Alabama still claims most national titles (w/ some sketchy counting) incl 2 MN titles

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per CBS - Bama claims they won the title in 1934 and 1941, not us:

In any other sport except college football, Alabama's quest for another national championship would be a major storyline this week. The NCAA's football record book includes detailed descriptions of every national championship selector and a page that narrows the list by identifying how “national poll champions” since 1900 fared in bowl games.

Alabama and Notre Dame are each recognized as having 12 all-time championships, most in the country. Naturally, the Crimson Tide's quest for No. 13 to become the all-time national champion should be major news entering the College Football Playoff National Championship, right?

Only in college football could the all-time king be up for debate.

Alabama claims a “college football-best” 15 national championships. Three of them aren't recognized by the NCAA, which really has nothing do with football championships anyway and doesn't run the sport's postseason. By Alabama's calculations, it's going for No. 16 against Clemson. Notre Dame claims 11 national titles but could add 10 more if it used Alabama's math.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...st-national-titles-with-some-sketchy-counting

Go Gophers!!
 



Wow that 1941 claim is hilarious: 1941: This is by far the silliest title claimed by Alabama, which went 9-2, finished third in the SEC and was ranked 20th in the final AP Top 25. Minnesota (8-0) is widely recognized as the undisputed national champion by being ranked No. 1 in 12 polls. Atcheson counted a title for Alabama because it finished No. 1 in the Houlgate System, a mathematical rating from 1927-58 developed by Deke Houlgate of Los Angeles.
 



Even Alabama fans that I know, who know college football, think those claims are pretty silly.
 



MN's 1904 "title" that was claimed a couple years ago is as weak a claim as any.
 



Ski U Master said:
MN's 1904 "title" that was claimed a couple years ago is as weak a claim as any.
Click to expand...

That's true - our "original 6" are all solid, unquestioned titles but 1904 is pretty marginal. However, all claims to national titles from 1936 until the first year of the BCS center around the two major polls. If you didn't come in #1 in one of the polls, it's ridiculous to claim a title. Alabama claiming 1941 is ridiculous. Anyone can invent a mathematical system and declare national champions, but nobody in 1941 thought that Alabama had won a national championship.
 

Alabama has a good case for being co-champions in 1934: six of the eleven official All-Americans that year were from Minnesota and Alabama, each team having three. Gophers were 8-0, Alabama 10-0, including a Rose Bowl win over Stanford. But before 1926, when a math professor at Illinois named Dickinson began rating teams (to the satisfaction of Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne) there really weren't any national champions. All the claims to titles back to the 19th century are thin if not invisible (Michigan claims a bunch of ancient titles). The AP poll began in 1936 and was official from the start, with the coaches' poll joining in 1950. The NCAA recognizes a "consensus" champion from 1924 - Dickinson back-dated two years to make Rockne happy - through 1935, when Minnesota was named co-champion with Princeton and SMU by the AP football writer. Alabama has no legitimate claim to 1941.
 

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