Top-Ranked College Football Teams Rarely Lose at Home

Saturday night at Sanford Stadium Kentucky will try to do something few have done before, knock off the No. 1 team in the nation in their home stadium.

College football is not a sport that lends itself to parity. The last time the sport had a first-time National Champion was 1996 when Steve Spurrier was on the Florida sidelines. We saw the Gators last weekend in Lexington. A lot has changed since then.

There is a great separation between the haves and have-nots. Debate is ongoing as prognosticators pontificate if the new 12-team CFB Playoff will widen or shrink the gap. In the current format, the team at the top of college football has staying power.

Since the inception of the CFB Playoff in 2014 a No. 1 team has never lost at home. Only four No. 1 teams have fallen in the regular season in that time and all of those games were on the road.

• 2021: Texas A&M 41, #1 Alabama 38
• 2020: #4 Notre Dame 47, #1 Clemson 40 (2OT)
• 2017: #6 Auburn 26, #1 Alabama 14
• 2014: #4 Alabama 25, #1 Mississippi State 20

Clemson probably would not have lost the game at Notre Dame is Trevor Lawrence wasn’t sidelined by Covid. The Tigers got revenge in the ACC Championship later that year to punch a ticket to the CFB Playoff. Despite losses in ’21 and ’17, Alabama went on to win the National Championship in each season.

Since the SEC broke into divisions and played a conference championship in 1992, the top-ranked team in the AP Poll is 200-7 at home. That’s a .966 winning percentage.

College football’s top-ranked has not lost at home since 2012 when it happened in back-to-back weeks. Johnny Manzeil became a household name for knocking off Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The following week David Shaw’s 14th-ranked Stanford team dragged Chip Kelly’s Oregon Ducks into the mud for a 17-14 win.

Chaos Creates Opportunity against Top-Ranked Teams

There is one season that serves as the exception to this norm. In 2007 the top-ranked team in the AP Poll lost five times.

The notoriety of that season has only grown in the years since. It all ended with two-loss LSU upsetting No. 1 Ohio State in the BCS National Championship. Missouri would have been in that game if Gary Pinkel’s team did not get blown out by Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship.

In 2007 LSU lost as the top-ranked team in triple overtime at home to Arkansas. No. 1 Ohio State was shocked at the ‘Shoe by Illinois. The chaos all started in Lexington when Kentucky knocked off No. 1 LSU in triple overtime. That was in week six of the season. Kentucky is playing top-ranked Georgia in week six. This is the one (and only) way history is on Kentucky’s side this Saturday in Athens.

Kentucky vs. No. 1 Teams

Kentucky is 3-16 all-time against the top-ranked team in the AP Poll. This is the fourth straight season the Wildcats have faced the No. 1 team in the land. The Cats lost at Alabama in the Covid-plagued 2020 season, and fell to Georgia in each of the last two seasons.

The Wildcats’ first win over the No. 1 team in the land was in the 1951 Sugar Bowl. Bear Bryant’s team snapped Oklahoma’s 31-game winning streak with a 13-7 win. In 1964 Rick Kestner set a school record by catching nine passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns to knock off No. 1 Ole Miss 27-21 in Jackson. The most recent win over No. 1 was a 43-37 triple overtime thriller over the eventual National Champs, LSU.

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