But did Illinois really win a National Championship in football or basketball?
The Fighting Illini wiki page boasts the following claims:
Basketball
National Champions: 1915 (awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation in 1935)
Football
National Champions: 1914, 1919, 1923, 1927, and 1951
- - -
Fantastic. Six national titles in our history. But really?
- - -
Basketball
Well, the NIT and NCAA tournaments weren't established until 1938, 1939. So any championships prior to that must be awarded by a committee. And the most official to do that is the Helms Athletic Foundation. And apparently for the 1915 season, Illinois is the only school to claim a championship.
So far, so good.
Let's go deeper.
This is what college basketball looked like in 1915:
155 schools. That were somehow able to win 1206 games while only lose 774 games. Obviously they were a lot of games against non-Division 1 schools.
Illinois went 16-0. Texas was 14-0. Denver was 8-0. Kansas was 16-1.
This is what our conference looked like:
It's hard to know if Helms thoroughly considered the quality of competition in each conference to determine that Illinois was the best team. Or maybe they just went by they had the most wins among undefeated teams. But Kansas and Texas aren't contesting this one. So I guess this goes in the books as a title for Illinois.
Football
In football, Illinois is claiming 5 national titles. The trouble is that all 5 are also claimed by other schools. Let's go year by year and sort it out. Following each school is the organization that named them national champs.
The NCAA recognizes Parke Davis as the only selector to have primarily used research in his selections. Bafflingly, he sometimes picked two champions in the same year.
1914
Army: 9-0. Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
Texas: 8-0. Billingsley
Illinois: 7-0. Parke Davis
It's pretty clear that Army had the most selections.
1919
Harvard: 9-0-1. Football Research, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
Illinois: 6-1. Billingsley, Boand, Football Research, Parke Davis
Notre Dame: 9-0. National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
Texas A&M: 10-0. National Championship Foundation
Although they had four selectors, they were the only team with a loss. Harvard gets this one. This Parke Davis guy is infuriating...three teams are your champions?
1923
Illinois: 8-0. Boand, Football Research, Helms, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
California: 9-0-1. Houlgate
Michigan: 8-0. Billingsley, National Championship Foundation
Cornell: 8-0. Sagarin.
Going by the consensus of the selectors, the 1923 championship belongs to Illinois, led by Red Grange. Here is a quite detailed breakdown of this mythical championship, where the author picks Cornell slightly over Illinois. But that's just like his opinion, man.
1927
Illinois: 7-0-1. Billingsley, Dickinson, Helms, National Championship Foundation, Parke Davis
Georgia: 9-1. Boand, Poling
Notre Dame: 7-1-1. Houlgate
Yale: 7-1. Football Research
Texas A&M: 8-0-1. Sagarin.
It would seem that Illinois does indeed have the best claim to this title as well. This guy's analysis basically says that Illinois wasn't even in the top five. However, I think it's only fair to go by consensus. Interestingly, in 1914 and 1919, this guy says that Illinois deserved at least a co-title.
1951
Georgia Tech: 11-0-1. Berryman, Boand
Illinois: 9-0-1. Boand
Maryland: 10-0. DeVold, Dunkel, Football Research, National Championship Foundation, Sagarin
Michigan State: 9-0. Billingsley, Helms, Poling
Tennessee: 10-1. AP, Litkenhous, UPI, Williamson
Tennessee lost to Maryland in the Sugar Bowl, 13-28. So this is Maryland's, fair and square.
I'm actually surprised that Illinois has legitimate football title claims. If I were in charge of Illinois' record books, I'd list the titles as such:
Basketball
National Champions: 1915 (awarded by the Helms Athletic Foundation in 1935)
Football
National Champions: 1923, 1927
No comments:
Post a Comment