Winning one college football national championship is a difficult task. Winning two in a row is obviously even more challenging, which is why only seven programs can claim back-to-back uncontested titles since the AP began crowning a champion in 1936, the most recent being the Georgia Bulldogs.

The AP, of course, was typically the primary ranking system used to recognize the true champion until the BCS came along in 1998, although several other organizations got a say as well, which is why college football sometimes got co-champions, which we'll get to in just a moment.

For those wondering, that exclusive club of seven features the following members (it should be noted that this piece only pertains to the FBS level):

  • Minnesota: 1940, 1941
  • Army: 1944, 1945
  • Notre Dame: 1946, 1947
  • Oklahoma: 1955, 1956
  • Nebraska: 1994, 1995
  • Alabama: 2011, 2012
  • Georgia: 2021, 2022

One could add an additional seven to that list, but these programs officially shared a national championship with at least one other team. That list looks like this:

  • Alabama: 1964, 1965 (co-champions both seasons)
  • Michigan State: 1965, 1966 (co-champions both seasons)
  • Texas: 1969, 1970 (co-champions with two teams in 1970)
  • Nebraska: 1970, 1971 (co-champions with two teams in 1970)
  • Oklahoma: 1974, 1975 (co-champions in 1974)
  • Alabama: 1978, 1979 (co-champions in 1978)
  • USC: 2003, 2004 (co-champions in 2003, 2004 title was vacated)

Sharing a national championship, of course, is thankfully no longer a thing following the inception of the College Football Playoff ahead of the 2014 season.

But let's get to the reason you clicked in.

As you see, winning back-to-back college football national championships is hard. But winning three consecutive titles is next to impossible. In fact, since 1936, not a single program has been able to pull it off. Not one.

As mentioned, 1936 was the year the AP began crowning a college football national champion. That season, the honor went to the University of Minnesota, who'd also won undisputed titles in 1934 and 1935, giving the Golden Gophers the only undisputed three-peat since 1900.

Yale is the only other program that can make such a claim, winning four straight undisputed national championships from 1881-1884 and another three straight from 1886-1888. They technically won five straight in that first stretch but shared the 1880 title with Princeton, who also took titles in 1878 and 1879, giving them the first-ever three-peat.

Given the fact that the competition was so narrow back then, however, these are tough to take seriously.

The University of Michigan won four straight from 1901-1904 but shared two of them. The University of California-Berkeley won three straight from 1920-22 but also shared a pair.

Here's a better look at each team to technically win three or more consecutive college football national championships:

  • Princeton: 1878, 1879, 1880 (co-champions in 1880)
  • Yale: 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884 (co-champions in 1880)
  • Yale: 1886, 1887, 1888
  • Michigan: 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904 (co-champions in 1903 and 1904)
  • Cal-Berkeley: 1920, 1921, 1922 (co-champions with one team in 1921 and two teams in 1922)
  • Minnesota: 1934, 1935, 1936

And there you have it, folks.