re: How many National Championships does Alabama really have in football?

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Disagree. 5-6 of the titles they claim are mostly garbage. The Rose Bowl wins included. Especially the first one when they were the 5th choice of the Rose Bowl.

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I had an uncle who played in that '26 Rose Bowl game. It seems that they went out there and back on a train. On the return trip, they'd stop in small towns for coal and supplies. He said that in nearly every town, folks hung up banners welcoming the "national champions" to town and some even had bands at the train station.
I guess you should have been there to tell all those folks that they were wrong....could have saved them a lot of time.

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Nobody sane recognizes 1942.

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What about 1942 does nobody recognize?

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All 'Bama, all the time on the SECRant, right?

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At least with a couple of insecure fanbases.

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At least with a couple of insecure fanbases.

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197.650-196.825

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How many National Championships does Alabama really have in football?

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Is this like a "how many ________ does it take to screw in a lightbulb" questions?

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Despite all the back and forth, and the hypocrisy of this subject every time it is mentioned, here is what I believe is the best answer:

National championships in college football are awarded by polls. Since there is not one sanctioned poll, and not one poll that has been authoritative throughout college football history, we have to either ignore periods of college football history, or go by the most authoritative polls of the time.

So from my perspective, the BCS era national champions are clear - it's the winner of that game, and the AP is irrelevant. From the beginning of the AP until the year before the BCS began, I consider the AP and UPI authoritative. Either/both are legitimate, so you can have split championships. Before the AP, it's a matter of "established" polls, and it's much murkier to claim a title. Polls like Billingsley and Houlgate and others are all we have to go on. But the alternative is to pretend that football didn't exist back then, and that's not accurate either.

So 1941 is not a credible claim to me. I have no problem claiming the other pre 1936 titles, but you have to look at each year individually in those cases and not just go on the name of the poll.

As to years where a team won the AP or UPI and then lost the bowl game, that is not a relevant factor to the national championship decision at the time, and you don't get to change the rules years later because you don't like the method or the result. If you have a problem with the title, it's your problem, not mine and not the team that won it.

There are many other teams that MAY have been the best out there but did not get the opportunity to prove it. Sometimes the system screwed teams. 1966 Alabama was one of those, and so was 2004 auburn. You don't get to claim a title that was never awarded by an established poll, just because you think they "deserved" to win it. In college football, that's the system, and you can claim to be the best team all you like...but national championships are awarded.

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Ftr, Bama has 9 legit claims as the best team in the country.

AU has six.

Real talk, the end.

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You couldn't be more stupid if you bashed your head on a concrete wall for three straight weeks and poured acid in the hole that was left.

Real talk, the end.

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Ftr, Bama has 9 legit claims as the best team in the country. AU has six. Real talk, the end.

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Even in your most biased, illogical, narrow minded thought process, you still can't get Auburn anywhere close to Alabama in national championships. Man!..all that "brain work" had to have given you a headache.

Quite a few.