Regular-season unbeaten and untied, AP and UPI national champion, lost the Sugar Bowl to Maryland.
Tennessee’s 1951 schedule1951 National Champion: And Who Else Claims It
MULTIPLEDISPUTEDTennessee finished unbeaten in the regular season and topped the final AP and UPI polls, retaining both titles even after losing the Sugar Bowl to Maryland.
The case for each side
Claimed by the program: no recognized selector picked them
Finished No. 4 in the final AP poll; claim comes from the Boand System, not AP or UPI.
Illinois’s 1951 schedule
Claimed by the program: no recognized selector picked them
Finished No. 2 in the final AP/UPI polls; claim comes from the Helms Athletic Foundation and other systems, not AP or UPI.
Michigan State’s 1951 scheduleNo national title game was played after the 1951 season: before 1998 there was no mechanism to play one, which is why so many of these seasons were settled by vote instead.