What makes a college football team a blue blood? To most people the blue blood teams are teams that have a history of winning, national championships, players who won the Heisman, big fans bases and money. However with a larger playoff system the term blue blood and the “traditional” blue blood teams have changed.
Most modern lists have different opinions on which teams at least were blue bloods but there are about eight programs that stay pretty consistent across those lists: Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USC, Texas and Nebraska.
In today’s game you absolutely must fit in three categories to be considered a blue blood. You must have some form of success since 2000. For instance Alabama has won six national championships since the year 2000 and Ohio State has won three. But Georgia has won a couple within that time span as well, and has also been a top team most of those years.
But recent success isn’t the only thing that matters because your historical success does too. Michigan, Ohio State and Alabama are all top-five in all-time wins, with Notre Dame close behind with over 900 in its history. Some teams who we might not consider a powerhouse team today were a powerhouse for a good amount of time, such as Nebraska and Wisconsin.
The last important category is the team’s brand power. You can’t really be a blue blood if you aren’t being ranked near the top in TV ratings and grabbing lots of attention. If you’re truly a blue blood your brand should still be big and relevant in 2026.
So, which teams qualify in 2026?
Still 100% Blue Bloods
Alabama Crimson Tide
Ohio State Buckeyes
Michigan Wolverines
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Oklahoma Sooners
These schools have been considered blue bloods and still are. All had recent success since 2000 and have historical success while still driving TV ratings.
Name is bigger than their results
Some of these are close to either being or still being a blue blood in 2026, but they just haven’t done enough. Nebraska, historically a great team, has not found much success in in recent years. For the rest of the teams they have been too up and down to say they for sure have great recent and historical success.
New/Almost Blue Bloods
These three teams are very strong recently and grab major online attention, but lack historical dominance. LSU has three titles since 2003 and multiple SEC titles. Georgia has three total titles but has been at least a top two or three team so far in the 2020s. Oregon, while lacking with zero titles, has been in several playoff games and has a strong winning percentage since 2000. To younger and newer fans these teams are up there when talking about other blue bloods.
