College football national championships have a long, celebrated, but also confusing and controversial history dating back to the first title in 1869. Unlike other 草莓网站在线看 divisions, sports and subdivisions, there is no FBS national championship not sanctioned by the 草莓网站在线看, which helped give rise to the nickname the "mythical national championship."
The highest level of college football, formerly known as Division I-A and currently referred to as the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision), has undergone multiple iterations of national championship formats. This article will break down the various formats used and highlight some of the pivotal moments of the sport's history, including polls, split polls, the BCS and more.
Pre-1936 (Retroactive era)
This era of college football is one of the most disputed periods in the sport's history. All titles before 1936, when the Associated Press poll was created, were retroactively assigned by various historian polls. The three polls that led this charge were the NCF (National Championship Foundation), HAF (Helms Athletic Foundation) and the CFRA (College Football Researchers Association). These polls continued to create rankings past 1936, but they are not recognized as authoritative.
馃弳 HISTORY: Every FBS national champion since 1869
To give context to this early period of college football, Rutgers and Princeton are recognized now as splitting the national championship in the inaugural season of the sport in 1869. The two schools competed in a home-and-away series, each team winning at home. Two total games 鈥 and two national champions.
Of course, the sport expanded quickly, with Minnesota capturing the 1935 title, finishing 8-0. This was also the first year of the Heisman Trophy, taken home by Chicago running back Jay Berwanger.
Team picture of 1935 Minnesota football. The Gophers won three straight titles from 1934-1936.
1936-1949 (AP poll era)
The AP poll ushered in the first semblance of order to the college football national championship, as there was now a body of sportswriters that decided the champion after the conclusion of the regular season each year, rather than decades later. However, as with every era, this one still has plenty of its own controversy.
For this 14-year range, the AP poll was the only poll recognized, naming a national champion at the end of the regular season. This stemmed plenty of debate, as many seasons, multiple teams would finish undefeated and the AP poll would pick the one it believed was the best.
It was a step in the right direction, but it was only the beginning of an endless search for the near-impossible goal of a perfect postseason format.
1950-1992 (Split poll era)
Starting in 1950, the UPI (United Press International) formed the first coaches' poll in college football, a poll entirely voted on by college coaches across the country. This newly recognized poll rivaled the AP poll, creating the first opportunity for two polls to crown different national champions.
The first four years were smooth, as the polls agreed on a consensus national champion at the end of the regular season, but in 1954, this system hit its first of many speed bumps. The 1954 season ended with undefeated Ohio State and UCLA teams, and the AP poll crowned the Buckeyes, while the UPI crowned the Bruins. This led to the first split title since the creation of the AP poll.
As the seasons passed, more recognized polls were formed, such as the FWAA and the NFF, creating more opportunities for different national champions. This led to the first three-team split between Alabama, Arkansas and Notre Dame in 1964. Alabama was named the AP national champion after an undefeated regular season, but the Tide lost to Texas in the Orange Bowl, finishing with one loss.
Alabama and Texas lineup in the 1964 Orange Bowl.
Arkansas finished the season as the only undefeated team after knocking off Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl. The Razorbacks had also previously beaten Texas in the regular season, so the FWAA named them the 1964 national champions. And for the third title, the NFF named the Irish national champions after finishing 9-1 on the year. However, Notre Dame does not claim this title.
This clearly incited chaos amongst teams and fans, so for the first time in 1965, the AP decided to release its final poll following the conclusion of bowl games, rather than at the end of the regular season. The AP poll switched back to its pre-bowl game release format from 1966-67, but it adopted the post-bowl game release permanently in 1968.
Split titles were already a problem before this change from the AP, but the post-bowl release change really exposed the need for a national championship game. The major conferences had bowl obligations, such as SEC to the Sugar Bowl, Big Ten and Pac-10 to the Rose Bowl and Southwest to the Cotton Bowl. So if you had an SEC team ranked No. 1 and a Big Ten team at No. 2, it was impossible for them to match up in a bowl game because of these bowl ties. The polls, including the AP, would just choose a champion between the major bowl winners, stirring debate at the end of each season.
However, there were rare times when, by chance, No. 1 and No. 2 would match up as independents, as Miami and Penn State did in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl during the 1980s had no conference ties, so it could serve as a de facto national championship for independents or conferences with no bowl obligations.
As major independents, such as Miami and Penn State, began joining conferences, this possibility became near impossible, which brought on the push for bowl organizations in the 1990s.
But we can't move past the split poll era without discussing possibly the most bizarre season in college football history in 1969. In the final week of the regular season, No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Arkansas, per the AP poll, were set to face off on Dec. 6. The two schools had built a strong rivalry in the 1960s, either sharing or winning the Southwest Conference title eight of the previous 10 years.
LEGACY: Every Heisman Trophy winner since 1935
The matchup, usually played in October, was moved to the final week of the regular season after ABC television persuaded Arkansas to move it with the promise that President Richard Nixon would attend. President Nixon declared this matchup the national championship game, even though, at the time, a recognized title game did not exist. Texas completed a 14-0 comeback after three quarters to win 15-14, and Nixon awarded the Longhorns a plaque declaring them "The number-one football team in college football's one-hundredth year."
Richard Nixon awards Texas a national championship plaque.
To this day, this is one of the most-watched college football games per TV in American history, as over half of the TV sets in the country were tuned in to this matchup.
But Texas wasn't the only undefeated team.
Texas would go on to win the Cotton Bowl, finishing undefeated alongside Penn State. The Longhorns were the consensus national champion in the polls, but it is still debated whether Penn State should have earned a share of the title.
The following season, in 1970, was plagued by yet another three-way title split, and college football would see three more title shares between 1971 and 1989, until it reached its breaking point in the 90s.
1992-1994 (Bowl Coalition era)
After back-to-back seasons of split titles in 1990 and 1991, fans, teams and America were calling for a change. The poll system had run its course. People wanted a national championship game. One game, ideally between the top-two teams in the nation at the end of the regular season, in a winner-take-all title matchup. No presidential declarations. A real system, with set rules to produce a definitive result.
The Bowl Coalition was the first attempt at this dream. They formed an agreement with major bowls, such as the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Cotton, to potentially host the national championship, allowing teams to forgo their conference tie-ins with the bowl games in order to match up No. 1 and No. 2 in the polls.
Everything went to plan for the first two years, with the Sugar and Orange Bowls hosting No. 1 and No. 2 in consecutive seasons, but in year three, the dream crumbled for the same main reason the next effort would fail 鈥 the Rose Bowl.
The annual matchup between the Big Ten and Pac-10 champion was the proverbial thorn in the side of college football's national championship dream. It refused to relinquish control to the Bowl Coalition because it held the biggest fan base, the most lucrative TV deal and a coveted New Year's Day time slot.
It was the most recognizable bowl with the largest audience and the richest history. Legendary Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler had a memorable quote encapsulating his view of the Rose Bowl and the prospect of a national championship game.
"If there are any Big Ten teams that shoot for a national championship, they're damn fools...You play to win the Big Ten championship, and if you win it and go to the Rose Bowl and win it, then you've had a great season. If they choose to vote you number one, then you're the national champion. But a national champion is a mythical national champion, and I think you guys ought to know that. It's mythical," Bo Schembechler, 1989.
In 1994, undefeated Penn State was No. 2 in the polls and the Big Ten champion. The Nittany Lions were contractually obligated to play in the Rose Bowl, giving No. 3 Miami a berth in the title game against No. 1 Nebraska. The Cornhuskers defeated Miami, and the next day, Penn State took down Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Nebraska was named the national champion, but it was a controversial ending, as many called for a split title, believing Penn State also deserved title recognition as the undefeated Rose Bowl champion.
That offseason, the Bowl Coalition was disbanded, and the Bowl Alliance would take its shot at creating a national championship system.
1995-1997 (Bowl Alliance era)
A similar system with the same issue 鈥 the Rose Bowl. It, of course, had other issues, such as not recognizing mid-majors for potential at-large bids in the Bowl Alliance, but the main issue rang true. It only lasted three seasons, just as its predecessor, as two of the three years did not feature a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in the polls.
The breaking point came in the final year of the Bowl Alliance, as fans were subjected to another split title. No. 1 Michigan finished undefeated and took home the Rose Bowl against Washington State, while No. 2 Nebraska knocked off No. 3 Tennessee in the Bowl Alliance's championship game. The polls split, and college football was back where it started in 1991 with split titles.
But change was finally coming, as the sport ushered in the BCS era in 1998.
1998-2013 (Bowl Championship Series)
Finally. The original BCS held four bowl games (Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Rose) and eight teams. The six major conference champions (SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Pac-10, Big East and Big 12) received auto-bids, and the remaining two spots were at-large bids. No. 1 and No. 2 would compete in the title game regardless of conference or bowl ties.
The BCS rankings were made up of two human polls, the AP and Coaches', and computer rankings that factored in elements such as strength of schedule and margin of victory.
Every poll agreed to recognize the winner of the BCS national championship as the champion 鈥 except the AP poll. The most popular and historic poll of them all would not sign off on the new system. Now this wasn't nearly as big a problem as the previous administrations had with the Tournament of Roses, but it would come up at a later date.
Nevertheless, the 1998 regular season was coming to an end, and the BCS was on a collision course for its biggest flaw to be exposed in year one. Kansas State, Tennessee and UCLA were all undefeated heading into December 鈥 with Kansas State ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll but No. 3 in the BCS. What happens if three power conference champions finish undefeated? Well, the BCS dodged that question in year one as Kansas State fell to Texas A&M and UCLA lost to Miami (Fla.) 鈥 a game moved from its original date in September because Hurricane Georges 鈥 boosting No. 4 Florida State up to No. 2 to take on No. 1 Tennessee.
K-State dropped to No. 3 in the polls, but because of the original BCS system, the Wildcats ended up missing out on a BCS bowl game entirely. This led to the Kansas State rule, stating top four teams automatically qualify for a BCS bowl.
Now, fast forward to 2003. There had been controversy over the past four seasons, with fans and teams arguing for certain programs to be in the title game over others. But that was expected and almost unavoidable. However, the 2003-04 season is when the BCS ran into its first real problem.
The main goal of BCS was to establish a recognized national championship game and eliminate split titles. Well, because of the AP poll, the 2003 title was split between LSU and Southern Cal. In the final polls before bowl selection, both human polls had Southern Cal at No. 1, while the BCS poll had LSU at No. 1.
Head coach Nick Saban and LSU celebrate national championship win over Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.
The BCS ended up matching No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Oklahoma in the title game, with No. 3 USC playing Michigan in the Rose Bowl. LSU won and claimed the BCS national championship, but the AP poll named Southern Cal its champion. This was the last split title in college football history.
The BCS switched to a 10-team format in 2006, creating the BCS national championship game played a week after the other four BCS bowls. But still, the BCS continued to have its controversy over No. 1 and No. 2, bringing in the College Football Playoff era in 2014.
2014-Present day (College Football Playoff era)
After years of "No. 3 should be in the title game instead of No. 2" and any variation of that statement, the College Football Playoff was born, originally including four teams. This was of course, changed to 12 teams in 2024, but the key difference with the CFP compared to the BCS is how the teams were ranked.
The CFP does not recognize any polls, human or computer. It has its own committee that chooses which teams are in and which teams are out. While that is a whole separate point of controversy for some, it seems to have established a system that eliminates the possibility of a split title.
The AP poll can still technically recognize a different national champion than the College Football Playoff produces, but it would be incredibly difficult to convince the public that the team that went through a four-team, and now a 12-team playoff, was not the national champion. Since 2014, the AP poll has lined up with the CFP champion every season. Fans and teams can still argue who's in and who's out, but it becomes less significant with more and more teams.
