We went through all 934 AP polls from the 1968 preseason poll to the 2025 final poll in College Poll Archive, which gives each week's No. 1 with its record and the result of every game it played on top. A No. 1 whose record in the next poll shows one more loss lost in between, whether in the regular season, a bowl or the playoff. Every No. 1 was checked against the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) record book.
How often the No. 1 team loses in college football
A single loss by the No. 1 is the most common outcome: 27 of the 58 seasons had exactly one, 25 had two or more and 6 had none. In all, the No. 1 won 649 of the 756 games it played while on top, lost 101 and tied 6, so it lost 13 percent of the time, a little more than one game in eight.
- Six losses in 1981, one by each of six No. 1s: Michigan, Notre Dame, USC, Texas, Penn State and Pittsburgh. Clemson, No. 1 from Nov. 30, finished there.
- Five in 1984, 1990 and 2007.
- None in 1971, 1995, 1999, 2004, 2019 and 2022.
The No. 1 loses less often now: 1.9 times a season from 1968 to 1997, 1.6 in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) era of 1998 to 2013 and 1.4 since the College Football Playoff began in 2014. The 1980s had the most, 28 in 10 seasons.
Before tiebreakers reached every FBS game in 1996, according to the NCAA record book, the No. 1 also tied six times, the last of them Texas, 15-15 with Oklahoma in 1984.
AP No. 1 upsets: who beats the top team
Mostly ranked teams, often in close games. Seventy-eight of the 101 losses, 77 percent, came against ranked opponents, and 54 were by seven points or fewer. The other 23 came against teams outside the poll, a Top 20 through 1988 and a Top 25 since; 10 of them in the 25-team era:
- 1990: Notre Dame lost 36-31 to Stanford.
- 1990: Michigan lost 28-27 to Michigan State.
- 1998: Ohio State lost 28-24 to Michigan State.
- 2001: Florida lost 23-20 at Auburn.
- 2002: Oklahoma lost 30-26 at Texas A&M.
- 2007: Ohio State lost 28-21 to Illinois.
- 2007: Louisiana State (LSU) lost 50-48 to Arkansas in triple overtime.
- 2008: USC lost 27-21 at Oregon State.
- 2021: Alabama lost 41-38 at Texas A&M.
- 2024: Alabama lost 40-35 at Vanderbilt.
The most recent, on Oct. 5, 2024, came a week after Alabama had taken over No. 1 by beating Georgia 41-34.
Sixty-seven losses came in the regular season, seven in conference title games and 27 in bowls and the playoff. The winner took over No. 1 in the next poll 37 times, 23 of them after bowl or playoff games. The beaten No. 1 fell to fifth in the median case and as low as 14th: Auburn, after a 38-20 loss at unranked Tennessee in 1985.
How many teams have been No. 1 in a season
Three, on average. From 1968 to 2025, 22 seasons had two different No. 1s, 16 had three, 11 had four and 7 had five or more; only 1999 and 2004 had one. The most since 1968 is seven, in 1981, followed by six in 2008 and in 1984, when Brigham Young (BYU) finished on top after Auburn, Miami (Fla.), Nebraska, Texas and Washington had each been No. 1.
The number has come down, from 3.4 a season between 1968 and 1997 to 2.7 in both the BCS and playoff eras, but 2024 had five: Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State, No. 1 only in the final poll. Last season had three: Texas in the preseason poll, Ohio State from Sept. 2 through Nov. 30 and Indiana from Dec. 7 on.
How long a No. 1 lasts
Not long. We counted 215 reigns, runs of consecutive polls with the same No. 1 within a season. The median lasted three polls and 65 lasted one. Of the 157 that ended before the final poll, 101 ended with a loss and 6 with a tie.
The other 50 No. 1s were voted down without losing, 46 after a win and 4 after a week off, as Georgia was in September 2024 after winning 13-12 at Kentucky.
The longest run since 1968 is USC's: 33 straight polls from the last poll before the 2003 bowls to the last before the 2005 bowls, ended by its 41-38 loss to Texas in the Rose Bowl for the BCS title. Second is Georgia's run of 24, from October 2022 to its 27-24 loss to Alabama in the 2023 Southeastern Conference (SEC) title game.
Wire-to-wire No. 1s and the No. 1 that finishes there
Florida State in 1999 and USC in 2004 are the only wire-to-wire No. 1s since 1968, first in all 17 and 16 polls of their seasons. We have measured separately how often the preseason No. 1 wins the national title.
The later a team holds No. 1, the likelier it is to finish there. Yet even the No. 1 going into the bowls finished first in only 31 of 58 seasons, 53 percent; in the other 27 it lost its bowl or playoff game.
The AP No. 1 in 2026: Ohio State, then Texas
Two No. 1s and one loss so far. Ohio State, the preseason No. 1, beat Ball State 56-3 and stayed on top, then lost 24-23 at fourth-ranked Texas on Sept. 12, when the Longhorns came back from 20 points down in the fourth quarter. Texas has been No. 1 since and leads the AP poll of Sept. 27 at 4-0, with 62 first-place votes, after a 20-17 win at No. 14 Tennessee; Ohio State is fifth at 3-1.
Texas took the spot by beating the No. 1, as teams had done 14 times before the bowls from 1968 to 2025, most recently Indiana, 13-10 over Ohio State in last season's Big Ten title game. Early losses at the top have happened before: a No. 1 had lost by the last poll of September in 10 of the 58 seasons, most recently 2025, when Texas, then the preseason No. 1, lost its opener 14-7 at Ohio State.
For context, the No. 1 in the last poll of September finished the season No. 1 in 12 of the 58 seasons, 21 percent, most recently Georgia in 2022. The weekly poll is on our college football rankings and every game on the FBS schedule; for the playoff, see how many losses a College Football Playoff team can have.
Every season since 1968: the No. 1s and their losses
| Season | Teams ranked No. 1, in order | Losses by the No. 1 |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Texas, Ohio State, Indiana | 2 |
| 2024 | Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Oregon, Ohio State | 3 |
| 2023 | Georgia, Michigan | 1 |
| 2022 | Alabama, Georgia | 0 |
| 2021 | Alabama, Georgia | 3 |
| 2020 | Clemson, Alabama | 1 |
| 2019 | Clemson, Alabama, LSU | 0 |
| 2018 | Alabama, Clemson | 1 |
| 2017 | Alabama, Clemson | 2 |
| 2016 | Alabama, Clemson | 1 |
| 2015 | Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama | 1 |
| 2014 | Florida State, Mississippi State, Alabama, Ohio State | 2 |
| 2013 | Alabama, Florida State | 1 |
| 2012 | USC, Alabama, Oregon, Notre Dame | 3 |
| 2011 | Oklahoma, LSU, Alabama | 1 |
| 2010 | Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, Auburn | 2 |
| 2009 | Florida, Alabama | 1 |
| 2008 | Georgia, USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Florida | 4 |
| 2007 | USC, LSU, Ohio State, Missouri | 5 |
| 2006 | Ohio State, Florida | 1 |
| 2005 | USC, Texas | 1 |
| 2004 | USC | 0 |
| 2003 | Oklahoma, USC | 1 |
| 2002 | Miami, Oklahoma, Ohio State | 2 |
| 2001 | Florida, Miami | 1 |
| 2000 | Nebraska, Florida State, Oklahoma | 2 |
| 1999 | Florida State | 0 |
| 1998 | Ohio State, Tennessee | 1 |
| 1997 | Penn State, Florida, Nebraska, Michigan | 1 |
| 1996 | Nebraska, Florida, Florida State | 3 |
| 1995 | Florida State, Nebraska | 0 |
| 1994 | Florida, Nebraska, Penn State | 1 |
| 1993 | Florida State, Notre Dame | 2 |
| 1992 | Miami, Washington, Alabama | 2 |
| 1991 | Florida State, Miami | 1 |
| 1990 | Miami, Notre Dame, Michigan, Virginia, Colorado | 5 |
| 1989 | Michigan, Notre Dame, Colorado, Miami | 2 |
| 1988 | Florida State, Miami, UCLA, Notre Dame | 3 |
| 1987 | Oklahoma, Nebraska, Miami | 2 |
| 1986 | Oklahoma, Miami, Penn State | 2 |
| 1985 | Oklahoma, Auburn, Iowa, Florida, Penn State | 4 |
| 1984 | Auburn, Miami, Nebraska, Texas, Washington, BYU | 5 |
| 1983 | Nebraska, Miami | 1 |
| 1982 | Pittsburgh, Washington, Georgia, Penn State | 2 |
| 1981 | Michigan, Notre Dame, USC, Texas, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Clemson | 6 |
| 1980 | Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame, Georgia | 1 |
| 1979 | USC, Alabama, Ohio State | 1 |
| 1978 | Alabama, Oklahoma, Penn State | 3 |
| 1977 | Oklahoma, Michigan, USC, Texas, Notre Dame | 3 |
| 1976 | Nebraska, Michigan, Pittsburgh | 1 |
| 1975 | Oklahoma, Ohio State | 1 |
| 1974 | Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Ohio State | 1 |
| 1973 | USC, Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame | 1 |
| 1972 | Nebraska, USC | 1 |
| 1971 | Notre Dame, Nebraska | 0 |
| 1970 | Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Nebraska | 1 |
| 1969 | Ohio State, Texas | 1 |
| 1968 | Purdue, USC, Ohio State | 1 |
The AP No. 1 and upsets: frequently asked questions
How often does the No. 1 team lose in college football? About 1.7 times a season: the AP No. 1 lost 101 times from 1968 to 2025, 13 percent of the games it played while ranked first. Six seasons passed without one, most recently 2022.
When did an unranked team last beat the AP No. 1? On Oct. 5, 2024, when Vanderbilt beat Alabama 40-35, the 10th such loss since the poll grew to 25 teams in 1989.
How many teams have been No. 1 in a single season? Seven in 1981, the most since 1968. The average from 1968 to 2025 is three, and two is the most common number, in 22 seasons.
Which teams went wire to wire as the AP No. 1? Florida State in 1999 and USC in 2004, the only teams since 1968 to lead every poll from the preseason to the final one.
Has the No. 1 lost in 2026? Once: Ohio State, 24-23 at Texas on Sept. 12. Texas, 4-0, has been No. 1 in the three polls since.
How this was built: all 934 AP polls from the 1968 preseason poll to the 2025 final poll, from College Poll Archive: its weekly No. 1s and the season page, with records and results, of each team that held the spot. A loss is one more loss in the No. 1's record in the next poll; when a No. 1 played more than once before the final poll, in the playoff, any loss was its last game. The NCAA record book's weekly AP leaders match in all but three weeks (1970, 2000 and 2001), where the book lists the poll's No. 2, and one archive record (Florida, Nov. 4, 1996) was corrected. 2026: polls through Sept. 27, checked against the archive and NCAA.com.