• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Ridiculous Claimed National Titles

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
woofermazing

woofermazing

Legend
    • So while catching up with a family member, they made the comment that we still don't have as many championships as Pitt. I chuckled, but apparently they claim 9(?!) in all. So I did some rummaging, Sports Illustrated did a study in the 70's and retroactively declared national champions for the pre-poll years. Based on that, Pitt claims an additional 7 titles on top of the two that are relatively undisputed.

    This made me wonder what are some of the most ridiculous claimed championships. Alabama claims one in 1941 when they finished #20 in the AP and 3rd in the SEC. I'm sure Michigan has some glorious championships earned beating YMCA teams.

    Personally, I would consider any title claim from before there was any concept of a national championship to be extremely doubtful... but hey, whatever helps the teams of yesteryear sleep at night I guess.
     
    woofermazing said:
    So while catching up with a family member, they made the comment that we still don't have as many championships as Pitt. I chuckled, but apparently they claim 9(?!) in all. So I did some rummaging, Sports Illustrated did a study in the 70's and retroactively declared national champions for the pre-poll years. Based on that, Pitt claims an additional 7 titles on top of the two that are relatively undisputed.

    This made me wonder what are some of the most ridiculous claimed championships. Alabama claims one in 1941 when they finished #20 in the AP and 3rd in the SEC. I'm sure Michigan has some glorious championships earned beating YMCA teams.

    Personally, I would consider any title claim from before there was any concept of a national championship to be extremely doubtful... but hey, whatever helps the teams of yesteryear sleep at night I guess.
    Click to expand...

    Pitt claims 9: 1915, 1916, 1918, 1929, 1931, 1936, 1937, 1976, and 1980 based on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_football_national_championships_in_NCAA_Division_I_FBS

    And Yeah, scUM has 11: 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, and 1997

    Using the same data Princeton leads the list with 26.
     
    Upvote 0
    Don't sparty and the varmints have a bunch of pre-1960s titles too? they might not have fallen as far as pitt (minny is close) but it's not like pitt is the only former power that's fallen off the map. I wouldn't be surprised if in 40-50 years ppl are shocked that da U ever won a conference title much less 6 national titles.
     
    Upvote 0
    woofermazing said:
    This made me wonder what are some of the most ridiculous claimed championships.
    Click to expand...

    I think that any time that a team "won" a championship without playing a top-2 (or at least top-5) team in a bowl game, it's tough to take it too seriously. I believe BYU won a championship after beating a 6-5 Michigan team around 1984. I was 8 and didn't know enough about BYU, Michigan, or college football, so I don't know how legitimate that one was, specifically. (Maybe BYU already beat the rest of the top 10 throughout the season.) It just looks more impressive when they play a tough opponent at the end.

    woofermazing said:
    Alabama claims one in 1941 when they finished #20 in the AP and 3rd in the SEC.
    Click to expand...

    Ha. I need to check that one out.
     
    Upvote 0
    Palpie said:
    Don't sparty and the varmints have a bunch of pre-1960s titles too? they might not have fallen as far as pitt (minny is close) but it's not like pitt is the only former power that's fallen off the map. I wouldn't be surprised if in 40-50 years ppl are shocked that da U ever won a conference title much less 6 national titles.
    Click to expand...

    Minnyhaha in particular cracks me up. There was a puff piece on BTN a while ago with Tim Brewster giving a tour of the athletic facilities. They had 7 crystal coaches trophies in their trophy room despite only being selected as champions by the coaches poll once since it came into existence.

    Edit: And another good one. Rutgers claims their only title in 1869 in the very first college football season. The only two teams were Princeton and Rutgers. they played twice and split the series, with both retroactively claiming a championship.
     
    Last edited:
    Upvote 0
    Zurp said:
    I think that any time that a team "won" a championship without playing a top-2 (or at least top-5) team in a bowl game, it's tough to take it too seriously. I believe BYU won a championship after beating a 6-5 Michigan team around 1984. I was 8 and didn't know enough about BYU, Michigan, or college football, so I don't know how legitimate that one was, specifically. (Maybe BYU already beat the rest of the top 10 throughout the season.) It just looks more impressive when they play a tough opponent at the end.
    Click to expand...

    I remember the shit

    Imagine Boise State getting a NC for running their laughable schedule and then beating Penn Sate in the NobodyGivesAFuck.com Bowl last year

    one of many reasons to hate scUM
     
    Upvote 0
    Jaxbuck said:
    I remember the [Mark May]

    Imagine Boise State getting a NC for running their laughable schedule and then beating Penn Sate in the NobodyGivesAFuck.com Bowl last year

    one of many reasons to hate scUM
    Click to expand...
    Well you lost me there - kick Michigan because Penn State lost to Boise in the NobodyGivesAFuck? That's kind like this: "Whenever Mrs. Kissell breaks wind we beat the dog."
    https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A0LEVi51FxxVuc0AYhQPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTB0ZjNuMHJ1BHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1lIUzAwM18x?p=We beat the dog when Mrs. M breaks wind&tnr=21&vid=F681A0196A55356A8B00F681A0196A55356A8B00&l=407&turl=http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=UN.608044288749535586&pid=15.1&sigi=11r9jheb0&rurl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZLM31yLYAk&sigr=11bbhaqch&tt=b&tit="10"&sigt=10e5gsna1&back=https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=We+beat+the+dog+when+Mrs.+M+breaks+wind&type=mcy_dnldstr_15_04_sa&fr=sfp&param1=yhsbeacon&param2=f%3D2%26b%3DSafari%26cc%3DUS%26p%3Dmcy%26cd%3D2XzuyEtN2Y1L1QzutByCtBtAtD0DyCzytGtBtD0CtDtGyDtAyCyDtG0A0B0EzztGzyzy0A0D0C0FyB0Fzy0BtA0DtN1Q2Zzu0StCtCtCzztN1L2XzutBtFtDtFtDtFtCtBtN1L1Czu%26cr%3D36785943%26a%3Dmcy_dnldstr_15_04_sa&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_011&hspart=iry&ei=UTF-8&sigb=1corhftpm&hspart=iry&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_011
     
    Upvote 0
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top