By Chris Marler
My job is in social media, and a day like today is what makes me love it the most. I woke up this morning to the sound of my five year old corgi throwing up. I thought it was going to be a horrible day. Boy was I wrong.
Shortly after that, I did my morning routine of waking up, pouring 400 mg of caffeine in some water, and scrolling Twitter. No better way to start your day than with some self induced anxiety. What I found was manna from heaven.
Auburn retroactively claimed four new national championships and seven total. Glorious. I wrote about it this morning, and to be clear I am very much in favor of this power move. Personally, I think they should’ve just made it 19 titles instead of nine and just made the banners to fly around Jordan-Hare without ever even acknowledging it.
Regardless, it’s time to retroactively hand out some other hardware too. Here are some other schools that should start claiming some property today.
LSU – 1908 National Championship
If it sounds stupid, just wait. The 1908 LSU team went 10-0 and allowed 11 points all year. However, our friends at Auburn already claimed that national title after going 6-1 in the same conference including a loss to LSU.
They led the nation in points scored with 442 outscoring their opponents by over 43 points per game. That includes two 80+ point shutouts.
Florida – 1984 National Championship
Florida finished the 1984 season 9-1-1 and were No. 1 in the New York Times and Sagarin, two reputable polls in 1984. Charley Pell’s squad finished the year with three wins over Top 12 opponents by a total of 58 points too. They were SEC champions in a great year for the league. Florida also finished No. 1 in total defense in the NCAA that year and No. 7 in offense. The team was a monster.
The SEC also voted they could keep the SEC and national title trophy before Tennessee’s AD asked for a “re-vote.” Alabama and Auburn voted with Florida, but the vote to strip Florida of the titles was 5-4.
Alabama – 1966 National Championship
Alabama had won the 1964 and 1965 AP Poll National Championships. Then in 1966, they went 12-0. They had six shutouts that season and only one team scored over ten points on their defense all year. However, No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State played to a 10-10 tie crowning Notre Dame as the national champion. Also the only stipulation on this is if Alabama were to claim it, they have to give up at least two others to do so. Them’s the rules.
Tennessee – 1997 Heisman Trophy
Charles Woodson was great, but he did not deserve the Heisman Trophy over Peyton Manning. Manning finished an incredible career with 3,900 yards passing and 36 touchdowns. However, Woodson and Michigan finished their season with three straight nationally televised games against Top 25 teams including two versus top ten Penn State and Ohio State. Northern voters, recency bias, and bias in general ruled out in the end.
Syracuse – 1956 Heisman Trophy
The biggest screw job in the history of this sport happened in 1956. That’s when Paul Hornung of Notre Dame won the Heisman trophy. I know what you’re thinking: surely it was a “best player on the best team” situation? Nope. Notre Dame went 2-8 that year. Well, did he put up gaudy numbers? Wrong again. He completed 53 percent of his passes and had a touchdown to interception ratio of 3-to-13. Yikes.
Brown finished the year with 986 yards and 13 touchdowns. However, he was black and finished behind Hornung, two white running backs, and even an offensive lineman named Jerry Tubbs from Oklahoma.
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