Schools With the Most Heisman Winners

USC has the most Heisman Trophy winners of any school, with eight, standing alone at the top of college football’s most prestigious individual award. Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oklahoma are tied just behind with seven winners each, the group chasing the Trojans’ record.

The Heisman Trophy has gone to the best player in college football every year since 1935, and the schools that collect the most are the sport’s true blue bloods. Winning it once is rare; producing seven or eight winners takes generations of elite programs. Here is the full leaderboard of schools with the most Heisman winners, the names behind the numbers, and the quirks in the count, all figures through the 2025 season.

The record: USC and eight winners

USC’s eight Heisman winners span nearly six decades, from Mike Garrett in 1965 to Caleb Williams in 2022. In between came a run of superstars, O.J. Simpson (1968), Charles White (1979), Marcus Allen (1981), Carson Palmer (2002), Matt Leinart (2004) and Reggie Bush (2005), a lineage of skill-position brilliance no school can match.

Bush’s award adds a twist to the total. It was vacated in 2010 during an NCAA case, then reinstated by the Heisman Trust in 2024, restoring USC to eight and keeping the Trojans clear at the top.

The full leaderboard

The table below ranks the schools with the most Heisman Trophy winners.

Winners	School	Notable winners
8	USC	O.J. Simpson, Marcus Allen, Caleb Williams
7	Notre Dame	Angelo Bertelli, Paul Hornung, Tim Brown
7	Ohio State	Archie Griffin (x2), Eddie George, Troy Smith
7	Oklahoma	Billy Sims, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray

USC leads with eight, and three of the sport’s other giants, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oklahoma, are locked together on seven. Below them, Army and a cluster of programs sit on three.

The Archie Griffin factor at Ohio State

Ohio State’s seven trophies come with an asterisk worth explaining: the Buckeyes have had six different Heisman winners, but one of them, Archie Griffin, won it twice, in 1974 and 1975. Griffin remains the only two-time winner in the trophy’s history, which is why Ohio State’s trophy count reaches seven even though its list of individual winners is one shorter.

That makes Ohio State’s total a little different from the others on the list, and it highlights just how singular Griffin’s back-to-back achievement was.

Notre Dame and Oklahoma’s seven

Notre Dame’s seven winners stretch from Angelo Bertelli in 1943 through John Lujack, Paul Hornung and Tim Brown in 1987, a roll call from the program’s golden eras. Oklahoma’s seven lean more modern, anchored by Billy Sims in the 1970s and the back-to-back quarterbacks Baker Mayfield (2017) and Kyler Murray (2018), both of whom went on to be first overall NFL draft picks.

Together the three schools show different paths to the same number: Notre Dame’s mid-century dominance, Oklahoma’s mix of eras, and Ohio State’s Griffin-boosted count.

Why the Heisman count matters

The number of Heisman winners is a shorthand for a program’s ability to recruit and develop the very best players over the long haul. It connects to the wider college game covered in our look at the most popular college sports, and many of these winners went on to rewrite pro record books, including the passers featured in the most passing yards all-time. For the flip side of Heisman history, the record for the youngest player ever to win it, see our piece on the youngest Heisman winner.

The short version: USC has the most Heisman Trophy winners with eight, ahead of Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oklahoma at seven each, with Ohio State’s total boosted by Archie Griffin’s unique two wins, all through the 2025 season.