These 11 College Football National Champions Had The Worst Follow-Up Seasons

Winning a college football national championship comes with perks. Recruiting sees an uptick. You get the national spotlight throughout the offseason. The ability to maintain success becomes a bit easier.

While the majority of reigning champs don’t follow up with another title campaign, most are still competitive on the field.

For these 11 schools, that was not the case. Success proved elusive the year after hoisting the trophy. They all finished .500 or below the next season.

The 11 worst reigning college football national champions.

For one reason or another, the momentum didn’t continue into the next season for these 11 schools. They lost as many or more games than they won. In doing so, they toppled from the top of the standings to out of the rankings completely.

We’ll move through this list going from best to worst in terms of records. The team at the top (bottom) nearly went winless in its follow-up campaign.

2020 LSU Tigers

The 2019 LSU football team is arguably the greatest of all time. The Tigers were a perfect 15-0 behind an offense that set multiple NCAA records. Quarterback Joe Burrow won the Heisman trophy as a result.

Unfortunately, the performance wasn’t replicated the following year. LSU had 14 players drafted, five of which went in the first round. Replacements were unable to match success.

The Tigers went 5-5 in the 2020 COVID season. Head coach Ed Orgeron would be fired the next year. LSU is the most recent defending national champion to finish .500 or worse.

1950 Notre Dame Fighting Irish

The 1949 Fighting Irish went 10-0 led by head coach Frank Leahy with wins over the likes of USC, UNC, Michigan State, Iowa, and fourth-ranked Tulane.

Notre Dame averaged 36 points per game to rank fifth in the nation. Every win was decided by double-digits. They held the No. 1 spot for the final eight weeks of the season.

In 1950, the program took a major step back. Despite starting the year at No. 1 in the preseason poll, they were unranked by Week 4. Notre Dame was beaten soundly by Purdue and Indiana. They also tied Iowa.

The Irish finished the year 4-4-1.

1928 Yale Bulldogs

In 1927, Yale won its most recent of 18 (or 27 depending on who you ask) college football national championships. It was rated as the nation’s top team by both the Boand System and the College Football Researchers Association.

While Illinois and Georgia were voted as the true champs by most accounts, Yale still claims its title. There would be no debate the following year surrounding the Bulldogs.

After going 7-1 with a loss to UGA in ’27, Yale went 4-4 in ’28. That came despite a 3-0 start. After beating Maine, Georgia, and Brown, the Bulldogs dropped four of their final five games. The season ended with a 17-0 shutout at the hands of Harvard.

1923 Princeton Tigers

Princeton went 8-0 in the 1922 campaign to earn a vote as national champion. It split that honor with Cal and Cornell. The Tigers shut out six of their eight opponents. They allowed just 4.2 points per contest.

The next year, however, was full of struggles. The offense couldn’t score, being held to three points or less on four occasions. While they did pick up wins over Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and Swarthmore, the Tigers were embarrassed by Yale and Notre Dame.

They finished the year 3-3-1.

1919 Michigan Wolverines

Michigan went a perfect 5-0 in 1918 to earn a national championship tag. The Wolverines allowed just six points in the season. Only one opponent got on the scoreboard.

Michigan beat Ohio State, Michigan State, and Syracuse in that undefeated season. The next year, it went 3-4.

The Wolverines’ dominant defense disappeared. Althouth though they started the year 2-0, they fell in four of their final five contests to finish below .500. All four setbacks came by double digits to Ohio State, Chicago, Illinois, and Minnesota.

1943 Ohio State Buckeyes

Not to be outdone, Michigan’s rival Ohio State makes the list due to a subpar season in 1943. The Buckeyes were the undisputed national champions the year prior with a 9-1 record.

During that season, they took down the likes of USC, Pitt, Michigan, and Illinois. Every win came by double digits. The lone loss was at the hands of sixth-ranked Wisconsin on the road.

In 1943, Ohio State struggled. The team was just 3-6 with blowout losses to Northwestern, Purdue, and the Wolverines. It’s one of the worst seasons we’ve seen from a defending college football national champion.

1929 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Georgia Tech topped the rankings with a perfect season in 1928. The Yellow Jackets went 10-0 with seven wins in the Southern Conference.

The Ramblin’ Wreck beat Notre Dame, UNC, Alabama, and Georgia before a Rose Bowl triumph over Cal. They won their games by an average score of 24-6.

In 1929, it was a different story. After a season opening win against Mississippi State, the Yellow Jackets dropped six of their next eight games to finish 3-6.

1967 Michigan State Spartans

Michigan State was named national champion by the NFF (now the joint Football Writers Association of America-National Football Federation poll) after a 1966 college football season in which it went 9-0-1, though it technically finished second in the AP Poll.

There is certainly a case for the No. 1 spot, and as so, the Spartans claim the title. Michigan State won each of its first nine games with an offense that ranked seventh nationally in scoring. The team tied Notre Dame in its final contest to split a share of the championship with the undefeated Fighting Irish.

The next year, the wheels came off. Michigan State started 0-2 and later went on to drop five straight matchups to Minnesota, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Indiana, and Purdue. The Spartans finished 3-7 for a winning percentage of just .300.

1939 TCU Horned Frogs

The Horned Frogs won the 1938 national championship on the back of Heisman trophy winner Davey O’Brien. TCU went 11-0. It boasted a Top 5 offense.

The program beat Arkansas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas, and SMU on its way to an undefeated campaign. They capped the year with a win in the Sugar Bowl.

Success wasn’t replicated in 1939. O’Brien’s departure to the NFL was felt. The offense scored less than 12 points per game.

TCU was blown out by Texas A&M and Baylor. It won just a single conference game to finish with a 3-7 overall record.

1913 Penn State Nittany Lions

Penn State won a share of the national championship in 1912 by going 8-0. Included in their wins were beatdowns of Ohio State and Pitt.

The Nittany Lions boasted the No. 1 defense in the country, allowing less than one point a game. The offense, meanwhile, was Top 10 nationally scoring at a clip of 35.6 points per contest. Just one opponent scored on Penn State. Every game was decided by two possessions or more.

In 1913, there was a drastic falloff. The Nittany Lions averaged less than 10 points a game on offense. They were beaten handily by Washington & Jefferson, Harvard, and Penn. They also lost to Navy, Notre Dame, and Pitt.

The season actually began with some promise behind a 2-0 start. The Nittany Lions then lost six straight matchups to finish 2-6.

1934 Michigan Wolverines

The worst performance from a defending college football national champion came in 1934. The Michigan Wolverines own the title of worst reigning champ.

In 1933, the team went 7-0-1 to be named undisputed king. They shut out five of their eight opponents, racking up wins over Michigan State, Ohio State, Illinois, and Iowa.

That team ranked 25th nationally in offense and sixth in defense. Both sides fell off dramatically in the year to follow.

The 1934 Michigan Wolverines scored just 2.2 points a game while ranking 115th in defense. Though they did pick up a 9-2 win over Georgia Tech in Week 2, the squad finished 1-7 with blowout losses to Ohio State, Minnesota, Michigan State, and Chicago.

Michigan ended the season with a winning percentage of just .125. One Georgia Tech touchdown was the different between that and a winless campaign.