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Then Came Television
American football truly became the fans game with the advent of live television broadcasts. The fast-paced action and central focus (the man with the ball) makes football the perfect sport for television. The first college football game to be televised was a September 1939 match up between Fordham University and Waynesburg College. (Trivia factoid: Fordham won 34-7.) Not quite a month later, a pro game between the Brooklyn Dodgers (yes, a football team) and the Philadelphia Eagles was broadcast via television. The Dodgers won that game 23-14. Suddenly fans who lived far away from where football was actually played could follow their teams.

We are the Champions
There’s just something about football that brings out the competitive nature of its players and its fans. At the end of the season, each team wants to be able to say, “We’re Number 1!”

Pro football has a pretty clear system for determining its champion. From 1920 to 1932, the champion was determined strictly by won-loss record. Beginning in 1932, a championship game was played at the end of each season between the top two teams. From 1960 to 1966, two pro football champions were named—one by the NFL and one by the rival American Football League.

When the leagues began a merger in 1966, the two league champions competed in a world championship game. On January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the first of what we now call the Super Bowls. It wasn’t until the fifth championship game that the name Super Bowl was officially used.

Beginning in 1970, the newly merged league was divided into two conferences—the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. Conference champions are determined through a series of playoffs. The conference champions meet in the Super Bowl, one of the most widely watched sporting events in the world.

College has experimented with many systems for determining a national champion. Every year since 1869, a college football champion has been named using various polls or research foundations. The National Collegiate Athletic Association list no less than 34 separate polls and ranking systems that have been used to determine what some call the “mythical championship “ title. In many years, more than one team is named champion.

Currently, college teams compile points through a complicated system that looks at records, scores, polls, strength of schedule and the color of the coach’s eyes. (Just kidding on that last one—kind of.) The top teams as determined by this elaborate system are invited to Bowl Championship Series games with the system ideally matching up the first and second ranked teams. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out so smoothly and fans constantly debate who truly deserves the title of national champion.

As we said at the outset, American football has always been a confusing game.

Since 1869, College Football has relied on various polls and ranking systems to determine a national champion. Today, the team determined to bethe champion is awarded the Sears Trophey which is topped by the crystal football show at right

College Championships

Year Team 1869, 70 Princeton 1871 No Champion Named 1872, 73 Princeton 1874 Yale 1875 Princeton, Harvard 1876, 77 Yale 1878, 79 Princeton 1880 Yale, Princeton 1881, 82, 93, 84 Yale 1885 Princeton 1886,87,88 Yale 1889 Princeton 1890 Harvard 1891, 92 Yale 1893 Princeton 1894 Yale 1895 Penn 1896 Princeton, Lafayette 1897 Penn 1898, 99 Harvard 1900 Yale 1901, 02 Michigan 1903 Princeton 1904 Penn 1905 Chicago 1906 Princeton 1907 Yale 1908 Penn 1909 Yale 1910 Harvard, Pittsburgh 1911 Princeton, Penn State 1912 Harvard, Penn State 1913 Harvard 1914 Army 1915 Cornell 1916 Pittsburgh 1917 Georgia Tech 1918 Pittsburgh, Michigan 1919 Harvard, Illinois, Notre Dame 1920 California 1921 California, Cornell 1922 Princeton, California, Cornell 1923 Illinois, Michigan 1924 Notre Dame 1925 Alabama 1926 Alabama, Stanford 1927 Illinois 1928 Georgia Tech, Southern California 1929, 30 Notre Dame 1931, 32 Southern Cal 1933 Michigan 1934 Minnesota, Alabama 1935, 36 Minnesota 1937 Pittsburgh 1938 TCU 1939 Texas A & M 1940, 41 Minnesota 1942 Ohio State, Georgia 1943 Notre Dame 1944, 45 Army 1946, 47 Notre Dame 1948 Michigan 1949 Notre Dame 1950 Oklahoma 1951 Tennessee 1952 Michigan State 1953 Maryland 1954 Ohio State, UCLA 1955, 56 Oklahoma 1957 Auburn, Ohio State 1958 LSU 1959 Syracuse 1960 Minnesota 1961 Alabama 1962 Southern Cal 1963 Texas 1964 Alabama 1965 Alabama, Michigan State 1966 Notre Dame 1967 Southern Cal 1968 Ohio State 1969 Texas 1970 Nebraska, Texas 1971 Nebraska 1972 Southern Cal 1973 Notre Dame, Alabama 1974 Oklahoma, Southern Cal 1975 Oklahoma 1976 Pittsburgh 1977 Notre Dame 1978 Alabama, Southern Cal 1979 Alabama 1980 Georgia 1981 Clemson 1982 Penn State 1983 Miami 1984 BYU 1985 Oklahoma 1986 Penn State 1987 Miami 1988 Notre Dame 1989 Miami 1990 Colorado, Georgia Tech 1991 Miami, Washington 1992 Alabama 1993 Florida State 1994, 95 Nebraska 1996 Florida 1997 Michigan, Nebraska 1998 Tennessee 1999 Florida State 2000 Oklahoma 2001 Miami 2002 Ohio State 2003 Southern Cal, LSU 2004 USC 2005 Texas 2006 Florida 2007 LSU (Louisiana State University) 2008 Florida

Since its inception in 1920, the NFL has crowned a champion team each year. Until 1932, the championsip was awarded to the team with the best record. Beginning in 1933, the champion was determined by a game between the two teams with the best records. From 1960-66 the NFL and rival AfL each named champions. What we know today as the Super Bowl was first played in January 1967.

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