Indiana is giving the Big Ten national three-peat title for the first time since the World War II era

For nearly two decades, the balance of power in college football swung one way: south. From 2006 to 2022, the SEC collected 13 national championships, a run fueled by Nick Saban’s Alabama machine. The league looked untouchable. Now, the Big Ten has done something it hasn’t done since Franklin D. Roosevelt was president and the world was at war: it has won three straight national championships.

Michigan in 2023. Ohio State in 2024. And now Indiana in 2025 with its first national title, so, after holding on to beat Miami in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday night.

Read that again.

The last time the Big Ten pulled off a three-peat, college football looked a lot different. Minnesota won in 1940 and 1941, Ohio State followed in 1942 and World War II was raging as players were already off to war.

Eighty-three years later, the Big Ten has returned to that extraordinary level — and arguably the sport’s toughest era.

Michigan broke down the door two seasons ago before Ohio State kicked it down, making a run in the first game of the 12-team College Football Playoff. Then came Indiana, a program without a national championship to its name, that hit the most elite club in college football with a 2025 undefeated run that will go down as one of the great seasons of the 21st century.

Three peats (or more) for large summits

The Top Ten

• 5 straight — Michigan (1901), Michigan (1902), Michigan (1903), Michigan (1904), Chicago (1905)
• 4 straight — Michigan (1933), Minnesota (1934), Minnesota (1935), Minnesota (1936)
• 3 straight — Minnesota (1940), Minnesota (1941), Ohio State (1942)
• 3 straight — Michigan (2023), Ohio State (2024), Indiana (2025)

SEC

• 7 straight — Florida (2006), LSU (2007), Florida (2008), Alabama (2009), Auburn (2010), Alabama (2011), Alabama (2012)
• 4 straight — LSU (2019), Alabama (2020), Georgia (2021), Georgia (2022)
• 3 straight – Alabama (1978), Alabama (1979), Georgia (1980)

The Pac-12

• 3 straight — California (1920), California (1921), California (1922)

Quick status: These are all national championships recognized by the NCAA — including any that were later dropped — and the conferences listed are what each team had at the time of its title.

This current Big Ten streak further cements its place in history. The conference increased its total, making it the league with the most national championships in college football, by 33 in eight programs.

Most national championships by college football conference

For the first time in a generation, college football’s center of gravity has shifted north — and the Big Ten owns it.