Notre Dame Football: Would Brian Kelly have titles in a different era?

Waiting until after the Bowl Game to declare a Champion

In the decades between Parseghian’s decision to play for the tie in 1966 and that 1990 season, it had become the norm to wait until after the bowl games to declare a National Champion. By now there were a growing number of bowls, and it gave the National Champion a final test or showcase.

The 1989 Fiesta Bowl against West Virginia capped Notre Dame’s 1988 National Championship, for instance. Still, it wasn’t perfect. Not every season was a one vs. two-game, and if the number three team beats the number one team, but the number two team also wins, do you jump the number two team? They could have beaten the number one team, too, but weren’t given a chance.

The point is, it was a flawed way to determine a National Champion, and it always had been in one form or another. It’s still flawed today. However, it was in the era of polls that Notre Dame won all eleven of its National Championships.

The Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance were used in the mid-1990s, but the Rose Bowl wouldn’t be a part of them, which meant that the Big 10 and the PAC-10 weren’t really a part of them, either. Mid-majors, of course, were also left out, as is the standard in college football history. Meanwhile, the issue of claimed National Championships remained.

In 1997, Michigan and Nebraska both made claims to a National Championship. Of course, in 2017 UCF claimed a National Championship and was back by a major selector when doing so. They’re now in the NCAA record books as a National Championship, so the issue remains even in the College Football Playoff era.