Taking a page out of the playbook of its Iron Bowl rival, Auburn has decided to recognize seven more of its football teams as national champions.
The Tigers have until now touted only their 1957 and 2010 teams as national champs. Auburn was recognized by the Associated Press as the No. 1 team in the country in 1957, and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton led the Tigers to a BCS championship after the 2010 season.
Auburn also announced this week that it will retire Newton’s No. 2 on Oct. 11, when the Tigers play Georgia at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Newton will be the fourth player in Auburn history with a retired jersey number, joining receiver Terry Beasley and Heisman winners Pat Sullivan and Bo Jackson.
Now Auburn will also celebrate pre-major college football poll era titles from 1910, 1913 and 1914, along with the 1958, 1983, 1993 and 2004 teams. Five of those teams finished their seasons unbeaten. The 1913, 1983, 1993 teams are noted in the NCAA record book as having been named national champion by an NCAA-recognized selector.
“For too long, Auburn has chosen a humble approach to our program’s storied history — choosing to only recognize Associated Press National Championships,” athletic director John Cohen said. “Starting this fall, we have made the decision to honor the accomplishments of our deserving student-athletes, coaches, and teams from Auburn’s proud history.”
Claiming national titles is a long-held tradition in major college football, where the NCAA has never held any authority to run a postseason playoff.
And Auburn’s rival, Alabama, has been among the most audacious with its claims. The Crimson Tide tout 18 championships, including a total of 13 times they were voted No. 1 by either the AP media poll, the Coaches Poll or both.
UCF famously proclaimed itself national champion in 2017 after being left out of the four-team College Football Playoff. The Knights capped an unbeaten season by defeating an Auburn team that beat CFP champ Alabama in the regular season.
“Our visible National Championship recognitions now align with the well-established standards used by the NCAA’s official record book and our peers across the nation,” Cohen said.
The AP first started crowning a champion in 1936. The Coaches Poll started in 1950. Most national champions before then were decided retroactively by computer rankings and historians.
Auburn does have some modern-era teams with compelling cases to be No. 1. The 1983 team went 11-1 but finished No. 3 in the final AP rankings behind Miami and Nebraska after the Hurricanes upset the unbeaten Cornhuskers in the Orange Bowl.
In 1993, Auburn went unbeaten under Terry Bowden, but that team was banned from playing in the postseason because of previous NCAA violations. Those Tigers finished fourth in the AP poll. The Coaches Poll did not recognize teams that were serving NCAA sanctions.
The unbeaten 2004 Auburn team was left out of the BCS Championship Game because USC and Oklahoma also went undefeated. The Tigers finished No. 2 in the country and were memorably named unofficial champions by Golf Digest after coach Tommy Tuberville joked that he would gladly take recognition from any organization — including the golf magazine — that wanted to declare his team as No. 1.
(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
