How many college football games are decided by one score?

36.6% of regular-season games between two FBS (top-division) teams in 2025 were decided by 8 points or fewer, what a touchdown and a two-point conversion can make up. About one game in three has been that close in most seasons since the 1940s; the closest seasons were the low-scoring 1930s, peaking at 49.4% in 1937. Ties count as close games. The chart starts in 1900; CollegeFootballData.com's records before then cover only a few dozen such games a season.

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Key facts

Measure: Games decided by 8 points or fewer (%). Written from the data below.

  • The latest figure, for 2025, is 36.6%.
  • That is up 2.2 percentage points from 34.4% in 1900.
  • The highest was 49.4% in 1937.
  • The lowest was 26.3% in 1943.

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Source and date

Source
CollegeFootballData.com, college football games
License
CollegeFootballData.com terms of use (factual data, credited to CollegeFootballData.com)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How many college football games are decided by one score?” Chart. Data: CollegeFootballData.com, college football games, https://collegefootballdata.com/ (data as of January 20, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/college-football-close-games (accessed November 4, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Season Games decided by 8 points or fewer (%)
1900 34.4
1901 35.4
1902 37.2
1903 27.2
1904 28.8
1905 30.2
1906 42.8
1907 41.7
1908 44.5
1909 41
1910 38.5
1911 44.3
1912 32.9
1913 30.9
1914 33.5
1915 31.6
1916 32.7
1917 30.4
1918 33.7
1919 43.4
1920 36.5
1921 42.6
1922 36.5
1923 35.3
1924 45.1
1925 40.7
1926 45.5
1927 37.3
1928 40.7
1929 39.2
1930 40.5
1931 42.6
1932 45
1933 49.1
1934 46.1
1935 40.1
1936 42.6
1937 49.4
1938 44.8
1939 47.8
1940 45.7
1941 42.5
1942 36
1943 26.3
1944 32.7
1945 34.1
1946 35.7
1947 34.6
1948 35.1
1949 30.3
1950 37.5
1951 35.7
1952 35.7
1953 39.1
1954 38.9
1955 36.9
1956 38.1
1957 42.7
1958 44.2
1959 37.5
1960 34.5
1961 36.3
1962 38.4
1963 40.2
1964 43.3
1965 38
1966 35.7
1967 37.4
1968 31.1
1969 28.9
1970 29.8
1971 32.5
1972 32.7
1973 32.9
1974 36.2
1975 37.5
1976 32.9
1977 33.6
1978 35
1979 34.6
1980 33.8
1981 38.5
1982 37.2
1983 35.2
1984 40.4
1985 36.9
1986 36.1
1987 32.4
1988 33.6
1989 35.1
1990 34.3
1991 34.9
1992 37.6
1993 35.9
1994 34.6
1995 34.1
1996 32.5
1997 32
1998 34.4
1999 32.9
2000 34
2001 34.4
2002 34.3
2003 31.7
2004 35
2005 36.2
2006 35.6
2007 36.8
2008 36.5
2009 38.2
2010 35.1
2011 36.8
2012 37.7
2013 31.1
2014 35.4
2015 35.2
2016 36.4
2017 35.7
2018 34.9
2019 35.6
2020 36
2021 37.7
2022 40.3
2023 37.5
2024 38.3
2025 36.6

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