Everyone acts like we're the only ones who claim championships back in this era...we're not as there are many who do. And we don't even claim we're the only national champs...we were undefeated and played in the only bowl game they had in those years, winning 3 and the one we tied, we claim a shared championship with the team we tied...we had as good a claim as just 'bout anyone those years...

quote:
'41

Wholeheartedly agree with you here. It's an embarrassment that we claim this one...

quote:
'64 & '65

You can't have it both ways...in '64 they ding us for playing in a bowl game and losing...then in '65 they ding us because teams with better records lost in their bowl games while we won ours (and we beat one of the teams cited, Nebraska). And while I personally think Arkansas has a better claim to the '64 title than we do, there are plenty of other schools that claim pre-Bowl game titles even after they've lost their bowl games. See '50 Oklahoma, '51 Tennessee, '53 Maryland, '60 Minnesota, '65 Michigan State, and '70 Texas...

quote:
'73

Hard to defend this one as we got beat in our bowl game against the "other co-champ" Notre Dame...

quote:
'78

I can see an argument either way here and think this was a good year for a split. Yes USC beat us and at home to boot. But USC's one loss was to an unranked Arizona State team...and their loss came later in the season (shouldn't matter but it usually does). Both polls had USC ranked below #2 Bama before the bowl games and we played #1 Penn State...usually, when #1 plays #2, that's a de facto championship game but the coaches poll jumped USC over us while the AP didn't...

quote:
2011 National Championship – Did not play in SECCG, 3rd in conference. 1st time in history of CFB.

While it may have been the 1st time in history that a team like that won, it was not the first time a team like that played for a national championship. Nebraska played for the 2001 championship against Miami even though they didn't win their division/play in their conference championship game...

The '41 claim is ridiculous...and compared to today's standard, '64 and especially '73 are easy to question/doubt...but I don't see much controversy with the other 12...

This post was edited on 11/14/14 at 3:07 pm