National Bowling Day 2024 is on Friday, August 9, 2024: What qualifies as a "real" football national championship?

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What qualifies as a "real" football national championship?

The NCAA does not recognize a National Champion. They do, however recognize voting bodies that pick National Champions. Which entities those are, I'm not sure, but this site seems to be the fairest, most unbiased assessment I have seen. Note how they recognize 11 NT's for Bama instead of the 12 the University claims?

Of course, nowadays we have the BCS as the absolute, but in the day, it was different as we all know.

Alright deacon... here we go.

1925 10-0 - An undefeated, unknown Alabama team went on the road to play in the Rose Bowl(the ONLY Bowl at the time) and beat a heavily favored Washington team to end the season a perfect 10-0. A very much deserved NT.

1926 9-0-1 - A split Championship with Stanford whom they tied in their second straight Rose Bowl appearance. A deserved split title.

1930 10-0 - Yet another victory over a PAC-10 team in the Rose blanking Washington St 24-0. A very deserved title. Did I mention that the Rose was the ONLY bowl of the time?

1934 10-0- Yet another Rose Bowl win and another perfect season. They owned the PAC 10 teams of the time.

1941 9-2 - Touche. I don't agree with the University's claim here either.

1961 11-0 - Probably the best Bama squad ever. There is no doubt about this season. The defense gave up only 2.6 points per game.

1964 10-1 - Things were the way they were. Oklahoma claims a NT from 1950 when they lost to a Bryant coached Kentucky game in the Sugar. USC and Notre Dame had similar instances, among many others. It's the way things were, but I'll give you questionable. But, if you are gonna take Bama's, you gotta take everyone elses claims of similar nature. That is a lot of rewriting of history, my friend.

1965 9-1-1 - They lost by one point to Ga in their only loss and beat Nebraska handily in the Orange. They had only lost 6 games in the previous 6 years. C'mon man, people that voted at the time were aware of Bama's dominance. I'm sure this swayed their opinions. Bama was a freakin force in the 60's. Just look at '66. No one ever talks about how an undefeated Bama team wound up #2 to a once tied ND.

1973 11-1 - In fairness, Notre Dame won 24-23 in what many claim to be one of the greatest games ever played, however, I don't agree with the U on this one either.

1978 11-1 - USC lost to Ar St that year. This poll is a true split because both polls were voted on after the game. Again, Bama had been a consistently dominant program and that swayed a lot of voters of the time.

None of the other years are even in question. By my count, that is a legit 10 National Titles. Soon to be 11. Roll Tide!

What have we learned? There is always another side of the story.

You gotta lot of nerve talking about corruption. Auburn was the first school in the SEC to go on probation for football. They enjoy the rare distinction of being put on probation twice in a single year, which no team in NCAA history besides Auburn has ever experienced. They are second in the nation in football probations with five. They have been put on probation a total of 13 years since January 1957, or 30% of the time for the last 44 years. From 1957 to 1995, Auburn was on probation 33% of the time. That's a year of probation out of every three for nearly forty years! Auburn's six probations in that span work out to an average of a probation every six years or so, with an average length of over two years. From 1951 to 1998 -- NEARLY 50 YEARS -- Auburn didn't have a single head football coach who didn't operate under probation at some point.

Coach S - I believe you are referring to the 65 Sugar Bowl which was the final game of the 64 season. The game I am referring to was the 66 Orange Bowl for the 65 season.

before the BCS which bowl game hosted the most national championship games?

before the BCS which bowl game hosted the most national championship games?

If you think NCAA Division I college football championship determination is screwy now, it was much worse in the olden days.

The bowl games had tie-ins with the conferences so often there was little chance of a #1 playing a #2 because those conference winning teams were obligated to play in the bowl their conference dictated. In 1963, Navy played Texas in the Cotton Bowl since the old SWC hosted the game and could invite independents.

But even worse, until 1968, the 2 meaningful college football ranking systems, the AP and the UPI, awarded their "Mythical" championship trophies at the end of the regular season, before the bowl games. The UPI didn't change that policy until 1974. So before 1968, even if #1 played #2 in a bowl game, the result had no impact on which team was considered the champion.

The AP and UPI polls often recognized different champions. The UPI football poll is defunct but to this day the AP still awards it's mythical championship trophy.

But there were some bowl game match ups of #1 and #2 teams.

1963 Rose Bowl (USC vs. Wisconsin)

1964 Cotton Bowl (Texas vs. Navy)

1969 Rose Bowl (USC vs. Ohio State)

1972 Orange Bowl (Alabama vs. Nebraska)

1979 Sugar Bowl (Alabama vs. Penn State)

1983 Sugar Bowl (Penn State vs. Georgia)

1987 Fiesta Bowl (Miami (FL) vs. Penn State)

1988 Orange Bowl (Miami (FL) vs. Oklahoma)

Looks like the Rose, Sugar, and Orange Bowls all had 2 games with #1 vs. #2

idea for a painting on the national day?

idea for a painting on the national day?

Paint a bowl of fruit that is appropriate to the area. Can you do something with figs, dates, and melons?

Also on this date Friday, August 9, 2024...