re: Can we agree to the following method for National Champions? The SECR Method

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A problem with this is that early bowl games were usually described as "exhibition" games and weren't even tabulated with a team's won/loss records in most publications of that era. By the 1950s and '60s, pretty much everyone began counting it as a "real" game (and earlier bowl games have been retroactively counted as "real" games as well). Heck, the NCAA itself didn't even start combining stats from bowl games with the regular season stats until 2002.

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Only sort of in the 50s and 60s, but coaches were also told that it still didn't matter in regards to who won the national championship and therefor they allowed players to treat bowl games as vacations.

That's the flaw in the arguments against some titles, as people seem to want to ignore when other teams either voluntarily or were prohibited from playing in the bowl games (basically getting a free pass instead of playing what may very well have been the best team they would face all year).

AP Poll - started in 1968 (with exception in 1965)
Coaches Poll - started in 1974

Years that a team won the national title without playing in a bowl game:
1936 - Minnesota (7-1) - only undefeated team, 8-0-1 Alabama
1937 - Pitt (9-0-1) - California finished 10-0-1 with win over #4 Alabama in Rose Bowl
1940 - Minnesota (8-0) - Stanford finished 10-0 with win in Rose Bowl
1941 - Minnesota (8-0)
1942 - Ohio State (9-1) - UGA finished 11-1 with a win in the Rose Bowl
1943 - Notre Dame (9-1)
1944 - Army (9-0)
1945 - Army (9-0) - Alabama finished 10-0 with win in the Rose Bowl
1946 - Notre Dame (8-0-1) - UGA finished 11-0 with win in Sugar Bowl
1947 - Notre Dame (9-0) - Michigan finished 10-0 with win in Rose Bowl
1948 - Michigan (9-0) - Clemson finished 11-0 with win in Gator Bowl
1949 - Notre Dame (10-0) - Oklahoma finished 11-0 with win in the Sugar Bowl
1952 - Michigan State (9-0) - GA Tech finished 12-0 with win in Sugar Bowl
1956 - Oklahoma (10-0)
1957 - Auburn (10-0)
1966 - Notre Dame (9-0-1) - Alabama finished 11-0 with win in Sugar Bowl
1974 - Oklahoma (11-0)



Yes, I know some of these were voluntarily not going to bowl games (ND, mostly) and some were contractual (Big 10 teams not allowed to play in the Rose Bowl the next year after they had been in one - basically reaffirming the status of bowl games as a vacation and were not taken TOO seriously by the schools), and three championship teams were on probation and ineligible.

There you go.