College football rankings: Is Ohio State among all-time CFP national title winners?

The 2024 Ohio State Buckeyes did two things no College Football Playoff national champion ever accomplished. Not only are they the first team to win the expanded 12-team playoff after winning four games in a row, but they are also the first two-loss national champion since the 2007 LSU Tigers pulled it off during the BCS era. Ohio State was a great team, but was the 2024 team an all-time one?

That is what I am going to try to figure out right now. From a talent perspective, the 2024 Buckeyes have to be right up there. However, from an overall consistency standpoint, we did not see this team give off the vibes of a serious national title contender until toe met leather in the first-round. At the end of the day, Ohio State won both the first playoff to date, as well as the first to win the 12-teamer.

For those who want a refresher, here is every team that has won the College Football Playoff before.

• 2014 Ohio State Buckeyes
• 2015 Alabama Crimson Tide
• 2016 Clemson Tigers
• 2017 Alabama Crimson Tide
• 2018 Clemson Tigers
• 2019 LSU Tigers
• 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide
• 2021 Georgia Bulldogs
• 2022 Georgia Bulldogs
• 2023 Michigan Wolverines
• 2024 Ohio State Buckeyes

As you can see, only six college football programs have ever won a College Football Playoff National Championship. Alabama has won it three times (2015, 2017, 2020). Clemson (2016, 2018), Georgia (2021-22) and Ohio State (2014, 2024) have won it twice. LSU won it for the first time in 2019, while Michigan win its first College Football Playoff just last season in 2023. How do they all stack up?

Here are the five best College Football Playoff National Champions so far. Is Ohio State among them?

5. 2021 Georgia Bulldogs

My beloved alma mater Georgia won its first national title in 41 years with this team. For as incredible as it was to see the Dawgs finally beat Alabama in Indianapolis, they lost to them a few weeks prior in the SEC Championship. The 2021 Georgia team was carried by its all-time defense, one that featured a pair of unanimous All-Americans in Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean doing work in the front-seven.

This was the year where JT Daniels was supposed to be guy who carried the Georgia offense to the promised land. Well, he got hurt roughly a third of the way through the season. In came part-time 2020 starter Stetson Bennett IV, and the rest was history. I would say the defense was better than the 2022 team, but the offense was not even remotely close. It is why the 2022 team went undefeated.

Georgia beat the tar out of Michigan in the Orange Bowl before stunning Alabama in the national title.

4. 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide

The 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide is a tough team to fully wrap my head around. Yes, they went undefeated, led by a juggernaut offense featuring Mac Jones at quarterback, Najee Harris in the backfield and Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith in the receiving corps. However, this was during COVID where half the sport did not even want to play. Alabama was easily the most locked-in team.

While the 2020 Crimson Tide may not be the best national championship team Nick Saban coached at Alabama, it is hard to argue his 2015 or 2017 Alabama teams could hold a candle to this one. For a program defined by competitiveness, discipline and excellence, it would not be right to have an all-time playoff champions list without the 2020 Alabama team vibrantly a part of it. This team was elite.

Alabama ruined Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl before clobbering Ohio State in the national title bout.

3. 2018 Clemson Tigers

Back in 2018, the Clemson Tigers were on top of the college football world. They were the preemptive power in the ACC, having won two national titles each year, beating Dabo Swinney's alma mater of Alabama both times. While this team's offense was headlined by the likes of Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross, it was the defensive line scaring everyone.

Throughout Swinney's dominance of the ACC throughout much of the playoff era, Clemson won it the trenches defensively. This is unit that featured the likes of Clelin Ferrell, Dexter Lawrence and Christian Wilkins. It was during this season where everybody and their brother largely accepted that Alabama and Clemson were going to meet in the playoff, probably with a national title on the line, too.

Clemson steamrolled Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl before having its way with Alabama in the title.

2. 2022 Georgia Bulldogs

We have arrived at the other Georgia team that won a College Football Playoff. The 2022 team went undefeated and handled just about everyone in their way. While there were games where the Dawgs played with their food (Missouri most notably), they always found a way to just win anyway. This is a Bulldogs team that was led by Stetson Bennett IV, Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey on offense.

They faced a threat in the Peach Bowl vs. an equally talented Ohio State team quarterbacked by C.J. Stroud. The winner of that game was going to win the national championship. When the clock struck midnight on 2022, it also struck midnight on Ohio State's season. Georgia prevailed and conquered. From Jalen Carter carrying Jayden Daniels, to Bennett owning Oregon, this 2022 team was special.

After surviving Ohio State after a missed field goal in the Peach Bowl, Georgia stomped TCU so badly.

1. 2019 LSU Tigers

There may never be a team like the 2019 LSU Tigers. Surely, there will come along a team as good, if not better than Joe Burrow's Bayou Bengals, but it may not be for another generation. This team was led by The Geauxt doing whatever he pleased in the passing game. Having Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson and Terrace Marshall in the receiving corps made it look so incredibly easy for the Tigers.

The 2019 LSU team was also won that was incredibly easy to root for. Ed Orgeron was at his absolute apex. An offensive guru wunderkind by the name of Joe Brady was first starting to make a name for himself. This team sort of came out of nowhere, as nobody thought the 2018 team would become this absolute juggernaut in 2019. This was the greatest college offense I have ever seen in my life.

LSU wiped the floor with Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl before giving Clemson all it could handle later.

Where do 2024 Ohio State Buckeyes rank if they are outside the top five?

That was my top five. Pretty impressive list, right? So where does Ohio State fall in the pecking order?

• 6. 2023 Michigan Wolverines
• 7. 2024 Ohio State Buckeyes
• 8. 2016 Clemson Tigers
• 9. 2015 Alabama Crimson Tide
• 10. 2014 Ohio State Buckeyes
• 11. 2017 Alabama Crimson Tide

I have the 2024 Buckeyes as the seventh-best national champion of the playoff era right behind 2023 Michigan. The Wolverines were mired by a sign-stealing scandal. That team was hated and the Wolverines still won anyway. 2024 Ohio State gets props for running the playoff gauntlet, but the 13-10 home loss to Michigan during the regular season prevents them from ever being an all-time team.

That being said, I do have them ranked ahead of 2016 Clemson, who I felt was largely carried by Deshaun Watson, 2015 Alabama, who was literally carried by Derrick Henry, 2014 Ohio State, who had sensational sophomores in Joey Bosa and Ezekiel Elliott, but was quite young, and 2017 Alabama, who needed to bench Jalen Hurts in favor of Tua Tagovailoa to beat Georgia in Atlanta.

Ultimately, the 2024 Ohio State team is comfortably in the middle of the 11 College Football Playoff National Champions to date. They could be argued for being as high as No. 5, but probably are not any worse than No. 9. 2021 Georgia's defense is the best of the playoff era, but 2024 Ohio State was not as singularly player-driven as Alabama was with its 2015 Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry.

2024 Ohio State was as talented as 2022 Georgia, but it was not nearly as steady enough as a team.