National outlet adds Clemson to college football's "blue bloods" class

There are 13 programs in college football history to have "blue blood" status, and Clemson is a newly-minted member of that club.

Brandon Rink - Assoc. Editor / Staff Writer - Monday, April 07 2025

There are 13 programs in college football history to have "blue blood" status, and Clemson is a newly-minted member of that club.

That's according to College Football News, which bumped the Tigers to that tier after another double-digit win season in 2024.

That was a 20th campaign of 10+ win seasons, which is one key threshold for blue blood status according to the outlet.

More on the criteria:

1) How many 10-win college football seasons does your school have? It's an easy number, and it shows consistency and longevity. Back in the day, teams didn't even play ten games, so this gives some nod to the schools with more recent success.

2) This only includes the 136 schools currently playing in the FBS (no Princeton or Yale).

3) ONLY FBS seasons count, so some of the former FCS/D-IAA superstar programs don't get any love for past greatness.

4) We deemphasize national titles a wee bit. For most of the 150+ years of the game, national championships were based on an opinion at best, a guess at the worst - remember, there wasn't TV for almost half of the sport's history. Also, we only recognize the national titles awarded by the major outlets at the time - don't get mad at us, Alabama fans.

A team chasing Clemson? Fellow 2024 Playoff participant Boise State, which has 19 10-win seasons now, as well as BYU.

LSU is still two 10-win seasons from that mark. Florida and Miami (16 10-win seasons) are two notable teams on the outside as well.

The blue blood list has teams you would expect like Alabama and Michigan, as well as a team that's fallen off the top-tier stage in Nebraska (28 10-win seasons, five national titles).

Tennessee has one more 10-win season than Clemson and Notre Dame has 24 10-win campaigns (but 11 national titles claimed).