Just how many national chapionships do we have?

#13
#13
exotic_vols said:
I believe we self-claim 6. Don't know how many NCAA says.
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The NCAA doesn't say anything about it, because the NCAA doesn't recognize a national championship in Division I-A football.

The problem with trying to figure out how many national championship any school "really" has is that, for the first half of the history of college football, there's not really any evidence that people thought of "The National Championship" in the same way that we do today. Sometimes the polls were before the bowl games, sometimes afterwards, and the bowl games were treated more as exhibitions than actual games. (I've read that a lot of times the whole team didn't even make the trip.) You will hear old-timers say that winning the SEC was considered to be a lot more important than finishing first in the AP poll. Trying to go back now and apply our own standards in an effort to figure out who the "real" national championship winners were in the 30s and 40s is pretty much a futile exercise.

(This does not keep a lot of people from trying to do it, of course.)
 
#15
#15
Vercingetorix said:
The NCAA doesn't say anything about it, because the NCAA doesn't recognize a national championship in Division I-A football.

The problem with trying to figure out how many national championship any school "really" has is that, for the first half of the history of college football, there's not really any evidence that people thought of "The National Championship" in the same way that we do today. Sometimes the polls were before the bowl games, sometimes afterwards, and the bowl games were treated more as exhibitions than actual games. (I've read that a lot of times the whole team didn't even make the trip.) You will hear old-timers say that winning the SEC was considered to be a lot more important than finishing first in the AP poll. Trying to go back now and apply our own standards in an effort to figure out who the "real" national championship winners were in the 30s and 40s is pretty much a futile exercise.
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thats true
 
#16
#16
Sudeepvol said:
1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998
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It's really hard to see how UT has an argument for 1967. They lost the first game of the year, and then then lost the bowl game. The final polls were taking before the bowls, but USC won their bowl game and UT lost to Oklahoma.

Of course, the way it works now, I'm sure fans of all three teams claim the 1967 title. (Heck, Alabama probably claims it, too.)
 
#18
#18
Two is probably the best answer. 1951 and 1998 are the only two years UT can claim NTs that don't resort to the kind of shenanigans Alabama fans frequently use to claim 12+ titles.
 
#20
#20
It's six, but how the year Tennessee went undefeated and unscored upon and STILL didn't win the NC, is BEYOND me.
 
#21
#21
The correct answer is 4.

This website is the absolute best source, honestly: cfbdatawarehouse.com
 
#23
#23
Sudeepvol said:
1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998
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ROFL - in 1967, one person voted us as national champion - Edward Litkenhous, while around 30 publications voted USC. Not close, don't count it.

In 1940, two systems voted us NC - the Dunkel System and the Williamson System. Minnesota was the clear NC that year.
 
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