Alabama Football: The Crimson Tide leads the CFB Blue Bloods
By Ronald Evans
Alabama football has been dominant for a decade. Check out the Crimson Tide win record against its closest national competitors over the last ten, five and three seasons.
Alabama football has ridden the crest of Nick Saban excellence for the past 10 seasons. The extraordinary achievement of five national championships during the period is well known. Alabama football fans have measured success by national championships well before the Saban era.
A few other programs strive to measure their success by the same national championship standard. Most of the top teams choose three other difficult to achieve but more attainable standards. Those standards are making the CFB Playoff field, winning a conference championship and winning 10 games season after season.
It may come as a surprise to many college football fans, how few teams reach the 10-win average. How hard is it to consistently win? Check out this data from Sports Source Analytics.
"Just 23 (18%) FBS teams won 8+ games each of the last three yrs, just 11 (8%) won 9+ each of last three yrs, and just 7 (5%) teams won 10+."
Considering the 10-win milestone, we tabulated the records of all the Power Five teams over the last ten, five and three seasons. Our source for the win totals was sportsreference.com.
Power Five teams with 10 or more wins average for the past 10 seasons
- Alabama – 125 wins – 12.5 wins per season average
- Ohio State – 112 wins – 11.2 wins per season average
- Oklahoma – 105 wins – 10.5 wins per season average
- Clemson 104 wins – 10.4 wins per season average
- Florida State – 101 wins – 10.1 wins per season average
- Wisconsin – 101 wins – 10.1 wins per season average
- Oregon – 100 wins – 10 wins per season average
Power Five teams with 10 or more wins average for the past 5 seasons
- Alabama – 64 wins – 12.8 wins per season average
- Clemson – 61 wins – 12.2 wins per season average
- Ohio State – 61 wins – 12.2 wins per season average
- Florida State – 54 wins – 10.8 wins per season average
- Wisconsin – 54 wins – 10.8 wins per season average
- Oklahoma – 53 wins – 10.6 wins per season average
- Stanford – 50 wins – 10 wins per season average
Power Five teams with 10 or more wins average for the past 3 seasons
- Alabama – 41 wins – 13.67 wins per season average
- Clemson – 40 wins – 13.33 wins per season average
- Ohio State – 35 wins – 11.67 wins per season average
- Wisconsin – 34 wins – 11.33 wins per season average
- Oklahoma – 34 wins – 11.33 wins per season average
- Georgia – 31 wins – 10.33 wins per season average
- Stanford – 31 wins – 10.33 wins per season average
- Oklahoma State – 30 wins – 10 wins per season average
All those wins, racked up by just 10 college football programs. Of the ten, only three can be considered on the fringe of college football blue blood status – Oregon going back in the ten-year period and Georgia and Oklahoma State moving in over the past three seasons.
Five of the ten, Alabama football, followed by Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Wisconsin are the dominant programs of the last ten seasons. Each of the five averaged 10+ wins in the three, five and ten season spans.
Other programs can tout other achievements. Others can say they are very close and rising. For now, the college football blue bloods, as defined by consistently winning, are Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
Next: Comparing the Saban era to the 70's Bryant era
The SEC moving to a nine-game schedule would diminish the complaints the Tide plays too many cupcakes. Two things about that, first Alabama football plays fewer cupcakes than most top teams and the SEC will never go to a nine-game schedule.