Winning is hard in school football. Winning a championship is even harder.
Although high school football has existed since 1869, only five of the sport’s 137 teams have won more than 10 national championships, a testament to how difficult it is to succeed in the most sensitive areas of the mountains.
In many ways, the race to the most sensible is cruel. Depending on the team, you can go undefeated in the normal season and win the convention championship without you being decided for a national championship yet. Or you can win a spot, lose, and then have your schedule deleted through the moving portal.
With that in mind, here’s a look at the 10 most productive high school football systems that have never won a national championship. For the purposes of this list, we only include groups that have not won an NCAA-recognized championship since the voting era began in 1936.
All of our favorite high school football betting sites offer futures markets on which team will win the national championship this season if you think one of those groups will triumph this year after all.
Those in this list are indexed in alphabetical order.
Baylor, a 10-time convention champion, has yet to win a national championship despite being one of the most productive systems in the country for the past 15 years.
The Bears reached the second position on the AP ballot in 2015, but lost 3 of their last 4 games that season and had to settle for betting on the Russell Athletic Bowl. They have won 3 convention titles since 2010 and played in 11 Bowl games in that time, but have yet to make the school football playoffs.
There are two Catholic universities that offer an FBS program. One of them is Notre Dame, which has won thirteen national championships (the fourth all-time). The other is Boston College, which has never won a national championship despite winning only about 700 games in the program’s history and producing thirteen All-Americans.
Although the Eagles (New England’s only FBS school at Power Five conventions) have won a championship since 1940, they are identified through the NCAA. BC also won 15 bowling games, 3 departmental titles, and one convention title.
The Eagles most likely won’t make this list anytime soon, as they haven’t won more than seven games in a season since 2009.
Cincinnati has long struggled in the box with only two ranked seasons from 1954 to 2006, but still makes this list thanks to its recent success.
The Bearcats made history in 2021 as the first Group of Five team to reach the College Football Playoff, where they lost to Alabama in the Cotton Bowl. In 2020, they reached the New Year’s Six Bowl, losing to Georgia in the Peach Bowl.
Before that, his season began in 2009, going 12-1 and reaching the No. 4 spot in the AP poll. Cincinnati joined the big 12 in 202four, which could add to the show’s pedigree.
It’s hard for a school that produced talent like Lamar Jackson and Johnny Unitas to have ever won a championship, but here we are.
The Cardinals have played in 3 meetings since 2000 (Conference USA, Big East, American Athletic Conference), but this move hasn’t stopped them from winning. They were ranked in 14 of the 24 seasons, and also won six convention championships and one departmental championship in that period.
Despite being the No. 3 team in the country in 2006 and 2016, Louisville is yet to win its first national championship.
Always a bridesmaid, never married. The Ducks have had a lot of good luck in their 130-year history, but that good luck hasn’t translated into a national championship yet.
Although Oregon was only a primary force in the 1990s, it has already come close several times. The Ducks were the top-ranked team in 2010 and 2012, throwing away the 2010 BCS championship to Auburn on a game-winning box goal. In 2014, they were defeated by Ohio State in the first game of the CFP National Championship.
After spending nearly 60 years in the Pac-12, the Ducks joined the Big Ten in 2024. Although they will play in a tougher conference, they gain advantages from the expanded school playoffs.
While Purdue is best known as a basketball school, the Boilermakers have had good luck on the court. That being said, they were never lucky enough to win a national championship.
Their most productive recent season came in 2021, when they were ranked via the AP ballot for the first time since 2007 and finished 9-4. They also gained a department name in 2022 and have 12 convention names, most recently in 2000.
The last time Purdue was ranked the number one team in the country was in 1968. The program also has an unclaimed national name dating back to 1931.
While the Horned Frogs won the national championships in 1935 and 1938, they had to win an NCAA-recognized championship.
TCU has been one of the most level-headed school football systems in recent decades, going 11-3 in Bowl games since 2005. The Horned Frogs also remained undefeated and won the Rose Bowl in 2010 en route to an unclaimed national title.
They reached their first College Football Playoff in 2022, beating Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl before Georgia in the national championship game.
TCU is one of four FBS systems that appear in all six CFP Bowls, all of them winning the Orange Bowl.
Another team on this list that made it to a national naming game, the Hokies, made it to a championship in 1999 and 2000, going 11-1 and ranking second in the AP Poll both years. They lost the championship game to No. 1 Florida State in 1999 and narrowly missed out on a name.
Beyond that, Virginia Tech has 11 convention titles, six department titles and 14 Bowl victories. They also featured one of the most productive high school players of all time, Michael Vick, and ruled for much of the 2000s, but they couldn’t change that. good luck in a championship.
The Mountaineers may be the program in school football history that has never won a national championship. They won 15 convention titles and 17 Bowl games while generating thirteen All-Americans.
West Virginia came close in 1988, going 11-1 with its loss to Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. The program went 11-1 in 1993 but narrowly missed out on the national naming game, finishing third in the latest AP poll.
The Mountaineers enjoyed a resurgence in the mid-2000s, going 33-5 from 2005 to 2007. They finished in the top 10 in the AP poll and won a Bowl game in each of those three seasons, but they’re still hunting. looking for their first national title.
Another Big Ten team on this list, the Badgers, have an impressive resume that is missing one thing: a national championship.
Wisconsin, a charter member of the convention, has one unclaimed championship dating back to 1942 and 14 convention names. The Badgers narrowly missed out on a national name in 1962 when they lost to USC in the Rose Bowl, which served as that year’s national championship.
His most productive season in recent times was 2017, going 13-1, with his only heartbreaking 27-21 loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship.
Wisconsin is one of 26 systems that have won more than 700 games and produced Heisman winners (Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne), but the championship remains elusive.
Photo via Dylan Buell/Getty Images
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