The parity discussion comes up frequently in this sub so I decided to jump into the data to take a look. I catalogued all top 5 finishes for each team in the final AP poll every year since 1970.

I started with 1970, because up until 1968, the final AP poll was out before the bowl games. I organized by decade because we humans like nice round numbers.

1970's Top 5 finishes - 16 different teams

• 8 - Oklahoma
• 7 - Alabama
• 5 - Ohio State, USC
• 4 - Penn State
• 3 - Nebraska, Texas, Notre Dame, _ichigan
• 2 - Houston
• 1 - Colorado, Auburn, Arizona State, Pitt, Arkansas, UCLA

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1980's Top 5 finishes - 24 dfferent teams

• 5 - Miami
• 4 - Florida State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Penn State
• 3 - Georgia, _ichigan
• 2 - Pitt, Texas, SMU. Florida, Tennessee, Notre Dame
• 1 - Clemson, Auburn, UCLA, BYU, Washington, Boston College, Arizona State, Syracuse, LSU, West Virginia, Colorado

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1990's Top 5 Finishes - 20 different teams

• 10 - Florida State
• 5 - Nebraska, Florida
• 3 - Miami, Colorado, Alabama, _ichigan
• 2 - Washingotn, Penn State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee
• 1 - Auburn, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, BYU, Arizona, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin

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2000's Top 5 Finishes - 20 different teams

• 7 - USC
• 6 - Ohio State
• 5 - Oklahoma, Texas
• 4 - Miami, Florida
• 3 - LSU
• 2 - Boise St, Georgia, Utah
• 1 - Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Washington, Oregon, Oregon St, Tennessee, Penn State, Missouri, West Virginia

​

2010-current Top 5 Finishes - 23 different teams

• 9 - Alabama
• 7 - Ohio State
• 6 - Clemson
• 5 - Oregon
• 4 - Georgia, Oklahoma
• 3 - Notre Dame
• 2 - TCU, Stanford, LSU, Florida State, Michigan State, Auburn
• 1 - Oklahoma State, Arksansas, South Carolina, Missouri, USC, Washington, Texas A&M, Cincinnati, Baylor, _ichigan

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Thoughts: well, blue bloods are blue bloods for a reason - they win games and are consistently ranked high because of it. A few here and there rise up and have some years of dominance but they tend to just rotate in and out. Overall, I don't feel the parity issue is any different now than it has been throughout the history of college football. Alabama winning 6 national titles with Saban has skewed a lot of our perceptions. It is my opinion, that if a playoff system had existed earlier, then coaches like Bobby Bowden could've won several more.

Discuss.

Update: My 70's Texas numbers didnt get copy/pasted over. Corrected.