Oklahoma State Football just won the national championship. Michigan next?
From 1945.
The AFCA (Coaches Poll trophy organization) recently started awarding retroactive titles from 1922-1949 (they began in 1950).
Oklahoma State--a team literally no one selected in 1945--was awarded a claim to the title by the AFCA.
Army was loaded that season as expected given the war had just ended. Nearly every single selector picked Army as national champions save one who picked Alabama (a title they do not claim).
Now, it's normal for schools to have national titles that they do not officially claim. Michigan could claim 17 National Championships if we claimed our 6 that currently sit unclaimed.
But Oklahoma State claimed it immediately to give themselves their first national title. Not only did they claim it, the AFCA sent them a crystal football trophy...........
The crystal football trophy did not exist until 1986.........
..........
Champions.
— Oklahoma State (@OSUAthletics) October 13, 2016
Learn more about @CowboyFB’s 1945 national championship team: https://t.co/AuKYhli66O#okstate pic.twitter.com/Ad0UpL1mo7
From the LA Times-
“After gathering all the pertinent information and doing our due diligence, it is the pleasure of our Blue Ribbon Commission of coaches to officially recognize Oklahoma State’s 1945 championship season with the AFCA Coaches’ Trophy,” said Todd Berry, the association’s executive director.
Though coaches in 1945 weren't yet voting for the best teams, there were other polls and ranking systems. The Associated Press Poll that year had Army at No. 1 and Oklahoma State — which was then called Oklahoma A&M — at No. 5.
Though the school has dozens of national championships in other sports — it won the 1945 NCAA basketball tournament — this is the first title in football.
The AFCA panel, which is taking a look back at the 1922 to 1949 seasons, expects to name additional retroactive champions.
Michigan could possibly receive a National Championship. That is why I did not make this an OT thread.
Michigan has unclaimed national championships in 1910, 1925, 1926, 1964, 1973 & 1985.
1925 was considered Fielding Yost's best team in history, despite having a loss.
It featured the Benny to Bennie comination and they outscored opponents 227-3 with the lone loss coming to Northwestern.
It was a 3-2 loss where Northwestern intentionally took a safety as the team that took a safety back then was allowed to retain possession of the ball.
Given that and the fact that the West (today known as the Midwest) had the better football than the schools in the South did, I would be more surprised if we were not selected for 1925 by the AFCA.
Alabama claims 1925 where they went undefeated and won the Rose Bowl, but Michigan's schedule featured real programs. Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Chicago. Southern football back then was pretty much scuffling hillbillies.
October 13th, 2016 at 6:47 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 7:35 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 13th, 2016 at 6:47 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 6:48 PM ^
We could be named national champions by the AFCA and not claim it.
The Dunkel System selected us in 1964 and we do not claim it.
MSU claims a title in 1957 where Dunkel was the one and only selector.
October 13th, 2016 at 9:09 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 6:47 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 6:47 PM ^
That's textbook, "Bitchassness".
October 13th, 2016 at 6:50 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 6:54 PM ^
So that makes Central Michigan transitive national champions?
October 13th, 2016 at 7:24 PM ^
I like it
October 13th, 2016 at 6:55 PM ^
I thought you came back from the future WD.
October 13th, 2016 at 9:06 PM ^
.
yes.
.
October 13th, 2016 at 7:00 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 7:39 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 8:04 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 13th, 2016 at 9:06 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 13th, 2016 at 7:02 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 13th, 2016 at 7:04 PM ^
The only way we could get away with claiming retroactive titles is if we slip them in along with winning a national championship in the present on the field.
Then no one can talk.
October 13th, 2016 at 8:16 PM ^
What claim do we have to the 85 title? We finished #2.
October 13th, 2016 at 11:02 PM ^
There was a national organization - I forget which one, but it was a reputable organization that voted every year - that voted us #1 in 1985.
It was not a retroactive vote, it was a real-time vote at the end of the 1985 season.
It's the same basis that all these schools are using to claim these one-off NCs . . . a vote by a peripheral but legitimate organization outside of the mainstream AP or UPI coaches poll.
That's why voting on NCs is (was) a stupid system.
October 13th, 2016 at 7:15 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 10:24 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 7:22 PM ^
Speaking of crystal footballs, what was up with the one they showed during the Rutgers game? I thought those were discontinued when they started the CFP, and why the hell was it at Rutgers, anyway?
Unless AFCA just awarded them the national championship for 1869...
October 13th, 2016 at 7:24 PM ^
It's the trophy awarded by the coaches poll.
So there's trophies for the CFP, AP, Coaches, FWAA and NFF.
October 14th, 2016 at 10:13 AM ^
After the BCS ended in 2013
October 13th, 2016 at 7:27 PM ^
Deadspin article naming a single champion going back to 1950. They list 1965 Arkansas, 1973 Notre Dame, 1985 Oklahoma as the champions for those years.
October 13th, 2016 at 7:37 PM ^
Big deal. We still have the 1901-1904 streak.
October 13th, 2016 at 8:02 PM ^
I wonder if you can win one of these through some kind of drawing or contest for a meager participation fee. Actually, I wonder if - in such a scenario - the runner-up would get a $500 Meijer (or whatever regional chain) gift card or something. It seems like it would be just as valid a process.
October 13th, 2016 at 8:03 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 13th, 2016 at 8:19 PM ^
Oklahoma State, a team literally no one selected as Alabama in 1945--was awarded a claim to the title by the AFCA.
Huh?
October 13th, 2016 at 10:27 PM ^
October 14th, 2016 at 2:04 AM ^
The statement stands as called
October 13th, 2016 at 8:23 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 13th, 2016 at 8:34 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 13th, 2016 at 8:36 PM ^
This seems like such a lame way of getting a national championship.
October 13th, 2016 at 11:07 PM ^
Hell, many of the mainstream NCs were lame too.
BYU has a "National Championship" from 1984 (they barely beat Bo's worst team ever). There is no way BYU was the best team in 1984. Oklahoma, Washington, or Pitt were all much better.
October 13th, 2016 at 8:53 PM ^
October 13th, 2016 at 10:01 PM ^
Can we also go back and remove titles from teams we don't like? Because somehow that sounds like more fun to me.
October 13th, 2016 at 10:12 PM ^
I, too, retroactively proclaim myself a 1945 national champion.
October 13th, 2016 at 10:26 PM ^
You do realize that all but two of the National Championships Michigan claims are also in this general camp of dubiousness, right? Take a good long look at some of the polls, though mostly "Oh, let's look back thirty years and figure this out" systems that were used to figure them out...
But, hey, whatever.
October 13th, 2016 at 11:13 PM ^
550-0 is dubious?
October 14th, 2016 at 7:51 AM ^
Do some research first. Our most "dubious" claim is 1933 when we tied one game. Still undefeated though and called national champions by the Dickinson system at the time in 1933. Not retroactively.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 14th, 2016 at 10:15 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
October 14th, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^
Apparently you haven't done as much research as you think you have.
October 14th, 2016 at 2:02 AM ^
From the 40s
I do not kid
October 14th, 2016 at 8:00 AM ^
Southern football back then was pretty much scuffling hillbillies.
October 14th, 2016 at 9:17 AM ^
October 14th, 2016 at 10:08 AM ^
OSU says they r now national champs from 1945 but back then they were called Oklahoma a&m so guess who just added another one to Kyle field
— Chuck F'n Strong (@ChuckFnStrong) October 14, 2016
October 14th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^