Top 5 teams with most appearances in College Football Playoffs
The College Football Playoffs format was introduced with the end of the 2014 season. The four teams that take part in College Football Playoffs are selected by a 13-member committee using the Plus-One system. Prior to this, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was used to determine the national champion..
Since its integration, fourteen different teams have been a part of CFP. In this article, we will look at the top five teams with the most appearances in College Football Playoffs.
Top 5 teams with the most College Football Playoffs appearances
#5. Georgia Bulldogs- 3 appearances
The Georgia Bulldogs have enjoyed quite the success under coach Kirby Smart and have had three appearances in the college football playoffs (2017, 2021 and 2022).
Under Smart, the Bulldogs have won back-to-back national championships in the previous two seasons, and will be looking forward to three-peating in this campaign.
#4. Oklahoma Sooners- 4 appearances
The Oklahoma Sooners have made four appearances in the CFP under two head coaches. Former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops led the team to the postseason in 2015, before announcing his retirement in 2017.
Former OC Lincoln Riley then took over as the new coach, under whom, the team made three college football playoff appearances in 2017, 2018, and 2019. He led also Oklahoma to four consecutive Big 12 championships before resigning in 2021. However, the team is yet to win a national title in the CFP era.
#3. Ohio State Buckeyes- 5 appearances
The Ohio State Buckeyes have made five CFP appearances under two coaches, Urban Meyer and, current head coach, Ryan Day.
Meyer led the team to two playoff appearances in 2014 and 2016. Under him, Ohio State also went on to win the national championship during its debut in the 2014 season.
As for Ryan Day, he has led the Buckeyes to three postseason appearances (2019, 2020, 2022). Despite winning two Big Ten championships, he is yet to win a national championship with the team.
#2 Clemson Tigers - 6 appearances
Dabo Swinney and his Clemson Tigers are second in the list with six appearances in the postseason. Swinney took over as the head coach of the program in 2009 and has led his team to secure regular playoff berths from 2015 to 2020.
Despite winning the ACC last year, the Tigers fell short of qualifying for the playoffs. They have won two national championships in the CFP era, the first one being in 2016 and the last one in the 2018 season.
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide - 7 appearances
It is no surprise that the Alabama Crimson Tide holds the most appearances in CFP. When Nick Saban took over in 2007, the program saw its fortune change and be regarded as one of the most successful football teams at the collegiate level.
The Alabama Crimson Tide have had seven appearances since the era of the college football playoff, with consecutive appearances from 2014 to 2018, after which they qualified for 2020 and 2021. The team also won three national championships during this time (2015, 2017 and 2020).
Apart from these teams, Michigan and Notre Dame have two appearances each, while Cincinnati, Florida State, LSU, Michigan State, Oregon, TCU, and Washington are tied with a single appearance.