Is it easier or harder for a head coach to win a national championship in college football now than it was years ago? Let’s take an analytical look at how Bear Bryant might have done in today’s system.
This topic of discussion came up when Nick Saban tied Bear Bryant by winning his sixth national championship after the 2017 college football season. College football analyst Kirk Herbstreit stated that he believed it was easier for a head coach to win a national championship today due to the college football playoff, which allows more teams to win the national championship, particularly when it was a four-team playoff.
Courtesy: USA Today
In 2017, Alabama lost to Auburn in the final regular-season game. They didn’t play in the SEC Championship Game, and the Crimson Tide still made the then-four-team college football playoff and ended up winning the national championship.
Now, there’s a greater opportunity to win a national championship than ever before, and we’re reminded of it all the time. You could lose to your rival in the last game of the season. Ohio State lost to Michigan in 2024. You could not make the conference championship game. Ohio State did not play in the Big Ten Championship Game. You don’t even have to be in the top two of your conference. Ohio State finished third in the Big Ten Conference in 2024, and despite all that, you could still win a national championship.
Ohio State won the national championship in 2024 despite losing their last regular-season game, finishing third in the Big Ten Conference, and not even playing in their conference championship game. Penn State, which lost in the Big Ten Conference Championship game, made it to the college football playoff semi-finals and was a field goal away from playing for a national championship. Before the college football playoff system, if you didn’t win your conference title, you had no shot at winning a national championship. None.
Back in Bear Bryant’s day, you could go undefeated and not even have a chance to play for the national championship. So, which system is easier to win a national championship? One that gives you countless mulligans or one that might not give you a chance at all? If we were still using the old poll system when Bryant was coaching, Alabama would not have played for the national championship in January of 2018, and Saban would not have had the opportunity to win his sixth national championship. Think about that. Alabama would have been on the outside looking in on the national championship picture and would not have played for a national championship that year, but instead just played in a bowl game.
Both Alabama in 2017 and Ohio State in 2024 didn’t win their division, let alone play for a conference title, and both won the national championship. That would have never happened in the pre-BCS, pre-playoff era. Before one automatically anoints Nick Saban as the greatest college football coach of all time because of his seven national titles, Bryant’s six were harder to come by because of reduced opportunities, poll politics, and bowl affiliations.
In the old poll system, last year, Ohio State would have been playing in a bowl game with no chance at a national title. After their loss to Michigan, Ohio State was ranked seventh in the AP Poll.
Courtesy: AL.com
For example, years ago at the end of the regular season, if Alabama was number two and USC was ranked number one, USC would have faced the Big Ten Conference representative in the Rose Bowl, as the Rose Bowl had automatic tie-ins to the Pacific Athletic Conference versus the Big Ten Conference champion. Therefore, if USC won, Alabama could not prove on the field, head-to-head versus USC, who the real national champion was. Pollsters determined the national champion, and it was not based on play on the field.
A counterargument now is that teams play more games and therefore have additional opportunities to lose those games. Still, you can win a national championship today without winning your division or even playing in your conference championship game! Alabama did it in 2017. Ohio State did it in 2024 with two losses!
It makes one wonder how many playoff appearances Alabama would have had under Bear Bryant?
Let’s look back at the polls during Bryant’s years when he had an outstanding team, and when Alabama would have been in the national championship conversation.
–Alabama won national championships under Bryant in 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, and 1979.
–In addition, Alabama certainly would have made a 12-team playoff in 1962, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, and 1981 and perhaps some other seasons as well, and Bryant could have won more than the six national titles he did under the old poll system.
–If you regard a bowl game loss as a de facto playoff game, then Alabama would have been eliminated in 1967, 1972, 1974, and 1981.
—In 1962, Alabama finished the year ranked fifth after beating eighth-ranked Oklahoma 17-0 in the Sugar Bowl. In 1980, the Crimson Tide finished ranked sixth after beating then sixth-ranked Baylor 30-2 in the Cotton Bowl.
–The 1971 Alabama team was ranked second and in a battle of number one versus number two for the national championship, lost to top-ranked Nebraska, one of the greatest college football teams ever, 38-6 in the Orange Bowl.
–In looking at Bryant’s other teams that would have made a four-team playoff and been a strong national championship contender: Alabama’s 1966 team was a two-time defending national champion and was the only undefeated and untied team that season demolishing Nebraska 34-7 in the Orange Bowl yet finished third in the polls behind Notre Dame and Michigan State, neither of which played in a bowl game. Alabama surrendered only 44 points in 11 games that season. In 1966, a four-team playoff didn’t exist, and the BCS was decades away from matching the top two teams to decide the national championship on the field. Good luck convincing a Crimson Tide fan that Alabama would not have won the 1966 national championship had there been a playoff system.
—1975 is another season that Alabama finished in the top four in the country after the final regular season poll and would have been selected to play in the college football playoff. Ohio State was ranked number one with an 11-0 record before losing to UCLA 23-10 in the Rose Bowl. Third-ranked Oklahoma defeated Michigan 14-6 in the Orange Bowl and was voted national champion. Alabama, ranked fourth, defeated eighth-ranked Penn State in the Sugar Bowl 13-6 and finished third in the final poll.
—1977 is another example where Alabama would have been in the college football playoff and would have been a strong contender to win a national championship. Once again, the Fighting Irish got a national championship that Alabama thought they deserved. At the end of the regular season, the Crimson Tide were ranked third with a 10-1 record behind only number one Texas at 11-0 and second-ranked Oklahoma with a 10-1 record. Fifth-ranked Notre Dame upset top-ranked Texas 38-10 in the Cotton Bowl and leapfrogged Alabama in the AP Poll and were named national champions despite Alabama beating ninth-ranked Ohio State 35-6 in the Sugar Bowl and second-ranked Oklahoma losing 31-6 to Arkansas in the Orange Bowl.
—Should we count the 1973 national title that Alabama claims, as the Crimson Tide lost in the Sugar Bowl in a great game, 24-23, to Notre Dame in a game that saw six lead changes? The UPI Coaches Poll selected Alabama as the national champion at the end of the regular season before the bowl games were played. The Associated Press selected Notre Dame as national champion after all the bowl games were concluded.
—In 1964, both the AP and UPI polls named the Crimson Tide as national champions before the bowl games took place. Alabama would go on to lose to fifth-ranked Texas 21-17 in the Orange Bowl. One could make the case that with both polls naming Alabama as national champion after the regular season and no longer in doubt, the goal to win the national championship for Bryant’s squad was already accomplished.
What Nick Saban did in an era of scholarship limitations was genuinely remarkable. He may well be the greatest college football coach ever, but due to the Bowl Championship System, a four-team college football playoff in his era, and now 12 and soon to be 16 teams. Each playoff team has an equal opportunity to win the playoff and national championship, which increases the chances for every college football team and coach out there–even more so than it did for Saban and Alabama in the four-team playoff era.
One could argue that Bryant’s contemporaries that he competed against–Bob Devaney, Woody Hayes, John McKay, Tom Osborne, Ara Parseghian, Joe Paterno, Darryl Royal, and Barry Switzer–were greater than what Saban faces collectively through the years in Jimbo Fisher, Urban Meyer, Kirby Smart, Bob Stoops, and Dabo Swinney.
One could also state that Bryant’s 15-12-2 record in bowl games is not excellent, and his overall record against the coaches listed above was only 9-8-1.
The number of national championships won is just one factor to consider when talking about who is the greatest college football coach of all time.
So, where do I land? It is difficult to compare coaches from different eras, yet it is safe to say that Bear Bryant was the best in his era, and Nick Saban certainly the best in his, and Alabama fans should be pleased about that.
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John Baranowski is a sports historian and contributor to newspapers, sports publications, and sports websites. This and other articles written by him can be found on his blog.
