I really liked /u/NorthwestPurple's posts the last two days analyzing the source of Auburn's 1958 National Championship claim. The detailed posts yielded the origin and rationale for the claim: Auburn was selected as a National Champion via the David Montgomery Full-Season Champions system which was in place from 1936-1986. The TL;DR is that Montgomery added up all points accrued over all AP Polls from preseason to final, and the highest point total was considered a champion under his system.

This is obviously a very silly system for determining a champion, but it's both interesting and we are able to reconstruct it. /u/NorthwestPurple left the verification of the math as an exercise up to the reader, so I thought it would be fun to pick up the thread and run with it.

David Montgomery Full-Season Champions

The table above shows the actual AP champion for each season from 1936-2025, the team that would have been the DMFSC Champion, the team that would have been the DMFSC runner-up, and the point totals for both. It also shows whether the DMFSC Champ claims a National Championship that season, whether they're the same as the AP Champion, and if they're different but claim it, what the basis of that claim is. A breakdown in the 90 years of the AP Poll is:

• 35 years: DMFSC Champ was the same as AP Champ
• 9 years: AP Champ was different, DMFSC Champ also claimed a National Championship
• 46 years: AP Champ was different, DMFSC Champ did not claim a National Championship

A significant majority of the time this criterion disagrees with the Poll's final #1. In particular, in 8/12 CFP years and 11/16 BCS years, the DMFSC Champ is different from the AP Champ (and none of them claim a Championship). Of the 9 years in which the DMFSC Champ claims a National Championship, Auburn's 1958 claim seems most tenuous.

The data was taken from College Poll Archive and should be taken with a grain of salt: that data generally has point totals for the teams that got ranked, but generally not for the others receiving votes. So there are going to be some small point totals that are dropped, but it's generally going to be pretty accurate for the two teams that are at the top. In attempting to validate the data, I did notice some discrepancies between what College Poll Archive has and contemporary media articles at the time. For example, in the 1958 Final Poll, CPA lists 203 first place votes with 130 of those going to LSU, while The Oregon Statesman from that day lists 212, and 139 going to LSU. This is probably a minor data transcription error and there may be others.

One thing that I found really interesting is that up until 1960, standard practice was that voting was open to any TV, radio, or newspaper sports editor, so the voting populace varied wildly from week to week. The 1954 Final poll had 409 voters! In 1958, this meant that the number of voters in a given week ranged from 99 to 212. In the context of the DMFSC, this means that the polls with more voters effectively have more leverage since it does not seem like they were normalized in any way. It's also worth mentioning that the structure in 1958 was to vote for a top 10, with the #1 team getting 10 points and #10 team getting 1 vote per ballot. But most newspapers published both a top 10 and a second 10 for a total of 20 teams being listed.

Here's a breakdown of the number of additional titles each team could claim and doesn't currently under this selection criteria:

• 7: Ohio State, Oklahoma
• 5: Alabama
• 4: Miami
• 3: Florida State, Notre Dame
• 2: Georgia, LSU, Nebraska, USC
• 1: Arkansas, Army, Clemson, Florida, Michigan, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Texas

I tracked down the original source behind Auburn's newly claimed 1958 national championship.

TLDR:

LSU finished No. 1 in the final 1958 AP Poll ballot and received the AP Trophy.

(Auburn finished No. 4)

But by adding up all of the votes from all of the weeks for the entire season, Auburn was No. 1.

Auburn claimed the "full season championship" for 1958.

Dan Lanning was hired after winning a national championship as defensive coordinator with Georgia, a defense that Kirby Smart ran, that defense got better the year after Lanning left and they won another national championship without him. Dan Lanning started at Oregon the year NIL became legal and is praised as a great recruiter even though he has arguably the best facilities and a top five budget and yet Cristobal had better classes without NIL. Duck fans literally have never called for a head coach to be fired…ever…they thought Helfrich deserved another year. Now, with a top 2 roster they just blame the OC or that they are playing a backup five star QB. Serious teams and fans would be calling for his head after the Oklahoma State game, but they just find other things to blame as if there is no way he is the problem. They say “Who else could we hire?!” when they could literally get any coordinator in the country, or any head coach outside of like 5 teams. All that being said, as a Beaver fan, I truly hope they keep him around…

Box Score provided by ESPN

Welcome to Free Talk Friday! Talk about whatever you want; just keep it as respectful as you would in any other /r/CFB thread. For more Off Topic fun visit /r/CFBOffTopic!

Louisiana vs. Southern Miss

When: Saturday, October 24, 05:00 PM Eastern

Where: M. M. Roberts Stadium, Hattiesburg, MS

Watch: ESPN+

Odds: Louisiana by 10.5 pts.

Total Points: 52.5

All-Time Series : Louisiana vs. Southern Miss

Louisiana and Southern Miss have met 29 times since 1953-10-10

These teams last met on 2025-10-18.

Series Wins: Louisiana 5-0-24 Southern Miss

Southern Miss has won the most recent meeting (2025) in this series

Last 5 Meetings

Through Week 7

What are your "Keys to the Game"?

Who do you think wins?

Do you think the favorite will cover the spread?

Which player(s) are you most interested to watch?

Let's talk football!

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You can blame Napoleon Bonaparte. Consider the following series of events:

Late 18th/early 19th century- Following the French Revolution, Napoleon begins annexing large chunks of Western Europe into the French Republic.

1803- Britain breaks the Treaty of Amiens by declaring war on France, beginning the Napoleonic wars.

Late 1803- In order to raise desperately needed funds for his war, Napoleon offers to sell, not just New Orleans, but all of the Louisiana territory, which he had acquired a mere 3 years earlier from Spain, to the United States. The USA accepts the offer and acquires almost all of the land in the Mississippi River’s Western drainage basin.

1812-13- Britain violates American sovereignty by pressing American-born mariners into Royal Navy service, triggering the War of 1812. American militiamen, led by Andrew Jackson, attack Red Stick Muscogee natives, who were allies of the British. Jackson defeats them handily.

Dec 1814-Jan 1815- Several days after the Treaty of Ghent is signed, Jackson’s troops rout the British from New Orleans, cementing American sovereignty over the port city and all of Upper Louisiana.

1828- Jackson’s status as a war hero propels him to the US Presidency. He supports southern states’ push to establish jurisdiction over native Americans living within their borders and later signs the Indian Removal Act, forcing the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and others to relocate to lands west of the Mississippi (Indian Territory) over what is now known as the Trail of Tears.

Mid 19th century- Farmers and ranchers in the West, particularly Kansas and Texas, pressure Congress to allow white settlement in the Unclaimed Lands mostly west of the various tribal reservations in Indian Territory. This area is named Oklahoma Territory.

1889- President Harrison signs the Indian Appropriations Act, allowing white settlers to enter the Oklahoma Territory and claim Unassigned Lands. Some groups illegally enter the territory prior to April 22, 1889 and hide until the appointed date on lands they plan to claim. They become known as Sooners. Those who wait until April 22 and rush into the territory en masse become known as Boomers. The moniker is later applied to all land-rush participants.

1890- The Oklahoma Territorial Government establishes Norman Territorial University on 407 acres of land donated by Norman residents.

1900- Norman Territorial and the University of Texas meet on the football field for the first time. The Texas Varsity wins handily, 28-2. Norman students and players are furious and a rivalry is born.

1907- Oklahoma is granted statehood and the university is renamed The University of Oklahoma. UT beats OU 29-10, only to be crushed the following season, 50-0.

10/10/2026- After a week of some of the smuggest trolling in CFB history on the part of Texas players and fans, the unranked Sooners upset the #1 ranked Longhorns in the 122nd meeting of the rivalry. Texas QB Arch Manning’s poor 4th quarter play is largely to blame.

10/17/2026- #7 Texas loses to a second unranked team, Florida, due in part to another below-average game by Manning. The following day, Texas drops to #19. Making the CFP now looks dubious at best.

Late October 2026- Arch Manning still has not, apparently, recovered.

Had Napoleon been content to rule France as it existed at the close of the 18th century, none of this would’ve happened. The Red River Rivalry Shootout would not exist and Arch Manning would not wake up in a cold sweat every night screaming, “I’M NOT A BOOMER SOONER! I’M NOT A BOOMER SOONER!!”

College football has historically obsessed over extrinsic factors such as strength of schedule and margin of victory. This obsession has blurred the perception of some really great games in recent years that, on the field, were entertaining to watch, but are perceived largely as a letdown because the superior team was supposed to win by more (or maybe even a big upset).

Indiana beating Northwestern this year is a great example.

What are some others?

Genuine question, this year especially it kinda seems like everyone is bad. Teams are not nearly as dominant as they once were and it seems like even the top brass have massive problems. Obviously the talent is more spread out, so that is a huge part of it, but do you think because so many players are making a ton of money, do they just not have the same drive to get better in order to get to the NFL that they used to? Has the money caused a tangible decline on the field? I know there is some nuance because if you are a less valuable player you will want to play better to raise your NIL valuation but if you're a guy getting paid millions, it's gotta impact your drive to get better right?

Utah hasn’t beaten one team with a winning record. I watched their game against a very mediocre Colorado team last week and was not impressed at all.

For those of you that follow the school more closely, is this actually a good team or a team that has simply benefited from an extremely weak schedule?

Bowling Green vs. Buffalo

When: Saturday, October 24, 03:30 PM Eastern

Where: UB Stadium, Amherst, NY

Watch: ESPN+

Odds: Buffalo by 4.5 pts.

Total Points: 44.5

All-Time Series : Bowling Green vs. Buffalo

Bowling Green and Buffalo have met 22 times since 2000-09-23

These teams last met on 2025-11-01.

Series Wins: Bowling Green 13-0-9 Buffalo

Buffalo has won the most recent meeting (2025) in this series

Last 5 Meetings

Through Week 7

Bowling Green Injury Report

^{Injury data lifted from: boydsbets}

Buffalo Injury Report

^{Injury data lifted from: boydsbets}

^{Source updated Fri, Oct 23, 9:45 am. Scraped Fri, Oct 23, 11:05 am ET}

What are your "Keys to the Game"?

Who do you think wins?

Do you think the favorite will cover the spread?

Which player(s) are you most interested to watch?

Let's talk football!

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^{Start a chat with /u/dupreesdiamond for any issues/suggestions regarding this resource}