Indiana gives Big Ten first national title three-peat since World War II era as league asserts dominance

For nearly two decades, college football's balance of power went one way: south. From 2006 through 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 hadn't done since Franklin D. Roosevelt was president and the world was at war: win three consecutive national championships.

Michigan in 2023. Ohio State in 2024. And now Indiana in 2025 with its first national title, ever, after holding on to defeat 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 very different. Minnesota won in 1940 and 1941, Ohio State followed in 1942 and World War II was raging as players left for military service.

Eighty-three years later, the Big Ten has returned to that rare level -- and in arguably the toughest era of the sport.

Michigan cracked the door two seasons ago before Ohio State kicked it down, running through the first 12-team College Football Playoff. And then came Indiana, a program with zero national championships to its name, crashing college football's most exclusive club with an undefeated 2025 run that will go down as one of the most dominant seasons of the 21st century.

Three-peats (or longer) by major conferences

Big 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)

Pac-12

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

Quick context: These are all NCAA-recognized national championships -- including any later vacated -- and the conferences listed are what each team belonged to at the time of its title.

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

Most national championships by conference in college football

For the first time in a generation, college football's center of gravity has shifted north -- and the Big Ten has owned it.