1913 National Champs?

Pretty good article. Lots of history.

I'm not one to really beat the drum on claiming NC's from that long ago, because it seems like every year had 3 or 4 teams that could claim them, but I would have no problem claiming this one. And it says we outscored our opponents the next year 193-0. I wonder why that team isn't in the conversation as well.

He talks about the 1983 team at the end, and it would be hard to really claim that one since the AP was pretty much the end all, be all of NC's at that time, but it's hard to not want to say we have 4 NC's. There are very few teams that have 2 or 3, much less 4.

LINK



The 1913 Auburn Tigers went 8-0-0. Practically half of them were all-conference, or all-southern, and coached by Gentleman Mike Donahue (the South’s Little Wizard), who in 1951 was named a member of the College Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class (three years before John Heisman). They outscored their opponents 224-14 (next year, with even less talent, it was 193-0, seven of which knocked off Midwestern powerhouse Carlisle). They were one of the south’s best teams ever. They were one of the country’s best teams ever. They were S.I.A.A. champions. The Billingsley Report says they were national champions. The NCAA says they were national champions. Common sense says they were national champions.

“When I began to see Auburn’s performance, week by week, especially when I got into November, and could see them outperforming expectations in the last three games, it was exciting for me and shocking for me to see what was happening,” Billinglsey says.
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“Now, I really want to extend that conversation to 1983, because honestly, Auburn was hands down the best team in 1983, and my system awarded them a national championship in that year,” Billingsley says. “So in my records book, Auburn has won four national championships: 1913, 1957, 1983, and 2010. The Auburn Athletic sports information people should be claiming them.”