Good post. The NCAA was created I think in 1936. Anything before that is called a retro-active championship and is not a real championship. Starting in 1936 the only legitimate championship was the AP championship, followed later by the UPI championship. All the others were second-rate and not real championships.
A lot of the others were created to level out the biased media. I cant remember what book I read it in but it has conversations with AP guys back in the days. If you think their is some bias against schools now the media was out of control back then. Basically all southern schools, or schools that were segregated were placed behind any equal team with an equal record, unless they flat out dominated. The man, who I believe was from Ohio, felt most of his peers cast their vote by in line with their political views. Ill see if I can find that book.
Mandel's? I'd posted this from it earlier but it didn't draw too much interest but I'll repost only cause it's thread related and may be the book you're referring to. The whole dam thing was evolved from wanting to be controversial.
It was not that one but that was pretty interesting. It was a book on college football that I received when my grandfather passed away that had stories from guys that were behind the scenes in the fifties, sixties, and seventies. They commented on Bryant and Wally Butts and all that fun stuff that took place back in the days. But is was interesting, and not of the conspiracy theory type. They just mentioned that the polls were pretty much bs back then -- especially when schools like Notre Dame were involved (not that they didn't deserve it, just that others didn't get a fair shot).
Mandel touches on Notre Dame along those lines too. Think it was in the BCS deal. Pretty good read. If you find the other book's name and if you don't mind, shoot me a pm, I could use something else to read.
No, I wasn't. The UPI has always been second banana to the AP and both are meaningless since the BCS was created. The coaches poll has always been among the most biased. Until very recently, their personal votes were not published. Some would put their rivals at the bottom or leave them off and vote their own team very high. Regional and conference biases were rampant.
I'm not here to challenge your 1958 championship, just here to challenge the "undisputed" part. http://www.sportswriters.net/fwaa/awards/rice/winners/ We have the 1958 Grantland Rice trophy on display in the Hawkeye Trophy Room, along with our other 23 national championships (mostly wrestling, but hey....), the same Grantland Rice Trophy that sits in your facilities for last season. The Grantland Rice trophy was one of the few awarded after the bowl season back then, which included our 35-12 win over Joe Kapp's Cal team. I think you guys edged Clemson that year, 6-0. Anyway, just challenging the "undisputed" part....
Must have been a great feeling back then for that Iowa team. Getting awarded the Grantland Rice Trophy even though they had a loss and a tie (8-1-1). Meanwhile there was a 11-0 LSU team....... FAIL By the way, LSU beat Clemson 7-0.
