How Many National Titles Does Alabama Really Have
By Matt Hooper
Birmingham Weekly
Is it 17, 12, 7 or none?
The question of how many national
championships the University of
Alabama football team has won over
its 117-year history, as cut-and-dry
as it may seem, has baffled fans and
experts alike for generations. The
debate has undoubtedly sparked
innumerable bar fights and other
domestic disturbances over the past
several decades.
Before I attempt an answer – and I
must say that now I’m sailing into
dangerous waters with this column
– we must examine why such a
simple query is turning up so many
different results.
First, realize that the NCAA is a
voluntary organization that oversees
and regulates collegiate athletics at
nearly every college and university
in the nation. For all the minutiae
that the organization handles dayto-
day, one thing the NCAA does not
do is crown its own Division 1-A
football champions – in other words,
there’s no NCAA-sponsored
postseason tournament or playoff.
Instead, they allow independent
bodies to carry out that task.
Second, those independent bodies –
recognized by the NCAA as “major
selectors” – choose their champion
at the end of a season based either
on poll data, mathematical formulas
or other research results. Currently,
there are 17 such selectors:
Anderson & Hester, Associated
Press, Berryman, Billingsley Report,
Congrove Computer Rankings, Colley
Matrix, Dunkel System, Football
Writers Association of America,
Massey College Football Ratings,
Matthews Grid Ratings, National
Football Foundation, Rothman,
Sagarin Ratings, Sporting News, USA
Today, Wolfe and, of course, the
Bowl Championship Series.
In the past, 22 additional selectors
have chosen champions dating back
to 1869 but, for some reason or
another, are not currently in
operation:
Alderson System, Boand System,
Casper Whitney, College Football
Researchers Association, DeVold
System, Dickinson System, Eck
Ratings System, Football News,
Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate
System, International News Service,
Litkenhous, National Championship
Foundation, New York Times, Parke
Davis, Poling System, United Press
International, UPI/National Football
Foundation, USA Today/CNN, USA
Today/ESPN, USA Today/National
Football Foundation and Williamson
System.
This means that at any given time,
anywhere from 10 to 15 or more
entities were crowning champions
each year. As a consequence, it was
rare for all of the selectors to
unanimously choose a champion in
a particular year. How rare? From
1900 through 2006, only 14 teams
won unanimous titles.
To make matters even more
confusing, some of the selectors
awarded their national
championship to teams prior to the
postseason bowl games. Others,
such as Parke Davis, awarded
national championships
retroactively in 1933 to teams that
played between 1869 and 1932,
based on historical research.
So, with that in mind, let’s comb the
NCAA archives to determine how
many times selectors have chosen
Alabama as a national champion
(Note: some of the selectors listed by
the official NCAA records (below) are
not “major selectors”. We’ll sort that
out later):
1992: AP, Berryman, Billingsley,
DeVold, Dunkel, Eck, FACT, FB
News, Football Research, FW,
Matthews, National Championship
Foundation, NY Times, Sporting
News, UPI/NFF, USA/CNN (Note:
Florida St. was crowned by one
selector)
1979: AP, Berryman, Billingsley,
DeVold, Dunkel, FACT, FB News,
FW, Helms, Matthews, National
Championship Foundation, NFF,
NY Times, Poling, Sagarin,
Sporting News, UPI (Note: USC was
crowned by one selector)
1978: AP, FACT, Football
Research, FW, Helms, National
Championship Foundation, NFF
(Note: Oklahoma was crowned by
nine selectors, USC by seven)
1977: Football Research (Note:
Arkansas was crowned by one
selector, Notre Dame by 16 and
Texas by two)
1975: Matthews (Note: Arizona
State was crowned by two selectors,
Ohio State by five and Oklahoma by
13)
1973: Berryman, UPI (Note:
Michigan was chosen by two
selectors, Notre Dame by six, Ohio
State by three and Oklahoma by
five)
1966: Berryman (Note: Michigan
State was chosen by four selectors,
Notre Dame by 14)
1965: AP, Billingsley, Football
Research, FW, National
Championship Foundation (Note:
Michigan State was crowned by 11
selectors)
1964: AP, Berryman, Litkenhous,
UPI (Note: Arkansas was chosen by
six selectors, Michigan by one)
1962: Billingsley (Note: LSU and
Mississippi were chosen by one
selector each, USC by 14)
1961: AP, Berryman, Billingsley,
DeVold, Dunkel, FB News,
Football Research, Helms,
Litkenhous, National
Championship Foundation, NFF,
Sagarin, UPI, Williamson (Note:
Ohio State was chosen by two
selectors)
1945: National Championship
Foundation (Note: Army was
crowned by 14 selectors)
1941: Houlgate (Note: Minnesota
was chosen by 10 selectors, Texas
by two)
1934: Dunkel, Houlgate, Poling,
Williamson (Note: Minnesota was
chosen by seven selectors)
1930: Football Research, Parke
Davis (Note: Notre Dame was
chosen by nine selectors)
1926: Billingsley, Football
Research, Helms, National
Championship Foundation, Poling
(Note: Lafayette was chosen by one
selector, Navy by two and Stanford
by three)
1925: Billingsley, Boand, Football
Research, Helms, Houlgate,
National Championship
Foundation, Poling (Note:
Dartmouth was chosen by two
selectors)
That makes 17 national
championships officially credited to
Alabama by NCAA-approved
selectors. Most hardcore Alabama
fans will stop reading right here.
Should you wish to begin
eliminating titles, start with the
1977 crown awarded by Football
Research, which is not recognized as
a “major selector.” The 1977 Tide
finished the season 11-1 with an
SEC title, but Notre Dame (who also
finished 11-1) beat the No. 1 ranked
team in the nation (Texas) in the
Cotton Bowl.
So now, Alabama has 16 factually
legitimate national championships
from major selectors. But we can
still whittle the total down.
Be it known that the University of
Alabama itself only recognizes 12
official national championships:
1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1941,
1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978,
1979 and 1992.
That leaves out the 1966 team
(which finished 11-0 and was
selected by Berryman), the 1945
team (10-0 and co-selected with
Army by National Championship
Foundation), the 1962 team (10-1
and selected by Billingsley), the
1975 team (11-1 and co-selected
with Ohio State by Matthews) and
the aforementioned 1977 team.
Of the “Other Five”, as the
University refers to them, only the
1966 team is seriously considered a
top contender to be the Tide’s 13th
national champion.
Of course, the 12 official
championships are not without
controversy, either. The 1978 team
finished in a three-way tie at 11-1
with USC and Oklahoma. Somehow,
all three teams won their bowl
games, but none of the bowls pitted
any of the three teams against each
other.
The 1973 Tide lost to Notre Dame in
the Sugar Bowl, yet somehow ended
up splitting the title with the Irish
anyway.
The 1965 team finished the season
with a 9-1-1 record, capturing many
selectors by default after No. 1
Michigan State, No. 2 Arkansas and
No. 3 Nebraska all lost in
postseason action. Alabama, ranked
No. 4 at the time, upset Nebraska in
the Orange Bowl.
The 1964 team claimed four
selectors after posting a 10-1-0
record. However, Arkansas was also
crowned by four major selectors and
finished the year undefeated. The
Tide lost to Texas in their bowl game
that season after many of the
selectors had awarded their trophies
prior to postseason play.
And in 1941 Alabama finished 9-2
under Frank Thomas, but somehow
claimed a major selector’s title
despite Minnesota’s 8-0 final record.
If those five iffy national
championships are taken away from
the bottom line, that leaves Alabama
with seven titles. Seven is the
number recognized by many major
national media outlets, including
ESPN.
Of course, there are a few radicals
out there who claim that the NCAA
system is so fraught with inaccuracy
and inconsistency that none of the
championships, especially those
awarded prior to the BCS era in
1998, can be considered legitimate.
That would leave Alabama, one of
the most historically significant
sports programs in our nation’s
history, without a national
championship to its credit.
Now, I won’t go so far as to stand
behind that theory. But this idea of
the NCAA acting as a failed state is
intriguing when answering a
question as loaded as “How many
titles does Alabama legitimately
hold?”
Fans scoff at the idea of Bama’s 17
national championships, arguing
that many of them were awarded
arbitrarily. Modern-day fans laugh
aloud when told that lowly
Princeton, not Alabama or Notre
Dame, actually holds the record for
most football national
championships (28 from major
selectors). But if we hold the old way
of doing things in such low regard –
non-NCAA entities arbitrarily
awarding championships to teams
based on factors that have little to
do with what happens on the field of
play – what are we to make of the
current BCS system?
In 50 years, will we look back and
wonder why that Boise State team
in 2006 wasn’t awarded a national
championship? What about Utah in
2008? What about Auburn in 2004?
Are we not still using archaic and
arbitrary means to decide our major
college football champions?
So to answer the question: Alabama
has 17 national championships.
Princeton has 28. Auburn has four.
As long this sport is governed by a
subjective championship system, its
fans have a right to be equally
subjective.