Oregon | (Auburn) |
| 2011 | 3 Oklahoma State (12-1) | 3 Oklahoma State (12-1) | Alabama 21-0 LSU | Alabama, LSU |
| 2012 | 2 Oregon (12-1) | 4 Notre Dame (12-1) | Alabama 42-14 Notre Dame | Alabama |
| 2013 | 3 Michigan State (13-1) | 3 Michigan State (13-1) | Florida State 34-31 Auburn | Florida State, Auburn |
| 2014 | 7 Baylor (11-2) | 2 Oregon (13-2) | Ohio State 42-20 Oregon | Ohio State, (Oregon, TCU, Alabama, Florida State, Michigan State) |
| 2015 | 2 Clemson (14-1) | 2 Clemson (14-1) | Alabama 45-40 Clemson | Alabama |
| 2016 | 4 Washington (12-2) | 4 Washington (12-2) | Clemson 35-31 Alabama | Clemson, Alabama, USC |
| 2017 | 2 Georgia (13-2) | 6 UCF (13-0) | Alabama 26-23 Georgia | Alabama, [Georgia, Oklahoma, Clemson, Ohio State] |
| 2018 | 5 Notre Dame (12-1) | 10 Washington State (11-2) | Clemson 44-16 Alabama | Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, [Notre Dame, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas] |
| 2019 | 9 Penn State (11-2) | 9 Penn State (11-2) | LSU 42-25 Clemson | LSU, Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama |
| 2020 | 3 Texas A&M (9-1) | 3 Texas A&M (9-1) | Alabama 52-24 Ohio State | Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson |
| 2021 | 3 Michigan (12-2) | 3 Michigan (12-2) | Georgia 33-18 Alabama | Georgia, Alabama |
| 2022 | 9 Tulane (12-2) | 2 TCU (13-2) | Georgia 65-7 TCU | Georgia, (TCU, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, Penn State, Washington) |
| 2023 | 8 Missouri (11-2) | 8 Missouri (11-2) | Michigan 34-13 Washington | Michigan, Washington, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Florida State |
| 2024 | 7 Arizona State (11-3) | 7 Arizona State (11-3) | Ohio State 34-23 Notre Dame | Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas, Penn State, Georgia |
Notes:
- Utah, TCU, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Notre Dame, Washington, Penn State, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Arizona State are teams with new post-1998 trophy wins in both timelines
- Tulane and Baylor now get a trophy exclusively in the AP Rank Timeline
- UCF and Washington State now get a trophy exclusively in the Championship Game Timeline
- Alabama is passed up for the trophy 12 times, followed by Ohio State with 8
- South Carolina still doesn’t win one as they’re just beat out by Michigan State in 2013, proving that life is never fair no matter how much I skew reality to my will (At least the 2017 UCF claim is now valid)
Congratulations to all the teams with the shiny new trophies they deserve in their trophy cases!