In 1940, four major college football teams finished undefeated.</p>
The Minnesota Golden Gophers finished 8-0 after an impressive win over 7-1 Michigan. The Stanford Indians finished 10-0 after a Rose Bowl win over 8-2 Nebraska. The Boston College Eagles ended the season with a Sugar Bowl win over previously undefeated Tennessee to finish 11-0.</p>
Our Mississippi State Bulldogs finished the season 10-0-1. The tie came against Auburn in Birmingham, and the season ended with an Orange Bowl win over 8-2 Georgetown.</p>
The SEC was mathematically a stronger conference than any of the other undefeated teams' conferences. Boston College scored the most points per game, while MSU allowed the fewest.</p>
With no playoff system or BCS, the only way to determine a national champion was for polls to just pick one. And back then, the final polls came out before the bowls, so sometimes the "national champion" would lose its bowl game.</p>
In 1941, the AP Poll, the most respected poll in college football, chose Minnesota as the national champion, leaving three other teams without any losses empty-handed.</p>
Back then, sometimes organizations, or even random individuals, would come back years later and make lists of national champions. And today, some schools claim these after-the-fact lists as real national championships. All of a sudden, the BCS doesn't seem so bad, does it?</p>
Alabama claims 12 "national titles." Of course, five of those were declared retroactively by organizations or individuals who had no official power and didn't even exist during these years.</p>
In 1941, Alabama went 9-2 and lost to 9-1-1 SEC Champion Mississippi State yet still claims a national title thanks to one of those silly retroactive polls.</p>
And in 1964 and 1973, Alabama lost its bowl game and still claims a national title thanks to polls that released their final ballots before the bowls.</p>
Two of Ole Miss's three claimed "national titles" are suspect, with only one-man made up mathematical by-hand formulas (Dunkel in 1959 and Litkenhous in 1962). Ole Miss supplements its title claims from those years with after-the-fact rankings released years later.</p>
So if Alabama, Ole Miss and many other teams can claim national titles retroactively, why can't we? Especially when many teams claim national titles that were just lists made by some guy?</p>
I hereby establish an official list of national champions, the "Nelson List." I'll even let you look at it online (no space to print it here) at no cost.</p>
I will begin the list at an arbitrary year, 1935. I encourage all teams on this list to officially claim a "national title" for this year. And look, I even threw an extra couple to Alabama. I'm sure the banners are already being printed.</p>
Seriously, if other teams are going to claim phony-baloney "national titles," we should, too. In fact, until we have a playoff, all national titles are just made up on people's opinions.</p>
If Dunkel, Billingsley and Dickinson can have their opinions flown as banners, why can't mine? It's honestly just as legitimate.</p>
And who's to say the 1941 opinions of the Helms Athletic Foundation of who the best team was in the 1910s is any less legitimate that what I say in 2009 about 1940?</p>
Let's just print the banner and hang it. Sure, it's meaningless, but so are all other national title claims, especially those from the pre-BCS era. But if everyone else is claiming titles and using it to make themselves feel superior, why not us, too?</p>
Oh, to address the message board fad of claiming a 1941 national title: it just doesn't make sense. Don't get me wrong - I bought one of those shirts myself - but we can't claim a title in a year we lost to a team (Duquesne) that went undefeated. It just seems wrong to claim that one.</p> <h4>The Nelson List:</h4> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td>1935</td> <td>Minnesota</td> <td></td> <td>1972</td> <td>USC</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1936</td> <td>Minnesota</td> <td></td> <td>1973</td> <td>Notre Dame</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1937</td> <td>California</td> <td></td> <td>1974</td> <td>Oklahoma</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1938</td> <td>TCU</td> <td></td> <td>1975</td> <td>Alabama</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1939</td> <td>Texas A&M</td> <td></td> <td>1976</td> <td>Pittsburgh</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1940</td> <td>Mississippi State</td> <td></td> <td>1977</td> <td>Notre Dame</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1941</td> <td>Duquesne</td> <td></td> <td>1978</td> <td>USC</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1942</td> <td>Georgia</td> <td></td> <td>1979</td> <td>Alabama</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1943</td> <td>Notre Dame</td> <td></td> <td>1980</td> <td>Georgia</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1944</td> <td>Army</td> <td></td> <td>1981</td> <td>Clemson</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1945</td> <td>Army</td> <td></td> <td>1982</td> <td>Penn State</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1946</td> <td>Army</td> <td></td> <td>1983</td> <td>Miami FL</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1947</td> <td>Michigan</td> <td></td> <td>1984</td> <td>Washington</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1948</td> <td>Michigan</td> <td></td> <td>1985</td> <td>Oklahoma</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1949</td> <td>Notre Dame</td> <td></td> <td>1986</td> <td>Penn State</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1950</td> <td>Tennessee</td> <td></td> <td>1987</td> <td>Miami FL</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1951</td> <td>Michigan State</td> <td></td> <td>1988</td> <td>Notre Dame</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1952</td> <td>Georgia Tech</td> <td></td> <td>1989</td> <td>Miami FL</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1953</td> <td>Maryland</td> <td></td> <td>1990</td> <td>Georgia Tech</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1954</td> <td>Ohio State</td> <td></td> <td>1991</td> <td>Washington</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1955</td> <td>Oklahoma</td> <td></td> <td>1992</td> <td>Alabama</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1956</td> <td>Oklahoma</td> <td></td> <td>1993</td> <td>Auburn</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1957</td> <td>Auburn</td> <td></td> <td>1994</td> <td>Nebraska</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1958</td> <td>LSU</td> <td></td> <td>1995</td> <td>Nebraska</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1959</td> <td>Syracuse</td> <td></td> <td>1996</td> <td>Florida</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1960</td> <td>Ole Miss</td> <td></td> <td>1997</td> <td>Michigan</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1961</td> <td>Alabama</td> <td></td> <td>1998</td> <td>Tennessee</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1962</td> <td>USC</td> <td></td> <td>1999</td> <td>Florida State</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1963</td> <td>Texas</td> <td></td> <td>2000</td> <td>Oklahoma</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1964</td> <td>Arkansas</td> <td></td> <td>2001</td> <td>Miami FL</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1965</td> <td>Alabama</td> <td></td> <td>2002</td> <td>Ohio State</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1966</td> <td>Alabama</td> <td></td> <td>2003</td> <td>LSU</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1967</td> <td>USC</td> <td></td> <td>2004</td> <td>Auburn</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1968</td> <td>Ohio State</td> <td></td> <td>2005</td> <td>Texas</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1969</td> <td>Texas</td> <td></td> <td>2006</td> <td>Florida</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1970</td> <td>Nebraska</td> <td></td> <td>2007</td> <td>Kansas</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1971</td> <td>Nebraska</td> <td></td> <td>2008</td> <td>Florida</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
