quote:
At least we have ONE LEGITIMATE one. In the grand scheme of things, not many programs can say that
The entire list:
Princeton 28
Yale 27
Notre Dame 22
Alabama 19
Oklahoma 17
USC 17
Michigan 16
Ohio State 14
Harvard 12
Nebraska 11
North Dakota State 11
Pittsburgh 11
Miami 9
Texas 9
Florida State 8
LSU 8
Minnesota 7
Penn State 7
Tennessee 7
Georgia Tech 6
Michigan State 6
Penn 6
Army 5
Auburn 5
California 5
Cornell 5
Florida 5
Georgia 5
Illinois 5
Iowa 4
Washington 4
Lafayette 3
Mississippi 3
SMU 3
TCU 3
Texas A&M 3
Arizona State 2
Arkansas 2
Chicago 2
Maryland 2
Missouri 2
Stanford 2
BYU 1
Centre 1
Clemson 1
Colgate 1
Colorado 1
Columbia 1
Dartmouth 1
Detroit 1
Kentucky 1
Navy 1
Oklahoma State 1
Purdue 1
Rutgers 1
Syracuse 1
UCLA 1
Washington & Jefferson 1
Wisconsin 1
Of that, you pretty much should just ignore Yale, Harvard, and Princeton, as that was in the very earliest era when there only, what, five schools playing football at all?
That still yields 59 teams out of currently 124 with titles (including them). Of those, a number aren't even in D-1A anymore:
Moved to D-1AA:
Princeton
Yale
Harvard
Cornell
ND State
Penn
Colgate
Columbia
Dartmouth
Moved to D-III:
Centre
Chicago
Washington & Jefferson
Detroit doesn't even play football anymore.
Strip those out, and that's 46 programs with claims to national titles. Still a fairly exclusive club, but a sizable percentage of the total.
On the other hand, there's also the question of the veracity of those poll and computer results, and the fact that the idea of a bona fide title game is only a recent development, leading to so many concurrent undefeated teams in prior decades.
Perhaps it's better to look at only those clubs with multiple titles, of which A&M is one of them. Only 35 in total. Of those with three or more, 30.
It's a dicey subject, but A&M's '39 champion is quite widely recognized as the champion of that year. Only one source lists USC as the champ for that year (at 8-0-2), while two others say Cornell. A&M has the best record of the three at 11-0.