1914 National Champion: And Who Else Claims It
MULTIPLEDISPUTEDArmy (9-0) is the clear major-selector champion for 1914; Illinois and Auburn's claims rest on lesser or absent selector support.
The case for each side
Claimed by the program: no recognized selector picked them
Undefeated in 1914 but not named by any of the major selectors (Helms, National Championship Foundation) in the NCAA record book's 1914 entry.
Auburn’s 1914 schedule
Claimed by the program: no recognized selector picked them
7-0, Big Ten champion; credited only by Billingsley and Parke Davis, not by Helms or the National Championship Foundation, which both named Army alone.
Illinois’s 1914 scheduleNo national title game was played after the 1914 season: before 1998 there was no mechanism to play one, which is why so many of these seasons were settled by vote instead.