Florida Gators as a blue blood football program

[Escambia94]

There is plenty of talk about college sports teams being blue bloods or maybe new blue bloods. I will offer my definition: a blue blood program is one with sustained success across multiple eras of the game, culminating in national championships. The reason I break it up this way to to balance out the historical aspect of college football. Imagine arguing over whether Florida is a new blue blood with 3 national championships while ignoring programs like Yale and Princeton who won 18 and 15 national championships before Florida was established as football program. I would characterize Yale, Princeton, and Harvard as Pre-Poll Era blue bloods. Here are the top 10 blue bloods within each era:
CFP Era (2014-2025)

Rank	Team
1	Alabama Crimson Tide
2	Ohio State Buckeyes
3	Georgia Bulldogs
4	Clemson Tigers
5	Washington Huskies
6	Florida State Seminoles
7	LSU Tigers
8	Michigan Wolverines
9	Penn State Nittany Lions
10	Oregon Ducks

BCS Era (1998-2013)

Rank	Team	Score
1	Ohio State Buckeyes	126.77
2	Oklahoma Sooners	125.85
3	USC Trojans	116.41
4	Boise State Broncos	103.85
5	Florida State Seminoles	101.8
6	Florida Gators	98.41
7	LSU Tigers	90.86
8	Virginia Tech Hokies	83.49
9	Oregon Ducks	83.13
10	Texas Longhorns	81

Bowl Coalition Era (1992-1997)

Rank	Team	Points
1	Florida State Seminoles	139
2	Nebraska Huskers	129
3	Florida Gators	127
4	Ohio State Buckeyes	93
5	Tennessee Vols	91
6	Colorado Buffaloes	85
7	Penn State Nittany Lions	84
8	Michigan Wolverines	80
9	Alabama Crimson Tide	78
10	Miami Hurricanes	72

Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll Era (1936-1991)

Rank	Team	Points
1	Oklahoma Sooners	1127
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	1072
3	Ohio State Buckeyes	1048
4	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	968
5	Michigan Wolverines	959
6	USC Trojans	824
7	Texas Longhorns	782
8	Nebraska Huskers	669
9	Penn State Nittany Lions	637
10	Tennessee Vols	615

The Florida Gators have a national championship in two different eras with two different paths to the national championship. I would count them as blue bloods.

 

[Escambia94]

I will add a new term, true blue blood, meaning a program that has won a national championship in at least two of those eras, indicating an ability to change with the times and win using multiple paths to the national championship. The Florida Gators are a top 20 true blue blood, meaning they have won consistently across multiple eras.

Rank	Team	Total Claimed Championships	Eras with Championships (Key Years)
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	18	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS, CFP (e.g., 1961, 1992, 2009, 2015, 2020)
2	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	13	Pre-Poll, Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll (e.g., 1924, 1943, 1988)
3	Michigan Wolverines	12	Pre-Poll, Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, Bowl Alliance Poll, CFP (e.g., 1901, 1948, 1997, 2023)
4	USC Trojans	11	Pre-Poll, Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS (e.g., 1931, 1962, 2003)
5	Pittsburgh Panthers	10	Pre-Poll, Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll (e.g., 1916, 1976)
6	Ohio State Buckeyes	9	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS, CFP (e.g., 1942, 2002, 2014, 2024)
7	Oklahoma Sooners	7	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS (e.g., 1950, 2000)
8	Minnesota Golden Gophers	6-7	Pre-Poll, Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll (e.g., 1934, 1960)
9	Nebraska Cornhuskers	5	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, Bowl Alliance Poll (e.g., 1970, 1994, 1997)
10	Miami Hurricanes	5	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS (e.g., 1983, 2001)
11	LSU Tigers	4	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS, CFP (e.g., 1958, 2003, 2019)
12	Clemson Tigers	3-4	Bowl Alliance Poll (limited), CFP (e.g., 2016, 2018)
13	Florida Gators	3	Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS (e.g., 1996, 2006, 2008)
14	Georgia Bulldogs	3-4	BCS, CFP (e.g., 1980, 2021, 2022)
15	Tennessee Volunteers	3-6	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, Bowl Alliance Poll (e.g., 1951, 1998)
16	Texas Longhorns	3-4	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS (e.g., 1963, 2005)
17	Florida State Seminoles	3	Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS (e.g., 1993, 1999, 2013)
18	Penn State Nittany Lions	2-4	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, Bowl Alliance Poll (e.g., 1982, 1986)
19	Auburn Tigers	2-9 (disputed higher claims)	Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll, BCS (e.g., 1957, 2010)
20	Army Black Knights	2-5	Pre-Poll, Pre-Bowl Alliance Poll (e.g., 1944, 1945)