The Truth About College Football National Championships

The history of crowning college football national champions is a story of chaos, controversy, and creative accounting that spans over 150 years. From Park Davis retroactively declaring champions for players who had already died, to Alabama's aggressive title claims, to BYU crashing the party in 1984, to the BCS computers making decisions no human could explain—this documentary explores how we've never truly solved the championship equation.

We examine the regional balkanization that made comparing teams impossible, the bowl games that powerful programs refused to play, the AP poll that crowned champions before bowl games to protect Notre Dame and the Big Ten, and the split championships that drove everyone crazy. We dig into Richard Billingsley—a country music consultant with no mathematical training whose computer poll helped determine BCS matchups. We explore Colorado's infamous Fifth Down game, Nebraska's 1997 campaign trail championship, and USC's 2003 revolt against the machines.

The college football playoff promised to finally settle things on the field. But after expanding from four teams to twelve, the arguments haven't stopped—they've just found new homes. After 150 years, the chaos isn't a bug in the system. It IS the system.

What do you think? Should college football adopt an NFL-style structure, or does the chaos make the sport what it is? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

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00:00 Intro
01:24 Parke Davis and the Early Years
04:57 The Sportswriters Save Us
06:28 The Two Pope Problem
10:05 The Selectors Multiply
12:06 Bo Diddley Tech
15:29 The Patchwork Years
18:30 The Cold Logic of the Machine
20:13 The Endless Argument
21:33 The Final Movement
23:09 BONUS!