Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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6 SEPT. 2, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FAN FORUM TITLE TALK I believe the national titles listed in the Numbers & Quotes section in the August edition of Blue & Gold Illus- trated consist of the consensus champi- onships that Notre Dame acknowledges. But there have been several legitimate organizations that awarded champion- ships when there wasn't a specific con- test to decide the issue. For example, the Helms Foundation awarded Notre Dame the men's basketball championship for the years 1927 and 1936. The 1964 foot- ball team was one of three teams so hon- ored by three different organizations. Other schools acknowledge and accept these honors and there is no reason Notre Dame shouldn't; to not do so is sort of reverse-snobbery, and fails to recognize the achievements of their athletes. Gene Wytrykus Mr. Wytrykus, you are correct that we included only recognized titles. In par- ticular, the 11 football national champi- onships we listed are the ones recognized by Notre Dame. For the record, there are 11 other years — 10 of which the Irish were tabbed as co-national champions — that are not claimed by the university where various mathematical systems and polls selected Notre Dame as a na- tional champion (some retrospectively): 1919 (9-0 record): National Champi- onship Foundation (NCF), Parke Davis 1920 (9-0): Billingsley, Parke Davis 1927 (7-1-1): Houlgate 1938 (8-1): Dickinson 1953 (9-0-1): Billingsley, Boand Sys- tem, DeVold System, Dunkel, Helms, Lit- kenhous, NCF, Poling, Sagarin, Sagarin Elo-chess, Williamson 1964 (9-1): National Football Founda- tion, Football News, DeVold 1967 (8-2): Dunkel 1970 (10-1): FACT, Matthews, Sagarin 1989 (12-1): Berryman , Eck, FACT, Sagarin, Sagarin Elo-chess 1993 (11-1): Matthews, NCF 2012 (12-1): Colley Matrix Reasonable minds can differ on which years should be counted. Some years, you can definitely make a case the Irish were deserving of being called the national champion. On the other hand, nobody would argue that the 2012 Irish should have been crowned champs after watch- ing them lose 42-14 to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game. BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Letters, Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 or e-mail to: sdowney@comanpub.com Notre Dame was ranked No. 13 in the preseason Associated Press poll that was released Aug. 14. It marked the first time since 2018 the Fighting Irish were not included in the preseason top 10. Here's a sampling of what Irish fans had to say on our message board at BlueandGold.com: SpaddyND: Let's go!! 1988 was ranked #13 to start the season. Nemeth5: Seems right? But preseason rankings are always a crapshoot for the most part. arrowfan624: Let's be unlucky for a lot of teams then. DeeWhy: The schedule provides the opportunity to get to where we all would want at the end of the season. Have no problem with 13. I like this team a lot. I think we go 2 out of 3 in our big three games with the loss at Clemson and despite a loss later in the season, should put us at least in the conversation. Feel like this season is going to be a really fun ride. Hond92: Seems high to me. So much upheaval in the coaching ranks. The head coach is coming of age. I can't tell if this team will kick some *** or sink like a stone. Cavanaugh117: Irrelevant where you are ranked so long as you can play teams ranked ahead of you. If ND takes care of business against OSU, it will vault into the top 5. If ND gets beat by OSU, then the preseason ranking was justified. Bradley_Quin: I predict we lose in the first round of the playoffs this year. I'm more optimistic about this group compared to last year's team. I also think OSU is overrated this year. Think we can upset them. They've earned the respect so kudos, but I expect some growing pains at the QB position for them this season. 53green: We almost beat OSU last year on their turf with an inept TR [Tommy Rees] run offense. They're saying we can't do better than that this year? Uteck42: No disrespect meant to anyone, but preseason polls and All-Americans are so DUMB. The AP might as well start publishing the lottery ticket numbers they feel will come in this draw and what stocks are going to double. Kcndmis97: Seems fair to me, really like the preseason ranking. FROM THE WEBSITE .com .com Notre Dame officially recognizes 11 football national championships, but there are 11 other years when various mathematical systems or polls crowned the Fighting Irish as champions. FILE PHOTO