The Dynasty Heatmap · 2014-2025

Twelve seasons. Every program. One image.

Each row is a college football program. Each column is a year. Each cell is colored by where that team finished in its year's power-rating distribution — warm for dominant, cool for irrelevant. Teams are sorted by twelve-year average percentile, so the rows at the top are the programs that ran the era.

The CFP era as a single argument. Hover any cell for the year-specific power rating + percentile.

CFP-ERA DYNASTY

Ohio State

97th percentile average across 12 seasons — the program with the most concentrated dominance of the bracket era.

HARDEST LANDING

Stanford

Biggest drop from the first half of the window to the second. The hardest fall on the board.

RETURN TO RELEVANCE

SMU

Biggest rise from the first half of the window to the second. The era's clearest comeback.

Source CFB Zeitgeist · final-week closing power rating per season, 2014-2025

Number to the right of each row = twelve-year average percentile. Cells use within-year percentile, so a 50 in 2022 means "median FBS team in 2022" — not the same absolute power rating as a 50 in 2014.

How to read it

Look for solid warm bands — those are dynasties. Look for swings from cool to warm — those are turnarounds (Indiana 2024-25, James Madison's FBS arrival). Look for warm-then-cool collapses — those are hard landings (USC post-2017, FSU 2024).

Full methodology at /about-model/.