Winning the College Football Playoff does wonders for an institution. The national champion will be crowned on January 20. Ohio State and Notre Dame are facing off in this game. Being a national champion is purported to have many benefits for the university and the football team that wins it. But, does it? This article will investigate the last ten winners of the CFP National Championship to see if the University’s endowment increased, or if the football team got a bump in recruiting. What do you think?
The Last Ten Winners Of the CFP National Championship
There has been some stickiness in the last ten national championships, which we might expect if winning the championship is helpful for schools. Here are the winning teams for the last ten college football national championships:
- 2023: The University of Michigan
- 2022: The University of Georgia
- 2021: The University of Georgia
- 2020: The University of Alabama
- 2019: Louisiana State University
- 2018: Clemson University
- 2017: The University of Alabama
- 2016: Clemson University
- 2015: The University of Alabama
- 2014: The Ohio State University
In the last ten years, only six different schools have won the national championship. So there is some repetitiveness to teams that win.
Winning the National Championship and Endowments
Winning a championship in football means millions, if not billions, of dollars to a school and it can enhance the university’s name recognition. These are difficult concepts to measure, but we would look here at the endowment of the five schools to see if it increased after winning. If there is money flowing to a university and there is enhanced name recognition, we would expect the endorsement to increase. Ohio State won a national championship in 2014. The endowment at the Ohio State University did not increase right away but has increased markedly in recent years.
Alabama won national championships in 2015, 2017, and 2020. They demonstrated the type of staying power we expect from winning the national championship in college football. Despite their success, there were no substantial increases in the school’s endowment, though it has increased steadily over time.
Clemson University won the national championship in 2016 and 2018 but has fallen on harder times recently. Clemson does not have endowment data available for the period when they won the championship, but we can see, like Alabama, a steady increase since FY 2020. Louisiana State University won the CFP in 2019 beating Ohio State. LSU has seen its endowment increase since winning its only college football national championship. The victory did increase their endowment.
The University of Georgia won the title in 2021 and 2022. They have exhibited the type of staying power over the years we would expect. Like the other schools, the University of Georgia has a steadily increasing endowment that is equal in value to the gross domestic product of some countries. The University of Michigan won last year but fell on hard times this season. It may be too soon to tell if the University of Michigan’s endowment increased due to its victory. Nevertheless, the University of Michigan, fresh off its college football national championship had a record endowment this year.
Winning The College Football National Recruiting and Transfers
We would expect high-value recruits to want to play football at schools that have recently won a national championship because those recruits will want to be at a school that increases their likelihood of playing professionally. Increasingly, we expect universities that win national championships to attract transfers for the same reason. Thankfully, a recruiting database exists and goes back long enough for us to investigate the last ten years of college football national championships.
Instead of a long, drawn-out, investigation of all six teams to win the college football national championship, we can say definitively that these same six teams appear year after year at the top of the recruiting rankings. It is worth noting the University of Michigan has the top-rated recruit, a quarterback, in the nation next year. The rich are truly getting richer and the only thing that impacts their standing is the number of scholarships they have available. New this year is that Name, Image, and Likeness money is a big part of college recruiting. As per the section above, these schools have a boatload of money.
Conclusion
There is a great deal of money in college football and winning a national championship helps. There are many correlations in college football. The rich get richer and keep winning. It is safe to say next year’s champion will be drawn from a short list of schools.
