Fresno State was ranked No. 21 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, establishing the University as one of just five institutions nationwide ranked both among the top 25 national universities by Washington Monthly and among the top 25 football programs.

In August, Fresno State was selected No. 24 nationally by Washington Monthly, a D.C.-based magazine known for its annual rankings of American colleges and universities based on their focus on social mobility, research and service to the community. It marked the third straight year Fresno State has been in the top 25 alongside numerous Ivy League institutions and some of the top private universities.

This year marks Fresno State’s second straight year appearing in the college football rankings. In his first two years at the helm, coach Jeff Tedford led the team back to national prominence with a combined 21-6 record. The Bulldogs have appeared in Mountain West title games the past two seasons and won the 2018 Mountain West championship with a 19-16 overtime win at Boise State — Fresno State’s third conference title since joining the Mountain West in 2012. The Bulldogs have represented the West Division in four of the conference’s six title games all time.

When Tedford, a former Bulldogs quarterback from 1981-82, was hired as head coach after the 2016 season, the Bulldogs were coming off of a 1-11 season, their worst record in school history. Fresno State’s 10-4 record in 2017 marked just the second time in NCAA history a team went from double-digit losses to double-digit wins in the span of 12 months. The Bulldogs proved it was no fluke, bettering their record to 11-2 in 2018.

Fresno State Fun Facts:

  • Fresno State was voted as the school with the top alumni trio nationally of NFL, MLB and NBA stars in an NCAA.com online poll in 2017. Fresno State’s trio includes Derek Carr (Oakland Raiders), Aaron Judge (New York Yankees) and Paul George (Oklahoma City Thunder). But Fresno State’s student-athlete alumni extend beyond those three with a list of professional athletes that also includes Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams, who leads the NFL in touchdown receptions over the past three seasons.
  • Fresno State has five first-round NFL draft picks all time, including current Fresno State defensive backs coach J.D. Williams (1990), Trent Dilfer (1994), David Carr (2002), Logan Mankins (2005) and Ryan Mathews (2010).
  • Fresno State has the only major college football program in California’s Central Valley—an area ranging from Sacramento to Bakersfield — a region that is roughly the size of Tennessee.
  • The green V on the back of the Bulldogs’ helmets and on the official four-paw logo represents the agriculturally fertile Central Valley — the nation’s leading agricultural region.
  • As part of its viticulture and enology program, Fresno State was the first university in the nation with a licensed commercial winery on campus. Today, there are about 20 types of Fresno State wines sold in the on-campus Gibson Farm Market, in stores across the region and shipped worldwide. The University also operates a creamery producing more than 65 flavors of the popular Fresno State ice cream. The college is also known for its wildly popular Fresno State sweet corn available each summer — a record 81,000 ears were sold on opening weekend in 2018.
  • The Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology at Fresno State features a 1,000-acre on-campus farm laboratory and an enrollment of more than 2,500 students studying ag disciplines.

For more information on Fresno State and its programs, visit www.fresnostate.edu or www.gobulldogs.com.