Posted on 01/10/2012 7:27:09 AM PST by blam
Alabama Ties Notre Dame With Most National Titles In Poll Era
Cork Gaines
Jan. 10, 2012, 9:43 AM
If you want another reason why the poll system in college football is absurd, just try to figure out how many national championships Alabama has after winning last night's BCS Championship game. Alabama claims it is their 14th national title. But according to the NCAA, Alabama has actually been recognized with 18 titles.
The problem, of course, is that the NCAA does not have a system to determine the national champion on the field. Even with the BCS system, the NCAA still officially recognizes the champions of nine different polls and computer formulas each year (in most years, those sources are unanimous, but not always).
To simplify things, let's look at the schools with the most national titles in the poll era (1936-2011) as recognized by the so-called major polls (via Sports-Reference.com)...
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
IIRC, we were ranked no. 1 for almost the entire 1975 season (why not, we were undefeated and had Archie Griffin and Pete Johnson as a one-two punch in the backfield) and then got beat by UCLA in the Rose Bowl (after murdering them out in the Coliseum during the regular season) and finished 11-1. The National Championship was completely mythical back then (even more so than now with the BCS) but I don’t think we ever actually finished no. 1 in any polls that were considered “real”. But by G*d we had some really good teams!
OOPS Make that the curse of the Obamabino :-)
Alabama actually has 14 National Championships. You can find this years’ National Championship Trophies (i.e. AP and BCS) at Bama’s Bryant Museum.
This site is pure baloney. It counts any fly-by-night organization’s naming of a champion as the champion for a given year. For example, Notre Dame did not win the Title in 1993 and Michigan did not win the title in 1985. I could go on...
The University's official count is 14 - the most of modern day powers. This leaves out the tons of NCs won by Yale and others before 1900.
I was fortunate to witness the only head to head National championship game the 1973 Sugar Bowl.
ND Alabama
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