7-1, including a loss to Northwestern; still finished No. 1 in the first-ever AP final poll, which that year was released before bowl season.
Minnesota’s 1936 schedule1936 National Champion: And Who Else Claims It
MULTIPLEDISPUTEDMinnesota won the inaugural AP poll despite an in-season loss; Pittsburgh's rival claim rests on contemporary math systems and a retroactive research-association pick, never the AP.
The case for each side
Claimed by the program: no recognized selector picked them
8-1-1 and Rose Bowl champion; named national champion by the contemporary Boand and Houlgate mathematical systems, and retroactively by the College Football Researchers Association. Not an AP selection.
Pittsburgh’s 1936 scheduleNo national title game was played after the 1936 season: before 1998 there was no mechanism to play one, which is why so many of these seasons were settled by vote instead.