The Billingsley Report is a college football rating system developed in the late 1960s to determine a national champion. Billingsley has actively rated college football teams on a current basis since 1970. Beginning in 1999, Billingsley's ratings were included as one of seven mathematical formulas included in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings.

Unlike the other mathematical formulas included in the BCS rankings, the Billingsley Report was not prepared by a trained mathematician or statistician. Instead, the Billingsley Report is prepared by Richard Billingsley (born c. 1951), a lifelong college football fan in Hugo, Oklahoma. Billingsley attended Texas Bible College, became a minister and later a consultant in the country music business. He began preparing his own weekly college football ratings as a hobby.

Billingsley has also applied his ratings methodology retroactively to select national champions for each year from 1869 to 1870 and from 1872 to 1969. Since 1996, the "Billingsley Report" has been one of the selectors of historic national champions recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in its Football Bowl Subdivision record book.

The NCAA describes Billingsley's methodology as follows: " The main feature of his system is the inclusion of a unique rule for head-to-head competition, with the overall system consisting of a balanced approach to wins, losses, strength of schedule, and home-field advantage. A slight weight is given to most recent performance. The Billingsley formula does not use margin of victory, however, the Billingsley MOV formula does include margin of victory in the calculations.". Analysis shows that Billingsley's ranking system typically strongly disagrees with other computer ranking systems and more closely resembles human ranking schemes, likely due to the ad hoc and often self-conflicting nature of Billingsley's many ratings adjustments, such as weighting later season games as more important than early season games, adjusting win values by stadium attendance, forcing head to head victors to be ranked above their defeated opponents (but only until their next game), and discounting the value of wins by teams with more losses.

Richard Billingsley is also the owner of the College Football Research Center.

National champions

Billingsley Report selections first appeared in the 1995 edition of the NCAA records book, listing champions since 1960. In the 1996 book these champions were joined with retrospective selections all the way back to 1869. This original set of champions was last printed in the 1999 NCAA records book.

In 1998 Billingsley adjusted his formula in order to participate as a computer poll in the Bowl Championship Series rankings. He re-ranked all past seasons with this new formula; these new champions were printed in the 2000–2003 NCAA records books.

Prior to the 2001 season, Billingsley again changed the formula in order to remove "Margin of Victory" from the system's BCS calculations. This third set of champions appeared in the 2004–2012 NCAA books.

Finally, beginning in 2013, the NCAA records books profess to list both Billingsley's "No Margin of Victory" and "Margin of Victory" champions in cases where they differ. However, this list is not a simple superset of the previous two sets of champions.

The table below lists the 4 distinct sets of Billingsley Report national champions printed in NCAA records books since 1995. The selections are additionally sourced to the College Football Research Center website, where Billingsley made the same updates to his national champions after each change to the Billingsley Report formula.

Original formula BCS (Margin of Victory) BCS (No Margin of Victory) Billingsley & Billingsley MOV BCS — 1999–2000 2001–2013 — CFRC 1997 1998–2001 2001–2010 2011–2020 NCAA 1995, 1996–1999 2000–2003 2004–2012 2013–2022 Season Billingsley Report National Champions 1869 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1870 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1871 — — — — 1872 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1873 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1874 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1875 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1876 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1877 Yale Yale Princeton Princeton 1878 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1879 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1880 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1881 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1882 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1883 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1884 Yale Yale Princeton Princeton 1885 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1886 Yale Yale Princeton Princeton 1887 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1888 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1889 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1890 Harvard Harvard Harvard Harvard 1891 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1892 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1893 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1894 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1895 Penn Penn Penn Penn 1896 Princeton Princeton Princeton Princeton 1897 Penn Penn Penn Penn 1898 Harvard Harvard Harvard Harvard 1899 Harvard Harvard Princeton Princeton 1900 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1901 Michigan Harvard Harvard Harvard 1902 Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan 1903 Michigan Michigan Princeton Princeton 1904 Michigan Michigan Minnesota† Minnesota† 1905 Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago 1906 Vanderbilt† Vanderbilt† Yale Yale 1907 Penn† Penn† Yale Yale 1908 Penn Penn Harvard† Harvard† 1909 Yale Yale Yale Yale 1910 Auburn† Michigan† Harvard Harvard 1911 Vanderbilt† Vanderbilt† Princeton Minnesota†Princeton (Billingsley MOV) 1912 Wisconsin† Harvard Harvard Harvard 1913 Chicago Auburn† Auburn† ChicagoAuburn (Billingsley MOV)† 1914 Illinois Illinois Texas† IllinoisTexas (Billingsley MOV)† 1915 Nebraska† Nebraska† Oklahoma† Minnesota†Oklahoma (Billingsley MOV)† 1916 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Georgia Tech†Pittsburgh (Billingsley MOV) 1917 Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Georgia Tech 1918 Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan 1919 Illinois Illinois Texas A&M IllinoisTexas A&M (Billingsley MOV) 1920 California California Notre Dame Notre Dame 1921 Iowa Iowa California IowaCalifornia (Billingsley MOV) 1922 Iowa† Iowa† California Iowa†California (Billingsley MOV) 1923 Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan 1924 Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1925 Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama 1926 Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama 1927 Illinois Illinois Illinois Illinois 1928 Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Georgia Tech 1929 Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1930 Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1931 USC USC USC USC 1932 USC USC USC USC 1933 Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan 1934 Alabama Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota 1935 Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota 1936 Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota 1937 Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh 1938 Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee 1939 Texas A&M Cornell Texas A&M Texas A&M 1940 Minnesota Minnesota Stanford Stanford 1941 Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota 1942 Ohio State Ohio State Georgia Georgia 1943 Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1944 Army Army Army Ohio StateArmy (Billingsley MOV) 1945 Army Army Army Army 1946 Notre Dame Notre Dame Army Army 1947 Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan 1948 Michigan Michigan Michigan Michigan 1949 Oklahoma Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1950 Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee 1951 Maryland Michigan State Michigan State Michigan State 1952 Michigan State Michigan State Georgia Tech Georgia Tech 1953 Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1954 UCLA UCLA Ohio State Ohio State 1955 Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma 1956 Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma 1957 Michigan State Michigan State Auburn Auburn 1958 LSU LSU LSU LSU 1959 Ole Miss Ole Miss Syracuse Syracuse 1960 Iowa Ole Miss Ole Miss Ole Miss 1961 Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama 1962 Alabama† Alabama† Ole Miss Ole Miss 1963 Texas Texas Texas Texas 1964 Arkansas Arkansas Arkansas Arkansas 1965 Alabama Alabama Michigan State Michigan State 1966 Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1967 USC USC USC USC 1968 Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State 1969 Texas Texas Texas Texas 1970 Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska 1971 Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska 1972 USC USC USC USC 1973 Oklahoma Oklahoma Notre Dame Notre Dame 1974 Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma 1975 Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma 1976 USC USC USC PittsburghUSC (Billingsley MOV) 1977 Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1978 Oklahoma Oklahoma USC USC 1979 Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama 1980 Oklahoma Oklahoma Georgia Georgia 1981 Clemson Clemson Clemson Clemson 1982 Penn State Penn State Penn State Penn State 1983 Miami Miami Auburn Auburn 1984 Florida Florida BYU BYU 1985 Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma 1986 Oklahoma Penn State Penn State Penn State 1987 Miami Miami Miami Miami 1988 Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame Notre Dame 1989 Florida State† Miami Miami Miami 1990 Miami Miami Colorado Colorado 1991 Washington Washington Miami Miami 1992 Alabama Alabama Alabama Alabama 1993 Florida State Florida State Florida State Florida State 1994 Penn State Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska 1995 Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska 1996 Florida Florida Florida Florida 1997 Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska MichiganNebraska (Billingsley MOV) 1998 Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee 1999 — Florida State Florida State Florida State 2000 — Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma 2001 — Miami Miami Miami 2002 — Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State 2003 — — LSU LSU 2004 — — USC USC 2005 — — Texas Texas 2006 — — Florida Florida 2007 — — LSU LSU 2008 — — Florida Florida 2009 — — Alabama Alabama 2010 — — Auburn Auburn 2011 — — Alabama Alabama 2012 — — — Alabama 2013 — — — Florida State 2014 — — — Ohio State 2015 — — — Alabama 2016 — — — Clemson 2017 — — — Alabama 2018 — — — Clemson 2019 — — — LSU 2020 — — — Alabama 2021 — — — Georgia 2022 — — — Georgia 2023 — — — Michigan 2024 — — — Ohio State 2025 — — — Indiana

† Teams chosen solely by Billingsley amongst NCAA-designated "major selectors".

See also NCAA Division I FBS national football championship

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