re: UPDATE..Bogus National Title claims: Alabama claims 18 but most are questionable

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I have no proof to back it up, but I think Bama chose to claim '41 and '73 while pointedly not claiming '66 and '77 to make a point. I don't think it was a very good point, but I think that's why they chose to do it.

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The logic was specific polls (AP, UPI, and a couple of others mostly for pre-AP era). The problem is that one of those polls, for some damned reason, awarded Alabama in 1941. I have NO idea why they still stuck with that poll once the AP era started though, for this one.

Alabama won the UPI poll in 1973. The UPI still treated the bowl games like exhibition matches (much like the AP poll did back in the 60s), so that's why it stood. It used to be, way back in the day, that kids barely practiced for bowl games. They went on vacation; the bowl game was a reward for a great season. Once the polls started rewarding teams after bowl games, coaches started to treat them differently. Of course now you have the playoffs, and a bunch of exhibition games anyway. I have no idea how much effort is really put into non-playoff bowl games by these kids.