In partnership with
I got a little sidetracked here and went further down the Wikipedia rabbit hole on unclaimed national championships. These get a little trickier as these selectors awarded national champions to schools, but these selectors are not NCAA approved. The NCAA doesn’t validate the awarding of these national championships; however, some schools still claim them. I scrolled and scrolled and found the section on Wikipedia that lists “Other Selectors” as the bottom tab of the page.
The one that made me laugh the most was Auburn claiming the 2004 National Championship. Not the fact that they claimed a title when they got left out of the BCS Title game when they were undefeated in 2004. That should be claimed, and claim it, Auburn (don't worry, they claimed them all).
The part on selectors listed cracked me up. The Eufaula Tribune, Golf Digest, and the (needs their own Wikipedia page created) People’s National Championship.
The Eufaula Tribune, Golf Digest and the (needs their own Wikipedia page created) People’s National Championship.
Auburn’s coach joked that he hoped anyone would name them National Champions in 2004, maybe even Golf Digest. Well, Golf Digest named them National Champions and made this cover for Auburn.
Golf Digest declaring Auburn #1
I added up all of these titles from “Other Selectors” to see which school had the most unclaimed of these titles. These were a bit weirder, but they mostly didn’t appear as unclaimed national championships on the football wiki page of each team. Sometimes the school actually claimed these, like Auburn or Duquesne. Sometimes these overlap with other unclaimed titles, like Tennessee. The Vols are a weird case overall here too, as they have also been awarded national championships by various notable organizations in six additional years: 1914, 1931, 1939, 1956, 1985, and 1989, though the school claims none of these, and they are here on the Wayback Machine. These Tennessee unclaimed championships are not even listed on the “Other Selectors” page of Wiki except for the 1931 selection. So even my graphic I am about to put up for these weirder “Other Selectors” is only accurate since I say by Wikipedia’s “Other Selectors” section. This sport rules so much. Nothing makes sense and really hasn’t made sense for a very long time.
Here is the Graphic
Most Unclaimed National Championships by UnApproved Selectors
What I want to focus on here is the question or TO CLAIM IT OR NOT TO CLAIM IT for the schools who do not have any national championships.
TO CLAIM IT OR NOT TO CLAIM IT
Up first, let’s look at the Tulane Green Wave. Maybe the Angry Wave is so mad that Tulane hasn’t claimed a national title?
1929 Tulane - Finished 9-0 and won the SoCon at 6-0. The awarded national champions were Notre Dame at 9-0, USC at 10-2 (unclaimed title) with a win over 8-1 Pitt in the Rose Bowl (who claims the title). Tulane was invited to the Rose Bowl this year to play USC, but the invitation was declined for whatever reason. I remember trying to research why they declined the invite but couldn’t pinpoint the reason. The Green Wave outscored their opponents 279-45 across their nine games while recording five shutouts to go along with it. Tulane was selected by Bill Libby as the national champion that year. Libby's 1975 book Champions of College Football selected a single college football national champion from the 1900 to 1974 college football seasons. Six of Libby's champions, for the years (1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, 1931, 1936), were not selected for that year as national champion by any NCAA-designated "major selector". In fact, many of these are on the graphic above. So this year, Libby named Tulane as a national champion.
VERDICT - CLAIM IT TULANE! UNDEFEATED CHAMPS! HANG THE BANNER IN YULMAN NOW! MAKE THE ANGRY WAVE HAPPY!!!
1931 Tulane - Finished 11–1 and won the SoCon at 8–0. The awarded national champions were USC at 10-1 and the win over Tulane 21-12 in the Rose Bowl, Pitt at 8-1, and an unclaimed one for Purdue. This one is a little trickier of a story here. Tulane was declared the National Champions by Frank Wood, who billed himself as a "nationally known football statistician," wrote a football column for the Wisconsin State Journal carried by the Central Press Association. Mr. Wood declared the Green Wave national champions on December 8th, 1931, weeks before the Rose Bowl against USC. Also, in the mix here, Tulane’s head coach, Bernie Bierman, resigned from the Tulane job to take the job at Minnesota before the Rose Bowl, a de facto National Championship game against USC. You see, Lane Kiffin is not the only coach to leave a team with a chance to win a National Championship. One final factor here was Tulane’s best player was playing hurt. To protect his kidney injury, Tulane captain Jerry Dalrymple wore a special pad during the game. It was reported that USC captain Stan Williamson told the referee to allow Dalrymple as much time as he needed to adjust the pad during a timeout in the name of sportsmanship. So Tulane was declared champions before the game; their coach announced he was leaving but stayed to coach the bowl game, and their captain was dealing with an injured kidney.
VERDICT - Lean to leave it unclaimed. I mean Tulane’s coach was leaving, captain wearing some kidney pad but ultimately lost to USC. Soooo leave it unclaimed or claim it if you want.
Rose Bowl ticket for Tulane and USC
1939 Tulane - Finished 8-1-1 and were SEC Co-Champs at 5–0. The awarded national champions this year were Texas A&M at 11-0 with a 14-13 win over Tulane in the Sugar Bowl, USC at 8-0-2, and Cornell at 8-0. Tulane tied #14 North Carolina and lost to the Aggies 14-13 in their home stadium after the Aggies comeback win. The hilarious thing here is that Tulane was named the national champion by the Houlgate system. They named Tulane the champion at the end of the regular season and then named Texas A&M the national champion after the bowl games. "Tulane was the national champion at the end of the regular season, closely followed by Cornell and the Texas Aggies. After Tulane was defeated, 14–13, by the Aggies in the Sugar Bowl, the ratings were quite different, and the Lone Star outfit moved into first place. To show how the bowl games affected the final ratings for 1939, here are the before and after lists of the top ten: Before: 1. Tulane 2. Cornell 3. Texas A&M After: 1. Texas A&M 2. Tulane: It was quite apparent that the big bowls were helping to name the top teams and the true national champion.” This really cracks me up; it was like Houlgate just realized, Oh hey, teams are taking these bowl games seriously.
VERDICT - Leave it unclaimed. The Wave lost to the Aggies in the Sugar Bowl. No need to anger all of the Aggies fans here about their last National Championship. Or maybe put up an undefeated regular season banner for 1931 and 1939???
What the hell was this program cover??? How are they supposed to play with a baby on the field?
TULANE YOU SHOULD HAVE ONE CLAIMED NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!! CLAIM IT GREEN WAVE!!
Next up, I just want to look at 1936. For those of you who know, 1936 was the first year of the AP Poll. It was a bit of a mess as the poll didn’t really know what it was doing. There are three schools that were awarded National Championships in different manners this year, and I just want to see the differing stories for these teams in 1936. The awarded national champions by the normal selectors were Minnesota at 7-1, Pitt at 8-1-1, unclaimed Duke at 9-1, and unclaimed LSU at 9-1-1.
1936 Northwestern - Finished 7-1 and won the Big Ten at 6-0. Their only loss was out of conference in the last game of the season to Notre Dame, 26-6. The Irish finished 8th at 6-2. The Wildcats were named national champions by the previously mentioned Bill Libby. They beat Minnesota 6-0, who was named the national champion. When Northwestern beat Minnesota, they only dropped the Gophers to #2 and became #1. Then when Northwestern lost to #11 Notre Dame, Northwestern was dropped all the way to #7. Minnesota lost to Northwestern, then beat a 3-4-1 Hawkeyes team, a 2-6-1 Texas, and a 2-6 Wisconsin. So Minnesota didn’t win their conference but were national champs. Also, this game felt like a watershed moment in the history of college football. Northwestern was still playing minimal players likely 22 or a little more and Notre Dame had 52 different players play in the game. The Chicago Tribune newspaper crushed the Wildcats.
VERDICT - Leave it Unclaimed I think… a really bad defeat at the end of the year. It wasn’t even close. Three possession loss to a team who had two losses including a 26-0 to Pitt.
Wildcats appear tired, it felt like another way of saying Northwestern you look like crap. Not nice Tribune.
1936 Santa Clara - Finished 8-1. Their only loss was to #16 TCU 9-0 against Slinging Sammy Baugh. They did follow up that loss with a win over unclaimed national champ LSU in the Sugar Bowl, 21-14. They were named the national champions by the Massey Ratings. No one was undefeated in 1936. Also, one thing here, Santa Clara doesn’t have football anymore.
VERDICT - CLAIM IT SANTA CLARA! YOU DON’T HAVE FOOTBALL ANYMORE SO WHO CARES!! CLAIM IT! 1936 NATIONAL CHAMPS AND UNDEFEATED SINCE 1992!! HANG A BANNER IN THE BASKETBALL ARENA JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT!!
1936 St. Vincent - They finished 5-3. Hold on. I know. You are wondering how. Well, you remember I said the AP Poll didn’t know what they were doing. One AP Poll voter in Arizona, clear across the country from Pennsylvania, named the Bearcats the national champions. This was based on the transitive property. St. Vincent Bearcats Win Title - AP - Paul Michelson. I know we weren’t around in 1936, but Paul was our first member.
VERDICT - CLAIM IT ST. VINCENT!! PUT A BANNER UP THAT SAYS 1936 TRANSITIVE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!! THEY WROTE IT IN THE PAPER!!
The article about the Transitive National Champions St. Vincent.
Hmm Transitive National Champions….. that gives me an idea…
Hey please click the ad here. You may have dark circles from staying up late for Big Sky After Dark or the Hawaii test. No need to buy, just click to help the committee!! Thank you!
Men, Say Goodbye to Eyebags, Dark Spots & Wrinkles
Reduce eyebags, dark spots and wrinkles with the first of its kind anti-aging solution for men.
Based on advanced dermatological research, Particle Face Cream helps keep your skin healthy and youthful, ensuring you look and feel your best every day.
Get 20% off and free shipping now with the exclusive promo code BH20!
