I've always figured that what you, me or the guy next door wants to count doesn't matter in the whole scheme of things. Therefore, coming up with criteria of what counts and what doesn't is a pointless exercise.

What matters more in the scheme of things is how the schools, NCAA and media has viewed things and compare titles on that criteria, though coming up with a satisfactory quantitative measure is not possible.

For instance, the media in general, and most schools, tend to view USC as winning a national title in 2003. While some people steadfastly deny that any title outside of the AFCA title shouldn't count, the prevailing opinion of the time is that USC won a title with the AP poll.

As for the comparative aspect, Alabama claims a title because they won Houlgate in 1941, while Notre Dame won Houlgate in 1927 and doesn't claim a title. It's fair to say, that in that instance, and in others, Alabama is a little looser in their claiming criteria than Notre Dame is. You can say Alabama has more titles, so long as you remember that tidbit.

Something to remember about the NCAA is that it's an organization, not a person with a single opinion. It's not unusual to see opposing opinion coming from the "NCAA". That's because in organizations, you have different people, and as the years go by different people are in the organization.

In 1992, the NCAA come up with criteria about which titles they would choose to count and which titles they would not count. Because this was the official word of THE organization of college athletics, we could take that criteria and run with it, but as different people have taken over the organization, a comparable list today would look different. Even in the "official" organizations, you have varying opinions.

One thing that's very important to me is that you take into account organizations that were highly respected in their time. In the 60s, the title granted by "Football Writers Association of America" were as respected as the AP or the UPI. To me, because they aren't as valued now, it seems silly to ignore the convention at the time if a team chooses to claim it (and all did). In the 30s, the AP used to release the results of Dickinson's poll yearly and the winning team got a (travel) trophy. I see no reason why we shouldn't count that now, even though most people now have never heard of it.

To me, a historical look at "titles" should always include respect for historical viewpoints.

This post was edited on 2/1/15 at 4:13 pm