With How I Met Your Mother finishing its penultimate season, the glaring question the show is built around will soon be answered. Fans have anxiously awaited the reveal of who Ted’s wife is for the last 8 years as the character has dated a wide array of girls, from the awesome to the completely ridiculous.

It’s safe to assume that we’ve yet to meet the mother in any form (other than her ankle and umbrella) but that doesn’t mean Ted hasn’t dated some memorable girls, some of whom he may have been wise to have held onto.

We know that Ted’s dated his last significant girl before he meets the mother, so that means we’re going to see just who this mystery woman is soon. In honor of the upcoming reveal, I’ve ranked every girl Ted has dated on the show. For a girl to qualify for this list, she had to at least be significant enough to stick around for most of an episode, or to be the focus of a story he tells. A girl briefly mentioned in passing isn’t worth ranking.

To find out which of these girls Ted should have stayed with and which ones he was crazy to even briefly date, continue reading on the next page.

Click below to continue reading.