Notre Dame football team. Mike Bennett/Lighthouse Imaging




Major-college football is unusual among American sports in that for most of its history it had no playoff, no Super Bowl, to determine a champion—just a handful of exhibition-like postseason bowl games. Many of the nation's top teams didn't play one another, leaving open the perennial question: Which was the nation's best? That void spawned dozens of sportswriter and coaches' opinion polls and opaque mathematical "systems," each crowning its own champion. Some titles were so dubious the winners themselves didn't bother to claim them.

But the explosion of college football games on TV has intensified interest in the counting of national championships. Hence, Mr. Atcheson's reclamation of Alabama's nearly forgotten early 20th-century titles. The advent of an actual championship game after the 1998 season has only aggravated disputes about the relative worth of teams' claimed titles—the Tide's in particular.

Notre Dame displays 11 banners and 11 rings for the 11 national football championships it claims. Mike Bennett/Lighthouse Imaging

"There was a time when you could seemingly go through the drive-through at McDonald's in Alabama and pick up a national title," says Paul Finebaum, the host of an Alabama-based college-football radio show. " 'I'll have a Big Mac, large fries, a Coke and a national title.' "

At the same time, Mr. Finebaum adds, "There are few subjects in Alabama that will get you tossed out of a bar quicker than saying some of Alabama's 14 national titles are illegitimate."

As Notre Dame and Alabama, two of college football's most-decorated programs, prepare to meet in Miami for the national championship game on Jan. 7, one of the oldest and most Byzantine arguments in all of sports has been powerfully reanimated. Alabama claims 14 national titles, while Notre Dame counts 11 of its own. There were actually two years—1930 and 1973—when both the Crimson Tide and the Fighting Irish declared themselves champions.

There is no final arbiter in the debate. The sport's governing body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, keeps a list of annual champions awarded by various polls and ranking systems but insists it isn't definitive. For 1981, the NCAA Football Records book lists six national champions. "I have to keep stressing that the NCAA does not name a national champion," spokesman Cameron Schuh said.

These aren't just paper claims, either. In Tuscaloosa, Ala., each title is etched on a granite plaque on the Walk of Champions that the team takes to the stadium on game day. A flag for each title flaps outside Bryant-Denny Stadium. In anticipation of a Jan. 7 victory, souvenir shops such as Red Elephants in Decatur, Ala., have ordered hats proclaiming the 15th title.

In South Bend, Ind., a crystal football signifying Notre Dame's last title team, in 1988, sparkles in a case with the other 10 titles noted at the base of it. Eleven championship rings glisten in a display case in the locker room, and a banner for each title hangs from the concrete ceiling of the tunnel the Irish take to the field.

Notre Dame spokesman John Heisler said that in claiming titles, "We've probably been pretty conservative over the course of time."

Alabama's most disputed title came in 1941. That year, the Tide finished third in its conference, losing to Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. A single syndicated ranking system named Alabama champion.

Even Kirk McNair, founder and editor of 'Bama Magazine, calls the '41 title the "worst one in America." But once Alabama started publicizing its title haul, "you were kind of locked into it," Mr. McNair said.

Tide fans contend that their count is missing at least one title. In 1966, Alabama was a two-time defending national champion and finished 11-0. Notre Dame and Michigan State were both undefeated but played to a 10-10 score in East Lansing, Mich., when Irish coach Ara Parseghian chose to run out the clock rather than risk a loss. Sports Illustrated's Dan Jenkins wrote that the Irish had "tied one for the Gipper."

The Tide finished No. 3 in the AP poll behind No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State, both of which claim that title. Some theorized that voters were protesting the state of Alabama's anti-integration stance, said Keith Dunnavant, author of a book about that season called "The Missing Ring," and of a coming biography on former Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana.

Alabama gained a measure of justice in 1973. The Tide claimed the title based on the respected coaches' poll taken before the Sugar Bowl, a game Alabama lost (24-23) to Notre Dame. The Irish finished 11-0 and ranked No. 1 in the AP poll—and also claim that year's title.

As the sport approaches its first-ever playoff, a four-team version that launches in 2014, interest in national championships has surged—and along with it the number of teams claiming retroactive titles.

In 2004, the University of Southern California claimed the 1939 national title—it now counts a total of 11—based on a single syndicated ranking system compiled at the time by a University of Illinois economics professor.

This year, Texas A&M University and the University of Minnesota claimed championships for long-departed teams. Texas A&M added the 1919 and 1927 titles, tripling its previous title total, and Minnesota added the 1904 title to climb to seven overall.

They owe their championships in part to Richard Billingsley, a football enthusiast in Oklahoma who developed one of the mathematical systems now used to determine the top-ranked teams for today's Bowl Championship Series. Back in the 1990s, Mr. Billingsley applied his system to teams from the past, and quietly deemed several schools champions for seasons hardly anybody remembered. Mr. Billingsley even persuaded the NCAA to include his historical championships in its Football Records book.

That book lists 21 titles awarded to Notre Dame by various polls and services, and 18 for Alabama. But the argument rages on.

"I would tend to give the Irish the edge in legitimate titles," said Mr. Finebaum, the radio host. "But then again, I would never say that out loud in Alabama.''

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