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Unveiling the Champions: Who Rules College Football History?
Episode 128113th January 2025 • Pigskin Dispatch • Darin Hayes
00:00:00 00:11:53

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The excitement surrounding the first-ever college football playoff is palpable as two iconic teams, Ohio State and Notre Dame, vie for the championship title. This special edition of the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch delves into the historical significance of these teams and their impressive records in college football history. Host Darin Hayes takes listeners on a journey through the annals of college football, discussing the rich tapestry of national championships and how the current playoff format has brought new energy to the sport. The episode highlights the remarkable achievements of powerhouse programs like the University of Minnesota, Oklahoma, Harvard, and Yale, each having made their mark on the championship landscape. As Hayes articulates the legacy of these teams, the historical context of college football is expertly woven into the narrative, creating a compelling account of the evolution of the sport. The episode culminates in a tantalizing preview of the impending championship clash, underscoring the significance of this showdown between two of the most storied programs in college football history, while also reflecting on the cyclical nature of sports and the potential for new dynasties to emerge in the future.

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Transcripts

Speaker A:

In this very first college Football Playoff.

Speaker A:

We're coming right down to the end.

Speaker A:

Two teams are left, Ohio State and Notre Dame.

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But who has the most national championships in college football history?

Speaker A:

We're going to cover these stories and more coming up in just a moment.

Darren Hayes:

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Darren Hayes:

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Speaker A:

Hello my football friends.

Speaker A:

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal deposit of football history.

Speaker A:

And yes, the first 12 team college football playoff format is almost coming to an end and you have a surprise to many people.

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You have Notre Dame and Ohio State, but maybe that's a logical course of action.

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We talked about that earlier last week on how they were ranked.

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But these are definitely proven to be the best two teams in the college football playoffs as they have both had some convincing wins over some good teams to get there.

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But we're going to talk about the national champions and who or what school has done it the most.

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Well, I will tell you that Notre Dame and Ohio State are both in the top 10 for winning the most national championships, but we'll get to them in a second.

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Let's talk about a couple teams that are not in the playoffs this year.

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As a matter of fact, all of them are not, except for the two that we mentioned earlier.

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But one that's really won a lot of championships that people don't give a lot of credit to was the University of Minnesota.

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onal championships here since:

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So they have had a great career of winning national championships.

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Modern times, maybe we don't think of them as being the national powerhouse that they were back almost, you know, 90 years ago, but who knows?

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Time is cyclical and they can come back with six championships.

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For them, somebody that has had some national championships in the recent modern era has been the University of Oklahoma.

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They have seven and rank ninth on the list of the most championship games.

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in the year:

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Now we're going to go to some teams from the old style of football that have a lot of championships.

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Harvard University, who is no longer an FCS but not BS but an FCS school.

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But once upon a time they were a major College.

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They have eight national championships and four of them happening in the 19th century.

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,:

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Harvard was the best team in the country.

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national titles:

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-:

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And that's really quite a bit.

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But that only puts them third in history for winning championships.

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d they had quite a bit in the:

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,:

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,:

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18 national titles for the Yalies and the Eli winning that many of it and they're number one on our list.

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r, the last being in the year:

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But they also had them in:

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s still with Bear Bryant,:

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Latest coming with Mr.

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Nick Saban at the helm.

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So those are some good ones there.

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Last year's champion, the Michigan Wolverines, come in fifth.

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They have 10 national championships to their credit.

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Of course you have the the point a minute teams of way back when fielding H.

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Yost was their coach.

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,:

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and:

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In the year:

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Harbaugh at coach, USC is right behind them with nine national championships in sixth place.

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They won in:

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So they won, you know, back to back titles on two separate occasions for the USC Trojans.

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Southern Cal is definitely on our list.

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So that leaves two teams that we haven't mentioned.

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We mentioned eight and that is our title dwellers that are coming up this year, Ohio State and Notre Dame.

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Ohio State sits in 8th place on our list with 8 National Championships right now.

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So if they win this year, it'll be number nine.

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But:

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FL at the Cleveland Browns in:

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So it's been a few.

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It's been 11 years since they won a national championship for Ohio State.

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But even longer is Notre Dame, who has 13 national championships thus far.

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This will be 14 if they win this year.

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ey won their championships in:

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Rockne years there:

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So this indeed is a very historic day.

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Now, Notre dame winning their 14th will keep them still in fourth place.

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But if Ohio State wins, they move from being tied with Harvard at eight a piece to being tied with USC at nine and be tied for sixth place all time on the college football national championships.

Speaker A:

So you see, history may be changing and going to a 12 team format, but the more it changes, the more it stays the same as we have two teams in the top 10 of college football national championships playing this year.

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th of January,:

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So that's going to be some more history all into itself.

Speaker A:

But I hope you enjoyed this little bit of history on college football championships.

Speaker A:

And who has the most.

Speaker A:

Till next time, everybody have a great gridiron day.

Speaker C:

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Speaker C:

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

Speaker C:

We invite you to check out our website, pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic strip cleat marks comics.

Speaker C:

Pigskindispatch.com is also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and don't forget the Big Skin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history.

Speaker C:

Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Munro, as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.

Speaker A:

This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

Speaker A:

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com RA.

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