College football is perhaps the most difficult sport to get a nice demarcation point for when the modern era began. From the evolution of the postseason to changes in the landscape to eligibility rules, there are a lot of respectable options to choose as a starting point.
For our purposes here, I have chosen 1973. While other starting points are defensible, it comes at a point when freshmen had become eligible to play, racial integration had taken significant steps forward, and waiting until after the bowl games to vote on the national champion was becoming an accepted practice among the polls. Within a few years, the major bowls would all be on New Year’s Day. The embryonic version of the sport that would develop over the next five decades was in place.
The timeline below takes us through the ensuing 50 years of college football, with the linked pages taking you deeper into each era:
The Rivalry Era (1973–77): College football’s championship race ran through familiar confrontations like Oklahoma–Nebraska, Notre Dame–USC and Michigan–Ohio State. Established powers controlled the major bowls, while Alabama repeatedly came close to the ultimate prize. The page follows those rivalries into its closing chapters, including Alabama’s consecutive titles in 1978–79, paralleling Pittsburgh’s NFL dynasty, and a transitional 1980 season when Georgia broke through and the circle of contenders began to widen.
The Declaration of Independents (1981–93): The major conferences and their bowl arrangements still organized the sport, but programs outside that structure increasingly commanded its biggest stage. Miami became a dynasty and a cultural flashpoint. Penn State sought its long-awaited validation, Notre Dame returned to the summit, and Florida State pursued a breakthrough of its own. Their clashes reshaped the championship race and helped establish the appeal of a title showdown standing apart from the traditional bowls.
The Search for a National Champion (1994–2005): Who deserved to be number one—and why couldn’t the leading contenders settle it on the field? College football’s attempts to answer those questions gradually changed its postseason. Nebraska’s long-awaited breakthrough became a dynasty, before championships spread among a broader collection of powers. The Bowl Alliance and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) offered greater clarity, but disputed selections and divided titles kept the search alive, even as the era produced some extraordinary championship games.
SEC Ascendancy (2006–13): Florida’s demolition of Ohio State began a run that concentrated national power in one conference. LSU and Auburn added championships, while Nick Saban rebuilt Alabama into the era’s defining program. The SEC’s strength came from both its leading dynasty and the number of schools capable of reaching the top. Challengers elsewhere kept looking for a way through, until a dramatic final championship game closed the BCS years.
Two Kings & Their Challengers (2014–20): A four-team playoff widened the championship opportunity, but Alabama and Clemson made the summit their own. Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney built the new tournament’s defining rivalry, while Ohio State and LSU supplied formidable challenges to their control. 2020 has been our universal stopping point across all sports, with the dramatic impact the COVID-inspired lockdowns had on each one. For college football, 2020 also worked as the last national championship of Saban’s career.
The three years that followed take us “Beyond the Frame” so to speak. We still see SEC excellence with Georgia’s back-to-back national titles. In 2023, Michigan’s title was the end of one era—the 4-team Playoff, as the bracket expanded to 12 teams for 2024. It also may have foreshadowed the beginning of a shift in regional power.
And no matter where the power center ultimately lies, the era of NIL, rapid player movement and dramatically larger postseason tournaments, there is no question that college football is at the beginning of a new era—in fact one that a future generation will mark as their own beginning of a modern era.
The 50 years of history preserved here show you how we got here.