Records through the 2025 season.
Michigan has won more college football games than any programme in the sport’s history and remains the only one past 1,000 victories. Ohio State and Alabama are both closing.
The All-Time Top 20
| # | Programme | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | 1,021 |
| 2 | Ohio State | 990 |
| 3 | Alabama | 988 |
| 4 | Texas | 974 |
| 5 | Notre Dame | 973 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 967 |
| 7 | Penn State | 955 |
| 8 | Nebraska | 943 |
| 9 | Georgia | 908 |
| 10 | USC | 893 |
| 11 | Tennessee | 887 |
| 12 | LSU | 831 |
| 13 | Texas A&M | 822 |
| 14 | Auburn | 820 |
| 15 | Clemson | 816 |
| 16 | West Virginia | 795 |
| 17 | Washington | 792 |
| 18 | Virginia Tech | 786 |
| 19 | Georgia Tech | 782 |
| 20 | Pittsburgh | 781 |
Just outside: Florida (778), Delaware (774), North Dakota State (768), Navy (766), Minnesota (763). This ranking covers current FBS programmes — Yale and Harvard would place inside the top ten but now compete at the FCS level.
Texas Passed Notre Dame
The 2025 season produced one change inside the top five: Texas moved ahead of Notre Dame into fourth, and the two are now separated by a single win. They had swapped the other way during the 2024 playoff.
Expect that to keep changing. A one-win gap between programmes playing similar schedules will flip most years.
The Race to 1,000
Michigan reached 1,000 wins in 2023, the first programme in the sport to do it. Their full record stands at 1,021-362-36, a winning percentage of .732 across more than 1,400 games.
Ohio State at 990 and Alabama at 988 will both cross 1,000 within a season or two — Ohio State needs ten wins, Alabama twelve. Both are capable of that in a single year.
Our Michigan all-time record page covers how the Wolverines got there.
What the List Rewards
Longevity, mostly. Every programme in the top ten started before 1900, and there is no route onto this list for a modern power however dominant. Alabama has won six national titles since 2009 and sits third, because the measure is a century of games rather than a decade of trophies.
That is also why Clemson at 15th and Georgia at 9th sit where they do despite recent success, and why Florida State — a national champion as recently as 2013 — ranks 84th overall.
The Ivy League Absence
Yale has more all-time wins than most of this list and Harvard is not far behind, but both now play FCS football and fall outside an FBS ranking.
In the sport’s first fifty years the Ivy League was college football. Yale began playing in 1872, seven years before Michigan, and still holds the record for most recognised national championships with 18 — none since 1927. Our page on most national championships covers that.
Recent Arrivals
Delaware at 22nd and North Dakota State at 23rd are the two programmes on this list that have only recently moved up to the FBS level. Both accumulated their totals dominating at a lower classification — North Dakota State in particular built a dynasty in FCS football before making the jump.
The Bottom Line
Michigan leads all of college football with 1,021 wins and remains the only programme past 1,000. Ohio State (990) and Alabama (988) will both join shortly. Texas edged ahead of Notre Dame into fourth during the 2025 season, separated now by a single win.