If Tennessee has been rewarded 14 National Championships by various football associations throughout their history, then why do they ONLY Claim 6 National Titles?
Well sadly, a lot of UT fans don’t know about all the organizations that have touted us as national champs in history. But the UT Football Program only claims 6 national titles out of the 14 we could claim. Why does the University of Tennessee only claim 6 out of the 14 we’ve been awarded? Because the Vols football program only wants to claim NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS in which they were undoubtedly the best team in football that year. The 8 other national titles are well earned awards but it’s still a debate whether or not the VOLS were better than the other few teams that were rewarded a national title that year. Therefore the Vols only claim 6 because those 6 national titles are the 6 titles in which we can confirm 100% we were the best that season with no debate.
There are 38 MAXIMS of NEYLAND overall, but on Gamedays — the Vols only recite 7 of them that General Neyland considered the most important.
General Neyland’s Game Maxims. The UT Football Vols still recite them every time before playing on Saturdays. It’s a tradition that will never perish.
The great thing about today’s college football system is that there is no longer different associations awarding football teams national titles, therefore you won’t have 2-3 national championship winning squads annually. Ever since the BCS system was implemented in 1998, the College Football system has crowned one sole consensus national champion each season since (even after the BCS National Title game stopped and the CFB Playoff National Championship system began, the NCAA still has one consensus national championship team a year). The first year of the BCS system was 1998 and the Vols football team won the 1998 National Championship and were crowned the Consensus National Champs.
The Vols were the first team to hold up the iconic BCS National Championship Crystal Ball, after beating #2 FSU in Tempe, Arizona on January 4th, 1999. The Vols went 13-0 and were #1. AS OF NOW this is the last time the Vols won a national title.
In historic Neyland Stadium, on the sides of the stadium’s upper deck — the 6 National Championships that UT claims as they were the BEST that year without debate, are honored as the years in which they were won are shown.
Look at them NATIONAL TITLES baby. The 6 Claimed NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS that UT possesses is the 8th MOST NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS Won By a FOOTBALL PROGRAM IN ALL TIME HISTORY. The VOLS are Tied With MICHIGAN STATE at 6 NATIONAL TITLES Officially A Piece. THE VOLS and MSU share the 8th Most NATIONAL TITLES Spot with only Penn Quakers, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Harvard, Ohio State, Pitt, USC, Notre Dame, Michigan, Alabama, Yale, and Princeton ahead of them.
- Penn, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Harvard claim 7 National Titles.
(Quick Note: One of Oklahoma’s national titles should have really been Tennessee’s. I’m not the only one who thinks this. On an SEC football forum, I once saw an LSU fan of all people starting a topic about how the ’56 Tennessee Vols were robbed of a national title. And the Vols were. Here’s why. In 1956, the Sooners went 10-0 but played easy teams in comparison to the Vols who played way tougher teams and finished #2 ranked and also finished the regular season 10-0. The 1956 Vols opponents in the regular season had a combined record of 46-41-5 while the 1956 Sooners opponents had a horrific overall record of 32-63-6. ALSO, The VOLS went down to a hostile environment in Atlanta to face their redhot rivals Georgia Tech coached by Bobby Dodd (former Vols player who played under Neyland). Vols were #3 and Tech was #2. Had Tech won, they very well could have won the national title over Oklahoma at the regular season’s end (the national titles were rewarded after the regular season and bowl games were optional and had no impact on a national title reward). The Vols’ amazing defense shutout the high scoring Ga Tech offense and won the game in Atlanta by a score of 6-0, and gave the Yellow Jackets their only loss of the season. Tech finished #4 overall and went onto win the Gator Bowl. That one win was more impressive than any win Oklahoma had, as they played cupcake teams repeatedly. The only decent win OU had was over a #18/#20 Colorado football team, in which they won by only 8 points. The rest of OU’s opponents had losing records. Tennessee continued to play good teams down the stretch including a redhot Ole Miss team coached by Jimmy Vaught the week after the Tech win. The Vols totally dominated the #19 Rebels that day and won 27-7. The Rebels eventually finished the season 7-3. That game was the only game all season the Vols held the #1 spot as the AP/Coaches polls inexplicably dropped them down to #2 despite their extremely impressive wins over Ga Tech and Ole Miss (while OU blew out cupcake opponents). UT went on to slap around Kentucky and Vandy and were snubbed of the #1 ranking and national title despite their extremely tougher opponents that they played and dominated. OU did dominate their opponents (besides Colorado, the one good team they played) but 9 out of the 10 opponents were losing teams. The #2 ranked Vols accepted a bid to the Sugar Bowl after the NATIONAL TITLE snub, while the 1956 OU Sooners decided to reject a bowl game (which shows their uncertainty about their true ability in my opinion, because had they accepted a bowl bid they could have played Tennessee possibly). While OU refused a bowl game, the #2 ranked Vols went to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl after being snubbed of a national title. The VOLS played #13 Baylor on ABC nationwide broadcast. The VOLS did lose that game 13-7 as it was their worst game all season. Nevertheless, national titles were awarded at the end of the regular season back then and the VOLS 10-0 regular season was more impressive than OU’s by a lot. The VOLS of 1956 were snubbed (along with Johnny Majors who should have won the Heisman).
- Ohio State claims 8
- Pitt claims 9 (one of them won by Tennessee Vols legendary player/coach Johnny Majors when he coached the Panthers in Pittsburgh)
- USC (Southern Cal), Notre Dame, and Michigan claim 11
- Alabama claim 17
- Yale and Princeton claim 27 (Princeton’s last national title win in 1950 which was the year they split the title with Tennessee, Yale’s last national title win was 1927)
Let it be noted that Tennessee could claim 14 national titles if they wanted to, but decide to only claim 6 since they feel like the 8 other national titles they were awarded was a debatable season in which a few other teams were arguably better than them. Alabama claims all national titles awarded to them though (their most notorious one being in 1941 when they finished ranked by the AP poll #20 and was oddly awarded a national title by The Houlgate System). Interestingly enough, The VOLS 1941 team finished #18 ahead of Bama in the AP poll but were not rewarded a national title. But in all fairness, the Crimson Tide did beat the Vols that year in a close battle by a 9-2 score.
When the VOLS get ready to run through the Power T before a game, they see the rug on the ground that reminds them of their legacy (6 Time National Champs) before they hit the field.
Fingers crossed that we will eventually add a 7th year up there soon. VOL FAITHFUL, STAY LOYAL, WE CAN MAKE IT BACK.
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