User:Nmajdan/Natl Champs

right|thumb|[[Texas Longhorn Athletics|UT's Bevo with the BCS Division I-A National Championship trophy in an ESPN College GameDay broadcast. ]] The NCAA Division I-A national football championship is the only Division I-A NCAA-sponsored sport without an organized tournament to determine its champion.

Although football is the most popular NCAA sport and the sport in which public interest in the "championship" would be highest, there may be in fact no undisputed champion in any given year. Criticisms lodged against the NCAA D1-A football division include the fact that the final ranking of NCAA D1-A football teams is decided by subjective standards which are often regarded as being arbitrary, much like those in beauty pageants. Many believe that the champion of the most popular collegiate sport should not be decided by polls. The major push for changes to the system is less than a decade old, while Bowl traditions approach a century old. The most vocal supportors of a change to the system are fans, sportscasters, and coaches, while school presidents largely favor the current system..

Since the start of college football, there have been many individuals, publications and organizations that have selected their national champion. Some carried more weight than others. Also, some organizations have gone back and researched those early seasons and retroactively constructed rankings and determined recognized champions of major college football. Some examples of these type of polls include the National Championship Foundation, the College Football Researchers Association, and the Helms Athletic Foundation. Other systems, such as the Dickinson System, used statistical analysis to determine a ranking.

One of the first major media poll was the AP Poll released in 1936. This poll is still in use today. This poll utilizes a vast network of sportswriters to determine its ranking. Another poll still in use today is the Coaches Poll which polls a random selection of 62 collegiate football head coaches to determine its ranking.

The tradition, and the controversy, is carried on today with the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), created for the 1998 season, and its predecessors &mdash; the Bowl Coalition from seasons 1992 to 1994, and the Bowl Alliance from seasons 1995 to 1997. The AP and Coaches' polls, computer rankings, strength of schedule and performance against other top teams were combined into a formula, with the top two teams meeting in the BCS National Championship Game.

Most recently, in 2003 USC did not play in the BCS title game, despite finishing the regular season as #1 in both the AP and coaches polls. In the BCS formula Oklahoma was ranked #1 at the end of the regular season and LSU ended up #2. Under the BCS agreement Oklahoma played LSU in the championship game. LSU won the BCS title game, giving it the BCS title and #1 in the coaches' poll, while the sportswriters voted USC #1 in the AP poll. Consequently, for the 2004 season, the BCS formula was once again tweaked (see Bowl Championship Series article).

On one occasion, the BCS formula has worked ideally: in 2005, there were only two undefeated teams at the end of the season, the USC Trojans and the Texas Longhorns. Those two teams met in the Rose Bowl, and Texas won. The use of the Bowl Championship Series formula, however, has fostered debate amongst those college football fans who are proponents of a playoff system. The term Division I-A was not used until 1978, and before that the term 'major college champion' was often used.

Rankings overview
As mentioned previously, the NCAA does not award a consensus national champion for Division I-A football and thus many polls take that responsibility. The most widely accepted polls in use today are the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll/BCS Ranking (the voters of the Coaches Poll has to choose the winner of the BCS National Championship Game as its national champion so these are one in the same for this purpose). Prior to 1936, determining national champions is more difficult. According to the website, College Football Data Warehouse, the most acceptable selectors throughout history are the National Championship Foundation, Helms Athletic Foundation, and the College Football Researchers Association.

Following is a table of the polls that will be used for this ranking: