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Bleedin' Orange...
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How many National Championships Should Tennessee Claim?
How many of Tennessee's up to seven national championships do you personally count? Before you vote in this poll, consider the following:
Tennessee has been named National Champs seven times. But not once was the title unanimous, not even the 1998 BCS Championship (that year, Sagarin named Ohio State their #1).
There have been dozens of systems claiming over the decades to provide objective, unbiased rankings. Some are more widely known than others. The AP Writers' Poll is perhaps the most famous, with the USA Today Coaches' Poll (previously known as the UPI Poll) close behind. Other systems, like the Sagarin Ratings, have been around for many decades, but became widely known only with their inclusion in the BCS formula.
Here are the seven Tennessee title years, with a short description of who named the Vols as Champs each year (and who didn't):
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1938 - Tennessee went 11-0 under General Robert Neyland, and was named Nat'l Champ by nine of the 14 rating/polling systems of the day. TCU, also 11-0, was named #1 by four systems, including the AP (but the AP poll was still young, just in its third year, not yet the dominant voice it would later become). Notre Dame, at 8-1, got the nod from one ranking system. The UPI did not yet exist.
1940 - The 10-1 Vols, still under General Neyland's leadership, were tagged as #1 by the Dunkel System and the Williamson System (which no longer exists). An 8-0 Minnesota team was named tops by the AP and nine other systems. Stanford, 10-0, was picked by three.
1950 - Neyland's squad went 11-1 that year, and was selected #1 by the College Football Researchers Association, the Billingsley Report, Sagarin, the DeVold System, the Dunkel System, and the National Championship Foundation (total of six). Oklahoma was the first "consensus" national champion in history this year, that phrase defined as selection by both the AP and UPI polls. Oklahoma, which went 10-1 under Bud Wilkinson, got the nod from four other systems as well. Princeton was named by two, and Kentucky got one pick.
1951 - The last Neyland Championship team went 10-1 and was the consensus national champion: picked by the AP, UPI, Litkenhous, and the Williamson System. The NCF, Sagarin, and three others picked 10-0 Maryland that year, while 9-0 Michigan State, 11-0-1 Georgia Tech, and 9-0-1 Illinois each got one to three picks.
1956 - Five years later, Bowden Wyatt was at the helm of a Tennessee squad that went 10-1, and was named Co-#1 in the country by Sagarin. Oklahoma, still under Bud Wilkinson, was the consensus champ with not only the AP and UPI but also 11 other top ratings (including another third of the Sagarin 3-way nod). Sagarin's third co-champ was Bobby Dodd's Georgia Tech club. Iowa was tagged by the CFRA.
1967 - Tennessee went 9-2 that year, led by Doug Dickey. One ranking system, Litkenhous, picked the team #1 at the end of the year. The AP, UPI, and just about everyone else went with John McKay's 10-1 USC squad instead. Notre Dame and Oklahoma each got one system to choose them as well.
1998 - In the inaugural year of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), Phil Fulmer's 13-0 Tennessee team was a near-unanimous #1. The AP, USA Today, and 17 other ranking systems and polls all named the Vols national champions. Only Sagarin disagreed, picking John Cooper's 11-1 Ohio State squad instead.
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So how do you personally decide which of these national championships are most valid?
- Is your approach, "screw it, I bleed orange, they ALL count for me"? Hey, there's nothing wrong with that method! I think it's the method used by Neyland Stadium.
- On the other hand, maybe you go with the AP (or the AP and/or UPI/USA Today). By that measure, Tennessee owns two national championships: 1951, and 1998.
- Or perhaps you like to look at the totality of the ranking systems, "center of mass". If this is your method, you could reasonably claim four championships: 1938 (9 of 14), 1950 (tied with Oklahoma at 6 apiece), 1951 (at 4 picks, including AP and UPI, just one behind Maryland's 5...close enough, with AP/UPI cred, to count), and 1998 (19 of 20).
- Or maybe you personally have a favorite ranking system, and always go with them.
Whicher your way, please put a mark on the poll, showing how many championships you think the Vols have had over the decades.
Cheers, and Go Vols!
NOTE: apologies if this question has been asked and answered before...I've never seen it, but of course I'm still very new...and too lazy to do a detailed search through past logs.
