Wednesday, January 13, 2016

College Football Royalty - Updated

I originally posted this in 2012 and have been updating whenever the season impacted the numbers.  Adding another title for Alabama and noting that Nick Saban has again taken the upper hand in his unofficial battle with Urban Meyer for best coach in the business (Saban 5, Meyer 3).

As a follow-up to the season I looked at the historical AP and Coaches polls and added them up.  The thing to remember is that until 1968 for AP and 1974 for Coaches, the polls were taken before the bowls, which used to be considered kind of like exhibitions or bonuses for good seasons.  Coaches polls started in 1950 and AP in 1936.  Alabama claims several championships outside of the AP or Coaches polls, which to me are totally bogus.  For instance in 1941 every poll of substance named Minnesota champion, but one obscure poll named Alabama, and they still claim it.  Also, you can make the case that they did not deserve their 1964 and 1973 championships since they lost their bowl games, or 1978 when they split with USC but lost to them in the regular season.  Regardless, I'm showing the official results of the polls below.  Whether some of these can be disputed or not, these are the royalty.  The numbers in parenthesis indicate total AP+Coaches championships and the number that were undisputed.  The asterisk indicates a split championship:

Alabama (11/8) - 1961, 1964, 1965*, 1973*, 1978*, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015
Notre Dame (8/7) - 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973*, 1977, 1988
Oklahoma (7/6) - 1950, 1955, 1956, 1974*, 1975, 1985, 2000
USC (7/4) - 1962, 1967, 1972, 1974*, 1978*, 2003*, 2004
Ohio St. (6/4) - 1942, 1954*, 1957*, 1968, 2002, 2014
Miami (5/4) - 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991*, 2001
Nebraska (5/3) - 1970*, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997*

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