Season of collegiate football in 1920-1921 The Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book lists California, Georgia, Harvard, Notre Dame, and Princeton as national champions for the 1920 collegiate football season. For the 1920 season, only California and Princeton may claim national titles. Both programs were co-eds at the time with female players so they could have tie games. If two teams are tied it goes to overtime until one team wins by more than 10 points. In 1920 both Cal and Pris had ties and there were also three other close games including one between California and Princeton that went to double overtime. Georgia's victory over Cumberland in the Southern championship game is now considered a tie because Cumberland refused to play any further games after losing to Georgia. So Georgia and Cumberland shared the title.
After the conclusion of the 1920 season, it was discovered that some of the women's teams had been using male players on their side. This caused several rules changes for future seasons. From then on, only men's teams could compete for the national title.
In January 1921, an article in The New York Times stated that "a legal battle is imminent" between California and Georgia over who actually won the 1920 national championship. The article also states that if California or Georgia win this lawsuit they will be given an automatic berth in the upcoming Sugar Bowl game which at the time was the final game of the season for determining the winner of the national title.
The 1917 NCAA football season featured no obvious winner, with Georgia Tech being named the South's first national champions in the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book. Undefeated teams included Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Williams, and Washington State, as well as one-loss Navy. Michigan was ranked third.
However, the selection committee had other ideas, naming an all-Southern team as its official national champion. The Southern team defeated Carlisle 42-0 in Atlanta on November 26. This game is now known as the "World Series of College Football."
There are two ways to look at this year's championship. One could say that no team was truly best, or one could say that any team was eligible. Since there was no specific definition for what makes a player "eligible" today, anyone who met the size requirement (60 pounds) was allowed to play. For example, Eben Wilson from California would have been eligible to play in this game.
Wilson was a high school athlete from Oakland who attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo before transferring to Stanford. He started eight games at left tackle for the 1918 Stanford team that went 9-1-0 and outscored opponents by a total of 513-7. After his senior season, he was drafted into the Army early and never played football again.
| 1903 college football season | |
|---|---|
| Harvard–Dartmouth game | |
| Champion(s) | Michigan Princeton |
| football seasons |
Yale Yale was named national champions in the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book at the completion of the 1900 collegiate football season. The New York Herald reported on November 20, 1900 that "a decision was made last night by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to award the championship to Yale University." The newspaper added, "The award was made on the ground that Yale had a better record than Harvard." The New York Times reported the same story the next day.
Yale defeated Harvard 6-0 before a crowd of 12,000 at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The game was the final one of the year for both teams and is now considered a tie because there was no clear winner. The only points were scored when Harvard kicked off from its own 20-yard line and John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald ran it back 57 yards for a touchdown.
Harvard's head coach was Henry L. Williams, who also coached Army to its first undefeated season in 1894. He was paid $10,000 for his work with four games left to play. Yale's head coach was Walter Camp, who went on to create the modern system of college football rankings. He was paid $12,500 for his work with six games left to play.
Since 2000, the winningest programs in college football The Nittany Lions of Penn State are ranked 20th in the country (144-82). The winning percentage is 0.637. Auburn Tigers (154-74; 0.675 winning percentage)Auburn Cardinals (154-74; 0.675 winning percentage) Miami Hurricanes 17, (154-73;.6784 winning percentage)
LSU and Clemson will face off for a chance to capture the 2019-20 national title. Since the 1936 season, the following colleges have won the most national championships in college football. Alabama earned their first national championship in the poll era in 1961, followed by back-to-back championships in 1964 and 1965.
National championships in NCAA FBS college football are contested since the NCAA does not officially award the title. Despite not declaring an official national champion, the NCAA publishes a list of championships won by groups it recognizes. These groups are known as "consensus teams."
There is no requirement that a team have to win its conference to be recognized by the NCAA as a winner of a given season. However, most of the time these teams do represent their conferences well in the national polls and receive some form of reward for their efforts. It should be noted that some schools claim titles that others may consider dubious. For example, North Carolina claims a national championship in men's basketball, while another organization gives the title to UConn because of how long they has been around. There is also some controversy over whether or not Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) was actually crowned national champions in men's basketball in 2013 and 2014. Although they were ranked high in several polls, they were not able to play in any post-season tournaments due to concerns about their eligibility. As a result, many people do not include them when discussing top college basketball programs.
The first official National Champion was determined in 1890 by the Football Association, which is now known as the American Football Association. The association created a committee that selected a national champion based on what newspaper reports they could find.
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