Useful Notes / Power Five Conferences

The Power Five conferences of Collegiate American Football are the ones most casual fans think of when they hear the term "college football", featuring many teams with well over a century of history and absolutely rabid fanbases. On any given Saturday in the fall, most of the major broadcast and sports networks on American television will feature matchups of these schools, often littered with references to 150+ years of history and figures that the casual viewer might find confusing. These teams are also frequently featured, referenced, and parodied in other American media. Currently the Power 5 consists of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten Conference, the Big 12 Conference, the Pac-12 Conference, and the Southeastern Conference, alongside the independent program of Notre Dame^note Info on the Fighting Irish is viewable HERE..

There are few official differences between these five Football Bowl Subdivision conferences and the other five, but it remains widely used by sports media and fans. The term "Power Five" only began being used in the 2000s; it wasn't long ago when there was a "Power Six" that included the now defunct Big East. The decimation of the Pac-12 in 2024 has made "Power Five" into an Artifact Title, as few expect that conference to remain nationally relevant—if it even survives.

This page lays out the alignments of college football conferences as of the upcoming 2024 season and provides a description of their more prominent programs. Win-loss records are (mostly) accurate as of the end of the 2023 season.^note Disclaimer: Listing win-loss numbers and even national championships is complicated, to say the least. College programs (and even colleges themselves) frequently dissolve and reform, change divisions and conferences, play in games not recognized by the NCAA, have wins officially rescinded due to rule violations, and do other things that make it hard to judge schools' true performance. Since the NCAA doesn't even officially recognize a national champion at the FBS level, teams are often inconsistent with what titles they acknowledge, sometimes leaving them unclaimed even if picked by numerous selectors and other times jumping on a title given by a random panel that no other school takes seriously. We try to provide context and qualifications when possible, but this isn't The Other Wiki. For information on the other five FBS college conferences, check out Group of Five Conferences. For independent schools and FCS conferences, see Collegiate American Football Conferences.

"Historic" figures include names mentioned in the program description or who have entries on the Collegiate American Football Names To Know or National Football League Names to Know pages. Individuals who have their own pages on this wiki, such as politicians and entertainers (including pro wrestlers), also qualify. All are listed in order of their careers at their schools.

Power Five Conferences

Atlantic Coast Conference

^{Click here for a map of the ACC schools.}

Year Established: 1953
Current schools: Boston College, California, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest ^note Notre Dame competes in the ACC in other sports, but its football program is independent
Current commissioner: Jim Phillips
Reigning champion: Florida State
Website: theacc.com

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The Atlantic Coast Conference (or just ACC) was formed in 1953 by eight schools in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States that seceded from the now-FCS Southern Conference, with the bulk concentrated in North Carolina. (Founding member South Carolina left the ACC in 1971 in part due to this disparity.) It was the second of today's Power Five to leave the SoCon, after the SEC. The conference has since expanded to include schools from across the entire United States from as far north as Boston, as far south as Miami, and as far west as California, making the Atlantic Coast an Artifact Title as the conference now hosts two Pacific Coast teams. Many of the ACC's acquisitions came from the dissolved Big East's former powerhouses, making it an unofficial Spiritual Successor to the old conference (a reputation bolstered by many of the schools being better known for their basketball programs). The conference also has a strong affiliation with Notre Dam; the Fighting Irish agree to play five games each season against ACC teams.^note Notre Dame already has annual rivalries with Pitt and Boston College as well as a dormant but historically significant rivalry with Miami. In 2020, Notre Dame played a full ACC schedule due to COVID-19.

From 2005-22, the conference was divided into Atlantic^note Boston, Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, NC State, Syracuse, Wake Forest and Coastal^note Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech divisions, with teams always playing each team within their own division and a dedicated cross-division "rival", with the other five games being a rotation through the opposing division and four inter-conference matches. The Coastal became something of an Ensemble Dark Horse in the college football world for its remarkable parity, as all seven of its members won the division in the span of seven seasons (2013-19; every single Coastal rep team lost to the Atlantic's blue blood juggernauts Florida State and Clemson). In 2023, the ACC abandoned its divisions in favor of a cycle-based format in which each team has multiple permanent opponents; while initially organized to allow each team to play all of its non-permanent opponents once home and once away in a four-year cycle (not coincidentally, the standard length of a college playing career), it was modified the next year to instead reduce how many times each school has to make the long trek to California. The conference championship game will feature the top two teams in the conference standings.

The ACC's biggest football brands are increasingly frustrated with the league's current media deal. Not only does the current deal leave the ACC well behind the Big Ten and SEC, it doesn't expire until 2036—by which time both of the latter two conferences will have negotiated new deals. Florida State in particular has made public noises about wanting out of the ACC; with the increasing consolidation of the Power conferences in the wake of the Pac-12's destruction (which the ACC played a role in with the acquisition of Cal and Stanford), observers remain concerned with the ACC's long-term future.

ACC Teams

Boston College Eagles

For Boston!

Location: Chestnut Hill, MA
School Established: 1863
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892-1990)^note The school did not field a team in 1900 and 1903-07., Big East (1991-2004), ACC (2005-)
Overall Win Record: 698-523-37 (.570)
Bowl Record: 15-13 (.536)
Colors: Maroon and gold
Stadium: Alumni Stadium (44,500 capacity)
Current Head Coach: Bill O'Brien
Notable Historic Coaches: Frank Cavanaugh, Gil Dobie, Frank Leahy, Mike Holovak, Tom Coughlin
Notable Historic Players: Mike Holovak, Art Donovan, Ernie Stautner, Jack Concannon, Joe Nash, Doug Flutie, Tom Nalen, Matt Hasselbeck, William Green, Matt Ryan, Steve Aponavicius, B.J. Raji, Mark Herzlich, Luke Kuechly, Andre Williams
National Championships: 0 (1 claimed, 1940)
Conference Championships: 1 (Big East - 2004, four-way tie)^note Won 4 Lambert Trophies as "Best Team in the East" as an independent (1940, 1942, 1983-84)

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Boston College^note not simply "Boston"; despite being an R1 university, the school is very proud of its roots as a small liberal arts college. "BC" is the more acceptable abbreviation. Boston University exists and is a couple of miles closer to downtown. is more widely known for its academics and its five-time champion hockey team than its football program. However, the team still has a proud century-plus history, with the peaks after their earliest years being their "Team of Destiny" undefeated 1940 campaign that launched coach Frank Leahy to his position at Notre Dame (the school still hangs a national championship banner for this season that no one else recognizes) and QB Doug Flutie's 1984 Heisman win (sealed with a game-winning Hail Mary pass against Miami in a nationally televised game). After spending most of their history as an independent, they joined the Big East in 1991 and jumped ship to the ACC in 2005 right after winning a Big East title. QB Matt Ryan kept them competitive for their first few years in the new conference, but they soon slid down to middling records. Ryan's departure in 2008 ended a unique streak; despite not being a regular season powerhouse, BC won eight straight bowl games from 2000-07, tied for the third-longest such run ever.

Eagles players have an Academic Athlete reputation due to the rigors of their school. Due to being the only two Catholic FBS schools, BC has a good rivalry with Notre Dame (their matchups being referred to as a "Holy War"), and they have pretty long-standing rivalries with Syracuse and inter-state competitor UMass. However, the school they've played the most in their history is FCS Holy Cross. Alumni Stadium has been their home since 1957, with its most recent major renovation being in 1995. One unusual feature of the stadium is that it's physically attached to BC's basketball and hockey arena, Conte Forum (aka Kelley Rink). Several luxury boxes in the complex have views of both the football field and arena floor.

California Golden Bears

The Band is on the Field!

Location: Berkeley, CA
School Established: 1868
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1886–1905, 1915),^note Did not play in 1889; replaced football with rugby from 1906–14. Pac-12 (1916–2023), ACC (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 694–571–51 (.547)
Bowl Record: 12–12–1 (.500)
Colors: Blue and gold
Stadium: California Memorial Stadium (capacity 51,892)
Current Head Coach: Justin Wilcox
Notable Historic Coaches: Andy Smith, Stub Allison, Buck Shaw, Pappy Waldorf, Marv Levy, Joe Kapp, Steve Mariucci, Jeff Tedford
Notable Historic Players: Walter A. Gordon, Roy Riegels, John Ralston, Les Richter, Joe Kapp, Craig Morton, Isaac Curtis^*ended his college career at San Diego State, Herm Edwards^*also ended his college career at San Diego State, Vince Ferragamo^*ended his college career at Nebraska, Steve Bartkowski, Joe Roth, Chuck Muncie, Wesley Walker, Robert Rozier, Jim Breech, Rich Campbell, Ron Rivera, Hardy Nickerson, David Binn, Tony Gonzalez, Kyle Boller, Nnamdi Asomugha, Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, L.P. Ladouceur, DeSean Jackson, Jahvid Best, Cam Jordan, Keenan Allen, Jared Goff
National Championships: 5 (1920–23, 1937)
Conference Championships: 14 (1918, 1920–23, 1935, 1937-38, 1948–50, 1958, 1975, 2006)

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The University of California, Berkeley has been known for decades as the left-wing public school Strawman U and is acclaimed more for its very strong academic output than its athletics. That is an indication of just how influential California's first land-grant university has been in politics, business, and the sciences for well over a century, because its athletics program is still a juggernaut; Berkeley claims over 40 NCAA national titles in various sports, and its men's water polo team leads D-I with 17 national titles as of 2023.^note Outside of the NCAA, men's crew (18) and rugby (a staggering 28) are dominant on the national stage. However, its football team hasn't been a true power for decades, likely due to the school's stringent academic standards. The team used to be very strong in the early 20th century and was actually the first on the West Coast to attain national success in the sport. Coach Andy Smith's "Wonder Teams" posted five straight seasons (1920-24) with no losses and four ties, earning four national titles before his untimely death in 1926. Cal stayed fairly competitive for several more years, earning one more national title with their 1937 "Thunder Team", but they declined when the school altered its admissions priorities after a few recruiting violations during the tenure of coach Pappy Waldorf (1947-56). The Golden Bears have had a few scattered moments of football success since then, with their most memorable victory coming with "The Play" against hated Bay Area rival Stanford (see their entry below). However, their only consistent run of success since the 1950s came under Jeff Tedford in the 2000s, and they have since regressed to mediocrity.

"Cal" gets to go by the name of its state rather than its city due to being the first UC campus, which only fragmented into semi-autonomous schools in the mid-20th century. Before the 2024 collapse of the Pac-12, it was one of the only two founding Pac-12 members (alongside Washington) that had uninterrupted membership in the Pac and its predecessors. Their picturesque Memorial Stadium was built at the tail end of their dominant run in the early 1920s. The site's topography grants some attendees an excellent view of San Francisco Bay, though the best spot to take in that view is on "Tightwad Hill", a site right above the western stands where fans can get a free (albeit distant) view of the games. Unfortunately, the stadium is built right on top of a fault line, requiring a large-scale renovation after it literally began to break in half in the 2000s. After the Big Ten and Big 12 raided the Pac-12, Cal seemed all but certain to lose power conference status; to make matters even worse for the Bears, no athletic department in the country was carrying more debt at the time—a reported $450 million. However, Cal and Stanford eventually got a lifeline in the form of an ACC invitation, though both schools made major financial concessions to receive it.

Clemson Tigers

T-I-G-E-rrRRRR-S!

Location: Clemson, SC
School Established: 1889
Conference Affiliations: SIAA (1896-1921), SoCon (1921-53), ACC (1953-)
Overall Win Record: 798-472-45 (.624)
Bowl Record: 27-23 (.540)
Colors: Orange and "regalia" purple
Stadium: Clemson Memorial Stadium (81,500 capacity)
Current Head Coach: Dabo Swinney
Notable Historic Coaches: John Heisman, Jess Neely, Frank Howard, Charley Pell, Danny Ford, Tommy Bowden
Notable Historic Players: Dwight Clark, William "The Refrigerator" and Michael Dean Perry, Chris Gardocki, Brian Dawkins, Woody Dantzler, Gaines Adams, Tajh Boyd, Grady Jarrett, DeAndre Hopkins, Deshaun Watson, Isaiah Simmons, Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne
National Championships: 3 (1981, 2016, 2018)
Conference Championships: 27 (4 SIAA - 1900, 1902-03, 1906; 2 SoCon - 1940, 1948; 21 ACC - 1956, 1958-59, 1965-67, 1978, 1981-82, 1986-88, 1991, 2011, 2015-20, 2022)

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Clemson University was originally founded as an agriculture/military academy built on the former home of controversial vice president John C. Calhoun before a civilian retool in the 1950s. Its football team has been the ACC's traditional power since the formation of the conference, winning 21 ACC titles. Prior to being a charter member of the ACC, it was a charter member of SoCon and before that a member of the SIAA. It had eras of success in each conference. John Heisman himself coached the team to conference titles in the early 1900s and gave them the "Tiger" moniker (though no Clemson athlete has yet won the Heisman Trophy). Frank Howard shaped the program into what it is today during his thirty-year reign from 1940-69 and implemented most of its most well-known traditions. After the program slumped in the '70s, 33-year-old coach Danny Ford brought the team to an unexpected national title in 1981, though NCAA violations and sanctions in later years cost the school some prestige. While the team was fairly middling in the '90s and 2000s thanks to the rise of Florida State, coach Dabo Swinney and generational QB talents Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence made the Tigers one of the only real challengers to the SEC's (and Alabama's) dominance of the 2010s national championships, leading the school to titles in '16 and '18 and coming a game short in '15 and '19. The Tigers' six-year ACC title and CFP berth streak ended in 2021.

Clemson's Memorial Stadium (located on campus) is one of the largest and most iconic stadiums in American sports. Originally built in 1942 as a 20,000-person venue, constant renovations and expansions over the years have quadrupled that size, resulting in steep and towering stands that earned the stadium the nickname "Death Valley". In the '60s, Coach Howard introduced the tradition of "Howard's Rock", having the team all rub a large stone from the real Death Valley in California before running down the hill on the east side of the stadium onto the field to the sound of cannon fire. The team continues that tradition today, decades after the hill was filled in with seats. Other traditions include the "Gathering at the Paw" (where, win or lose, Clemson students storm the field after home games to stand on the team's tiger paw logo), the "Graveyard" (a field of tombstones commemorating each Clemson away win against a ranked opponent), and a fierce intrastate rivalry with South Carolina that culminates in the annual Palmetto Bowl.

Duke Blue Devils

Fight, Blue Devils, Fight!

Location: Durham, NC
School Established: 1838^note As Brown's Schoolhouse; went through numerous transformations in size and form before settling on the Duke name (after a major donor) in 1924
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1889-94, 1920-29), SoCon (1930-52), ACC (1953-)
Overall Win Record: 537-556-31 (.492)
Bowl Record: 8-8 (.500)
Colors: Duke blue and white
Stadium: Wallace Wade Stadium (capacity 40,004)
Current Head Coach: Manny Diaz
Notable Historic Coaches: Howard Jones, Wallace Wade, Bill Murray, Steve Spurrier, David Cutcliffe
Notable Historic Players: Clarence "Ace" Parker, Tommy Prothro, George McAfee, Sonny Jurgensen, Mike Junkin, Dave Brown (QB), Keith Gill, Patrick Mannelly
National Championships: 0^note 2 unclaimed (1936, 1941)
Conference Championships: 17 (10 SoCon - 1933, 1935-36, 1938-39, 1941, 1943-45, 1952; 7 ACC - 1953-55, 1960-62, 1989)

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Duke University is better known as one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the U.S. than a football school, and is likely even better known for its men's basketball program that won five national championships during the four-decade tenure of coach Mike Krzyzewski.^note Though their most decorated sports program is actually their women's golf team, which has won seven national championships since 1999. Their football team, on the other hand, has been the Butt-Monkey of the ACC for decades. After a slow start to the program, the school accomplished a major coup by hiring successful Alabama coach Wallace Wade in 1931 after joining SoCon. Wade led the team for most of the next two decades and his "Iron Dukes" dominated the conference and went unscored upon in 1938 until losing in the Rose Bowl. His successor, Bill Murray, kept the team dominant in the early years of the ACC. The program has essentially been in freefall since then, only briefly rebounding under Steve Spurrier, who left to coach his alma mater as soon as he led the Devils to their last conference title. Duke posted consecutive no-win seasons in 2000-01 in the midst of a 23-game losing streak, then had another winless season in 2006 wedged between two one-win years; this makes them the only FBS program to have two streaks of 20+ losses in their entire history, let alone in such proximity. Duke had a modest resurgence in The New '10s under David Cutcliffe, even making the conference title game in 2013 only to get curbstomped by eventual national champion Florida State; even Cutcliffe still had a losing record at Duke when he was let go after 2021. While they had a minor resurgence afterwards, the program has struggled to hold on to talent for more than a season or two.

On the plus side, Duke still has some of the highest graduation rates for its student athletes. Incidentally, Duke has the second-smallest undergraduate enrollment in the Power Five (about 6,500), ahead of only Wake Forest. The "Blue Devil" name comes from an elite French military alpine unit that several Duke students observed during their WWI service, though their mascot is now just a traditional devil. The team has played in Wallace Wade Stadium since 1929, which was renamed after the school's greatest coach in 1967. The university maintains solid rivalries with the other North Carolina "Tobacco Road" schools.

Florida State Seminoles

Go Noles!

Location: Tallahassee, FL
School Established: 1851^note ...is the "official" founding date, the year the state legislature established the "West Florida Seminary". Said school went through several iterations, including 40 years as a women's college, before taking its current form in 1947.
Conference Affiliations: SIAA (1902-04), Ind. (1947, 1951-91), Dixie (1948-50), ACC (1992-)
Overall Win Record: 586-287-18 (.668)
Bowl Record: 29-18-2 (.612)
Colors: Garnet (red-purple) and gold
Stadium: Doak Campbell Stadium (79,560 capacity)
Current Head Coach: Mike Norvell
Notable Historic Coaches: Tom Nugent, Bill Peterson, Bobby Bowden, Jimbo Fisher
Notable Historic Players: Burt Reynolds, Lee Corso, Fred Biletnikoff, Robert Urich, Ron Sellers, Mack Brown, Gary Huff, Ron Simmons, Deion Sanders, Sammie Smith, LeRoy Butler, Terrell Buckley, Charlie Ward, Derrick Brooks, Walter Jones, Warrick Dunn, Peter Boulware, Andre Wadsworth, Sebastian Janikowski, Chris Weinke, Jamal Reynolds, Anquan Boldin, Adrian McPherson, Christian Ponder, E.J. Manuel, Bjorn Werner, Jameis Winston, Rashad Greene, Roberto Aguayo, Jalen Ramsey, Dalvin Cook, Jordan Travis, McKenzie Milton
National Championships: 3 (1993, 1999, 2013)^note 5 unclaimed (1980, 1987, 1992, 1994, 1996)
Conference Championships: 19 (3 Dixie - 1948-50; 16 ACC - 1992-2000, 2002-03, 2005, 2012-14, 2023)

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The oldest institute of higher learning in the state of Florida, Florida State University had a delayed start to its football program due to spending much of its history as a women's college. However, once the post-World War II GI Bill increased college demand in the post-war era, the school brought back male students and with them its football team. While Florida State has had great success in a variety of athletics, including being home to a baseball program that is the second-winningest in college history but still hasn't won a championship, football is their crown jewel. This is thanks in no small part to HC Bobby Bowden, who led the team for over 30 years (1976-2009) and shaped it into one of the most dominant teams in the nation. From 1982-2017, Florida State appeared in a record 36 straight bowl games; from 1985-95, they won each of those bowls, also a record. In the '90s, FSU joined the ACC after four decades as an independent, put up the best winning percentage in major-college football in the decade^*second in all of NCAA football to D-III Mount Union, at .941 to FSU's .890, and won at least a share of the conference championship nine straight times from 1992-2000 and thrice more in the 2000s. During that era, the Seminoles appeared in five national championship games and won two, both under unique Heisman-winning QBs, Charlie Ward (the only Heisman winner to enter the NBA) in '93 and Chris Weinke (the oldest Heisman winner, a 28-year-old former minor league baseball player) in '99.

Following Bowden's retirement (due in part to an academic cheating scandal that resulted in several rescinded wins), Jimbo Fisher led a resurgent Seminoles to a third national title in 2013 with a third Heisman QB, freshman Jameis Winston. Unfortunately, the Seminoles increasingly garnered a reputation as the lowest performing academic team in the Power Five, Fisher left the school in 2017, and the once-proud program struggled for several years. They eventually rebounded in the early 2020s, posting an undefeated conference title run in 2023, though an injury to their starting QB and the perceived need to leave room for an SEC team made the Seminoles the only undefeated Power Five champion to miss out on a spot in the 4-team CFP. Besides resulting in a wave of opt-outs that contributed to them losing their subsequent bowl game by the widest margin in bowl history, this only added further pressure for the school to find a way to get out of the ACC and move to a more esteemed conference.

Football is so central to Florida State's identity that the massive Doak Campbell Stadium is embedded within University Center, a sprawling brick complex that contains most of the school's main offices. "The Doak" is named after the president of the school at the time of the stadium's construction in 1950, who oversaw the school's postwar co-ed transformation but was also a virulent racist who fought hard against racial integration. There's recently been some pressure to name the whole stadium after Bowden, since his name doesn't carry the same Values Dissonance as Campbell, the program and stadium only grew to its current size when he arrived, the field itself is already named after him, and there's already a statue and a three-story stained glass window of him on the stadium. The site also has a "Sod Cemetery" where the team buries pieces of turf taken from fields after particularly hard-fought or significant victories. FSU enjoys strong intrastate rivalries with both Florida and Miami.

Now, about the name: FSU adopted the "Seminole" name after Florida's most famous indigenous tribe, which successfully resisted European and American colonization of the peninsula for decades. Like most uses of Native American names and iconography for sports mascots, the Seminole nickname has been under scrutiny and criticism from several indigenous groups for decades. However, FSU is in an interesting position regarding their nickname. Unlike most teams, they have the official endorsement of the Seminole Tribe, having consulted with them about the depiction and use of their image since the '70s (around the time the tribal leadership developed the first Native American Casino and became extremely wealthy), which gave the school an exemption from the sanctions the NCAA placed on other schools with Native mascots that led to them being otherwise phased out in the early 21st century.^note The agreement is with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, one of three federally recognized Seminole tribes. The much smaller Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida has taken no public position. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, descendants of forcibly relocated Seminoles with nearly four times the enrolled membership of the Florida tribes combined, has been publicly ambivalent on FSU's branding but has not seriously objected. Rather than a typical "mascot", Florida State has a "symbol", with a student dressed as a real Seminole leader Osceola who rides a horse named Renegade to midfield and plants a burning spear in the turf to start games.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

What's the good word?

Location: Atlanta, GA
School Established: 1885^note Classes started in 1888.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892-93, 1914-15, 1964-82), SIAA (1894-1913, 1916-21), SoCon (1922-32), SEC (1933-63), ACC (1983-)
Overall Win Record: 756-540-43 (.581)
Bowl Record: 26–20 (.565)
Colors: Tech gold and white
Stadium: Bobby Dodd Stadium (capacity 55,000)
Current Head Coach: Brent Key
Notable Historic Coaches: John Heisman, William Alexander, Bobby Dodd, Bobby Ross, George O'Leary
Notable Historic Players: Clint Castleberry, Frank Broyles, Billy Shaw, Eddie McAshan, Ken Whisenhunt, Pat Swilling, Dorsey Levens, Joe Hamilton, Joe Anoa'i, Calvin Johnson, Harrison Butker
National Championships: 4 (1917, 1928, 1952, 1990)^note 3 unclaimed (1916, 1951, 1956)
Conference Championships: 15 (5 SIAA – 1916-18, 1920-21; 3 SoCon – 1922, 1927-28; 5 SEC – 1939, 1943-44, 1951-52; 2 ACC – 1990, 1998^*2009 ACC title ordered vacated by the NCAA)^note Claims 1 "Independent Southern championship" (1915)

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Georgia Institute of Technology sits in the heart of Midtown Atlanta. Their football program has a storied history, with some of the strongest traditions in college history and several ups and downs over the decades. They experienced their first major success in the SIAA under John Heisman in the first part of the 20th century (though the school has never produced a Heisman Trophy winner). His 16-year tenure (1904-19) saw three especially notable events. First, Grant Field opened as a rudimentary stadium in 1905, with the first permanent stands opened in 1913^note The original west stand is still intact. Rather than demolishing the west side stands to rebuild them, the current west grandstand was built over the original. Tech plays at this very site today, making Bobby Dodd Stadium the oldest in FBS. Second, Tech scored the most lopsided win in college football history in 1916, annihilating a makeshift team from Cumberland, a small school in the Nashville area, 222–0. Finally, the team won their first national title in 1917, the first to be claimed by a Southern school.^note A few others have been retroactively awarded to earlier seasons from Southern programs. After Heisman left Atlanta, William Alexander kept the ship afloat through 25 seasons (1920-44), leading the program to become charter members of both SoCon and the SEC and securing eight conference championships and a national title in 1928. He was followed by Bobby Dodd, the stadium's current namesake who coached for 22 years and amassed more wins than any coach in the school's history. However, Dodd's personal frustration with the SEC's refusal to curb the other members recruiting policies led to Tech's president pulling them out of the SEC in 1964. They then played as an independent until joining the ACC in 1979 (with football starting conference play in 1983). The Jackets managed to have a brief renaissance in the late '80s, capped off by a split national title in 1990 under Bobby Ross, before settling in as generally a mid-pack ACC team.

The Yellow Jackets are likely best known for their venomous rivalry with Georgia; known as "Clean, Old Fashioned Hate", it is one of the most bitter rivalries in a sport already known for taking things too seriously, even if it has historically been rather one-sided against Tech. However, they have many other, more positive traditions, most notably the Ramblin' Wreck, a 1930 Ford Model A that drives ahead of the team at the start of every home game.

Louisville Cardinals

L1C4!

Location: Louisville, KY
School Established: 1798^note ...is the "official" founding date, the year the state legislature established the "Jefferson Seminary". Said school did not hold classes until 1813 and closed in 1829. In 1837 and 1840, two rival medical schools opened in the city. Six years later, the legislature combined both schools, plus a newly created law school, to establish the modern university. However, it only began to approach the scope of today's large universities in 1907, and it was a municipal school until joining the state university system in 1970.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1912–62^note Did not play consistently year-to-year until 1946., 1975–95), MVC (1963–74), CUSA (1996–2004), Big East (2005–12), American (2013), ACC (2014–)
Overall Win Record: 550–497–17 (.525)
Bowl Record: 12–13–1 (.481)
Colors: Red and black
Stadium: L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium (capacity 60,800)
Current Head Coach: Jeff Brohm^note rhymes with "mom"
Notable Historic Coaches: Frank Camp, Lee Corso, Howard Schnellenberger, Bobby Petrino
Notable Historic Players: Johnny Unitas, Tom Jackson, Mark Clayton, Frank Minnifield, Ted Washington, David Akers, T.C. Stallings, Elvis Dumervil, Amobi Okoye, Gerod Holliman, Lamar Jackson, Jaire Alexander
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 8 (2 MVC – 1970, 1972; 3 CUSA – 2000–01, 2004; 3 Big East – 2006, 2011–12)

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The University of Louisville (or just "U of L") traces its history back to the late 1700s, though it took several starts and stops for it to take its current shape as a public state school. The Cards likewise had a rocky start to their football program, putting it on pause several times before Frank Camp revived it after World War II. Camp coached the independent program for over two decades, bringing them to a single bowl game. For decades, U of L was known pretty much only as where Johnny Unitas got his start, Lee Corso had his only real success as a head coach with two conference titles during the school's time in the Missouri Valley Conference, and Denny Crum coached a great basketball program. It gained more fame for football when Howard Schnellenberger tried to replicate his success in Miami by reviving his hometown school. He quit after the school joined CUSA in 1996, believing being in a weak conference would ensure they couldn't compete for a national title, but that decision ultimately helped make the Cards bowl contenders. Bobby Petrino took the team to national prominence, helping it make the leap to the Big East in 2005 and win the conference title the following year; he jumped ship to the pros, and the Cards briefly collapsed in his wake. After other coaches rebuilt the program to strength in the collapsing Big East, the school entered the ACC, brought Petrino back, and welcomed its first Heisman winner, electric multi-threat QB Lamar Jackson. Petrino's team collapsed without Jackson, however, and the program has mostly regressed since (though it made the ACC title game in 2023).

Just like in basketball, the school's fiercest rival is Kentucky, though the intrastate opponents only started playing each other regularly in 1994.^note Their last six matchups, all Kentucky wins, had been over 70 years before this. The modern men's basketball rivalry didn't start until 1983, after no regular-season games for 60 years. They have played in what's now L&N Stadium since 1998. Originally a horseshoe, it has undergone several expansions to reflect the recent ascent of Louisville athletics (and potentially to distract from their many off-field controversies, most of them involving their declining basketball program).

Miami Hurricanes

It's all about the U!

Location: Coral Gables, FL (campus); Miami Gardens, FL (stadium)
School Established: 1925
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1927-28, 1942-90), SIAA (1929-41), Big East (1991-2003), ACC (2004-)
Overall Win Record: 655-389-19 (.625)
Bowl Record: 19–24 (.442)
Colors: Orange, green, and white
Stadium: Hard Rock Stadium (capacity 65,326)^note Shared with the NFL's Miami Dolphins
Current Head Coach: Mario Cristobal
Notable Historic Coaches: Lou Saban, Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Butch Davis, Dennis Erickson, Larry Coker
Notable Historic Players: Don James, Jim Otto, Ted Hendricks, Chuck Foreman, Burgess Owens, Ottis Anderson, Jim Kelly, Larry Pfohl, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Alonzo Highsmith, Jerome Brown, Jeff Feagles, Michael Irvin, Steve Walsh, Cortez Kennedy, Russell Maryland, Dwayne Johnson, Gino Toretta, Warren Sapp, Ray Lewis, Edgerrin James, Yatil Green, Reggie Wayne, Dan Morgan, Ed Reed, Clinton Portis, Jeremy Shockey, Ken Dorsey, Willis McGahee, Andre Johnson, Jerome McDougle, Vince Wilfork, Frank Gore, Sean Taylor, Kellen Winslow II, Devin Hester, Greg Olsen, Calais Campbell, Jimmy Graham, Ereck Flowers, Brad Kaaya
National Championships: 5 (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001)^note 4 unclaimed (1986, 1988, 1990, 2000)
Conference Championships: 9 (Big East - 1991-92, 1994-96, 2000-03)

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The University of Miami is a large private school that was a football (and baseball) powerhouse from the 1980s through the 2000s, having so much success that only the most diehard college fans need to emphasize that it's the FBS "Miami" from Florida rather than Ohio (though its location in the city probably helps with that). In fact, Miami was so dominant for a time that students and fans now just call it "The U"; all other universities need not apply.^note Except in Utah; see the Utah Utes entry in the Big 12 folder. Its football program wasn't always so renowned, however, and in fact was on the verge of collapse or Division I-AA relegation after a fairly disastrous 1970s. Coach Howard Schnellenberger saved the program after his hiring in 1979, delivering on a promise to get the school a national championship in five years before immediately departing for a job opportunity in the pros. This set a precedent that was followed by both of his successors, Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson, who both took the Canes to national titles (1987 and 1989/91, respectively) but left quickly for pro coaching gigs. The U likewise developed a reputation as an NFL talent factory and produced two Heisman-winning QBs, Vinny Testaverde and Gino Toretta. For nearly a full decade (October 1985–September 1994), the Canes did not lose a single home game at the Orange Bowl, a 58-game streak that is the longest in NCAA history. After nearly half a century as an independent, they joined the Big East in 1991.

At the same time, the school also developed a reputation as a Wretched Hive whose programs were wracked with corruption from too many scandals to list. After sanctions led to a relative lull under Butch Davis (who still leaped to the pros like his predecessors), Larry Coker was hired in 2001 and replicated Erickson's feat of bringing Miami a national title in his debut season thanks to one of the most stacked rosters ever seen in college football; Miami produced more first round draft picks from 2001-04 than any program ever in a four-year stretch. However, soon after moving to the ACC in 2004, the school's culture and corruption issues caught up with it; continued scandals and sanctions led to Coker's resignation after '06. This was paired with the 2008 demolition of the Orange Bowl, a venue that had been the program's home for 70 seasons and hosted multiple Super Bowls, so that the city could build a ballpark to keep the Marlins in town. The Canes had to move into the home stadium of their former Orange Bowl co-tenants, the Miami Dolphins, which is located nearly twice the distance from campus than their old home, and the program's success has been greatly muted ever since.

The Hurricanes are the Trope Maker (or at least Trope Codifier) of the practice of teams running through "smoke" (fire extinguisher exhaust) to enter the field, originally intended as an evocation of their unique nickname (which always sounds badass until an actual major hurricane devastates South Florida every decade or so). Their more traditional mascot is an ibis. Miami maintains very competitive rivalries with Florida and Florida State.

NC State Wolfpack

State fight!

Location: Raleigh, NC
School Established: 1887^note As "North Carolina A&M"; became "NC State" in 1917.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892-97), SIAA (1898-1906), SAIAA^*South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association, short-lived conference that lasted from 1911-21 (1907-21), SoCon (1922-52), ACC (1953-)
Overall Win Record: 640-600-55 (.515)
Bowl Record: 17-17-1 (.500)
Colors: Red and white
Stadium: Carter–Finley Stadium (57,583 capacity)
Current Head Coach: Dave Doeren
Notable Historic Coaches: Buck Shaw, Earle Edwards, Lou Holtz, Monte Kiffin
Notable Historic Players: Roman Gabriel, Dennis Byrd (1960s), Bill Cowher, Torry Holt, Philip Rivers, Mario Williams, Russell Wilson^*ended his college career at Wisconsin, Christopher Dunn, Grayson McCall
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 11 (3 SAIAA - 1907, 1910, 1913; 1 SoCon - 1927; 7 ACC - 1957, 1963-65, 1968, 1973, 1979)

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North Carolina State University is the largest college in the Carolinas, but it's mainly known in athletics as a basketball school (most notably for their 1983 national championship win with a buzzer beater dunk). Its football program is old but generally unaccomplished, with the dubious distinction of having the most appearances in the final AP poll (13) without a Top 10 finish (their best final rank was #11 in 1974). Their longest-serving coach, Earle Edwards, led the team to four conference titles after the school helped form the ACC but retired with a losing record after 16 seasons. Lou Holtz earned another conference title after him, which helped to springboard him to his later success. Bo Rein brought the school its last conference title in 1979 shortly before his death in a plane crash. The Wolfpack hasn't been a real force since, but it has been generally decent and developed a reputation as a good QB development school in the 2000s after producing NFL superstars Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson.

The school's unique nickname is meant to describe their fanbase, which a visiting fan unfavorably compared to a pack of wolves in the 1920s. The team's played in Carter-Finley Stadium (named after school donors) since 1966 and has strong rivalries with North Carolina and the other state schools.

North Carolina Tar Heels

Tar Heel Born!

Location: Chapel Hill, NC
School Established: 1789^note ...is the "official" founding date, the year the state legislature established the school as the University of North Carolina. The words "at Chapel Hill" weren't added to the school name until 1963. The first classes were held in 1795, and the first graduating class was in 1798. It's one of the three schools that claims to be the "oldest public university" in the US, but it's the only one of the three that held classes and awarded degrees as a public institution in the 18th century. The school was also closed from 1870-75.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1888-91, 1895-98, 1902-21)^note Did not play in 1890 or 1917-18., SIAA (1892-94, 1899-1902), SoCon (1922-52), ACC (1953-)
Overall Win Record: 729-569-54 (.559)
Bowl Record: 15–23 (.395)
Colors: Carolina blue and white
Stadium: Kenan Memorial Stadium (capacity 50,500)
Current Head Coach: Mack Brown
Notable Historic Coaches: Gene McEver, Jim Tatum, Butch Davis
Notable Historic Players: Chris Hanburger, John Swofford, Lawrence Taylor, Ethan Horton, Julius Peppers, Jeff Saturday, Ryan Sims, Mitchell Trubisky, Sam Howell
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 8 (3 SoCon – 1922, 1926, 1949; 5 ACC – 1963, 1971-72, 1977, 1980)^note Claims 2 "Independent Southern championships" (1892, 1898)

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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill^note Since 1972, "University of North Carolina", without a location, has been the name of the state's public university system. This also includes the state's other four FBS schools in Appalachian State, Charlotte, East Carolina, and NC State, 11 other universities, and a residential high school. is one of the nation's oldest and most academically renowned public universities. It is likewise a powerhouse of D-I athletics, with 50 national championships split between programs that include one of the greatest in college basketball history (7 national titles,^note one not recognized by the NCAA the second-highest all-time win percentage, and a host of all-time great alumni including Michael Jordan), the greatest in American women's soccer (22 national titles^note With 21 since the NCAA started handing out official national championships in 1982, they own just over half of all possible victories. and their own host of all-time great alums, most notably Mia Hamm) and very esteemed women's field hockey (9) and men's lacrosse (5) teams. Their football program is... generally less renowned, though it has experienced several notable peaks and valleys. The Tar Heels' biggest contribution to football history was being the very first college team to successfully use the forward pass in 1895; it was also a founding member of the SoCon and ACC. Mack Brown launched his successful HC career with a decade-long tenure (1988-97) before moving on to Texas, only to return to the school in 2019 after coming out of retirement.

The "Tar Heel" nickname is an old term for North Carolinians in general adopted by the school in the late 19th century. Their mascot, however, is an actual ram named Rameses whose horns are painted Carolina blue; the team manager brought one to games in 1924 to celebrate the play of a player known for his "battering ram" running style, and the tradition stuck when the kicker rubbed its head before scoring a game-winning field goal. The university has long-standing intrastate rivalries against the other "Tobacco Road" schools, most notably Duke, and also holds historic rivalries with Virginia and South Carolina. Their on-campus stadium was initially built in 1924 and named after the father of a prominent donor; said figure helped lead a murderous white supremacist coup in the 1890s against a local majority-Black government, leading to the school officially altering the name to refer to the original donor in 2018.

Pittsburgh Panthers

Hail to Pitt!

Location: Pittsburgh, PA
School Established: 1787^note ...is the "official" founding date, the year the school was chartered as "Pittsburgh Academy". Some evidence indicates that the school operated as early as 1770. It became the "Western University of Pennsylvania" in 1819 and the current name in 1908.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1890-1990), Big East (1991-2012), ACC (2013-)
Overall Win Record: 751-560-42 (.571)
Bowl Record: 15-22 (.405)
Colors: Blue and gold
Stadium: Acrisure Stadium (capacity 68,400)^note Historically known as Heinz Field; shared with the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers
Current Head Coach: Pat Narduzzi
Notable Historic Coaches: Pop Warner, Jock Sutherland, Clark Shaughnessy, Johnny Majors, Jackie Sherrill, Todd Graham
Notable Historic Players: Jock Sutherland, Marshall Goldberg, Joe Schmidt, Mike Ditka, Fred Cox, Marty Schottenheimer, Tony Dorsett, Rickey Jackson, Mark May, Russ Grimm, Jim Covert, Dan Marino, Chris Doleman, Craig "Ironhead" Heyward, Mark Stepnoski, Curtis Martin, Larry Fitzgerald, Andy Lee, Darrelle Revis, LeSean McCoy, Aaron Donald, Nathan Peterman, James Conner, Damar Hamlin, Kenny Pickett
National Championships: 9 (1915-16, 1918, 1929, 1931, 1934, 1936-37, 1976)^note 8 unclaimed (1910, 1917, 1925, 1927, 1933, 1938, 1980-81)
Conference Championships: 3 (2 Big East - 2004, 2010; 1 ACC - 2021)^note Won 12 Lambert Trophies for "Best Team in the East" as an independent (1925, 1927, 1929, 1931-32, 1934, 1936-37, 1955, 1976, 1979-80)

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The University of Pittsburgh (typically abbreviated as just "Pitt") is the oldest university west of the Allegheny Mountains. It was a very old college football powerhouse that was dominant from the 1900s to the 1930s, winning eight claimed national championships (and several more unclaimed) under the successive tenures of legendary coaches Pop Warner (1914-23, including three undefeated seasons from 1915-17) and former Pitt All-American Jock Sutherland (1924-38). The program also introduced numerous football innovations, including being the first team to wear numbers on their jerseys in 1908, and they were the featured team in both the first live radio broadcast of a college football game in 1921 and the first live national TV broadcast of any sporting event against Duke in 1951. However, the Panthers haven't been consistently strong since Sutherland quit to protest the school's intentional deemphasis on the program. Pitt saw a brief resurgence after hiring coach Johnny Majors in 1973 and produced a ninth national title and a Heisman winner in RB Tony Dorsett in 1976. Majors immediately signed with Tennessee after that year, and while Pitt stayed competitive under Jackie Sherrill and QB Dan Marino for a few more years, the Panthers returned to the middle of the pack by the mid-'80s. After decades as an independent, Pitt joined the Big East in 1991 and made the jump to the ACC in 2013 after the former conference fell apart. Despite not contending nationally at the college level for nearly half a century, Pitt has continued to punch well above its weight class in terms of producing high level talent: it sits in the top five of all schools in terms of players who have entered the Pro Hall of Fame. However, because the NCAA does not officially award football championships, Pitt is one of four power-conference schools that has never won an NCAA team championship.^note The Panthers also have two men's basketball championships awarded by the now-defunct Helms Athletic Foundation, which awarded retrospective natties from the era before the first NCAA tournament in 1939.

Pitt has one of the more unique campuses of any American university. Located right in the middle of its eponymous city, the school had to build up rather than out; indeed, the school's most famous feature is its centerpiece Cathedral of Learning, a 42-story Gothic tower that is the tallest academic building in the Western Hemisphere and is lit up gold after Pitt football victories. The football team played out of the on-campus Pitt Stadium starting in 1925, which the school shared with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the years before Three Rivers Stadium was built across the Allegheny River. However, as Pitt Stadium aged, the Panthers' popularity waned. As the school needed more student housing, the university demolished its stadium after 1999 and moved in with the Steelers; their presence at the new Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) contributed to the Steelers having some of the worst turf in the NFL through the 2000s. Pitt's fiercest athletic rivals are West Virginia (located roughly 75 miles apart; games between them are known as "the Backyard Brawl") and Penn State (which was so acrimonious the schools had to take over a decade off from facing each other).

SMU Mustangs

Pony Ears!

Location: University Park, TX^note a separate city contained within the Dallas city limits; all locations in University Park have a Dallas mailing address
School Established: 1911
Conference Affiliations: TIAA (1915–17), SWC (1918-95)^note Did not play in 1987-88., WAC (1996–2004), CUSA (2005–12), American (2013–23), ACC (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 537–569–54 (.486)
Bowl Record: 7–11–1 (.395)
Colors: Red and blue
Stadium: Gerald J. Ford Stadium (capacity 32,000)^note Not that Gerald Ford; the President's middle name was Rudolph. Also, the stadium namesake often goes by "Gerry".
Current Head Coach: Rhett Lashlee
Notable Historic Coaches: Hayden Fry, Bobby Collins, June Jones, Forrest Gregg
Notable Historic Players: Doak Walker, Kyle Rote, Raymond Berry, Forrest Gregg, Don Meredith, Jim Duggan, Eric Dickerson, David Stanley, Sean Stopperich, Josh McCown, Thomas Morstead, Trey Quinn
National Championships: 3 (1935, 1981–82)^note The '80s titles were both granted by a single selector due to the school being under probation for recruiting violations.
Conference Championships: 12 (11 SWC – 1923, 1926, 1931, 1935, 1940, 1947–48, 1966, 1981–82, 1984; 1 American – 2023)

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Southern Methodist University was founded as the flagship university of the Methodist church's southern branch, though it filed to split from the formal control of the church in 2019.^note Internal schisms in the church led many to fear that more conservative leadership would arise and seek to enforce their beliefs, particularly anti-LGBTQ+ ones, on the long-nonsectarian school. The Dallas-based school is otherwise most famous for being the home of the George W. Bush presidential center and for its unique football history. The Mustangs were once a powerhouse, notably claiming a national title in 1935, producing Heisman-winning back Doak Walker in 1948, and claiming another two titles in the early '80s under coaches Ron Meyer and Bobby Collins. However, SMU fell to near irrelevance almost immediately after those dominant seasons thanks to the infamous "death penalty" issued in 1987. For the first and only time in its history, the NCAA decided to terminate the SMU football program after it was discovered that the school had been paying the players on its national-title contending team out of a slush fund while under probation for other issues. The program was barred from all play in 1987 and from home games in 1988, but the school decided not to play at all in the latter season due to inability to field a remotely competitive team. The Mustangs immediately plummeted to the college football basement when they returned thanks to the heavy sanctions, and they spent decades struggling to even get above the .500 mark. SMU managed its first 10-win season in over 30 years in 2019 and won its first post-death penalty conference title in 2023, its last season in The American.

For most of its history, SMU played in the Cotton Bowl (aka "The House That Doak Built") across town. After playing there for over forty years, the Mustangs moved into the Dallas Cowboys' stadium in 1978, just in time for their run of remarkable success; the Death Penalty forced them to return to their much smaller on-campus stadium and the increasingly outdated Cotton Bowl before building their current home in 2000.^note Like Houston did a decade-plus later, SMU tore down its on-campus stadium to build its current one. The consequences of the penalty ensured that SMU was left behind after the dissolution of the SWC. The school has been constantly campaigning to rejoin their former conference mates in the Big 12, only to be left out during each realignment. This has been incredibly frustrating, as the Mustangs first had to watch hated crosstown rival TCU and geographically distant West Virginia join in 2012, then saw three members of their own conference (including Houston) successfully apply in 2021. For a short time in 2023, SMU was heavily linked with a move to the Pac-12 before that conference essentially collapsed. SMU's ridiculously wealthy alumni base allowed the school to make the ACC an offer that eventually proved too good to pass up—after joining in 2024, SMU will not take any ACC media revenue for its first nine years of conference membership.

Stanford Cardinal

Fear the Tree!

Location: Stanford, CA
School Established: 1891
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1891–1905), Pac-12 (1919–2023),^note Replaced football with rugby from 1908–1917; also did not field teams in the war years of 1918 and 1943–45. ACC (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 670–496–49 (.572)
Bowl Record: 15–14–1 (.517)
Colors: Cardinal red and white
Stadium: Stanford Stadium (50,424)
Current Head Coach: Troy Taylor
Notable Historic Coaches: Walter Camp, Fielding H. Yost, Pop Warner, Clark Shaughnessy, John Ralston, Bill Walsh, Dennis Green, Buddy Teevens, Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw
Notable Historic Players: Ernie Nevers, Ernie Caddel, Frankie Albert, Bobby Garrett, John Brodie, Gene Washington, Jim Plunkett, Mike Boryla, James Lofton, Darrin Nelson, John Elway, Steve Stenstrom, John Lynch, Cory Booker, Glyn Milburn, Coy Gibbs, David Shaw, Scott Frost, Troy Walters, Toby Gerhart, Tavita Pritchard, Richard Sherman, Andrew Luck, Jonathan Martin, Zach Ertz, Stepfan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, Solomon Thomas, Bryce Love
National Championships: 2 (1926, 1940)
Conference Championships: 15 (1924, 1926-27, 1933-35, 1940, 1951, 1970-71, 1992, 1999, 2012-13, 2015)

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Stanford University is easily the most academically prestigious school to also host an FBS football program, regularly ranking in the top 10 universities in the nation. That's not to say that they are any slouches athletically; in fact, the situation is quite the opposite. Stanford's sports teams have collectively earned the school the "Directors' Cup" given to the D-I program for the strongest overall athletics program nearly every year since the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics began awarding it in 1993 (the exceptions being 1993-94, 2020-21, and 2021–22, when they came in second place). This dominance is largely because the private university can afford to sponsor 36 sports teams. These teams have won the school 135 NCAA championships as of April 2024, the most of any D-I school, with at least one every year since 1976.^note Go to The Other Wiki for the full list; the most dominant programs with double-digit national titles include men's water polo (11), women's swimming (11), men's gymnastics (10), and tennis for both genders (17/20).

Their football program has not contributed to that latter number, but only because the NCAA doesn't recognize FBS national championships—their team is still one of the more storied in the West, with a long history that includes playing in the first ever bowl game (where they were blown out by Michigan). The school claimed two football national titles in the early 20th century, the first under Pop Warner himself in 1926. Their second in 1940 was one of the more improbable in college football history, as Clark Shaughnessy inherited a team that had won just a single game the year prior and immediately led his "Wow Boys" on an undefeated campaign thanks to his innovative use of the T-formation, leading to it being adopted nationwide. Shaughnessy left after the following season, and the program never reached such heights again. Its performance has varied tremendously: the team went completely winless in '47 and '60, but it also produced Heisman QB Jim Plunkett in 1970 and launched the careers of great pro-level coaches like Bill Walsh and Dennis Green.^note One of Walsh's three Super Bowl victories with the local 49ers was even won in Stanford Stadium, one of only three college-only stadiums to have hosted the other Big Game—the others being Rice Stadium in Houston, which the Oilers had abandoned for the Astrodome years before it hosted the Super Bowl, and the Rose Bowl. Generationally talented QB John Elway couldn't get the school to bowl eligibility from 1979-82, though that was due in part to "The Play" in his final college game, when the Stanford band's early storming of the field in their game against hated Bay Area rival Cal caused enough confusion to allow the Golden Bears to score, costing the Cardinal their needed sixth win. After several decades of mediocrity and worse, coach Jim Harbaugh and QB Andrew Luck led the program back to national relevance in the late 2000s, a position Harbaugh's successor David Shaw kept them in for several more years. However, the program has since regressed, a phenomenon widely attributed to Stanford's high academic standards making it difficult to recruit player transfers, increasingly crucial to the modern college football landscape. This decline in performance likely contributed to Stanford being one of the last Pac-12 schools to land a new conference, although its incredibly wealthy alumni base, academic prestige, and prowess in Olympic sports led to it eventually receiving an ACC invite.

A few things about the mascot, one of the most unique in college sports: "Cardinal" is singular, not plural, as it's a reference to the color of their uniform rather than the bird. From 1930-71, the school went by the "Indians" before indigenous and student protests led them to revert to the "Cardinals" as a placeholder. Students then lobbied hard for the school to take the name "Robber Barons" as a critique of the school's namesake Corrupt Corporate Executive, industrialist Leland Stanford;^note Though the actual namesake is Leland Stanford Jr., the industrialist's only child, who died at age 15 of typhoid while he and his parents were touring Europe. The parents founded the university in their son's memory, and the formal name is Leland Stanford Junior University. Cue "junior university" jokes from rival fans. the school refused, settling on the singular name in 1981. During that whole debate, a member of the band began dressing up at halftime as the school's official seal, a giant tree, as a joke, but the tradition stuck. The school's mascot has been a deliberately shabby-looking tree with legs ever since, the wearer of which has to undergo training to make sure they can withstand all sorts of physical abuse that is frequently put upon it by both Cal and Stanford's own students.

Syracuse Orange

Cuse is in the House, Oh My God!

Location: Syracuse, NY
School Established: 1870^note The school has some roots in the small Genesee Wesleyen Seminary formed in 1831, but Syracuse doesn't attempt to claim it just to pad its prestige... unlike some schools.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1889-1990^note Did not play in 1943.), Big East (1991-2012), ACC (2013-)
Overall Win Record: 743-577-49 (.563)
Bowl Record: 16-11-1 (.589)
Colors: Orange and blue
Stadium: JMA Wireless Dome (capacity 49,262)^note historically the Carrier Dome
Current Head Coach: Fran Brown
Notable Historic Coaches: Howard Jones, Tad Jones, Ben Schwartzwalder, Dick MacPherson
Notable Historic Players: Pappy Waldorf, Vic Hanson, Duffy Daugherty, Wilmeth Sidat-Singh, Jim Ringo, Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, John Mackey, Jim Nance, Floyd Little, Larry Csonka, Tom Coughlin, Art Monk, Joe Morris, Gary Anderson, Tim Green, Don McPherson, Ted Gregory, Daryl Johnston, Marvin Harrison, Olindo Mare, Donovan McNabb, Dwight Freeney, Quinn Ojinnaka, Chandler Jones, Andre Szmyt
National Championships: 1 (1959)
Conference Championships: 5 (Big East - 1996-98, 2004, 2012)^note Also awarded 6 Lambert Trophies for "Best Team in the East" as an independent (1952, 1956, 1959, 1966, 1987, 1992)

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The private Syracuse University (affectionately "Cuse") in upstate New York is better known in athletics for its prestigious men's basketball program (with three national championships and an active streak of 52 straight winning seasons), dominant men's lacrosse program (with 11 NCAA championships^note Technically "only" 10 since one was vacated due to player payment infractions... but that's still the record (plus they won five before the NCAA era; the Orange love their lacrosse).), and the most prolific school of sports journalism in the nation. Its football team has been something of an afterthought in recent years, but it wasn't always that way. In the early 20th century, their team was quite strong, helped by the progressive college being one of the first schools to racially integrate its athletic program. SU truly ascended under Ben Schwartzwalder, who coached the team for over two decades (1949-73), won a national title in 1959, and made Syracuse into an absolute factory for legendary running backs. Several of these players, most notably the legendary trio of Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, and Floyd Little, wore #44. The number's legend only grew when Davis became the first African-American player (and only Orangeman) to win the Heisman, only to tragically die of cancer shortly after being drafted #1 overall. The program faded in the '70s, but Dick MacPherson coached them back to bowl contention in the '80s (including going undefeated in '87). After decades as an independent, they joined the Big East in 1991 and performed well there, winning three straight conference titles with Donovan McNabb under center. Unfortunately, the team regressed in the mid-2000s and has never fully recovered, with NCAA sanctions from a pay-to-play scandal only adding to the team's troubles.

The secondary nature of the team's football program is reflected in its stadium arrangement. After playing in the Colosseum-inspired Archbold Stadium for over 70 years, the team was forced to build a new venue in 1980 to retain their Division I-A status. Due to the cold and snowy weather of the region and the popularity of their basketball team, Syracuse built the Carrier Dome, now known as the JMA Wireless Dome, one of the few indoor domes in college football.^*One of exactly two in FBS; UNLV now shares the domed Allegiant Stadium with the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders. Seven FCS teams play in domes: Idaho, Idaho State, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Northern Arizona, Northern Iowa, and South Dakota. D-II Northern Michigan is the only non-D-I team with a dome. The "Loud House" is arguably more famous for regularly setting college basketball attendance records despite being fairly outdated by most standards; prior to a 2020 renovation, the dome was one of the last remaining structures to sport an inflatable fiberglass roof, making it a maintenance nightmare, and lacked any sort of air conditioning despite Carrier being an HVAC company. Ironically, the entire stadium finally got AC in 2022... just in time for it to be renamed after a locally based 5G infrastructure company.^note Carrier had purchased perpetual naming rights for less than $3 million in 1979, before the value of naming deals skyrocketed. Cuse managed to get (presumably buy) Carrier out of that deal, paving the way for a much more lucrative sponsorship.

For most of the school's history, their team name was the "Orangemen" (and their women's teams were the "Orangewomen"). Depending on who you ask, the school adopted the color-themed name either because of the Dutch heritage of upstate New York or because it was just a unique color at the time. For decades, the school had a Native American mascot called Big Chief Bill Orange, aka the "Saltine Warrior" (Syracuse, situated on briny Onondaga Lake with several other nearby salt deposits, is called the Salt City). They dropped him in the late '70s as one of the first schools to cave to indigenous criticism of Native mascots. They experimented with a few different mascots before settling with a literal anthropomorphic orange named Otto in the early '80s. The program maintains strong rivalries with Boston College, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia; they used to have intense rivalries with Penn State and neighboring Colgate, but they now rarely play each other.

Virginia Cavaliers

Wahoowa!

Location: Charlottesville, VA
School Established: 1819^note Classes started in 1825.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1888-99, 1906-11, 1937-53), EVIAA^*Eastern Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Association, short-lived conference that lasted from 1900-21 (1900-05), SAIAA (1912-21)^note Did not play in 1917-18., SoCon (1921-37), ACC (1953-)
Overall Win Record: 685-640-48 (.516)
Bowl Record: 8–12 (.400)
Colors: Orange and blue
Stadium: Scott Stadium^*Full name: The Carl Smith Center, Home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium, the unwieldy construct the university came up with to acknowledge the money Smith gave to expand the stadium and Harrison gave to finance the switch from artificial to natural turf. (capacity 61,500)
Current Head Coach: Tony Elliott
Notable Historic Coaches: Greasy Neale, George Welsh
Notable Historic Players: Bill Dudley, Henry Jordan, Don Majkowski, Herman Moore, Ronde and Tiki Barber, Thomas Jones, Matt Schaub, Heath Miller, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Chris Long
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 4 (2 SAIAA – 1914-15; 2 ACC – 1989, 1995)^note Claims 12 "Independent Southern championships" (1889-90, 1892-97, 1900-02, 1908)

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The University of Virginia, or simply UVA, is one of the most historic and esteemed institutions of learning in the United States, having been founded by Thomas Jefferson himself as the first secular university in North America. The school also does well in many sports, most notably men's soccer and lacrosse (seven national titles apiece). Their football history has been much spottier. Virginia had a very solid early start as one of the South's first football powerhouses, helping found the SIAA, SoCon, and the ACC and serving as a regional power when the sport was first introduced. However, the Cavaliers (or the "Wahoos", as fans more widely know them) have been a fairly poor team since 1950, when the school chose to deemphasize football; they posted a then-record-tying 28 straight losses across two no-win seasons to round out the decade, a streak only since surpassed by Northwestern. UVA rose back to football prominence during the 19-year tenure of George Welsh in the '80s and '90s, though even then they were never a real force outside of their conference, and they're once again in the middle of the pack at best. In 2022, the college became the site of a deadly on-campus shooting carried out by a former player that claimed the lives of three current players and wounded a fourth.

The Cavs have long and storied rivalries with North Carolina and Virginia Tech. They play in the on-campus Scott Stadium; opened in 1931, it is the oldest stadium in Virginia.

Virginia Tech Hokies

Stick it in!

Location: Blacksburg, VA
School Established: 1872^note Founded as "Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College". Became Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute in 1896, Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1944, and adopted its current name in 1970. While diplomas and transcripts still use the full formal name, the university has officially used "Virginia Tech" for athletics since the 1970s and for all other purposes since the early 1990s.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892-97, 1899-1911, 1965-90), SIAA (1898), SAIAA (1912-21), SoCon (1922-64)^note Did not play in 1943-44., Big East (1991-2003), ACC (2004-)
Overall Win Record: 773-504-46 (.602)
Bowl Record: 14–21 (.400)
Colors: Chicago maroon and burnt orange
Stadium: Lane Stadium (capacity 65,632)
Current Head Coach: Brent Pry
Notable Historic Coaches: Frank Beamer
Notable Historic Players: Frank Beamer, Bruce Arians, Bruce Smith (DE), Eugene Chung, Jim Druckenmiller, Michael Vick, DeAngelo Hall, Kam Chancellor, David Wilson
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 11 (3 SAIAA – 1909, 1916, 1918; 1 SoCon – 1963; 3 Big East – 1995-96, 1999; 4 ACC – 2004, 2007-08, 2010)

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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, also known as Virginia Tech, VT or, less frequently, VPI (commonly used until The '80s, when the school gradually phased it out in favor of Virginia Tech, though you still hear VPI on occasion in nostalgic or Malicious Misnaming contexts) is a large public university and senior military college in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. The school is tragically best known as the site of one of the deadliest lone gunman mass shootings in American history in 2007. While the school's athletic program is one of only two Power Five schools to have never won a national championship in any team sport,^note Pitt has never won an NCAA-awarded team title, but has several football championships and claims two pre-NCAA Tournament basketball natties. Big 12 member UCF also has no NCAA-awarded team titles, but claims a share of the 2017 football natty. the Hokies (more on that name later) have generally been quite good on the football field; as of 2023, they hold the best lifetime win record of any Power Five program to never be selected national champion. The school was a founding member of the SoCon before going independent in 1965. Coach Frank Beamer returned to his alma mater in 1987 after it had been saddled with numerous sanctions for violations and, after a slow start, made the team into a power through the rest of his 29-season tenure. VT football joined the Big East in 1991, and the Hokies fell one game short of a national title in 1999 with superstar QB Michael Vick under center. They next became the dominant team of the ACC for several years after joining in 2004, though the program has receded to the middle of the pack in recent seasons.

Now, about "Hokie": It's a nonsense celebratory word from the team's historic fight song and yet still is an improvement from other name the team used in its early years, the "Fighting Gobblers" (though their mascot remains a turkey). The team is also notable for its pregame entrance, which features cannon fire from "Skipper" (a callback to the school's military roots) and Metallica's "Enter Sandman". The band has taken part in the intro (via prerecorded video) a couple of times.

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Mother, so Dear!

Location: Winston-Salem, NC
School Established: 1834^note As Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute; the Baptist school's students performed half a day's labor on the local plantation every day in return for their education. The school dropped that in 1838 and became a more typical school.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1888-1935)^note Typically played only a single game a year or none at all until 1908., SoCon (1936-52), ACC (1953-)
Overall Win Record: 492-685-33 (.420)
Bowl Record: 11-6 (.647)
Colors: Old gold and black
Stadium: Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium (31,500 capacity)^note Historically Groves Stadium; previously sponsored as BB&T Field and Truist Field at Wake Forest
Current Head Coach: Dave Clawson
Notable Historic Players: Bill George, Brian Piccolo, Tommy Elrod, Jon Abbate^*pronounced ah-BAH-tee, Zac Selmon, Aaron Curry, Nick Sciba, Sam Hartman
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 2 (1970, 2006)

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Wake Forest University is one of the more prestigious small private schools in the United States; with under 9,000 students, fewer than 5,500 of them being undergraduates, and a roughly 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio, it is the smallest Power Five school by a considerable degree.^*Among Group of Five schools, five have smaller undergraduate enrollments. The three service academies have between 4,100 and 4,400, Rice has about 4,000, and Tulsa has fewer than 3,200. While some of its athletic programs, most notably basketball^note produced famed college basketball announcer Billy Packer and legendary players Muggsy Bogues, Tim Duncan, and Chris Paul and golf^note won three national titles and produced Arnold Palmer have managed to overcome that disadvantage, its football program has not; the Demon Deacons for years had the worst overall historic record in the Power Five, though they've managed to improve their lot in the 21st century enough to raise that number up above Indiana. The 2011 film The 5th Quarter is a slightly fictionalized account of their 2006 ACC title team and its emotional leader, LB Jon Abbate, and they again reached the conference championship in 2021. In the latter season, Wake's current HC Dave Clawson became the first coach ever with 10-win seasons at four different D-I schools.^note The others: FCS Fordham and Richmond, plus FBS Bowling Green.

The school's very name is an Artifact Title. It was originally on a plantation in an area north of Raleigh known as the "Forest of Wake" (as in Wake County). A town eventually grew up around the school, taking the name of Wake Forest. The university moved to Winston-Salem in 1956 after the Reynolds family of tobacco fame made massive donations, including more than enough land for a new campus.^note Wake Forest's medical school had already made the move to Winston-Salem in 1941. WFU had agreed to move to Winston-Salem in 1946; in the meantime, the state's Southern Baptist governing body established the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1950, holding classes at WFU. The university sold its original campus to the seminary. The unique "Demon Deacons" nickname traces back to its origins as a Baptist school for training clergy; a reporter stated that their team "played like Demons" after a 1923 game, and the name stuck. The Deacons attempt to keep up rivalries with the other North Carolina ACC programs on "Tobacco Road", but none of them are especially competitive. In fitting with their school's size and poor football reputation, Allegacy FCU Stadium is the smallest Power Five stadium (not counting Northwestern's temporary venue; see the Big Ten folder).^note Two other Power Five stadiums were smaller in recent years due to renovations—Oregon State's Reser Stadium in 2022 and Vanderbilt's FirstBank Stadium in 2023.

Big Ten Conference

^{Click here for a map of the B1G schools.}

Year Established: 1896
Current schools: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Washington, Wisconsin
Current commissioner: Tony Petitti
Reigning champion: Michigan
Website: bigten.org

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The Big Ten Conference (sometimes stylized B1G) is the oldest conference in Division I^note It is not the oldest in college sports—that would be the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, a D-III league founded in 1888. Incidentally, current Big Ten member Michigan State was a founding MIAA member. and the second most popular and successful college football conference behind the SEC, with plenty of historical powerhouse programs that have produced multiple national championships and tons of NFL greats.

Traditionally the football conference of the Midwest, the Big Ten was founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (formal name) or Western Conference (informal) in 1896 with charter members Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin. It changed its name to the Big Nine three years later with the addition of Indiana and Iowa and has used the "Big Ten" name almost continuously from the time of Michigan's return in 1917, though they didn't legally adopt "Big Ten" until 1987^note They briefly reverted to the Big Nine name between the departure of Chicago and the addition of Michigan State., and it is an Artifact Title - there have been at least 11 schools in the conference since Penn State joined in 1993, and it expanded to 12 in 2011 with the addition of Nebraska. Though these schools fell outside the Midwestern region, their blue blood reputations and cultural similarities meant that few really cared. Purists did protest when the underperforming East Coast schools Rutgers and Maryland joined in 2014. This didn't stop the conference from expanding to the West Coast as well while attempting to compete with the SEC for brand recognition, with four schools from that region set to join in 2024. The Big Ten announced in 2022 that it had agreed on a seven-year, $7 billion media rights deal, dwarfing the SEC's upcoming deal with ESPN, that runs from 2023–30. Starting in 2024, this will give each member school up to $100 million a year and reportedly has an escalator clause if the conference adds more members. Notably, this new deal completely locks ESPN out of Big Ten sports, with Fox, CBS, and NBC all getting pieces of it.

The conference's age and decades of stability before the 2010s scramble for expansion gives it a deep-rooted history and culture. Because of how long they've been together as a conference, the old Midwest rivalries have a very traditional feel to them and a disproportionately high number of them have some sort of traveling trophy awarded to the winner. (This even extends to relative newcomer Nebraska, though having joined during the age of social media, some of them seem a tad out of place.) The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is in the running for the biggest in the country for any sport and is usually the most viewed college football game of the year, in part because it often determined the conference champion. When both teams made the CFP in 2022, the Big Ten became the only conference besides the SEC to send two teams to the playoffs in the 4-team era.\\\

When the Big Ten expanded to 12 teams in 2011, it implemented divisional play and a conference championship game. Unlike most conferences, which go with geographical division names, the Big Ten opted to name theirs "Legends" and "Leaders"... a choice which (unsurprisingly) was almost universally ridiculed. In 2014, the conference scrapped "Legends and Leaders" in favor of "East and West", which resulted in a laughably one-sided arrangement: since the rename, the East has won the conference title every single year. In all but two of those seasons, the East's winner was either Michigan or Ohio State, meaning the conference champ is still usually decided by the rivalry game. The divisional format was scrapped when the West Coast schools joined in 2024. The conference schedule remains nine games. Through the first five seasons of the new media contract, each team will play all of the others at least once at home and once away. No team will play any other team more than three times in that period except for the parties in 12 "protected" matchups, mostly between historic rivals, which will continue to be played annually. Some media members criticized the model because of differences among the membership in the number of protected matchups—for example, Iowa has three (Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin) while Penn State is the only member with none. The championship game will feature the top two teams in the conference standings.

The Big Ten is also known for having very strong academic prowess across the board. They're not Ivy League by definition, but all its current and future members except Nebraska are members of the Association of American Universities (and Nebraska does have that academic caliber — it used to be an AAU member before the organization de-emphasized agriculture and didn't count its off-campus medical center), and its public members (i.e. all of them except Northwestern and future member USC) are usually considered "Public Ivy" or very close to it (Michigan in particular is considered to be on a par with the actual Ivies in everything but social prestige and "old boy net" connections). Additionally, they are all members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance^note known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation until 2016, designed to facilitate sharing of academic resources among members. Until mid-2016, these 14 schools were joined in this by the University of Chicago. This was a holdover from when UChicago was a full member of the conference; it withdrew from the sports element in 1946, having de-emphasized athletics in the previous couple of decades (the school now competes at the D-III level), and were replaced in the lineup by Michigan State in 1950. Despite no longer being a BTAA member, Chicago still heavily collaborates academically with the Big Ten and technically has an open invite to return whenever it wishes (though whether the 70-plus-year-old agreement would be honored today is highly questionable).

Big Ten Teams

Illinois Fighting Illini

Oskee Wow-wow!

Location: Champaign–Urbana, IL^note The campus straddles the border between the two cities, with the stadium in Champaign. The university administration has an Urbana mailing address, while the athletic department has a Champaign address.
School Established: 1867^note as "Illinois Industrial University", with classes starting in 1868. The name changed to "University of Illinois" in 1885. By the late 1960s, the university had become a system that included the original campus and two Chicago campuses, one general university and the other medical. The term "Urbana–Champaign" was appended to the name of the main campus in 1977. While the metro area is normally called "Champaign–Urbana", the order is reversed for the university because the main administrative building and most of the undergraduate campus are in Urbana.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1890-95), Big Ten (1896-)
Overall Win Record: 632-625-50 (.503)
Bowl Record: 8-12 (.400)
Colors: Orange and blue
Stadium: Memorial Stadium (capacity 60,670)
Current Head Coach: Bret Bielema
Notable Historic Coaches: George Washington Woodruff, Bob Zuppke, Ray Eliot, Gary Moeller, Lovie Smith
Notable Historic Players: Shorty Ray, George Halas, Dutch Sternaman, Red Grange, Ray Eliot, Buddy Young, Al Broski, Abe Woodson, Bobby Mitchell, Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus, Jim Grabowski, Tony Eason, Jeff George, Howard Griffith, Josh Brent, A.J. Jenkins
National Championships: 5 (1914, 1919, 1923, 1927, 1951)
Conference Championships: 15 (1910, 1914-15, 1918-19, 1923, 1927-28, 1946, 1951, 1953, 1963, 1983, 1990, 2001)

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A former power in the early 20th century, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has largely pulled back from football contention outside of the odd glimmers of resurgence. The Fighting Illini won four national titles under the long tenure of coach Bob Zuppke (1913-41), pioneered plays and methods like the huddle and flea flicker, and produced several of the most important figures in the early years of pro football, from National Football League co-founder and Chicago Bears owner George Halas to superstar RB Red Grange. However, their on-field production trailed off in the final years of Zuppke's tenure, and while his successor Ray Eliot was able to lift them back up to one more national title (by one selector) in the '50s, they fell off hard after his retirement in 1959. Since then, the Illini have posted three winless seasons ('61, '69, '97) and have struggled to maintain a consistently winning culture.

The term "Illini" does not officially refer to the people of the state of Illinois (that would be "Illinoisan") but is actually one of the few remaining college mascots named after a Native American group (technically, a confederation of tribes whose name got mangled by European colonists). For nearly a century, the school was represented by "Chief Illiniwek", a mascot who wore Sioux regalia who was phased out in 2006 following the NCAA decision on Native mascots. However, the school successfully managed to keep the name "Illini" after arguing that it does refer to the people of Illinois, which is Metaphorically True. That claim was partially dependent on the "Fighting" part of the name, which referred to the service of Illinois students in World War I that is likewise commemorated by their Memorial Stadium. Attempts to adopt a new mascot have been slow and left a lot of room for students and alumni to keep the old traditions alive on an unofficial basis.

Indiana Hoosiers

Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers!

Location: Bloomington, IN
School Established: 1820^note as "State Seminary"; became "Indiana College" in 1828 and "Indiana University" in 1838. When IU expanded into a statewide university system in 1922, "Bloomington" was added to the name of the flagship campus.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1887-99)^note There was no team in 1890, and 1891 was the first year in which IU played more than one game., Big Ten (1900-)
Overall Win Record: 506-713-44 (.418)
Bowl Record: 3-10-0 (.231)
Colors: Crimson and cream
Stadium: Memorial Stadium (capacity 52,656)
Current Head Coach: Curt Cignetti
Notable Historic Coaches: Bo McMillan, Bill Mallory, Cam Cameron, Terry Hoeppner
Notable Historic Players: Corbett Davis, Frank Filchock, Lou Saban, Pete Pihos, George Taliaferro, Cam Cameron, Kevin Allen, Anthony Thompson, Trent Green, Antwaan Randle El, Michael Penix
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 2 (1945, 1967)

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Indiana University Bloomington has a generally stellar athletic reputation, being most famous for its men's basketball team, which has won five national titles and famously was the last D-I men's program to post an undefeated season in 1976.^note Less famously, their men's teams have also won six straight national swimming titles in the late '60s/early '70s (helped by the Olympic legend Mark Spitz) and eight total soccer national titles. However, in football, the school has been a total Butt-Monkey, with the most losses of any FBS program and the worst win percentage in the Power Five. The program's undisputed peak came in their unbeaten 1945 season, led by coach Bo McMillan and George Taliaferro, a do-it-all player who became the first African American to be drafted into the NFL. Ever since their departure for the pros, however, the school has wallowed in sub-mediocrity outside of a few scattered decent seasons; every single coach since then has left the school with a losing record, and only HC Bill Mallory has managed to put up more than two winning seasons during his run in the late '80s/early '90s (and that was after the team went completely winless in his first year).

What exactly a "Hoosier" is remains a great mystery; the term has been used to describe all denizens of the state of Indiana since the early 19th century, making the mascot name somewhat redundant. Indiana's rivalries with schools like Purdue and Kentucky are largely one-sided in football and pale reflections of their basketball matchups. Notable features of the school's stadium include parts of the USS Indiana (a WWII battleship) and "Hep's Rock", a boulder installed as a tradition by coach Terry Hoeppner before his HC tenure was cut tragically short by brain cancer.

Iowa Hawkeyes

I-O-W-A!

Location: Iowa City, IA
School Established: 1847^note ...is the "official" founding date, when the state legislature chartered it as the "State University of Iowa", which remains its formal name today. Classes did not start until 1855. It established "The University of Iowa" as an alternate name in 1964, although it's not quite as insistent about "The" as, say, Ohio State.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1889-91, 1898-99), WIUFA^*Western Interstate University Football Association, one of the first college athletic conferences (1892-97), Big Ten (1900-)^note Also MVIAA (1907-11).
Overall Win Record: 695-576-39 (.545)
Bowl Record: 18-17-1 (.514)
Colors: Black and gold
Stadium: Kinnick Stadium (capacity 70,585)
Current Head Coach: Kirk Ferentz
Notable Historic Coaches: Howard Jones, Forest Evashevski, Bump Elliott, Hayden Fry
Notable Historic Players: Duke Slater, Nile Kinnick, Emlen Tunnell,^*started at Toledo but finished at Iowa after WWII Cal Jones, Alex Karras, Randy Duncan, Paul Krause, Dennis Green, The Stoops Brothers (Bob, Mike, Mark), Andre Tippett, Chuck Long, Bob Sanders, Robert Gallery, Nate Kaeding, Ettore Ewen, Marshal Yanda, George Kittle, Tory Taylor
National Championships: 5 (1921-22, 1956, 1958, 1960)
Conference Championships: 13 (1 WIUFA - 1896; 12 Big 10 - 1900, 1907, 1921-22, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1981, 1985, 1990, 2002, 2004)

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The University of Iowa is distinct for a number of reasons (including being the first coed public university in the U.S.), but it is perhaps most unique among American universities in that it's historically most known for its wrestling program: Iowa wrestling has been dominant since the 1970s, winning 24 national titles as of 2023. In the early 2020s, it was probably even more known for women's basketball and Caitlin Clark in particular, the leading career scorer in D-I basketball history. Iowa's football program has been much less consistent, going through dramatic peaks and valleys in its storied history. Howard Jones (1916-23) coached the team to two undefeated championship seasons before making the leap to his legendary run at USC. RB Nile Kinnick won the Heisman in 1939 while leading his "Ironmen" team; following his death a few years later while serving in WWII, the school renamed their stadium after him, making it the only college football stadium named after a Heisman winner. The program reached its peak in the late '50s under Forest Evashevski, claiming three national titles before his early retirement to become AD. He was much less suited for this job, and Iowa football cratered for the next two decades (including going winless in '73). The team's prospects were revived during the lengthy tenure of Hayden Fry (1979-98). His successor, current HC Kirk Ferentz, is the longest-tenured HC in FBS football, having held the position since 1999. Ferentz's tenure has established the Hawkeyes as the Stone Wall of college football, almost always sporting excellent defenses that would be competing for national titles were they not consistently hindered by terrible offenses.

Besides the name, Kinnick Stadium has several other notable features. Coach Fry had the opposing team's locker room painted pink, believing that it would pacify and distract opponents. Since 2017, the stadium has been home to perhaps the most heartwarming tradition in all of sports—the Kinnick Wave. Earlier that year, the university opened a new children's hospital across the street from the stadium, and took advantage of the fact that the upper floors have an unobstructed view of the entire playing field to create a lounge area for patients and their families on game days. Immediately after the end of the first quarter, the entire stadium turns toward the hospital and waves at the children. Kinnick also hosted the most-attended women's basketball game in history, a 2023 preseason exhibition between the Hawkeyes and DePaul that drew over 55,000.

If you're curious, the "Hawkeye" name comes from The Last of the Mohicans, having been adopted as a nickname for Iowans from the early years of the territory's settlement by the United States (nothing to do with the Marvel archer). Their logo is known as the "Tiger Hawk"; Fry adopted it, along with their Pittsburgh Steelers-inspired uniform design, to attempt to overhaul the program's culture to be more tough and gritty.

Maryland Terrapins

Fear the Turtle!

Location: College Park, MD
School Established: 1856^note as "Maryland Agricultural College"; became "Maryland State College" in 1916 and became the undergraduate campus of the existing University of Maryland in 1920, with its location of "College Park" later appended to the school name.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892-93, 1898-1915, 1952), MIFA^*Maryland Intercollegiate Athletic Association, 1894-99 (1894, 1896-97), SAIAA (1916-21), SoCon (1922-51), ACC (1953-2012), Big Ten (2013-)
Overall Win Record: 677-624-43 (.520)
Bowl Record: 14-14-2 (.500)
Colors: Red, white, gold, and black
Stadium: SECU Stadium (capacity 51,802)
Current Head Coach: Mike Locksley
Notable Historic Coaches: Curley Byrd, Clark Shaughnessy, Bear Bryant, Jim Tatum, Tom Nugent, Lou Saban, Bobby Ross, D.J. Durkin
Notable Historic Players: Curley Byrd, Jack Scarbath, Stan Jones, Gary Collins, Randy White, Neil O'Donnell, Mike Tice, Frank Reich, Boomer Esiason, Kevin Plank, Domonique Foxworth, Vernon Davis, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Stefon Diggs, Jordan McNair, Taulia Tagovailoa
National Championships: 1 (1953)^note 1 unclaimed (1951)
Conference Championships: 11 (2 SoCon - 1937, 1951; 9 ACC - 1953, 1955, 1974-76, 1983-85, 2001)

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The University of Maryland, College Park is the flagship campus of the University System of Maryland and is located on the outskirts of the Washington, D.C. metro area. The school was prominent in football in the early 20th century, notably serving as the launching pad for Bear Bryant's HC career. The program reached its peak under HC Jim Tatum (1947-55), who led the team to an undefeated season in '51 and claimed a national title in '53. However, the program collapsed after Tatum departed to coach at his alma mater and has largely faded from relevance ever since, even with a few brief eras of success in the '70s, '80s, and early 2000s. The Terrapins were a charter member of the SoCon and ACC but made the leap to the Big Ten in 2013, cooling off many of their historic rivalries and making their football program even more of an afterthought. Maryland is now much more of a basketball, soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse school; its field hockey team has claimed eight national titles, and its men's and women's lacrosse teams combined for 28 (13 and 15, respectively, the latter claiming more than any other program in the nation).

For those wondering, a "Terrapin" is a type of small turtle. This unique mascot (named "Testudo") was the invention of Curley Byrd, who served as the school's football coach from 1911-34 before becoming the school's president. Byrd was the namesake of the school's stadium from its construction in 1950 (when he was still the president) until 2015, when his name was removed due to Byrd's support of racial segregation through most of his lifetime (though, a few years after his retirement, Maryland's football program became the first in the ACC to racially integrate their team). Outside of their mascot, the Terps are now largely known for their garish uniforms, which boast the unique (and very busy) design of the Maryland state flag. Speaking of which, those uniforms are supplied by Under Armour, founded and still run by former Terps player Kevin Plank.

Michigan Wolverines

Go Blue!

Location: Ann Arbor, MI
School Established: 1817^note as the "Catholepistemiad" or "University of Michigania", 20 years prior to statehood; took current name in 1821
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1879-91, 1894-95, 1907-16)^note Did not play any games against outside competition in 1882, though it scrimmaged and awarded varsity letters., IAAN (1892-93), Big Ten (1896-1906, 1917-)
Overall Win Record: 1004-353-36 (.734)
Bowl Record: 22-29 (.431)
Colors: Maize and blue
Stadium: Michigan Stadium (capacity 107,601)
Current Head Coach: Sherrone Moore
Notable Historic Coaches: Fielding H. Yost, Harry Kipke, Fritz Crisler, Bennie Oosterbaan, Bump Elliott, Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller, Lloyd Carr, Rich Rodriguez, Jim Harbaugh
Notable Historic Players: Albert Herrnstein, Willie Heston, Dan McGugin, Harry Kipke, Benny Friedman, Bennie Oosterbaan, Gerald Ford, Bill Hewitt, The Wistert Brothers (Whitey, Al, and Alvin), Tom Harmon, Forest Evashevski, Bump Elliott, Bob Mann, Len Ford, Ron Kramer, Jim Pace, Tom Mack, Jim Detwiler, Dan Dierdorf, Dave Brown (CB), Rick Leach, Jim Harbaugh, Desmond Howard, Ty Law, Tim Biakabutuka, Amani Toomer, Brian Griese, Charles Woodson, Anthony Thomas, Tom Brady, David Terrell, Braylon Edwards, Steve Hutchinson, Chad Henne, Mike Hart, Jake Long, Brandon Graham, Denard Robinson, Jabrill Peppers, Devin Bush Jr., Blake Corum, J.J McCarthy
National Championships: 12 (1901-04, 1918, 1923, 1932-33, 1947-48, 1997, 2023)^note 5 unclaimed (1925-26, 1964, 1973, 1985)
Conference Championships: 45, all Big 10 (1898, 1901-04, 1906, 1918, 1922-23, 1925-26, 1930-33, 1943, 1947-50, 1964, 1969, 1971-74, 1976-78, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988-92, 1997-98, 2000, 2003-04, 2021-23)

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One of the most historic and esteemed public universities in the U.S., the University of Michigan is also quite an athletic power. While it has success in many sports (with a swim program that's won 12 national titles and a men's hockey program that's tied with non-football Denver for the most national titles at 9), the school is most proud of its football program, which has posted more wins than any in the FBS and was the source of numerous football firsts. After being among the first "Western" (i.e. not Northeastern) schools to form a competitive football program, HC Fielding H. Yost (1901-23, 1925-26) started off its reputation of success and, in doing so, changed the game of football, as his development of concepts like the linebacker position and the hurry-up offense made him among the first to carve out coaching as a profession. Yost also led the Wolverines to victory in the first ever bowl game, a Curb-Stomp Battle 47-0 trouncing of Stanford in the 1902 Rose Bowl, claiming the first of his six national titles. Yost's tenure ended with the "Benny-to-Bennie" years of the mid-'20s, when QB Benny Friedman and end Bennie Oosterbaan helped to revolutionize and popularize the passing game as a viable offensive weapon.

The Wolverines' success on the gridiron persisted through the first half of the 20th century. Yost was the first of a string of Hall of Fame head coaches to lead Michigan, most prominently former star player Harry Kipke, Fritz Crisler, and Oosterbaan himself, who collected four more national titles between them. Crisler's tenure is particularly notable for introducing Michigan's iconic maize and blue uniforms and winged helmets, producing Heisman-winning HB Tom Harmon (Mark's dad) in 1940, and winning the 1947 national title in his final season as a coach with his "Mad Magician" two-platoon system of dedicated offensive and defensive players that again changed the sport forever. Michigan remained a very winning program through the rest of the century, particularly under HC Bo Schembechler (1969-89), produced two more Heisman winners in dynamic receiver/returner Desmond Howard and sole defensive winner Charles Woodson, and finally won another national title in 1997 under Woodson and HC Lloyd Carr. The Wolverines receded from the peak of college football in the 2000s between struggles to beat their rivals, a few losing seasons, and an infamous loss to FCS Appalachian State. Former QB Jim Harbaugh, fresh off a successful coaching stint in the NFL, eventually helped them reclaim their former glory. In 2021, the Wolverines reached the CFP after starting the season unranked in the major polls (a first for any program) and returned the following season with an undefeated record before being knocked off by TCU. In the midst of another undefeated run in 2023, the Wolverines became embroiled in a sign-stealing controversy that left them at odds with their own conference; that couldn't stop them from finally reclaiming a national title, but Harbaugh immediately returned to the NFL afterwards.

Michigan's sprawling campus (which includes the Presidential Library for former Wolverine MVP Gerald Ford) has grown with the city of Ann Arbor (located about an hour's drive west of Detroit) and thus is fragmented into several parts; South Campus is home to its athletics facilities, the largest of which by far is Michigan Stadium. More commonly known as just "The Big House", it is the largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere (third-largest in the world). It frequently fills its 107,601 capacity (the "1" being for Crisler), setting numerous attendance records through the years and reflecting the passionate support Michiganders hold for the program. It was also the first football stadium to use electronic scoreboards, adopting them in 1930. Michigan's rivalry with Ohio State is among the most historic and deeply personal in all of sports, though the school also holds great enmity for intrastate rival Michigan State and fellow early 20th century Midwestern power Notre Dame. One last note: Michigan's fight song, "The Victors", is one of the most acclaimed and iconic in all of sports, to the extent that President Ford used it instead of "Hail to the Chief" while in office and even had it played at his funeral.

Michigan State Spartans

Spartans, what is your profession?

Location: East Lansing, MI
School Established: 1855^note as the "Agricultural College of the State of Michigan", followed by "State Agricultural College" (1861), "Michigan Agricultural College" (1909), "Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science" (1925), "Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science" (1955), and finally the current name (1964).
Conference Affiliations: MIAA^*Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, now D-III (1896-1906),^note Originally a club sport in 1884. Ind. (1907-52),^note Did not play in 1943. Big Ten (1953-)
Overall Win Record: 730-487-44 (.596)
Bowl Record: 14-16 (.467)
Colors: Green and white
Stadium: Spartan Stadium (capacity 75,005)
Current Head Coach: Jonathan Smith
Notable Historic Coaches: Jim Crowley, Biggie Munn, Duffy Daugherty, George Perles, Nick Saban, Mark Dantonio, Mel Tucker
Notable Historic Players: John Pingel, Frank Kush, Chuck Fairbanks, Earl Morrall, George Perles, Walt Kowalczyk, Herb Adderley, Wayne Fontes, Jimmy Raye II, Bubba Smith, Gene Washington, Joe DeLamielleure, Kirk Gibson, Morten Andersen, Carl Banks, Lorenzo White, Tony Mandarich, Andre Rison, Percy Snow, Muhsin Muhammad II, Derrick Mason, Dimitrius Underwood, Paul Edinger, Plaxico Burress, Charles Rogers, Drew Stanton, Kirk Cousins, Le'Veon Bell, Connor Cook, Malik McDowell
National Championships: 6 (1951-52, 1955, 1957, 1965-66)
Conference Championships: 11 (2 MIAA – 1903, 1905; 9 Big Ten – 1953, 1965-66, 1978, 1987, 1990, 2010, 2013, 2015)

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The United States' first land-grant (and agricultural) college, Michigan State University is known for its sprawling campus near the Michigan state capital and its sporting tradition, though its reputation was damaged in the 2010s due to the school's former affiliation with infamous convicted child predator Larry Nassar. While not its most decorated program,^note That would be cross country, which won eight national titles from 1939-59, giving it the most of any school save Arkansas. football is the school's most popular and celebrated sport. In the mid-20th century, coaches Biggie Munn (1947-53) and Duffy Daugherty (1954-72) shaped the program into a powerhouse, claiming six national titles through the '50s and '60s thanks in no small part to running one of the first fully racially integrated football teams in the country. This era fostered fierce rivalries with Michigan and especially Notre Dame; their 1966 tie with the latter remains a common candidate for the "Game of the Century". The Spartans became much less consistent after this era and have never truly returned to that level of strength, though HC Mark Dantonio (2007-19) made them a strong regional power and even earned a CFP berth in 2015.

Spartan Stadium (nicknamed "The Woodshed" during the short but memorable HC tenure of Nick Saban prior to his ascent to SEC dominance) is one of a few college stadiums still named after the school's mascot rather than a donor or sponsor. "Sparty" has been the school's mascot since they transitioned from being an agricultural college in 1925, but the school really leaned into it when 300 was popular, drawing many fan chants from the movie's macho catchphrases.

Minnesota Golden Gophers

Ski-U-Mah!

Location: Minneapolis & Falcon Heights, MN (stadium in the former)
School Established: 1851^note ...is the "official" founding date, when it received its charter from the Minnesota territorial government, seven years before Minnesota became a state. However, it started out as a college prep school, closed during the Civil War, and didn't hold its first college classes until reopening in 1868. The university's formal name is now "University of Minnesota, Twin Cities" since it's become the center of a five-campus system.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1882-95),^note Did not play in 1885. Big Ten (1896-)
Overall Win Record: 733-543-44 (.572)
Bowl Record: 12-12 (.500)
Colors: Maroon and gold
Stadium: Huntington Bank Stadium (capacity 52,525)
Current Head Coach: P. J. Fleck
Notable Historic Coaches: Henry L. Williams, Fritz Crisler, Bernie Bierman, Murray Warmath, Lou Holtz
Notable Historic Players: Gil Dobie, Bernie Bierman, Clark Shaughnessy, Biggie Munn, Bronko Nagurski, Jack Manders, Bud Wilkinson, Bruce Smith (HB), Bud Grant, Leo Nomellini, Gino Cappelletti, Sandy Stephens, Bobby Bell, Carl Eller, Charlie Sanders, Rick Upchurch, Tony Dungy, Marc Trestman, Karl Mecklenburg, Troy Stoudermire
National Championships: 7 (1904, 1934-36, 1940-41, 1960)^note 2 unclaimed (1911, 1915)
Conference Championships: 18 (2 IAAN^*Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest; the Gophers won both its titles - 1892-93; 16 Big Ten - 1900, 1903-04, 1906, 1909-11, 1915, 1927, 1933-35, 1937-38, 1940-41, 1960, 1967)

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The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities was a powerhouse of college football for most of the early 20th century. They first became a power under coach Henry L. Williams, who won one retroactive championship for his undefeated 1904 season wedged in the middle of a 35-game unbeaten streak. They reached greater heights during coach Bernie Bierman's first run (1932-41), winning five national titles (four after undefeated seasons), the first three with future coaching legend Bud Wilkinson under center and the last two led by Heisman-winning HB Bruce Smith. The program won its last national title in 1960 under the leadership of HC Murray Warmath and QB Sandy Stephens, a trailblazer for African-American college quarterbacks. But that championship marked the end of the Gophers' glory days. Their last conference title was in 1967. By The '80s, they'd become a bottom-feeder derided in national media as "Minnehaha". Under HC Glen Mason (1997-2006) they became a little more competitive, and by the late 2010s have finally seemed to stabilize as a decent competitor in the Big Ten.

The Golden Gophers (a classed-up version of Minnesota's "Gopher State" nickname) currently play in one of the newer Big 10 venues. Their home for most of the team's glory years, old Memorial Stadium, was demolished in the early '80s when the Gophers moved into the Metrodome. This move was blamed by many as a major contributor to the program's decline, as the university played third-fiddle to the Twin Cities' NFL and MLB teams, lost a great deal of income for the athletic program, and diminished their home field advantage and football culture. The school built the current stadium in 2009 (ironically at a perfect time to host the Vikings for a time after the Metrodome collapsed). While most of the school's Big Ten rivalries have been relatively one-sided for several decades, Minnesota has the distinction of inventing the first rivalry trophy (the "Little Brown Jug", which has been fought over in games against Michigan since 1909) and is one half of the most played rivalry in FBS football (with Wisconsin). Currently, the school's most successful NCAA sport is ice hockey, with the men having won five national titles and the women seven.^*Not counting two claimed men's and one claimed women's title dating from before the NCAA sponsored a championship. However, its most nationally successful team is the dance team, which has won 19 national championships in jazz and pom in the 21st century; the dance team and cheerleading squad have a collective page on The Other Wiki. (See the Kentucky Wildcats in the SEC folder for a similar phenomenon.)

Nebraska Cornhuskers

There is no place like Nebraska!

Location: Lincoln, NE
School Established: 1869^note as simply the University of Nebraska; the school's location of Lincoln was appended to the school name in 1968, when the institution formerly known as the University of Omaha became part of the state system
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1890-91, 1898-1906, 1919-20), WIUFA (1892-97), MVIAA/Big Eight (1907-18, 1921-95), Big 12 (1996-2010), Big Ten (2011-)
Overall Win Record: 917-424-40 (.678)
Bowl Record: 26-27 (.491)
Colors: Scarlet and cream
Stadium: Memorial Stadium (capacity 87,000)
Current Head Coach: Matt Rhule
Notable Historic Coaches: Fielding H. Yost, Dana X. Bible, Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne, Bill Callahan, Scott Frost
Notable Historic Players: Francis Schmidt, Guy Chamberlin, Link Lyman, Sam Francis, Mick Tinglehoff, Bob Brown, Monte Kiffin, Barry Alvarez, Jerry Tagge, Johnny Rodgers, Vince Ferragamo, Dave Rimington, Roger Craig, Turner Gill, Mike Rozier, Irving Fryar, Dean Steinkuhler, Bruce Pickens, Mike Croel, Will Shields, Tommie Frazier, Brook Berringer, Lawrence Phillips, Christian Peter, Trev Alberts, Scott Frost, Ahman Green, Eric Crouch, Richie Incognito, Sam Koch, Josh Brown, Adam Carriker, Ndamukong Suh, Lavonte David
National Championships: 5 (1970-71, 1994-95, 1997)^note 9 unclaimed (1915, 1921, 1980-84, 1993, 1999)
Conference Championships: 46 (3 WIUFA - 1894-95, 1897; 41 MVIAA/Big Eight - 1907, 1910-17, 1921-23, 1928-29, 1931-33, 1935-37, 1940, 1963-66, 1969-72, 1975, 1978, 1981-84, 1988, 1991-95; 2 Big 12 - 1997, 1999)

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There are not a lot of major sports teams—or, really, many attractions—in the state of Nebraska. It is partially due to this that Nebraskans are particularly dedicated to their state's flagship college football program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (the extent to which the team's performance influences some of the Omaha characters in Better Call Saul is often cited as one of the most accurate aspects of that show). The Cornhuskers have generally rewarded their fans' loyalty by being one of more consistently strong teams in college football, with 35 consecutive bowl appearances from 1969-2003 (a record until Florida State edged them out by one year in 2017), though that stellar reputation has faded in the 21st century.

A regional power in the early 20th century, the program became an afterthought in the '40s and '50s, only to surge to national prominence during the tenures of Bob Devaney (1962-72) and Tom Osborne (1973-97). In addition to claiming five total national championships (two in the early '70s under Devaney, three under Osborne in the '90s), the school also produced three Heisman winners during these decades of glory: legendary receiver/returner Johnny "The Jet" Rodgers ('72), dominant RB Mike Rozier ('83), and option QB Eric Crouch ('01). The Cornhuskers of the '90s are frequently cited as candidates for the greatest teams in the history of the sport, with three undefeated seasons thanks to their I-form offense, which made heavy use of option QBs to generate an unstoppable ground game. Their 1995 o-line didn't allow a single sack the entire season, a feat unlikely to ever be surpassed. However, the program entered a steady decline when Osborne retired after his third national title and posted its first losing season in nearly 40 years in 2004. Osborne returned to the school as AD in 2007 and attempted to right the ship. The program saw some success, particularly a 2009 team led by dominant defender Ndamukong Suh. When that team's Big 12 title aspirations were quashed by a highly controversial officiating snafu in the Championship Game against Texas, coaches and admin alike accused the conference and even the BCS for conspiring against them and left for the Big Ten a year later. However, the program slumped even harder after Osborne's retirement in 2013, having gone sub-.500 every year since 2016 and become infamous for coming up just short in games.^note Their 2021 squad went 3-9 despite outscoring their competition and all of their losses being by single digits (a first), and the streak of seven such losses stretching into the next season is likewise a college football record. A 45-42 loss at home to Georgia Southern in the third game of 2022 led to Scott Frost getting dismissed as HC.

The Cornhusker nickname has produced several notable mascot designs over the years, including one that had a literal head of corn. Currently, the school uses two mascots: macho cowboy Herbie Husker and the Creepy Awesome boy-in-red-overalls "Lil' Red". The "Sea of Red" that has sold out every Nebraska home game for decades constitutes a larger population than all but the state's two biggest cities and is known for releasing thousands of helium balloons into the air when the Huskers first get points on the board. Nebraska's greatest rival historically is likely fellow small-market titan Oklahoma, the only program that has won more conference championships than the Huskers; however, Nebraska's move to the Big Ten (and their decline in on-field success) has somewhat cooled the rivalry. Besides football, Nebraska also boasts the winningest women's volleyball program in the nation and a men's gymnastics program that has won 8 national titles. Speaking of women's volleyball, the Huskers took their 2023 home opener to Memorial Stadium and drew over 92,000, the highest documented attendance for any women's sporting event in history.^note The final of a 1971 international soccer tournament (a precursor to the Women's World Cup) in Mexico City reportedly drew over 110K, but that number was never officially documented.

Northwestern Wildcats

Trust Yourself!

Location: Evanston, IL
School Established: 1851
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1882-95)^note Played first game in 1876 but didn't play again until 1882, the first year it competed against college teams. Also didn't play in 1883–85, 1887, and 1906–07., Big Ten (1896-)
Overall Win Record: 567-701-44 (.449)
Bowl Record: 7-10 (.412)
Colors: Purple and white
Stadium: Martin Athletics Complex^note Temporary stadium to be built on-campus, capacity TBA; see more below.
Current Head Coach: David Braun
Notable Historic Coaches: Pappy Waldorf, Lou Saban, Ara Parseghian, Dennis Green, Gary Barnett, Pat Fitzgerald
Notable Historic Players: Paddy Driscoll, George Wilson, Otto Graham, Fred Williamson, Irv Cross, Larry Coker, Mike Adamle, Chris Hinton, Steve Tasker, Pat Fitzgerald, Clayton Thorson
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 8 (1903, 1926, 1930-31, 1936, 1995-96, 2000)

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Northwestern University is essentially the Stanford of the Big Ten in terms of its academic prestige and private status, but with far less football success. Unlike Stanford, which for now has a Pac-12 private-school partner in USC, Northwestern was the Big Ten's only private school from when fellow founding member Chicago left the conference in 1946 until USC joined in 2024.It is also the smallest school by enrollment in the Big Ten. While the Wildcats had enjoyed success in the early 20th century, by the early 1980s they became arguably the Butt-Monkey of not only the Big Ten but also major-college football. Their sole bowl appearance for decades was a Rose Bowl win after 1948, and following the departure of coach Ara Parseghian to Notre Dame in '64, the program spiraled into many years of losing, capped off by a D-I record 34-game losing streak from 1979-82. (They also went completely winless in '57 and '89.) The Wildcats turned things around with a stunning Big Ten title season in 1995, which finally broke their bowl-less streak, followed by two shared conference titles. They've since settled in as a mid-pack team with frequent bowl appearances. However, echoing their past futility, they had a record-tying nine straight bowl game losses from 1995-2011 before finally breaking their six-decade losing streak in 2012. That victory came under Pat Fitzgerald, a star LB on the '95 and '96 Big Ten title teams whose coaching tenure had been the longest and most successful in school history until his firing in 2023 over allegations of program hazing.

The Wildcats' most successful sport by far has been women's lacrosse, with eight national titles (2005-12, 2023).^note The school's only other national team titles are one in fencing, a sport it no longer sponsors, and one in field hockey. This stretch marked the only time a school outside the Eastern time zone has won a D-I title in women's lacrosse, but the school's not that far off from lacrosse's base: "Northwestern" is a Non-Indicative Name / Artifact Title, as the picturesque main campus is located in a Chicago suburb on the shores of Lake Michigan (i.e. the "Northwest" of the 19th century United States). Ryan Field (known as Dyche Stadium for most of its history), the Wildcats' home from 1926–2023, was notable as the only FBS stadium of the modern era that never installed permanent lighting. However, demolition began in 2024, with a completely new (and fully lighted) 35,000-seat Ryan Field penciled in for a 2026 opening. In the meantime, NU will follow the lead of Hawaiʻi (see the Group of Five page) by putting up temporary bleachers on one of its practice fields on the shore of Lake Michigan and using that facility for most home games, with select games using other Chicago-area venues.

Ohio State Buckeyes

O-H! I-O!

Location: Columbus, OH
School Established: 1870^note as "Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College"; became The Ohio State University in 1878
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1890–1901), OAC^*Ohio Athletic Conference, now D-III (1902–11), Big Ten (1912–)
Overall Win Record: 964–333–53 (.734)
Bowl Record: 26–28 (.481)
Colors: Scarlet and gray
Stadium: Ohio Stadium (capacity 104,944)
Current Head Coach: Ryan Day
Notable Historic Coaches: Albert Herrnstein, Francis Schmidt, Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Earle Bruce, John Cooper, Jim Tressel, Luke Fickell, Urban Meyer
Notable Historic Players: Chic Harley, Sid Gillman, Les Horvath, Bill Willis, Don McCafferty, Lou Groza, Vic Janowicz, Howard Cassady, Dick LeBeau, Jim Parker, Jim Marshall, Dick Schafrath, Paul Warfield, Jim Tyrer, Gary Moeller, Matt Snell, Jack Tatum, John Brockington, Randy Gradishar, John Hicks, Doug Plank, Archie Griffin, Pete Johnson, Tom Cousineau, Art Schlichter, Keith Byars, Cris Carter, Chris Spielman, Eric Kumerow, Tom Tupa, Kirk Herbstreit, Dan Wilkinson, Joey Galloway, Terry Glenn, Eddie George, Mike Vrabel, Luke Fickell, Orlando Pace, David Boston, Maurice Clarett, Michael Jenkins, A.J. Hawk, Nick Mangold, Troy Smith, Vernon Gholston, James Laurinaitis, Terrelle Pryor, Cam Heyward, Ryan Shazier, Braxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, Cardale Jones, Ezekiel Elliott, Michael Thomas, Nick and Joey Bosa, Eli Apple, Billy Price, Dwayne Haskins, Damon Arnette, Chase Young, Jeff Okudah, J.K. Dobbins, Justin Fields, Chris Olave, C.J. Stroud, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr.
National Championships: 8 (1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002, 2014)^note 9 unclaimed (1933, 1944–45, 1969, 1973–75, 1998, 2006)
Conference Championships: 41 (2 OAC – 1906, 1912; 39 Big Ten – 1916–17, 1920, 1935, 1939, 1942, 1944, 1949, 1954–55, 1957, 1961, 1968–70, 1972–77, 1979, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2005–09, 2014, 2017–20)

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Ohio is the cradle of pro football, being the literal birthplace of the NFL and home to two pro teams and the Hall of Fame. Despite all that competition, the Ohio State Buckeyes are indisputably the state's favorite team. The Ohio State University is one of the nation's largest schools in terms of student enrollment and is located in the heart of the state's capital. It has a lot of athletic success all around: its swim program is its most decorated with 11 national titles^note Their women's synchronized swimming team, while not an NCAA recognized sport, is even more dominant, having won 34 such titles. and their men's track and golf programs respectively produced Jesse Owens and Jack Nicklaus. However, their popularity pales in comparison to Buckeye football, which has been a major power for over a century. Winning is the standard at Ohio State; the school has the best win percentage of any FBS program,^note though when only games played at the FBS level are counted, Boise State beats them hasn't had back-to-back losing seasons since 1924, has only lost more than six games in a year once since 1897^note That being 2011, when the team finished 6-7 following the abrupt resignation of Jim Tressel amongst an NCAA investigation., and has spent more weeks in the AP Poll rankings than any other school by a sizable margin.^note 981 as of the end of the 2023 season; the nearest runner-up (of course, Michigan) is more than five full seasons behind them. This prestige makes the school a prime recruiter of talent; its players have won 7 Heisman Trophies and earned more first-round draft picks (90 as of 2023) than any other program.

The football program started as a regional power in the early 20th century and experienced several moments of national prominence, with HB Chic Harley becoming one of the sport's first major stars in the 1910s, coach Paul Brown claiming a national title in 1942 (a few years before he would create the two aforementioned NFL teams), and HBs Les Horvath and Vic Janowicz winning the school's first Heismans in 1944 and 1950. However, it was coach Woody Hayes who transformed OSU into a true football heavyweight during his long tenure (1951-78), winning five national championships before getting fired for an on-field outburst. His tenure also saw the production of two more Heisman RBs, Howard Cassady ('55) and the only two-time winner Archie Griffin ('74-'75). The school remained powerful after Hayes' firing; coach John Cooper's tenure in the '90s produced another Heisman rusher in Eddie George ('95), and successor Jim Tressel claimed another national title ('02) and elevated Heisman QB Troy Smith ('06) before being driven out due to NCAA violations. In the 21st century, Ohio State has been the most nationally competitive Big Ten program, with HC Urban Meyer's squad winning the inaugural CFP Championship after upsetting #1 ranked Alabama in the preceding semi-final, a victory that immediately validated the expansion of the playoff. The Buckeyes have since appeared in four more CFPs and were handed a defeat by Bama in 2020's Championship game.

Ohio Stadium is commonly nicknamed "The Shoe", an Artifact Title from before seating was added to close off the massive horseshoe-shaped stadium in 2014. Stadium size is one of the few areas (along with total wins) where Ohio State still lags behind its biggest nemesis, Michigan. Said stadium hosts "The Best Damn Band in the Land", one of the largest and most acclaimed brass/percussion marching bands in the world; their elaborately themed programs regularly go viral, and their tradition of "dotting the i" (featuring either a senior sousaphone player or a special guest in the dot above the "i" of "Ohio") is one of the greatest honors in college sports. The football program has a tradition of having players add a number of buckeye stickers to their helmets after each win, with each signifying a specific accomplishment; since the team tends to do a lot of winning, players tend to have every inch of their helmets covered by buckeye leaves by December. Oh, and what is a buckeye, you ask? It's a type of nut native to the Ohio area. Yes, one of the most dominant sports teams in the world has an anthropomorphic nut (named Brutus) as a mascot; such is football.

Oregon Ducks

Win the Day!

Location: Eugene, OR
School Established: 1876^note Though chartered as "Oregon State University" (not to be confused with the current school of that name) in 1872, it officially dates its founding to when it opened under its current name.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1894–1915, 1959–63), Pac-12 (1916–58, 1964–2023),^note Did not play in the war years of 1943-44. Big Ten (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 704–511–46 (.577)
Bowl Record: 17–20 (.459)
Colors: Green and yellow
Stadium: Autzen Stadium (capacity 54,000)
Current Head Coach: Dan Lanning
Notable Historic Coaches: Hugo Bezdek, Len Casanova, Rich Brooks, Mike Bellotti, Chip Kelly
Notable Historic Players: John McKay, Norm Van Brocklin, George Shaw, Jack Patera, John Robinson, Mel Renfro, Dave Wilcox, Ahmad Rashād,^*known in college as Bobby Moore; changed his name shortly after converting to Islam Dan Fouts, June Jones, Gary Zimmerman, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Onterrio Smith, Jonathan Stewart, LeGarrette Blount, LaMichael James, Dion Jordan, Kyle Long, Marcus Mariota, Royce Freeman, Justin Herbert, Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 13 (1919, 1933, 1948, 1957, 1994, 2000-01, 2009-11, 2014, 2019-20)

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Located in the city of Eugene at the southern tip of the Willamette Valley, the University of Oregon's athletic program is best known historically for its success in track (more on that later). Its football team was fairly successful in the early 20th century but descended into mediocrity for decades starting in the late '30s, save for a brief period of success under Len Casanova in the '50s and early '60s. However, after a long rebuild process led by Rich Brooks (1977-94), Oregon began playing its best football in the 21st century under Mike Bellotti (1995-2008), staying a Pac-12 power and competing a few times for a national title (though it has yet to seal the deal). HC Chip Kelly (2009-12) made the team famous for its ridiculously fast-paced offense where they spent the whole game as if they're in a 2-minute drill; this offense earned them a berth in the BCS National Championship Game after an otherwise-undefeated 2010. In 2014, the school's first Heisman winner, QB Marcus Mariota, led the Ducks to an appearance in the first CFP National Championship game, making Oregon the only Pac-12 school to progress that far in the CFP postseason. Oregon followed the Los Angeles schools to the Big Ten in 2024.

The Ducks are perhaps even more famous for their flashy uniforms that are different for each game. Like Big 12 members Houston and Oklahoma State, Oregon and its athletic program are pet projects of a billionaire alum, in this case Phil Knight, co-founder of famed shoe company & sports outfitter Nike (and also a former member of the Ducks track team). While the university has an apparel contract with Nike, it's dwarfed by Knight's personal financial contributions to the Ducks, having pumped over one billion of his own money into sports facilities and even more into academic programs and buildings. His investments into Autzen Stadium, whose field is built sunken into an artificial landfill, contributed to making the Ducks' house one of the loudest stadiums on Earth, punching well above its capacity weight class. The Ducks are also known for their affiliation with another MegaCorp: Disney. Ol' Walt himself permitted Oregon (whose teams originally held the much more original name of "Webfoots") to use Donald Duck as the inspiration for their mascot all the way back in the '40s, and the school and company have stuck to that agreement ever since.

Penn State Nittany Lions

We are... Penn State!

Location: University Park, PA^note "University Park" is the postal designation for the Penn State campus, which is divided between State College (home to the core of the campus, including the university administration) and College Township (where the football stadium and most other athletic facilities are).
School Established: 1855^note as "Farmer's High School of Pennsylvania", which despite its name awarded bachelor's degrees from its founding. Became "Agricultural College of Pennsylvania" in 1862, and "The Pennsylvania State College" in 1874, with "University" substituted for "College" in 1953. Unlike a certain Big Ten rival above, Penn State only uses "The" in the most formal of contexts.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1887-90, 1892-1992)^note Founding date in dispute. In 1881, Penn State reportedly played a game against Lewisburg, now known as Bucknell. Local newspapers in Penn State's home of State College, as well as the Lewisburg student newspaper, reported on the game, but Bucknell now denies the game ever took place. Penn State didn't play again until 1887, against the same team, by then known as Bucknell., PIFA^*Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association, founded in 1891 but folded after a single season (1891), Big Ten (1993-)
Overall Win Record: 930-409-42 (.689)
Bowl Record: 31-18-2 (.627)
Colors: Blue and white
Stadium: Beaver Stadium (capacity 106,572)
Current Head Coach: James Franklin
Notable Historic Coaches: Hugo Bezdek, Bob Higgins, Rip Engle, Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky (assistant), Bill O'Brien
Notable Historic Players: Andy Smith^*played two years before transferring to Penn, Hinkey Haines, Mike Michalske, Rosey Grier, Lenny Moore, Milt Plum, Dave Robinson, Jerry Sandusky, Mike Reid, Jack Ham, Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell, John Cappelletti, Todd Hodne, Larry Pfohl^*played only one season at Penn State before transferring to Miami, Matt Millen, Bruce Clark, Mike Munchak, Todd Blackledge, Curt Warner, Steve Wisniewski, Blair Thomas, Ki-Jana Carter, Kyle Brady, Kerry Collins, Curtis Enis, Matt Rhule, Courtney Brown, Larry Johnson, Cameron Wake, Robbie Gould, Tamba Hali, Aaron Maybin, Christian Hackenberg, Carl Nassib, Saquon Barkley, Trace McSorley, Sean Clifford
National Championships: 2 (1982, 1986)^note 5 unclaimed (1911-12, 1969, 1981, 1994)
Conference Championships: 5 (1 PIFA – 1891; 4 Big Ten – 1994, 2005, 2008, 2016)^note During its stint as an independent, won 21 Lambert Trophies for "Best Team in the East" (1947, 1961-62, 1964, 1967-69, 1971-75, 1977-78, 1981-82, 1985-86, 1989-91)

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The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers have major power in Eastern and Western Pennsylvania respectively, but the Nittany Lions of Pennsylvania State University reign supreme in the state's center. The school has a fairly well-rounded athletics offering, with esteemed programs in men's gymnastics (12 national titles) and wrestling (12, 11 of them since 2011), women's volleyball (7), and the most-titled fencing program in the NCAA (13).^note Plus 11 men's soccer titles from the pre-NCAA era in the early 20th century and 12 in women's rugby, not regulated by the NCAA but now recognized as one of its "Emerging Sports for Women". These all give the program the most national titles in the conference and fifth most in the nation, but all these other sports' popularities pale in comparison to the Nittany Lions' football team. "White Outs" of Penn State fans packing out the 100,000+ capacity Beaver Stadium dressed in all white comprise one of the most iconic (and intimidating) sights in all of sports.

After its single season in the PIFA, Penn State sports returned to independent status for nearly a century before joining the Big Ten in 1990, with most sports starting conference play in '91 but the football team not doing so until '93. Both before and after joining the Big Ten, it was an absolute football power, being named the "Best Team in the East" 21 times through the back half of the 20th century and claiming two national championships in the '80s. Though the school boasted three Hall of Fame coaches with lengthy tenures in the early 20th century,^note Hugo Bezdek, 1918-29; Bob Higgins, 1930-48; Rip Engle, 1950-65 their successes were dwarfed by the career of Penn State's most famous figure, Joe Paterno, the longest-serving (1966-2011, over fifty years) and most-winning head coach in NCAA D-I history. Paterno was revered as a near-deity through most of central PA. While the school produced several excellent individual players, particularly 1973 Heisman RB John Cappelletti and a host of solid linebackers, his teams were generally best known for their cohesion, famously eschewing names on their jerseys. Paterno's legacy changed forever when he was fired during the 2011 season over failing to communicate with police during a university child-rape scandal that involved former assistant Jerry Sandusky; he passed away just two months later, leaving a dark cloud over the program's reputation. Since then, the football program has been competitive but far less consistent.

A few more bits of trivia. First, Penn State is technically one school spread out across 24 campuses scattered throughout Pennsylvania; the majority of students actually spend their first two years of schooling at one of the satellite campuses before coming to the central one at University Park, which only enhances the school's broader influence outside of Happy Valley (a few of the other campuses have varsity athletics, with several schools competing in D-III, but only University Park has football). Penn State fans are diehards, even by college football standards, frequently camping out in tent cities outside of Beaver Stadium for up to a full week before games to get the best seats possible. Lest one think the school is confused about what its mascot is, Beaver Stadium is named after a former university president (and state governor). Its actual mascot, the "Nittany Lion", is based on the mountain lions (i.e., cougars) that once roamed nearby Mount Nittany (they went extinct around the time Penn State started playing football).

Purdue Boilermakers

Boiler Up!

Location: West Lafayette, IN
School Established: 1869^note ...is the official founding date, when it was first chartered. The first classes, however, weren't held until 1874. Unlike most schools that have had multiple names, it's always been Purdue University.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1887-90, 1895),^note Did not play in 1888. IIAA^*Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association, a short-lived conference that operated from 1889 until some time in the early 20th century (1891-94), Big Ten (1896-)
Overall Win Record: 641-597-48 (.517)
Bowl Record: 11-10 (.524)
Colors: Old gold and black
Stadium: Ross–Ade Stadium (capacity 57,236)
Current Head Coach: Ryan Walters
Notable Historic Coaches: Andy Smith, Cecil Isbell, Jack Mollenkopf, Joe Tiller
Notable Historic Players: Cecil Isbell, John McKay^*transferred to Oregon after one year, Abe Gibron, Bill Afflis^*who finished his college career at Nevada, Len Dawson, Bob Griese, Leroy Keyes, Mike Phipps, Gary Danielson, Larry Burton, Mark Herrman, Mel Gray, Jim Everett, Kevin Sumlin, Jeff Geroge ^*finished his career at Illinois,Rod Woodson, Ryan Grigson, Mike Alstott, Drew Brees, Taylor Stubblefield, Bernard Pollard, Uche Nwaneri, Curtis Painter, Ryan Kerrigan, Raheem Mostert
National Championships: 0^note 1 unclaimed (1931, split with Pitt)
Conference Championships: 12 (4 IIAA – 1891-94; 8 Big Ten – 1918, 1929, 1931-32, 1943, 1952, 1967, 2000)

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Purdue University had some early football success, including an unclaimed national title in 1931 and an undefeated season in 1943. However, it has generally been a middling team since the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Jack Mollenkopf in 1970, with the school preferring to focus on basketball (though that sport has only won a single national title for its women's program). However, Purdue's football team has developed a reputation as a cradle for quarterbacks who would experience much greater success after leaving the school, including Len Dawson, Bob Griese, and Drew Brees.^note This is roughly as impressive as the school's other reputation as a "Cradle for Astronauts"; its aviation program spawned most of the men who walked on the moon. It is also greatly feared as a Big Ten "Spoilermaker"; it currently leads all FBS schools in upsetting Top Ten ranked teams while unranked. This reputation came in useful in 2000, when Brees led the team to its sole conference championship since 1967, and in 2022, when they narrowly won the Big Ten West.

The "Boilermaker" nickname is a reference to the school's roots as a working-class engineering school whose early football players were often big burly guys in training to make boilers. Other notable aspects of the team's culture include their marching band, which uses the "World's Largest Drum", and their mascot, the "Boilermaker Special" (a truck tricked out to look like a small locomotive). Their closest rivals are intrastate with Notre Dame and especially Indiana (though the latter is most competitive in basketball).

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

R-U Rah Rah!

Location: New Brunswick & Piscataway, NJ (stadium in the latter)
School Established: 1766^note as "Queen's College"; renamed "Rutgers College" in 1825 and "Rutgers University" in 1924. After becoming a public institution in 1945, it was formally renamed "Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey". The long name now officially applies to the Rutgers University system, consisting of three campuses; the Scarlet Knights represent only the primary campus in New Brunswick.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1869-92, 1895-1957, 1962-90)^note Did not play in 1871, MSIFL^*Middle States Intercollegiate Football League, short-lived conference with three schools that lasted two seasons (1893-94), MAC^*Not the Mid-American Conference, but rather the Middle Atlantic Conference, which had operated since 1922 but only started sponsoring football in 1958. The major-college side folded once the NCAA established its current three-division setup in the 1970s, and in 1976 the conference completely aligned with D-III. (1958-61), Big East (1991-2012), American (2013), Big Ten (2014-)
Overall Win Record: 673-696-42 (.492)
Bowl Record: 7-5 (.583)
Colors: Scarlet^note the only official school color; white is used whenever another color is needed
Stadium: SHI Stadium (capacity 52,454)
Current Head Coach: Greg Schiano
Notable Historic Coaches:
Notable Historic Players: William Leggett, Paul Robeson, Ozzie Nelson, Shaun O'Hara, Ray Rice, Devin and Jason McCourty, Adam Korsak
National Championships: 1 (1869)
Conference Championships: 1 (Big East - 2012)

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The main campus of the Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey system in New Brunswick is the oldest college in FBS football, being founded as Queen's College a decade prior to American independence.^note The eight other colleges with such a distinction are all in FCS, seven of them in the Ivy League; Rutgers is considered a Public Ivy, having been bailed out by the New Jersey government and designated as the state school of New Jersey in the mid-20th century. Its football history is similarly lengthy. At the very dawn of the sport, Rutgers was home to the first intercollegiate football game (which it won) and claimed a share of the first ever national title in 1869 with a 1-1 record (split with Princeton, which it played twice, and obviously awarded years after the fact). The school was also one of the first to have racially integrated teams, with Paul Robeson becoming the first Black All-American in 1917. "The Birthplace of College Football" has had a few moments of glory since, with undefeated seasons in 1961 and 1976,^note They got snubbed by the bowls in 1976 despite going 11-0, which led to the creation of the short-lived Garden State Bowl, played at the Meadowlands from 1978-81, with Rutgers playing Arizona State in the inaugural game. but has otherwise been the very essence of college football mediocrity. Rutgers was involved in the early talks surrounding the formation of both the Ivy League and the original basketball-centered Big East but didn't join either, leaving them as a football independent with no real identity for decades. By The '80s, they finally decided to take some steps toward legitimacy, upgrading their schedule (they haven't played traditional rival Princeton since 1980) and moving most of their home games from their small on-campus stadium to Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands. This finally bore some fruit when they joined the Big East as a football affiliate in 1991, then moved home games back to campus in '94, in a new stadium with double the capacity of their old facility, laying the groundwork for their eventual Big Ten invite. However, the program arguably got even worse on the field during this time, bottoming out with a winless '97 season. They're a frequent member of ESPN's "Bottom 10", an informal weekly ranking of the worst teams in FBS (said column typically calls them "In a Rut-gers"). When coach Greg Schiano had a few years of success and helped get the school to 11 wins in 2006, their first in the double digits since '76, it was considered a miracle of such scale that it landed him an HC gig in the NFL; he came right back a decade later and more or less picked up back where he left off.

Rutgers' sole NCAA national title in any sport was a shared one in fencing in 1949, six years before their athletics program adopted the "Scarlet Knights" moniker in 1955. Everyone involved has more or less acknowledged that Rutgers is in the Big Ten solely to give the conference a foothold in the New York media market.^note It's not just a matter of TV sets, but also that a fairly significant number of those sets belong to non-Rutgers Big Ten alumni, helping the conference's other schools to engage with their area alums (and current/future donors). Rutgers' urban campus, located on the fringe of the wider New York City metro area, is broken up into several small sub-campuses scattered across the city. Adding to the confusion, there are also two other Rutgers campuses elsewhere in New Jersey (Newark and Camden) that compete in D-III as the "Scarlet Raiders" and "Scarlet Raptors".

UCLA Bruins

4's Up!

Location: Los Angeles, CA (campus); Pasadena, CA (stadium)
School Established: 1919^note as the "Southern Branch of the University of California"; became the University of California at Los Angeles in 1927. The "at" was replaced by a comma in 1958. However, the university can trace its roots to a teachers college founded in 1881.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1919), SCIAC^*Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, now D-III (1920–27), Pac-12 (1928–2023), Big Ten (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 630–453–37 (.579)
Bowl Record: 17–20–1 (.461)
Colors: Blue and gold
Stadium: Rose Bowl (capacity 92,542)
Current Head Coach: DeShaun Foster
Notable Historic Coaches: Red Sanders, Tommy Prothro, Dick Vermeil, Terry Donahue, Chip Kelly
Notable Historic Players: Woody Strode, Jackie Robinson, Bob Waterfield, Tom Fears, Cal Rossi, Donn Moomaw, Billy Kilmer, Jimmy Johnson, Gary Beban, Terry Donahue, Mark Harmon, Kenny Easley, Freeman McNeil, Don Rogers, John Lee, Troy Aikman, Ken Norton Jr., Flipper Anderson, Darryl Henley, Eric Turner, Tommy Maddox, Karim Abdul-Jabbar^note Not that one, though he of course played basketball at UCLA, Jonathan Ogden, Cade McNown, Freddie Mitchell, Chris Kluwe, Marcedes Lewis, Matthew Slater, Maurice Jones-Drew, Josh Rosen, Dorian Thompson-Robinson
National Championships: 1 (1954)
Conference Championships: 17, all Pac-12 (1935, 1942, 1946, 1953-55, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1975, 1982-83, 1985, 1987, 1993, 1997-98)

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The University of California, Los Angeles is one of the most esteemed public schools in the nation and is an overall athletic powerhouse, sitting only behind Stanford in terms of total NCAA championships (121), most famously thanks to John Wooden's dominant basketball program of the '60s and '70s that won ten (plus another in the '90s).^note The Other Wiki's there for the full Long List, but other historic power programs are men's tennis (16), men's volleyball (19), men's water polo (12), and women's softball (12). The Bruins' sole football national championship, earned after an undefeated 1954 season under coach Red Sanders, does not count among that number due to the NCAA's definitions, but the team is regardless very storied, in part due to playing in perhaps the most famous stadium in college football, the Rose Bowl, though it only became their home stadium when they moved from the LA Memorial Coliseum in 1982, ending a long co-tenancy with their cross-town rival USC. The Rose Bowl is located a bit over 25 miles from campus in the neighboring city of Pasadena, an hour's drive in LA traffic from the school's quiet Westwood neighborhood (which has stood in for so many fictional universities that it inspired the California University trope).

UCLA's first great football player was arguably Jackie Robinson, who played baseball, football, and basketball and ran track for the Bruins; he was part of UCLA's 6-0-4 1939 team before WWII started, which eventually led him to baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers. In that same season, he set the still-standing FBS single-season record for yards per carry. Following the Hall of Fame HC tenures of Sanders and Tommy Prothro (the latter of which saw the school's sole Heisman winner in QB Gary Beban), former player Terry Donahue coached the team for two decades (1976-95), leading the team to eight straight bowl wins in the '80s. The program became much less consistent soon after his departure, sometimes producing competitive seasons but largely posting middling records. In large part because of its connection to the Rose Bowl (and, perhaps just as importantly, their rivalry with USC), the Bruins announced a move to the more prestigious and profitable Big Ten in 2024 along with the Trojans. The Big Ten invite came at the perfect time for UCLA, providing a lifeline to an athletic department staring into a financial abyss, although the move came with several financial concessions.

USC Trojans

Fight On!

Location: Los Angeles, CA
School Established: 1880
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1888-1921),^note Did not play in 1890, 1892, or 1911–13. Pac-12 (1922–2023), Big Ten (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 875–368–54 (.695)
Bowl Record: 35–20 (.636)
Colors: Cardinal and gold
Stadium: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (capacity 77,500)
Current Head Coach: Lincoln Riley
Notable Historic Coaches: Howard Jones, John McKay, John Robinson, Pete Carroll, Ed Orgeron, Steve Sarkisian
Notable Historic Players: John Wayne^*back when he was still Marion "Duke" Morrison, Red Badgro, Jim Hardy, Frank Gifford, Mike Henry, Willie Wood, Ron Mix, Pete Beathard, Ron Yary, O. J. Simpson, Al Cowlings, Mike Holmgren, Tody Smith, Sam Cunningham, Anthony Davis, Lynn Swann, J.K. McKay, Ricky Bell, Marvin Powell, Clay Matthews Jr., Jeff Fisher, Anthony Muñoz, Charles White, Ronnie Lott, Marcus Allen, Bruce Matthews, Junior Seau, Todd Marinovich, Willie McGinest, Tony Boselli, Petros Papadakis, Keyshawn Johnson, Darrell Russell, R. Jay Soward, Carson Palmer, Troy Polamalu, Mike Williams^*draft bust WR, Reggie Bush, LenDale White, Matt Leinart, Dwayne Jarrett, Mario Danelo, Mark Sanchez, Clay Matthews III, Tyron Smith, Matt Barkley, Jake Olson, Sam Darnold, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Caleb Williams
National Championships: 11 (1928, 1931-32, 1939, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978, 2003-04^note The latter was officially stripped by the NCAA but not by AP, and USC still claims it)^note 6 unclaimed (1929, 1933, 1976, 1979, 2002, 2007)
Conference Championships: 39 (1927-29, 1931-32, 1938-39, 1943-45, 1947, 1952, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1966-69, 1972-74, 1976, 1978-79, 1984, 1987-89, 1993, 1995, 2002-08^note 2004-05 vacated by the NCAA, 2017)

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The University of Southern California is a private school known as an athletic powerhouse; while it ranks behind Stanford and UCLA in terms of official national titles for team sports (112 as of 2023), it has more official men's titles than any other school, with 85, not counting its numerous football championships.^note Dominant programs with double-digit titles include the men's programs for outdoor track and field (26, the most of any school), tennis (21, also most), baseball (12, more than twice the number of any other school), and water polo (10). The Trojans have long been the college football program of the Western United States, with more Heisman winners (8) and Pro Hall of Famers (14) than any other school (and trails only Notre Dame in total NFL draft picks and Ohio State in first rounders). USC thus hold many rivalries with the other titans in the east that they have to overcome in order to win national respect; the "Trojan" nickname was selected to emphasize their status as constant underdogs compared to eastern elites. For decades, the school has been known as "Tailback U", producing five Heisman-winning tailbacks—Mike Garrett (1965), OJ Simpson ('68), Charles White ('79), Marcus Allen ('81), and Reggie Bush (2005)—and numerous others that were arguably as worthy of the award. Despite the star power of its players, it is ironically the only college program that has never permitted them to wear their names on their jerseys.^note Notre Dame also uses this practice, but it has made occasional exceptions. Penn State has historically done this, but during Bill O'Brien's tenure following the Jerry Sandusky scandal, he had the players' names on the jerseys as a deliberate break from the Joe Paterno era.

The program first rose to national prominence under coach Howard Jones, who led them to four national title claims during his tenure (1925-40). Said tenure fell in the middle of a streak of nine straight bowl wins over the span of two decades back when the only such "bowl" was the Rose Bowl (and a one-off "Christmas Festival" in '24); this stood as the longest bowl win streak for decades and is still tied for the second longest. The school became more of a regional power after Jones' tenure was cut short by his sudden death from a heart attack, but they entered a golden age in the '60s and '70s under coaches John McKay and John Robinson. USC claimed five national titles in this era, with their success being partially attributed to their embrace of African-American talent that helped them to steamroll segregated teams in the South. They regressed to regional status the '80s and '90s only to go on another run of national title wins in the 2000s under Pete Carroll, helping to fill the football void formed in Los Angeles after the departure of both of its NFL teams. In addition to the aforementioned Bush, the program also saw two of its QBs, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart, claim the Heisman. However, the school landed in hot water for allegedly paying players like Bush and faced numerous sanctions, including forcing Bush to return his Heisman and dissociate completely from his school for several years. The program has regressed back to being more of a local power since then, though their name still holds a great deal of clout, enough to poach HC Lincoln Riley and the school's future eighth Heisman winner, QB Caleb Williams, from Oklahoma in 2022. USC's history and name recognition made the more prestigious (and profitable) Big Ten come calling, and the departure of the program from the Pac-12 was the first domino to fall in that conference's demise.

USC is an urban campus located close to Los Angeles' downtown (also a frequent filming location for California University, helped by the presence of one of the world's most esteemed and prolific film schools). The Trojans play in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in neighboring Exposition Park, a National Historic Landmark run by the state, county, and local government since its opening in 1923. The neoclassical structure is one of most storied stadiums in the U.S., having hosted two (and soon to be three) Olympic Games and multiple professional teams from various sports. Due to sharing the same metro area with UCLA (and, for many decades, the same stadium) plus having perfectly contrasting uniform colors, USC's rivalry with its public school neighbor has a uniquely intense legacy, with a history of pranks between the schools that verges on criminal. While many of said pranks have targeted the USC's statue of "Tommy Trojan", and the drum major of the marching band wears an elaborate Trojan costume, their actual mascot is a white horse named Traveler (though a contingent of fans still prefer the early 20th century mascot, a lovable mutt named George Tirebiter).

Washington Huskies

Bow Down!

Location: Seattle, WA
School Established: 1861^note Founded as the "Territorial University of Washington", it closed three times in its first 15 years. After reopening, the "Territorial" part was dropped when Washington became a state in 1889.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1889–1915),^note Did not play in 1891. Pac-12 (1916–2023), Big Ten (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 774–465–50 (.620)
Bowl Record: 19–21–1 (.476)
Colors: Purple and gold
Stadium: Husky Stadium (capacity 70,083)
Current Head Coach: Jedd Fisch
Notable Historic Coaches: Gil Dobie, Darrell Royal, Jim Owens, Don James, Steve Sarkisian, Chris Petersen, Kalen DeBoer
Notable Historic Players: Don Coryell, Hugh McElhenny, Al Worley, Warren Moon, Michael Jackson, Jim L. Mora, Jeff Jaeger, Reggie Rogers, Chris Chandler, Mario Bailey, Steve Emtman, Mark Brunell, Billy Joe Hobert, Bob Sapp, Corey Dillon, Olin Kreutz, Jerramy Stevens, Reggie Williams, Jake Locker, Danny Shelton, Hau'oli Kikaha, John Ross, Dante Pettis, Jake Browning, Myles Gaskin, Puka Nacua^*transferred to BYU, where he was more successful, Michael Penix, Rome Odunze
National Championships: 2 (1960, 1991)^note 3 unclaimed (1910, 1984, 1990)
Conference Championships: 18 (1916, 1919, 1925, 1936, 1959-60, 1963, 1977, 1980-81, 1990-92, 1995, 2000, 2016, 2018, 2023)

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The University of Washington (or, more affectionately, U-Dub) has enjoyed regional and occasional national success in a wide range of sports, but football is the flagship program. In addition to their two claimed and three unclaimed national championships, the Huskies hold the FBS record for the longest unbeaten streak (64 games from 1908-16 under coach Gil Dobie), are second to Oklahoma for the longest winning streak (40 games from 1908-14), and ended Miami's FBS-record home winning streak at 58 games in 1994 (a particularly notable victory, as the two schools split the '91 national title after both went undefeated). After a steep decline in the 2000s, including a winless 2008, the team bounced back as one of the more competitive programs in the West, achieving a berth in the CFP after 2016. On the down side, they're also the most recent ranked FBS team to have lost to an FCS team, falling to Montana in the opener to a 2021 season that ended over a decade of winning records (though they bounced back to their winning ways the following year). After uninterrupted membership through the Pac-12 and its predecessors, U-Dub and historic rival Oregon's decision to follow USC and UCLA to the Big Ten basically destroyed the conference; it finished its last year in the Pac with an undefeated run to compete in its first national championship game in over three decades, coming up short to Michigan.

U-Dub occupies a scenic campus in northern Seattle, sitting on the shore on the area's two largest lakes, Union and Washington, and featuring views of the Cascade Range and Olympic Mountains. Their home stadium sits on Lake Washington and is one of three FBS venues directly accessible by boat, making "sailgating" a popular tradition. On two separate periods, the stadium has hosted the Seahawks of the NFL while their normal home stadiums have been unavailable; in return, Seahawks owner Paul Allen helped fund a renovation to the stadium that greatly amplifies crowd noise. Husky fans also have a credible (though disputed) claim to having originated "The Wave" now currently practiced in most large gatherings back in the '80s. The Huskies' most historic rivalry is their intrastate "Apple Cup" competition with Washington State, though their matchups with Oregon are typically more high-profile and competitive. U-Dub is sometimes referred to as "Quarterback U"; going back to Warren Moon in 1976, the majority of the school's starters have seen playing time in the NFL, though none have matched his Pro Hall of Fame career.

Wisconsin Badgers

Varsity! Varsity!

Location: Madison, WI
School Established: 1848^note Although the Wisconsin territorial legislature passed legislation calling for the creation of the university in 1838 and appointed a governing board at that time, the board took no action before statehood in 1848. Two months after statehood, the school was formally established when the governor signed legislation to that effect. The first classes were held the next year. The campus' location of Madison was appended to the university name in 1956 when a separate state college in Milwaukee became a UW campus.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1889-95), Big Ten (1896-)
Overall Win Record: 742-518-53 (.585)
Bowl Record: 19-16 (.543)
Colors: Cardinal and white
Stadium: Camp Randall Stadium (capacity 80,321)
Current Head Coach: Luke Fickell
Notable Historic Coaches: Harry Stuhldreher, Barry Alvarez
Notable Historic Players: Pat O'Dea, Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch^*transferred to Michigan for officer training during WWII; planned to return to Wisconsin but never did, Pat Harder, Alan Ameche, Jim Bakken, Dale Hackbart, Pat Richter, Mike Webster, Troy Vincent, Mel Tucker, Darrell Bevell, Aaron Gibson, Ron Dayne, Lee Evans, Joe Thomas, Russell Wilson^*played only one season at Wisconsin after three at NC State; J. J., Derek, and T. J. Watt; Montee Ball, James White, Melvin Gordon, Jonathan Taylor
National Championships: 1 (1942)
Conference Championships: 14 (1896-97, 1901, 1906, 1912, 1952, 1959, 1962, 1993, 1998-99, 2010-12)

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The University of Wisconsin–Madison, the flagship school of the state system, is another early football power that struggled mightily in the mid-20th century after the school pivoted more towards academics, picking up more of a reputation as a left-leaning Strawman U than a sports school. The Badgers won a lot of games in the early 20th century but mostly faltered in the '30s and '40s outside of a very successful 1942 season where they claimed the school's sole national title in football. Their last era of sustained success for several decades came in the '50s, and they produced Heisman FB Alan Ameche in '54. After many years of losing, including a completely winless season in '68, the program saw a massive resurgence in the '90s under HC/AD Barry Alvarez. Ron Dayne won the Heisman in 1999 after becoming the FBS's all-time leading rusher, and the school has stayed bowl eligible for the past two decades in large part due to its well-earned reputation of producing elite RBs.

Since that late '90s revival, the team's fanbase has adopted "Jump Around" as a customary celebration, where the fans make Camp Randall Stadium shake by jumping in unison to the House of Pain classic between the third and fourth quarters. Said stadium is one of the oldest in college football and takes its name from the field's prior usage as an Army training camp during the American Civil War. The school's marching band is known for performing after games rather than at halftime, with their "Fifth Quarter" productions changing their orientation and setlist based on the game's outcome. This tradition was a product of the team's futility in the late '60s, as the school sought ways to keep fans in seats through the full game. Wisconsin's rivalry with Minnesota is the longest running series in FBS. Trivia note: the Badgers were the winners of the first college football game ever broadcast live on ESPN, the 1982 Independence Bowl (they beat Kansas State 14–3).

Big 12 Conference

^{Click here for a map of the B12 schools.}

Year Established: 1994
Current schools: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, UCF, Utah, West Virginia
Current commissioner: Brett Yormark
Reigning champion: Texas
Website: big12sports.com

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The Big 12 Conference name is also an Artifact Title — for much of its recent history, it had 10 members, expanding to 14 in 2023 and 16 in 2024. The conference is tied to the Sugar Bowl (no, not that one).^note In the BCS era, they were tied to the Fiesta Bowl. There are also some very storied teams in this conference as well. The Texas-Oklahoma rivalry ranks right up there with Michigan-Ohio State. The Big 12 is also somewhat unique amongst major conferences in that it is a fairly recent merger (officially formed in 1994, but competition didn't start until 1996) between two older historic conferences: the Big Eight Conference (consisting of the Midwestern schools, which came together in 1928 as the Big Six after the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association dissolved) and several former members of the Southwest Conference (where the four Texas schools came from, having played in that conference since 1912) after the latter's fragmentation and demise in the fallout from the SMU "Death Penalty". Because of this, the Big 12's teams have less "loyalty" to each other than most other conferences and suffer from numerous internal tensions, divisions, and schools saying Screw This, I'm Outta Here.

Things boiled over in 2011 when Nebraska and Colorado left for the Big Ten and Pac-12, respectively, briefly costing them the right to host a conference championship game and hurting their members' ability to compete for a national title. Missouri and Texas A&M then moved to the SEC the next year, but the conference (barely) survived by replacing them with TCU and (despite the geographical oddity) West Virginia. While they've so far averted the disintegration that once seemed inevitable, the departure of mainstays Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC in 2024 forced another realignment. Shortly after OU and UT announced their departure, the Big 12 raided the American Athletic Conference, accepting Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF, along with FBS independent BYU. The Big 12 then ended up adding all four Pac-12 "Four Corners" schools (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah) for 2024, shocking many observers by outliving the conference that very nearly destroyed them a decade prior.

The Big 12 is also unusually insistent that their conference name not be written "Big Twelve" or "Big XII"... despite the official logo consisting primarily of a large "XII". Despite having a full round-robin regular season format from 2011–2022 and no divisions after 2010, they still hold a championship game for their top two seeded teams.

Big 12 Teams

Arizona Wildcats

Bear Down!

Location: Tucson, AZ
School Established: 1885^note Predating Arizona's statehood by almost three decades.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1899-1930), Border (1931-61), WAC (1962-77), Pac-12 (1978–2023), Big 12 (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 633-499-33 (.558)
Bowl Record: 10-11-1 (.477)
Colors: Cardinal and navy
Stadium: Arizona Stadium (capacity 50,782)
Current Head Coach: Brent Brennan
Notable Historic Coaches: Warren B. Woodson, Dick Tomey, Mike Stoops, Rich Rodriguez, Kevin Sumlin
Notable Historic Players: Max Zendejas, Brad Henke, Anthony Smith, Michael Bates, Tedy Bruschi, Lance Briggs, Rob Gronkowski, Nick Foles, Khalil Tate
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 6 (3 Border - 1935-36, 1941; 2 WAC - 1964, 1973; 1 Pac-10 - 1993)

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The University of Arizona ("Zona" for short) followed its intrastate rival Arizona State to the Pac-12 in 1978. While fairly well renowned as a basketball school, its football team has mostly just existed in Tucson. Their 1987 season may well have been the most mediocre campaign in college football history: 4 wins, 4 losses, 3 ties.^note Besides the three ties, they had a 1-point loss to Iowa and a 2-point loss to USC, meaning they were 8 points away from a 9-2 record. Their greatest success came in the 1990s; led by the dominating "Desert Swarm" defense of coach Dick Tomey, they won a share of the Pac-10 title in 1993 and earned a higher ranking than conference-winner UCLA in 1997 by winning more games. However, the team cratered after Tomey's departure and have generally underachieved since despite a succession of high-profile coaches and some notable players. The Wildcats' performance truly cratered in 2020, where they went winless in the COVID-shortened season and won just one in the following year. They've moderately improved since, but it remains to be seen how they'll perform after making the move to the Big 12 in 2024.

The Wildcats' intrastate rivalry with Arizona State is one of the oldest in college football, with their Territorial Cup being the oldest rivalry trophy in the sport, being first awarded in 1899 (though there's a technicality there; it hasn't actually been awarded for most of the rivalry's history, only being renewed in the 21st century). Interestingly enough, despite Arizona State having a much stronger overall football history than Arizona, the Wildcats narrowly lead in this long series due to dominating in the early 20th century. With Zona and ASU joining the Big 12, the rivalry will likely continue in that conference.

Arizona State Sun Devils

Forks Up!

Location: Tempe, AZ^note Home to the main campus and university administration; see more below.
School Established: 1886^note Founded as a teachers college, gained its current name and mission in 1958.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1897–1930), Border (1931–61), WAC (1962–77), Pac-12 (1978–2023), Big 12 (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 638-424-24 (.599)
Bowl Record: 15-17-1 (.470)
Colors: Maroon and gold
Stadium: Mountain America Stadium (capacity 53,599)^note historically Sun Devil Stadium
Current Head Coach: Kenny Dillingham
Notable Historic Coaches: Dan Devine, Frank Kush, John Cooper, Todd Graham, Herm Edwards
Notable Historic Players: John Henry Johnson, Charley Taylor, Curley Culp, Danny White, Mike Haynes, John Jefferson, Gerald Riggs, Luis Zendejas, Randall McDaniel, Eric Allen, Darren Woodson, Isaiah Mustafa, Jake Plummer, Pat Tillman, Todd Heap, Terrell Suggs, Vontaze Burfict, Brock Osweiler, Zane Gonzalez, N'Keal Harry, Jayden Daniels
National Championships: 0^note 2 unclaimed (1970, 1975)
Conference Championships: 17 (7 Border - 1931, 1939-40, 1952, 1957, 1959, 1961; 7 WAC - 1969-73, 1975, 1977; 3 Pac-10 - 1986, 1996, 2007)

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Arizona State University was basically the Boise State of mid-20th century—the Western school that dominated its lower-profile conference on the road to becoming a national power. While a fairly weak football program in the early 20th century, future coaching great Dan Devine led them to an undefeated season in 1957. Frank Kush took over and had even greater success, with two undefeated records in '70 and '75, the latter season ending with a #2 final ranking. This success led the Pac-8 to come calling for ASU (and their rival Arizona in a package deal), with them joining the conference in 1978. However, Kush, a Drill Sergeant Nasty who took full advantage of the desert sun as discipline, was fired in the middle of the '79 season after a scandal emerged over his harsh treatment of his players, including a lawsuit from a former punter who accused Kush of punching him in the mouth during a game.

Arizona State was the first of the newcomers to win a Pac-10 title and make the Rose Bowl, reaching those heights in 1986 and catapulting John Cooper to his Ohio State gig; a decade later, his Buckeyes would narrowly block the Sun Devils from winning the Rose Bowl, costing them a perfect season and a likely national championship. However, in recent decades, having to compete against the conference's other powers and the arrival of the NFL's Cardinals into the Phoenix market (they shared the school's stadium for 18 years, one of the longer co-tenancies of any pro and college football program) helped diminish the program's prominence and performance. ASU will follow its instate rival Arizona to the Big 12 in 2024, though it was more or less dragged there kicking and screaming.

The school itself is also of note as having the largest residential and total enrollments of any FBS member... with some major caveats.^note ASU actually consists of four physical campuses scattered around the Phoenix area, plus a large online operation. The main campus in Tempe has an enrollment of about 58K, with another 20K-plus attending the other Phoenix-area campuses, taking ASU past Texas A&M as the largest residential school in FBS. The online operation adds another 60K-plus, taking ASU past Liberty (16K residential, over 100K online) as the largest overall university in FBS. ASU's mascot, a classical devil with a pitchfork named "Sparky", hypes up the crowd before games with a video of him stomping on the other team's bus. Mountain America Stadium (Sun Devil Stadium behind the corporate name), located on top of a hill overlooking the main campus, is pretty notorious for being (forgive the pun) hot as hell.

Baylor Bears

Sic 'em, Bears!

Location: Waco, TX
School Established: 1845
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1898-1915),^note Did not play in 1906. SWC (1915-96),^note Did not play 1943-44. Big 12 (1996-)
Overall Win Record: 630-603-44 (.511)
Bowl Record: 14-13 (.519)
Colors: Green and gold
Stadium: McLane Stadium (capacity 45,140)
Current Head Coach: Dave Aranda
Notable Historic Coaches: Art Briles, Matt Rhule
Notable Historic Players: Hayden Fry, Del Shofner, Jerry Moore, Goose Gonsoulin, Larry Elkins, Mike Singletary, Matt Bryant, Daniel Sepulveda, Jason Smith, Jon Weeks, Phil Taylor, Danny Watkins, Josh Gordon, Robert Griffin III, Shawn Oakman, Corey Coleman
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 10 (7 SWC – 1915-16, 1922, 1924, 1974, 1980, 1994; 3 Big 12 – 2013-14, 2021)

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A conservative Baptist school, Baylor University is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas (founded before the state officially joined the U.S. and starting out in the small town of Independence before moving to Waco in the 1880s). The football team enjoyed some success in the first quarter of the 20th century but then fell into a period of mediocrity. This finally ended with a 1974 Southwest Conference title so improbable that even today, Baylor fans call it the "Miracle on the Brazos". After another major lull in the late 1990s and 2000s, they made a major national splash under Art Briles in 2011 thanks to electric Heisman-winning QB Robert Griffin III during a period of massive sports success that greatly raised the regional school's profile; during the 2011-12 "Year of the Bear", all four of its major programs (football, baseball, men's/women's basketball) finished their season ranked and compiled the best shared win percentage of any school in NCAA history. That period also saw the Bears open their new McLane Stadium, the joint newest in the Power Five,^note Houston's TDECU Stadium also opened in 2014, though the first game at that venue was two days before Baylor's first in its current stadium. on the banks of the Brazos River. One of three FBS stadiums directly accessible by boat, its 2014 opening marked the first time since 1935 that the Bears played on campus. However, there was a dark side to this success—Briles and the Baylor administration were caught covering up a massive string of sexual assaults by players, leading to a housecleaning of not only the football program but also the top administration. Coach Matt Rhule's swift turnaround of the program's on- and off-field reputation earned him an (ultimately disappointing) NFL gig, and after another brief rebuild, the program has remained competitive since.

Baylor nowadays is probably best known as one of the powerhouses of NCAA women's basketball; the Bears (who didn't drop "Lady" from their nickname until 2021–22) pretty much ruled Big 12 basketball in the 21st century under coach Kim Mulkey (2000–21), including winning three national titles and posting a perfect 40-0 season during The Year of the Bear. Men's basketball added a national title of its own in 2021, a highlight in a program that has been historically associated with tragedies.^note Most notably a catastrophic 1927 bus accident that resulted in the deaths of ten players and the 2003 murder of one player by a former teammate, with the investigation of that crime leading to the uncovering of massive NCAA rules violations that resulted in mass firings and NCAA sanctions; yes, that has been a grim trend at Baylor for many years. Football is regardless a very important part of campus culture; all freshmen participate in the "Baylor Line" that welcomes the team on-field in home games and sits behind opposing teams to heckle them. The school keeps two real black bears, Joy and Lady, as mascots in an on-campus enclosure.

BYU Cougars

Rise and Shout!

Location: Provo, UT
School Established: 1875^note ...is the "official" founding date, when school namesake Brigham Young established "Brigham Young Academy". However, BYA was more like a high school than a modern university. College-level instruction didn't start until 1892; a college department wasn't established until 1896 (the same year it was officially absorbed by the LDS Church); it didn't become BYU until 1903, and it didn't receive full accreditation as a university until the 1920s.
Conference Affiliations: RMAC (1922–37),^note The school's first football season was in 1896, but as noted above it was still more of a high school than a college. After an accidental football-related death in Utah in 1900, the LDS Church banned football at all of its schools until 1919. 1922 was the first year in which BYU played solely against colleges. Skyline (1938–61), WAC (1962–98), MW (1999–2010), Ind. (2011–22), Big 12 (2023–)
Overall Win Record: 617–444–27 (.580)
Bowl Record: 17–22–1 (.438)
Colors: Blue and white
Stadium: LaVell Edwards Stadium (capacity 63,470)
Current Head Coach: Kalani Sitake
Notable Historic Coaches: LaVell Edwards
Notable Historic Players: Virgil Carter, Gifford Nielsen, Brian Billick, Todd Christensen, Marc Wilson, Andy Reid, Jim McMahon, Bart Oates, Kyle Whittingham, Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, Vai Sikahema, Jason Chaffetz, Ty Detmer, Steve Sarkisian, Taysom Hill, Jamaal Williams, Zach Wilson, Puka Nacua
National Championships: 1 (1984)
Conference Championships: 23 (19 WAC – 1965, 1974, 1976–85, 1989–93, 1995-96; 4 MW – 1999, 2001, 2006–07)

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Brigham Young University is the second FBS member to have been founded by early Mormon leader Brigham Young,^note Read further down for the first. though it wouldn't actually be absorbed by the LDS Church until 1896. BYU had done little in football before LaVell Edwards, who had arrived at "The Y" as an assistant in 1962, was elevated to the head coaching position in 1972. A major contribution to this turn in football fortunes was the LDS Church disavowing its former anti-Black doctrines and practices in 1978, aiding the Cougars' recruiting; BYU did not admit Black students at all through the 1960s, far after most universities outside of the South, and its team accepted its first Black players in Edwards' first season, making it among the last programs to integrate. Edwards installed a high-powered passing offense that brought the Cougars quick success, helping them claim a national title in 1984 and produce a Heisman winner in Ty Detmer in 1990; they remain the last non-major school to win that latter award. BYU in this era became known as "Quarterback U"; under Edwards, nine BYU quarterbacks led the NCAA in either passing yards, touchdowns, or rating, more than any other program in college football history. Since Edwards' retirement after 2000, BYU has remained a generally winning program, though not quite at its 1980s heights.

BYU is well-known for taking its faith very seriously. The school has a strict honor code that reflects its church's doctrine, and every so often a player will get suspended or dismissed for a violation. Many of its players are also a bit older than typical college athletes due to being returned Mormon missionaries; the LDS Church strongly encourages its young men to spend two years as such, with most doing so immediately after high school graduation.^*Before the church lowered the required age for male missionaries from 19 to 18 in the early 2010s, most had to interrupt their college education; the NCAA has long held that missionary service does not count against an athlete's college eligibility. BYU's heavy use of returned missionaries has drawn minor criticism, but because they are not allowed to engage in athletic training during their terms and have minimal time for intense physical activity, it's accepted that BYU gains no significant advantage. BYU also has a firm policy against Sunday play in any sport; while this generally doesn't affect football, it has dramatically affected other sports and caused headaches for scheduling of NCAA championship events. Though it bounced around a number of smaller conferences, BYU felt that it could make far more money as an independent with its built-in LDS following, following the model that Notre Dame established for Catholic fans, and set out on its own in 2011.^*The school then placed most of its non-football sports in the West Coast Conference, which doesn't play football and consists entirely of private faith-based schools that don't schedule any in-conference sporting events on Sunday. Nonetheless, a Power Five slot remained a goal for BYU, which it finally reached when it joined the Big 12 in 2023. The Big 12 allowed BYU to maintain its no-Sunday policy; perhaps not coincidentally, it has two other faith-based members (Baylor and TCU, though both will play on Sundays).

Cincinnati Bearcats

Down the Drive!

Location: Cincinnati, OH
School Established: 1819^note ...is the "official" founding date, when "Cincinnati College" and the "Medical College of Ohio" were established. The undergraduate college closed in 1825 and was reestablished in 1835; the medical school operated without interruption. The undergrad college, after absorbing an existing law school, became the University of Cincinnati in 1870, with the medical school joining UC in 1896. Much like Louisville, it was a municipal school for much of its history; it didn't become part of Ohio's state system until 1977.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1885-1909, 1937-46, 1953-56, 1970-95)^note Did not play in 1907 or 1943-44., OAC (1910-25), Buckeye (1926-36), MAC (1947-52), MVC (1957-69), CUSA (1996-2004), Big East (2005-12), American (2013-22), Big 12 (2023-)
Overall Win Record: 661-606-50 (.521)
Bowl Record: 10–12 (.454)^note The NCAA doesn't recognize their 1949 Glass Bowl win, but Cincinnati claims it.
Colors: Red and black
Stadium: Nippert Stadium (capacity 38,088)
Current Head Coach: Scott Satterfield
Notable Historic Coaches: Frank Cavanaugh, Sid Gillman, Watson Brown, Tim Murphy, Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly, Tommy Tuberville, Luke Fickell
Notable Historic Players: Greg Cook, Urban Meyer, Gino Guidugli, Brent Celek, Kevin Huber, Jason and Travis Kelce, Desmond Ridder, Sauce Gardner
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 16 (2 Buckeye – 1933-34; 4 MAC – 1947, 1949, 1951-52; 2 MVC – 1963-64; 1 CUSA – 2002; 4 Big East – 2008-09, 2011-12; 3 American – 2014, 2020-21)

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The University of Cincinnati is primarily known as a basketball school (with back-to-back national titles in the early '60s) and has had an up-and-down history in football. Its historic high peak was serving as Sid Gillman's final college coaching stop before the launch of his pro career. After many years of under achieving and bouncing around second-tier conferences (including being a founding member of CUSA), UC joined the Big East in 2005 and soon surged to national prominence under Brian Kelly in the late 2000s, coming a second away from qualifying for the National Championship game in 2009^note Had Texas lost a controversial Big 12 championship game where the referees gave them extra time for a game-winning field goal, unbeaten Cincinnati would have leapfrogged them into the title game instead. (helping him land his position at Notre Dame). Under coach Luke Fickell, the school became one of the most esteemed non-Power Five programs, and became the only Group of Five program to reach the four-team CFP in 2021 (even if they were quickly bested by Alabama). They wouldn't be Group of Five for long, though, as they took a spot in the Big 12 in 2023.

UC has a fairly close professional relationship with its city's pro team, the Bengals. The Bengals long used UC's indoor practice facilities and played their first few seasons in the school's historic Nippert Stadium. (They have returned the favor by letting the Bearcats play in their own stadium during renovations or major games.) Nippert is one of the oldest venues in college sports. The stands were officially dedicated in 1924, but the field has been in use since at least 1915. It is named after Jimmy Nippert, a UC player who died from blood poisoning in 1923 after a spike wound sustained during a game became infected, most likely from droppings left on the field from a chicken race earlier in the day; his grandfather was a co-founder of Procter & Gamble and paid to have his grandson honored in the name.

Colorado Buffaloes

Sko Buffs!

Location: Boulder, CO
School Established: 1876
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1890–92, 1905), CFA^*Colorado Football Association, which existed from 1890–1908 (1893–1904, 1906–08), RMAC^*Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, now D-II (1909–1937), Skyline^*formally the Mountain States Athletic Conference but informally known as the Big Seven, Skyline Six, and Skyline Eight during its existence from 1938–62 (1938–47), Big 8 (1948–95), Big 12 (1996–2010, 2024–), Pac-12 (2011–2023)
Overall Win Record: 723-544-36 (.569)
Bowl Record: 12-18 (.400)
Colors: Silver, black, and gold
Stadium: Folsom Field (capacity 50,183)
Current Head Coach: Deion Sanders
Notable Historic Coaches: Fred Folsom, Chuck Fairbanks, Bill McCartney, Gary Barnett, Mel Tucker
Notable Historic Players: Byron "Whizzer" White, Tom Brookshier, Hale Irwin, Cliff Branch, Bo Matthews, J.V. Cain, Leon White, Eric Bieniemy, Darian Hagan, Tom Rouen, Rashaan Salaam, Rae Carruth, Kordell Stewart, Joel Klatt, Mason Crosby, David Bakhtiari, Shadeur Sanders, Travis Hunter
National Championships: 1 (1990)
Conference Championships: 27 (8 CFA - 1894-97, 1901-03, 1908; 9 RMAC - 1909-11, 1913, 1923-24, 1934-35, 1937; 4 Skyline - 1939, 1942-44; 5 Big Eight - 1961, 1976, 1989-91; 1 Big 12 - 2001)

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The University of Colorado Boulder (the flagship campus of the state's university system, locally abbreviated as "CU") is unsurprisingly home to a powerhouse skiing program, being located in the hub of the sports' popularity (the school has 19 national titles in men's/co-ed skiing). Its other sports have not been as successful,^note though 1960s DB Hale Irwin won an individual NCAA golf title that proved to be the launching pad for his Hall of Fame career in that sport but football has had some moments of prominence. The Colorado football program was a regional power in the late 19th/early 20th century. The hiring of pro coach Chuck Fairbanks in the early '80s brought unwelcome attention when the team cratered under his tenure. Thankfully, his successor Bill McCartney elevated the program to its greatest heights, earning a split national title in 1990 and producing a Heisman winner in RB Rashaan Salaam in 1994.

The team receded from national prominence when McCartney retired after Salaam's Heisman win to focus on his Christian ministry organization. The Buffaloes could have become the first FBS team ever to field a woman, but placekicker Katie Hnida^*(The "H" is silent.), though making the team and suiting up for a bowl game, never saw the field. Hnida would later report after leaving the school that she had been sexually assaulted by a teammate, one of many controversies that forced the school to fire head coach Gary Barnett and incur several sanctions; the Buffaloes subsequently endured a decade of losing seasons and still have yet to return to their former success. In the midst of this decline, when the Pac-10 tried to swipe up half of the Big 12 in 2010, Colorado was the only school to actually follow through and make the leap. The move didn't last long: Colorado will return to the Big 12 in 2024, now coached by Deion Sanders, whose Hall of Fame playing resume and larger-than-life persona greatly elevated the program's profile (if not its performance).

Colorado's stadium, Folsom Field (named for an early coach who led the team to three straight undefeated seasons in 1909-11), is one of the most picturesque in the nation, located right up against the Rocky Mountains and using the unique "Tuscan Vernacular Revival" architecture of the surrounding campus. Folsom has the highest elevation of any Power Five stadium and the third highest of any in the FBS behind Wyoming and Air Force. The program has strong in-state rivalries with the latter school and with Colorado State. Since adopting the "Buffalo" name in 1934 (prior teams were the "Silver Helmets" or "Frontiersmen"), the school has run an actual buffalo (i.e., bison) named Ralphie along the sidelines of said field.

Houston Cougars

Whose House? Coogs House!

Location: Houston, TX
School Established: 1927^note As Houston Junior College, initially operated out of a high school; became a four-year university and took its current name in 1934, received a permanent campus in 1939. Officially went by "University of Houston-University Park" from 1983-91.
Conference Affiliations: Lone Star (1946-48), Gulf Coast (1949-50), MVC (1951-59), Ind. (1960-75), SWC (1976-95), CUSA (1996-2012), American (2013-22), Big 12 (2023-)
Overall Win Record: 472-394-15 (.544)
Bowl Record: 13–16–1 (.450)
Colors: Scarlet and white
Stadium: TDECU Stadium (capacity 40,000)
Current Head Coach: Willie Fritz
Notable Historic Coaches: Bill Yeoman, Jack Pardee, Art Briles, Kevin Sumlin, Tom Herman
Notable Historic Players: Pat Studstill, Wade Phillips, Elmo Wright, Robert Newhouse, Andre Ware, David and Jimmy Klingler, Case Keenum
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 11 (4 MVC – 1952, 1956-57, 1959; 4 SWC – 1976, 1978-79, 1984; 2 C-USA – 1996, 2006; 1 American – 2015)

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The University of Houston is one of the largest public universities in Texas. It is most highly decorated in athletics for its golf program, which won an NCAA record 16 national titles from the 1950s-'80s^*and, for a season in the late '70s, featured future sportscasting icon Jim Nantz, and is also known for its successful basketball program, best known for its "Phi Slama Jama" teams of the early '80s that produced Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon, Hall of Famers who later brought their college town two NBA titles. The Cougar football program has quite the history of its own, being the point of origin for multiple innovative offenses that also generated multiple NCAA record-breaking quarterbacks. Coach Bill Yeoman used his innovative Veer offense to take the team from a middling independent to a powerhouse of the Southwest during his quarter-century as head coach (1962-86), including a record-setting 100-6 blowout of Tulsa in 1968, only to be fired from the program he helped build due to recruitment violations that essentially amounted to paying players.

Despite the sanctions Yeoman incurred, successor Jack Pardee kept the Cougars successful on the field through his innovative Run N' Shoot offense, which helped Andre Ware smash NCAA passing records in 1989 and win the Heisman. However, said sanctions also included a TV ban that ensured almost nobody actually saw many of these games, and Pardee was quickly poached by Houston's Oilers (which got their start playing in the university's stadium). The school continued its reputation for prolific passing numbers when David Klingler set many records of his own the following year, but his and Ware's failures at the pro level led to their accomplishments being credited to Houston's system and poor competition. After the team spent a decade as a bottom-feeder, QB Case Keenum helped revive their prospects while shattering many NCAA career passing records during his long tenure as starter (2007-11).

Houston's late arrival to the SWC, history with sanctions, and peaks and valleys during its time in the weak C-USA have largely excluded it from consideration as one of Texas' premier programs. However, as an urban school located in one of Texas's biggest metro areas, donors have pushed hard for years to get the program up to the next level. Most notable among these is Houston Rockets owner and UH alum Tilman Fertitta, whose name graces the Cougars' basketball arena and has made UH the most recent example of a billionaire alum's pet program, following in the tradition set by charter Big 12 member Oklahoma State and incoming Big Ten member Oregon. It just missed joining the Big East before that conference collapsed, and Houston had to settle for the American despite the school investing millions into building a new stadium to prep for the leap.^note Despite having a stadium built right on-campus from the school's inception, it was fairly small and not actually owned by the university until 1970; the team shared the venue of hated crosstown rival Rice in the '50s and early '60s and then spent more than 30 years in the famous Astrodome, though it left that venue in the late '90s when the dome became obsolete. They even cohabited with the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer for a few years. Said on-campus stadium was demolished in 2012 to make way for the current one, which opened in 2014. However, all those years of campaigning finally paid off when the impending departure of Oklahoma and Texas for the SEC enabled UH's promotion to the Big 12 for 2023.

Iowa State Cyclones

Cyclone Power!

Location: Ames, IA
School Established: 1858^note ...is the "official" founding date, when the state chartered the "Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm". However, it didn't actually enroll students until 1868, and didn't start college-level instruction until 1869. It became "Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts" in 1898 and "Iowa State University of Science and Technology" in 1959. However, the short form of Iowa State University is used even in official documents such as diplomas.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892-1907), MVIAA (1908-27), Big 8 (1928-95), Big 12 (1996-)
Overall Win Record: 566-678-46 (.457)
Bowl Record: 5-13 (.278)
Colors: Cardinal and gold
Stadium: Jack Trice Stadium (capacity 61,500)
Current Head Coach: Matt Campbell
Notable Historic Coaches: Pop Warner, Mike Michalske, Johnny Majors, Earle Bruce
Notable Historic Players: Jack Trice, John Cooper, Troy Davis, Brock Purdy, Breece Hall
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 2 (MVIAA – 1911, 1912)

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Iowa State University of Science and Technology's football program was one of the early stops for Pop Warner and had some success in the late 19th/early 20th century. However, it has largely been a bottom feeder ever since, sitting in the shadow of their intrastate rival Iowa. Like the Hawkeyes, the Cyclones are much better known for their wrestling program, which has won eight national championships and produced Cael Sanderson, commonly held up as the greatest American college wrestler ever. The football team returned to relevance in the late 2010s under coach Matt Campbell, who strung together more consecutive winning seasons than the Cyclones had seen in over a century.

During Warner's brief tenure at the school in 1895, Iowa State's athletic programs were renamed from their old cardinal nickname to one referencing the natural disasters common to the Iowa area. Since it's hard to make a tornado costume, their official mascot remains a cardinal (named "Cy"). Their home venue of Jack Trice Stadium is the sole FBS venue named after an African American, though there is a tragic reason for that; Trice was the school's first Black player, but he was trampled to death in 1923 during his second game, which resulted in Iowa State not playing Minnesota for over 60 years.

Kansas Jayhawks

Rock Chalk Jayhawk! K-U!

Location: Lawrence, KS
School Established: 1865^note The university officially dates its founding from the first meeting of its governing board. It was formally chartered in 1863, began instruction as a college prep school in 1866, and taught its first college-level classes in 1869.
Conference Affiliations: KIAA^*Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association; now an NAIA league, with the word "Association" replaced by "Conference" (1890-91), WIUFA (1892-97), Ind. (1898-1906), MVIAA (1907-28), Big 8 (1929-95), Big 12 (1996-)
Overall Win Record: 603-681-58 (.471)
Bowl Record: 7-7 (.500)
Colors: KU blue and crimson
Stadium: David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium (capacity 47,000)^note Closed for renovations in 2024. The Jayhawks will play their nonconference schedule at Children's Mercy Park (18,467), home to Major League Soccer's Sporting Kansas City, and their conference games at the Kansas City Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium (76,416).
Current Head Coach: Lance Leipold
Notable Historic Coaches: Fielding H. Yost, Mark Mangino, Turner Gill, Les Miles
Notable Historic Players: Bennie Owen, Mike McCormack, Bud Adams, Bob Dole, John Hadl, Gale Sayers, Bobby Douglass, John Riggins, David Verser, Tony Sands, Dana Stubblefield, Jon Cornish
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 6 (MVIAA/Big Eight – 1908, 1923, 1930, 1946-47, 1968)

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The University of Kansas (locally abbreviated "KU") is best known for its historic and prestigious men's basketball program, which was founded by basketball inventor James Naismith himself^note ironically, he was the only men's basketball coach to end his KU tenure with a losing record, produced Wilt Chamberlain, and holds numerous records and honors (including the second-most wins,^note Before being forced by the NCAA to vacate 15 wins from its 2017–18 season due to fielding an ineligible player, it had the most wins. third-highest lifetime win percentage, four national titles, and the most conference titles of any program). Its football program is much less esteemed, though it is historic in the sense that it is the only original member of the MVIAA to still be in the Big 12. The Jayhawks have been pretty bad pretty much since that conference dissolved in the 1920s, including a winless 1954 season. The team had an anomalous breakout year in 2007 under HC Mark Mangino only to fall very hard back to earth quickly after, reclaiming its Butt-Monkey status with a vengeance. From 2010-2021, the "Nayhawks" failed to post more than three wins in a season, going completely winless in 2015 and 2020. However, the arrival of current coach Lance Leipold after the 2020 disaster immediately turned things around. In 2022, the Jayhawks surpassed their best win count in over a decade just to start their season and made it to bowl eligibility; they posted their first winning record since 2008 the next year.

The "Jayhawk" name does not refer to a real animal; it is a reference to the "Jayhawkers" who violently resisted the encroachment of slavery during Kansas's time as a territory in the late 1850s (but their mascot/logo is still a cartoon bird). This history is reflected in the school's most heated historic rivalry with Missouri (where most of the slavers came from), though that has largely gone dormant since Missouri left the conference, leaving the intrastate rivalry with Kansas State to fill the void.

Kansas State Wildcats

EMAW!

Location: Manhattan, KS
School Established: 1863^note as "Kansas State Agricultural College"; became "Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science" in 1931. The current formal name was adopted in 1959 when "College" was replaced by "University". However, like Iowa State, the short form of "Kansas State University" is generally used even in formal documents.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1896-98),^note First game in 1893. KIAA (1899-1912), MVIAA (1913-27), Big 8 (1928-95), Big 12 (1996-)
Overall Win Record: 570-671-41 (.462)
Bowl Record: 11-14 (.462)
Colors: Royal purple and white
Stadium: Bill Snyder Family Stadium (capacity 50,000)
Current Head Coach: Chris Klieman
Notable Historic Coaches: Pappy Waldorf, Sam Francis, Bill Snyder
Notable Historic Players: Larry Brown (RB), Lynn Dickey, Steve Grogan, Gary Patterson, Kevin and Tyler Lockett, Michael Bishop, Martín Gramática, Darren Sproles, Jordy Nelson, Josh Freeman
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 7 (3 KIAA – 1909-10, 1912; 1 Big Six – 1934; 3 Big 12 – 2003, 2012, 2022)

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For decades, Kansas State University's football program was the absolute worst in Division I-A football, having put up five winless seasons against just four winning ones in the half-century before the hiring of Bill Snyder in 1989; that included a period of 28 straight losses from 1945-48, a then-record in futility that has only been surpassed by one D-I school (Northwestern) in the decades since. In one of the most remarkable turnarounds in college football, Snyder transformed the Wildcats into contenders during his 27 (nonconsecutive) seasons as head coach. Despite seeing general success while a member of the Big 12, the team's historic win record is still the worst in the conference, and the school is one of only two Power Five colleges to have never won a national championship in any team sport.^note Not counting Pitt or UCF; neither has won an NCAA-awarded team title, but both claim at least one football natty, and Pitt also claims two pre-NCAA men's basketball titles. The school's struggles to get over the hump led to "The Kansas State Rule": in 1998, the Wildcats remained at #3 in the BCS rankings after a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Texas A&M in the Big 12 Championship Game (costing them a spot in the National Championship Game) but they were snubbed for an at-large bid to one of the other BCS bowls in favor of #8 Florida and #9 Wisconsin. The very next year, a rule was put in place that if a team from an automatic qualifying conference finished at #3 but did not win their conference, they would have to be given an at-large bid before any team ranked #4 or lower could^note If the #3 team was a conference champion, the same would apply to the #4 team. This failed to help the Wildcats, however, who in 1999 wound up at #6 and again were snubbed in favor of highly prestigious #8 Michigan.

K-State renamed its stadium after Snyder following his first retirement in 2005. The venue is one of the more visually distinctive in college football, with limestone battlements resembling a castle. The Wildcats' logo is known as the "Powercat", while their actual mascot "Willie the Wildcat" is best known for donning a leather jacket and leading a procession of bikers around the field on the school's annual "Harley Day". K-State has strong rivalries with fellow long-suffering Great Plains programs Kansas and Iowa State; it used to have a strong one against Nebraska as well before the Cornhuskers switched conferences.

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Pistol's Firing!

Location: Stillwater, OK
School Established: 1890^note as "Oklahoma Territorial Agricultural and Mechanical College" or "Oklahoma A&M", with classes starting in 1891. The word "Territorial" was dropped upon Oklahoma statehood in 1907. Became "Oklahoma State University of Agricultural and Applied Sciences" in 1958; officially shortened to Oklahoma State University in 1980, with the main campus' location of Stillwater appended not long after when the OSU system was established with four general campuses and two health sciences campuses.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1901-14, 1957-59), SWC (1915-24), MVIAA (1925-27), MVC (1928-56), Big 8 (1960-95), Big 12 (1996-)
Overall Win Record: 638-572-47 (.526)
Bowl Record: 22-12 (.647)
Colors: Orange and black
Stadium: Boone Pickens Stadium (capacity 55,509)
Current Head Coach: Mike Gundy
Notable Historic Coaches: Pappy Waldorf, Jimmy Johnson, Les Miles
Notable Historic Players: Bob Fenimore, Buddy Ryan, Terry Miller, Dexter Manley, Leslie O'Neal, Mike Gundy, Thurman Thomas, Barry Sanders, Kevin Williams, Rashaun Woods, Dez Bryant, Brandon Weeden, Justin Gilbert, Justin Blackmon, Tyreek Hill^*began at OK State, ended college career at West Alabama, Mason Rudolph
National Championships: 1 (1945)^note 1 unclaimed (2011)
Conference Championships: 10 (8 MVC - 1926, 1930, 1932-33, 1944-45, 1948, 1953; 1 Big Eight - 1976; 1 Big 12 - 2011)

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While its football program is Always Second Best to its dominant intrastate rival, Oklahoma State University-Stillwater actually claims the most national athletic titles of any school outside the Pac-12 (a distant fourth to Stanford, UCLA, and USC) thanks to its wrestling program, which has won 34 championships (the majority of them pre-1970), and golf, which has won 11. On the football field, the Cowboys (known as the "Aggies" or "Tigers" pre-1958, when the school was called Oklahoma A&M, and more colloquially known today as the "Pokes") have fluctuated massively in strength. The program was retroactively awarded a national title for its undefeated 1945 season, but it collapsed to a losing record the following year. In 1951, the Cowboys had a serious "never live it down" episode when one of their players deliberately injured Drake's African-American star Johnny Bright in what most concluded was a racially motivated attack. After going under .500 through the '60s, the team began to recover, culminating in the production of its sole Heisman winner, legendary RB Barry Sanders, in 1988. Unfortunately, Sanders' departure coincided with a host of sanctions that again cratered the program's win record. Thankfully, the hiring of current coach and former star QB Mike Gundy in 2005 set the school on the longest run of sustained success in its history.

OK State's athletic program is also notable for being a pet project of a billionaire alum—in this case, late energy investor and football stadium namesake T. Boone Pickens, who funded the expansion of the stadium and many other OSU projects, both athletic and academic, to the tune of over $1 billion. The prominence of the school's wrestling program is reflected in the position of its arena (also used by the basketball teams) right behind the eastern end zone of the U-shaped Boone. Diehard Poke fans known as "paddle people" sit in the front rows of said stadium and make noise by smacking the sideline wall with giant orange paddles.

TCU Horned Frogs

Riff Ram Bah Zoo!

Location: Fort Worth, TX
School Established: 1873^note as "Add-Ran Male & Female College"; became "Add-Ran Christian University" in 1889 and Texas Christian University in 1902.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1896-1913, 1921-22),^note Did not play in 1900. TIAA^*Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which operated from 1909-32 (1914-20), SWC (1923-95), WAC (1996-2000), C-USA (2001-04), MW (2005-11), Big 12 (2012-)
Overall Win Record: 684-574-57 (.541)
Bowl Record: 18-17-1 (.514)
Colors: Purple and white
Stadium: Amon G. Carter Stadium (capacity 47,000)
Current Head Coach: Sonny Dykes
Notable Historic Coaches: Francis Schmidt, Dutch Meyer, Dennis Franchione, Gary Patterson
Notable Historic Players: Dutch Meyer, Phil Handler, Johnny Vaught, Ki Aldrich, Davey O'Brien, Sammy Baugh, Bob Lilly, Larry Brown (CB), LaDainian Tomlinson, Andy Dalton, Trevone Boykin, Jalen Reagor, Jeff Gladney, Max Duggan
National Championships: 2 (1935, 1938)^note 1 unclaimed (2010)
Conference Championships: 18 (1 TIAA – 1920; 9 SWC – 1929, 1932, 1938, 1944, 1951, 1955, 1958-59, 1994; 2 WAC – 1999, 2000; 1 C-USA – 2002; 4 MW – 2005, 2009-11; 1 Big 12 – 2014)

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The first coeducational college in Texas, Texas Christian University leaped into football prominence in the 1930s as one of the first teams to make passing the cornerstone of its offense. Sammy Baugh was one of the game's first star passers, and his successor Davey O'Brien was the first QB to win the Heisman Trophy, as he led TCU to an undefeated 1938 season and the second of two national titles in that decade. However, its status as a smaller private school among the state-run behemoths in the Southwest Conference finally caught up with them, and the Horned Frogs were generally terrible in the '60s through the '90s. After head coach Jim Pittman died on the sideline in 1971, they failed to post a winning season from 1972-83, received NCAA sanctions for player benefits (along with virtually every other SWC school) immediately after breaking that streak, and ultimately were left behind when the SWC merged with the Big Eight to form the Big 12.

However, HC Dennis Franchione (and dominant Heisman finalist LaDainian Tomlinson) began to turn things around in the late 1990s, and when Gary Patterson took over in 2000, TCU turned into a full feel-good revival in the 21st century, climbing up the ranks of FBS conferences and serving as a regular BCS Buster. An undefeated season in 2010 helped them finally gain entry to the Big 12 in 2012, and the program was even on the cusp of an appearance in the first CFP in 2014 before the committee unexpectedly dropped them out of the Top 4. Patterson was fired during the 2021 season after a slide to mediocrity, but TCU immediately jumped back to contention the following year with an undefeated regular season. Though the Frogs crashed out in overtime of the Big 12 title game, their performance was still sufficient to earn the school its first CFP appearance and to become the first Big 12 team to reach the CFP National Championship game, making them by most metrics the biggest dark horse to make it that far in the modern era (though they ultimately got historically blown out by Georgia 65-7).

The school maintains strong rivalries with its fellow Texas schools, with perhaps the most notable being the "Iron Skillet" matchup with SMU (named after the tool used by one SMU fan to cook some frog legs in a memorable pregame). For what it's worth, the university's unique mascot is not a frog; it's the state lizard of Texas. In recent years, said mascot has received another nickname: the Hypnotoad.

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Guns Up!

Location: Lubbock, TX
School Established: 1923^note as the "Texas Technological College"; classes started in 1925. A push to rename it Texas State University in The '60s failed (the former Southwest Texas State took that name in 2003). Renamed Texas Tech University (NOT "Technological") in 1969.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1925-31, 1957-59), Border (1932-56), SWC (1960-95), Big 12 (1996-)
Overall Win Record: 597-481-32 (.552)
Bowl Record: 17-23-1 (.427)
Colors: Scarlet and black
Stadium: Jones AT&T Stadium (capacity 60,862)
Current Head Coach: Joey McGuire
Notable Historic Coaches: Jerry Moore, Mike Leach, Tommy Tuberville
Notable Historic Players: Dave Parks, Gabriel Rivera, Timmy Smith, Zach Thomas, Lincoln Riley, Kliff Kingsbury, Wes Welker, B.J. Symons, Taurean Henderson, Graham Harrell, Michael Crabtree, Baker Mayfield^*played one season, had far more success at Oklahoma, Patrick Mahomes
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 11 (9 Border – 1937, 1942, 1947-49, 1951, 1953-55; 2 SWC – 1976, 1994)

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Texas Tech University was long considered a junior sibling to Texas and Texas A&M among the state-run Texas schools. Efforts to lure Texas to the Big Ten or Pac-10 in 2010 were considered hobbled by the perception that any expansion scenario involving the Longhorns would require them to also admit the much less desirable Tech, which has never finished in the AP Poll's Top 10 and is one of the most geographically isolated Power 5 schools. Even still, the Red Raiders have managed to carve out a solid if not spectacular football legacy. The arrival of HC Mike Leach in 2000 jump-started their greatest period of success, with his pass-heavy Air Raid offense bringing a succession of record-breaking quarterbacks to the team, though some football observers derided them as marginally-talented "system QBs". One of those QBs, Kliff Kingsbury, later took over as HC in 2013. Kingsbury was cut loose after six unspectacular seasons most notable for producing Patrick Mahomes.

Prior to adopting the "Red Raiders" moniker in 1937, the team were known as the Matadors, reflecting the Spanish Renaissance architecture that distinguishes the Texas Tech campus and stadium. The team and its fans now embrace cowboy imagery, with a Masked Rider mascot and a signature Finger Gun hand gesture.

UCF Knights

Charge On!

Location: Orlando, FL^note actually in unincorporated Orange County, though with an Orlando mailing address
School Established: 1963^note As Florida Technological University; held first classes in 1968, adopted current name in 1979.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (D-III 1979–81, D-II 1982–89, I-AA 1990–95, I-A 1996–2001), MAC (2002-04), CUSA (2005-12), American (2013-22), Big 12 (2023-)
Overall Win Record: 295-233-1 (.558)
Bowl Record: 6–9 (.400)
Colors: Black and gold
Stadium: FBC Mortgage Stadium (capacity 44,206)
Current Head Coach: Gus Malzahn
Notable Historic Coaches: Lou Saban, George O'Leary, Scott Frost, Josh Heupel
Notable Historic Players: Daunte Culpepper, Brandon Marshall, Matt Prater, Kevin Smith, Blake Bortles, Latavius Murray, Shaquill and Shaquem Griffin, McKenzie Milton, Dillon Gabriel
National Championships: 1 claimed (2017)^note By an obscure computer ranking that's nonetheless an NCAA-recognized FBS championship selector; see more below.
Conference Championships: 6 (2 C-USA – 2007, 2010; 4 American – 2013-14, 2017-18)

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While the University of Central Florida is one of the newer D-I schools by founding date and start of football and is currently the youngest school in the Power 5, it has grown at a tremendous pace and now has the largest undergraduate enrollment of any single university campus in the country (close to 60,000), with only Texas A&M having a larger total enrollment.^note While incoming Big 12 member Arizona State and Conference USA member Liberty have considerably larger total enrollments than either UCF or A&M, it's only because of both schools' online operations (ASU's being large, and LU's being absolutely massive). The distinction of most on-campus students belongs to ASU, but its enrollment is split between four Phoenix-area campuses; the main campus in Tempe has fewer total students than UCF has undergrads. The Knights football program had a momentous ascent from their first season in D-III in 1979, becoming the first football program to play at all four current levels of NCAA competition (James Madison became the second in 2022). Three years later, UCF moved to D-II, and later managed to lure former NFL coach Lou Saban, though he enjoyed far less success than in the pros, stepping down in the middle of his second season. The university nearly dropped football, but it became successful in D-II in the last half of the '80s and took the jump to Division I-AA (now FCS) in 1990. In the then-Golden Knights' first I-AA season, they became the first team ever to qualify for the I-AA/FCS playoffs in their first season of eligibility and enjoyed reasonable success until making the jump to I-A/FBS in 1996. After modest success as an independent and a decline in the early 2000s as a football-only member of the MAC, the program was reinvigorated by the arrival of HC George O'Leary in 2004. While the Knights went winless in their last MAC season, they turned things around upon joining CUSA in 2005, winning two conference titles and playing for two others. O'Leary also oversaw UCF's move to The American in 2013, where it won conference titles in its first two seasons. However, his tenure ended in 2015 as it began—with a winless season.

Scott Frost quickly righted the ship, making a bowl in his first season alongside program-redefining freshman QB McKenzie Milton. 2017 saw Milton set multiple school records while leading the Knights to an unbeaten season, finishing it off in the Peach Bowl by beating an Auburn team that had laid double-digit defeats on both participants in that year's CFP title game (Alabama and Georgia). The program claimed a national title on the basis of a single computer ranking, with Bama the consensus champion; Floridians were so incensed that the school was not even given the opportunity to fight for the title in the Playoff that the state legislature passed a resolution recognizing it. The following year, with Frost gone to Nebraska and Josh Heupel replacing him, UCF again went unbeaten until losing to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl, having lost Milton to a catastrophic knee injury in its final regular-season game. This Group of Five success bore fruit when Knights joined the Big 12 in 2023.

UCF was known as the "Golden Knights" before 2007; before that, the team had been known as the "Knights of the Pegasus", and before that (indeed, before the football program was founded) the mascot was briefly "The Citronaut"◊, an anthropomorphic orange that was also an astronaut (basically '60s Central Florida in a nutshell). The football team plays in what had been one of the most uniquely named stadiums in college football, the Bounce House.^note The "Bounce House" nickname was actually gleaned off its original corporate naming rights deal with cable provider Bright House Networks, now part of Spectrum (the brand name of Charter Communications). That deal lapsed after the 2019 season. After playing in the off-campus Citrus Bowl for several decades, the university built a more modern facility on-campus in 2007. Unfortunately, the stadium wasn't exactly up to snuff; in addition to lacking water fountains on opening day (a code violation and a major problem in the Florida heat), the stadium noticeably shook when fans were on their feet, giving it the nickname that briefly became official when naming rights sponsorships dried up in 2020 (though the stadium now shakes much less—and has water—after renovations). Despite its relatively small size, UCF's stadium has arguably one of the best home-field advantages in the sport, with frequent sellout crowds that deafen visiting offenses. UCF's primary rival is USF (South Florida), down the road in Tampa, though as of 2022 it's on ice (at least temporarily) since USF was left in The American. UConn tried to form a rivalry with UCF called the "Civil ConFLiCT" when both were in The American; UCF disavowed the "rivalry", and it essentially died when UConn left the conference after 2019.

Utah Utes

Light the U!

Location: Salt Lake City, UT
School Established: 1850^note as the "University of Deseret", but closed in 1853, reopened in 1867, and became The University of Utah in 1892
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1892–1909),^note Did not play in 1893... RMAC (1910–37),^note ...or 1918. Skyline (1938–61), WAC (1962–98), MW (1999–2010), Pac-12 (2011–2023), Big 12 (2024–)
Overall Win Record: 719–482–31 (.596)
Bowl Record: 17–10 (.630)
Colors: Crimson and white
Stadium: Rice–Eccles Stadium (capacity 51,444)
Current Head Coach: Kyle Whittingham
Notable Historic Coaches: Ike Armstrong, Jim Fassel, Ron McBride, Urban Meyer
Notable Historic Players: Mac Speedie, Larry Wilson, George Seifert, Bob Trumpy, Scott Mitchell, Jamal Anderson, Kevin and Andre Dyson, Mike Anderson, Steve Smith Sr., Alex Smith, Brian Johnson
National Championships: 0^note 1 unclaimed (2008)
Conference Championships: 26 (8 RMAC – 1922, 1926, 1928–33; 10 Skyline – 1938, 1940–42, 1947, 1948, 1951–53, 1957; 2 WAC – 1964, 1995; 4 MW – 1999, 2003–04, 2008; 2 Pac-12 – 2021–22)

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The University of Utah is one of two FBS universities founded by early Mormon leader Brigham Young and the other school known to its students and fans as "The U", complete with a hand signal very similar to Miami's. Utah was a regional football power for much of its history, with some dominant years in the 1920s and '30s under the long tenure of Hall of Fame coach Ike Armstrong (1925-49). The Utes were inconsistent after his departure and regressed in the '70s with the rise of BYU hurting them in recruiting. The program turned things around in the '90s and made a national splash in the 2000s, becoming the first "BCS Buster" in 2004 under HC Urban Meyer and star QB Alex Smith and becoming the first two-time BCS Buster in 2008 under current HC Kyle Whittingham, winning both bowl games on the way to undefeated seasons. Their nine-game bowl win streak from 1999-2009 is tied for the second-longest ever. They parlayed this success into an invitation from the former Pac-10 in 2011, eventually settling in there as a solid competitor. After the loss of two players to gun deaths before and during the 2021 season, the program retired its #22 in their honor and won the conference the next two seasons. The Utes joined their Four Corners compatriots in abandoning the Pac-12 in 2024.

The Utes are also known for their spicy rivalry with LDS Church-owned BYU (nicknamed "the Holy War"); they have similar but less extreme rivalries with Utah State and Colorado. After playing most of their history in Ute Stadium (renamed Robert L. Rice Stadium in the '70s after the main benefactor of a facility renovation), their home venue was almost completely demolished and rebuilt in 1998 so it could be used as the main stadium of the 2002 Winter Olympics (with the Eccles family, major benefactors for the university as a whole, getting their name added to the pre-existing "Rice" name). Like Florida State, Utah has explicit permission from a Native American tribe to use a tribal nickname, in its case the various Ute tribes, one of which (the Northern Ute, consisting of three bands) has its reservation in the state. The U (presumably) gained considerable goodwill from the Ute nation when it scrapped its "Redskins" nickname in 1972, well before most other schools with similar nicknames did so, and gained more when it dropped Native mascots. The Ute nation also signed off on the use of two feathers in the school's athletic logo and the school's current mascot, an anthropomorphic red-tailed hawk. Outside of football, the school is known for its strong programs in men's basketball, women's gymnastics (nine national championships in the '80s and '90s), and co-ed skiing (13 national titles). The university is symbolized by a large concrete block "U" on a nearby hillside (built in 1907, inspired by similar hillside letters at UC Berkeley and BYU), which is visible throughout the Salt Lake Valley and is lit up whenever a Ute team wins a contest.

West Virginia Mountaineers

Take me home, Country Roads!

Location: Morgantown, WV
School Established: 1867^note as the "Agricultural College of West Virginia"; took the current name the following year.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1891-1924, 1928-49, 1968-90)^note Did not play in 1892 or 1918., WVIAC^*West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, a now-defunct league that last played in D-II in 2012. The D-II Mountain East Conference is its successor in all but name (and charter). (1925-27), SoCon (1950-67), Big East (1991-2011), Big 12 (2012-)
Overall Win Record: 783-524-45 (.596)
Bowl Record: 17–23 (.425)
Colors: Old gold and blue
Stadium: Milan Puskar Stadium (capacity 60,000)
Current Head Coach: Neal Brown
Notable Historic Coaches: Bobby Bowden, Don Nehlen, Rich Rodriguez
Notable Historic Players: Fielding H. Yost, Ben Schwartzwalder, Joe Strahan, Sam Huff, Chuck Howley, Dick Leftridge, Oliver Luck, Jeff Hostetler, Rich Rodriguez, Brian Jozwiak, Mike Vanderjagt, Todd Sauerbrun, Marc Bulger, Chris Henry, Adam "Pacman" Jones, Pat McAfee, Pat White, Bruce Irvin, Geno Smith, Tavon Austin, Kevin White, Stedman Bailey
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 15 (8 SoCon – 1953-56, 1958, 1964-65, 1967; 7 Big East: 1993, 2003-05, 2007, 2010-11)^note Won 1 Lambert Trophy for "Best Team in the East" as an independent (1988)

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Athletically, West Virginia University has enjoyed the most success in the niche sport of rifle—it's won 19 NCAA team titles—but its football program is quite strong and has had moments of national prominence. The school was able to attract some decent talent and coaches for decades, with notable runs of regional success in the 1920s (when it was the centerpiece of a regional conference) and '50s (when it joined the SoCon shortly before all its power schools left to form the ACC). However, the hiring of Don Nehlen as head coach in 1980 truly kickstarted the program. In his two decades as HC, Nehlen guided the team into joining the Big East and introduced the distinctive "Flying WV" helmet logo. A standout year was 1988, when the Mountaineers finished the regular season undefeated and played #1 Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl with the national championship on the line (Notre Dame won 34-21). This turned out to be a trend for the Nehlen-led program, which lost 9 of 13 bowl appearances. WVU partially shed this choking reputation in the 2000s when star QB Pat White took them to four straight bowl wins, which enabled it to be in the right place at the right time as the Big East imploded, finding a place in the Big 12.^*WVU's AD at the time, Oliver Luck (Andrew's father), was a graduate of UT's law school, providing him contacts with many of that state's power brokers. However, the Mountaineers failed to compete for a national title in 2007 thanks to an upset loss to nearby rival Pitt, and the school hasn't come close to that level of national relevance since.

As the highest-profile representative of a small rural state that lacks any pro teams, West Virginians are pretty diehard for the team in Morgantown (unless they're Marshall fans^note This "rivalry" is not particularly strong, as the schools don't play each other anymore and the Herd never managed to beat the Mountaineers when they did; WVU has much fiercer (and competitive) rivalries with schools right across state lines, most notably Pitt.). When WVU fills its stadium, it becomes the largest "city" in the state by a healthy margin.^*As of the 2020 census, the population of the state capital of Charleston was about 49,000; Huntington (home to Marshall) was second at a hair less than 47K. Morgantown itself has around 30K.^note WVU has possibly the most fragmented campus in America due to its geography, with central campus on the other side of downtown from the other two. Shuttling students between the campuses created megacity-level gridlock, so a federally funded experimental light rail system was built in the 1970s to connect the campuses. Home games at the stadium echo with the sound of "Take Me Home, Country Roads"; John Denver himself performed the song at the dedication of the school's hilltop stadium in 1980. Reflecting the school's Appalachian heritage and success in rifle, games open with the Mountaineer mascot firing a rifle into the air.

Pac-12 Conference

^{Click here for a map of the Pac-12 schools.}

Year Established: 1915
Current schools: Oregon State, Washington State
Current commissioner: Teresa Gould
Reigning champion: Washington
Website: pac-12.com

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The Pac-12 Conference (short for "Pacific") consists of Western US schools and is also tied to the Rose Bowl. Its history stretches back to 1915 (when it was known as the Pacific Coast Conference). It dissolved in 1959 but five of its members immediately reorganized as the "Athletic Association of Western Universities", popularly the "Big Five". While officially remaining the AAWU until 1968, it unofficially became the "Big Six" when Washington State returned in 1962, followed by "Pacific Athletic Conference" or "Pac-8" when the Oregon schools returned in 1964. The "Pacific-8" name was officially adopted in 1968, remaining in use until a change to Pac-10 when the Arizona schools joined in 1978 (thus making the name a geographic Artifact Title). The current "Pac-12" name was adopted when Utah and Colorado joined in 2011. To devoted college football fans, the Pac-12 is best known as a land of chaos, where anybody can beat anybody at any given time, especially in night games—hence the famous #Pac12AfterDark meme. Like the Big Ten, the Pac-12 is well-known for being both an athletically competent and academically prestigious conference (with the California schools regularly being ranked in the Top 25 universities in the country). It also refers to itself as the "Conference of Champions", stressing the strengths of its schools' athletics well beyond just football. Of particular note are UCLA, Stanford, and USC, all of which have over 100 national team championships.

However, the Pac's reputation in football has never been quite as sterling as its sister conferences further east (not helped by most of their aforementioned late games airing in the middle of the night through most of the country, reducing revenue and media coverage). Largely for this reason, USC and UCLA announced in 2022 that they wound end their century-long membership in the conference in 2024 in order to make the leap to the Big Ten. This move had massive ramifications for conference alignments—and the long-term structure of college football—as the conference lost its most titled programs and its largest market while it was negotiating a new media deal. The next year, Colorado announced that it would be returning to the Big 12; the following week, the Big Ten scooped up Oregon and Washington, and the Big 12 took the other "Four Corners" schools (Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah), all for 2024. The carcass of the Pac-12 was then picked over by the ACC, which took California and Stanford, effectively spelling the end of one of the most storied NCAA conferences. It's possible that the "Pac-12" brand may survive, though not as a power conference; the two remaining schools, Oregon State and Washington State, won a legal battle over the distribution of the conference assets.The NCAA has confirmed that the "Pac-2" can operate as a two-team conference during a two-year grace period while it tries to attract at least six more members. For at least 2024, the Pac-2 will be in a football scheduling alliance with the Mountain West Conference, while most of their other sports (apart from baseball) will be housed in the non-football West Coast Conference through 2025–26.

Pac-12 Teams

Oregon State Beavers

Go Beavs!

Location: Corvallis, OR
School Established: 1856^note ...is the "official" founding date, when it opened its doors as "Corvallis Academy". However, it started out as a primary and college prep school, did not add college-level instruction until 1865, and was not chartered as a college until 1868. The current name, adopted in 1961, is the school's tenth official name.
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1893-99, 1959-63),^note Did not play in 1900-01... NIAA (1902-14), Pac-12 (1915-58, 1964-)^note ...or in the war years of 1943-44.
Overall Win Record: 569-629-50 (.476)
Bowl Record: 10-8 (.556)
Colors: Orange and black
Stadium: Reser Stadium (capacity 35,548)
Current Head Coach: Trent Bray
Notable Historic Coaches: Tommy Prothro, Dennis Erickson, Jonathan Smith
Notable Historic Players: Bill Austin, Paul Lowe, Terry Baker, Rich Brooks, Jonathan Smith, Steven Jackson, Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson, Brandon Browner, Johnny Hekker, Brandin Cooks
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 5, all Pac-12 (1941, 1956-57, 1964, 2000)

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The Beavers of Oregon State University have a reputation as the Butt-Monkey of the Pac-12, with the worst overall win-loss record in the Pac-12 before it fell apart, but it hasn't always been that way. They had several winning seasons in the first half of century and even were the first West Coast school to produce a Heisman winner, star QB Terry Baker in 1962. However, their reputation as a competitive football school was greatly tarnished when they went nearly three decades without a winning season (1971-98). This stretch was ended by the arrival of Dennis Erickson in 1999, who took the team on a Cinderella run to a conference championship the following year. That run still stands as the program's peak in many respects; the Beavers sunk back to mediocrity and worse in the 2010s, though the return of their 2000 QB Jonathan Smith as the team's HC helped briefly revive their prospects. However, the implosion of the Pac-12 has left OSU in a precarious position—especially considering that it spent more than $160 million on a massive stadium renovation that was completed just in time for the conference to implode (though that's dwarfed by Cal's athletic debts) and Smith left after 2023.

Oregon State's strongest rivalry, as you might expect, is with its neighbors just 50 miles to the south at Oregon. The cross-valley rivalry used to be officially known as the Civil War for its intensity and tendency to turn brother against brother, though the schools have attempted to distance themselves from the name due to its other connotations. Even after the Pac's dissolution, the schools have pledged to continue the annual series.

Washington State Cougars

Coug Strong!

Location: Pullman, WA
School Established: 1890
Conference Affiliations: Ind. (1894-1916, 1918, 1959-61), Pac-12 (1917, 1919-58, 1962-)^note Did not play in the war years of 1943-44.
Overall Win Record: 576-582-45 (.498)
Bowl Record: 8–10 (.444)
Colors: Crimson and gray
Stadium: Martin Stadium (capacity 32,952)
Current Head Coach: Jake Dickert
Notable Historic Coaches: William "Lone Star" Dietz, Babe Hollingbery, Forest Evashevski, Jim Sweeney, Jackie Sherrill, Dennis Erickson, Mike Price, Mike Leach, Nick Rolovich
Notable Historic Players: Turk Edwards, Keith Lincoln, Hugh Campbell, Mike Price, Jack Thompson, Keith Millard, Mark Rypien, Jason Hanson, Drew Bledsoe, Ryan Leaf, Lamont Thompson, Steve Gleason, Connor Halliday, Luke Falk, Gardner Minshew, Anthony Gordon
National Championships: 0
Conference Championships: 4 (1917, 1930, 1997, 2002)

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One of the more geographically isolated Power Five schools, Washington State University sits in the agricultural Palouse region well over an hour's drive from the nearest significant airport (Spokane). "Wazzu" is not a sports powerhouse (its sole national title in any sport was in indoor track and field in 1977), and its football program has had a few ups and quite a few more downs through the decades. Like Oregon State, it has traditionally played second-fiddle to its state's "main" school, though the program has had some good runs since the late '90s under coaches Mike Price and Mike Leach, the former taking them to two conference titles and the latter shattering conference passing records with his high-flying Air Raid offense. Today, the program is probably most notable for "Ol' Crimson", a school flag that waves at every broadcast of ESPN's College GameDay as part of a decade-plus-long campaign to get the school featured on the show that finally succeeded in 2018.^note Even during COVID-19, when GameDay was a studio-only show with no fans, the hosts cut every week to a remote feed of one or more Wazzu fans waving Ol' Crimson to keep the tradition alive. Wazzu is the other Pac-12 school being left behind in the 2022–23 realignment saga, and when considering geography and scarcity of athletic success and resources, may be in a worse position than OSU, which it is likely to join in a move to the Mountain West.

Besides the other Pacific Northwest schools, Wazzu's biggest rivalry has traditionally been with Idaho, an now-FCS program whose campus is located just seven miles away across the state border. The "Battle of the Palouse" was the one rivalry in which the Cougars were typically able to shed their underdog status, and it was once a big deal in the rural region, but the series is no longer held regularly. Before taking the Cougar nickname in the early 20th century, the football team's mascot was one of many named after American "Indians". This had to do with the program hiring much of its staff from the Carlisle Indian School; the program's peak years, including the 1915 season where they went undefeated with a Rose Bowl victory, were coached by William "Lone Star" Dietz, a Carlisle alum who was later the namesake for Washington D.C.'s much-maligned NFL mascot (he turned out to not even be a Native American himself). Nearly a century after that undefeated season, Washington's State Senate passed a resolution to recognize that 1915 team as national champions, though no selector ever named them to that honor and the school itself doesn't recognize it.

Southeastern Conference

See Southeastern Conference Football Programs.