College Football Teams With the Most End-of-Season Top-10 Wins Since 2014

Few things impact a college football season more than a top-10 win. These victories elevate a team’s status among recruits, strengthen its case for a playoff bid, and show it can compete at the highest level. In a landscape where strength of schedule and "quality wins" are scrutinized endlessly, top-10 wins reveal which teams are genuinely built for championship runs. 

But there are two types of top-10 wins, the ones that happen in-season when the rankings are fluid, and the wins over teams ranked in the top ten at the end of the season.  So we over at Field & Court broke down both types of top-10 wins: those that occurred during the season (In-Season Top-10 wins (AP ranks)), and wins against end-of-season Top-10 teams (EOS Top-10 wins (CFP ranks)). That way, we account for misguided preseason rankings.

We looked at the data starting from the inaugural College Football Playoff season in 2014-15, and here’s how it shakes out for the EOS Top-10 Wins (click here for In-Season Top-10 Wins):

Key Takeaways:

Ohio State has proven to be the undisputed, most dominant team in college football — at least, since the advent of the College Football Playoffs format. They have 28 in-season top-10 wins, and 23 EOS top-10 wins, the most in both categories for any team. 

Next up is Alabama with 19 EOS top-10 wins. There’s a legitimate question if ‘Bama can maintain its dominance sans Nick Saban. Finishing 9-3 last year, Alabama failed to even compete for the National Championship. Perhaps the Tide is shifting.

After the Buckeyes and the Tide, there’s quite a drop-off in consistency among the remaining teams.

Georgia has had recent success, but from 2014-15 to 2017-18, the Bulldogs didn’t have a single top-10 win against an EOS top-10 opponent. Here’s the breakdown:

• Georgia beat Auburn in the 2014-15 season when Auburn was ranked No. 9 in Week 10. But Auburn finished that season ranked No. 22. Auburn lost to Texas A&M, Georgia, Alabama, and Wisconsin in the last five weeks of the season, only beating Samford, an FCS school, during that time. Georgia’s win over that Auburn team during the season is largely irrelevant.

• The same scenario happened in the 2016-17 season when Georgia beat Auburn in Week 10. Auburn was ranked No. 8, but finished the season ranked No. 24. 

• In both of those cases, the body of work produced by Auburn over the course of the season showed they were not a true top-10 team when they played Georgia.

• The Bulldogs first EOS Top-10 win came against Auburn in the 2017-18 SEC Championship game. Georgia got their second EOS Top-10 win in the Rose Bowl that year during the first round of the College Football Playoffs against Oklahoma. But the Bulldogs came up short against Bama in the CFP National Championship. 

Meanwhile, Georgia’s SEC rival Florida struggled even more to stack meaningful wins during that period. From 2014-15 to 2020-21, Florida didn’t have a EOS Top-10 win until Week 6 of the Covid Season when they beat Georgia in TIAA Bank Field, a neutral site. Georgia finished No. 9 in the CFP Rankings that season. The Gators have managed to beat only one other EOS top-10 team for a total of two. 

Notre Dame has a total of six EOS Top-10 wins. Three of those wins came last season in 2024-25. Prior to last season, it took the Fighting Irish ten years to get their other EOS Top-10 wins. Perhaps they’ll fight a little harder under the leadership of Marcus Freeman. 

Zooming out, however, we see that only a small handful of programs have managed to consistently rack up these big wins year after year.There are only six teams with double-digit EOS top-10 wins since the 2014-15 season. Those are Ohio State (23), Alabama (19), Georgia (16), Clemson (12), Oregon (11), and LSU (11). Michigan has logged 10 EOS top-10 wins, though it’s worth noting that seven came during a stretch now under NCAA investigation for potential sign-stealing violations — a permanent, dark cloud that will forever cast doubt on the legitimacy of those achievements. 

As we enter the next era of college football — with expanded playoffs, seismic conference shifts, and evolving recruiting landscapes — these EOS top-10 victories will only grow in importance. This upcoming season, the teams that stack a few more of these season-defining wins will not only strengthen their program, but also solidify their standing in college football.