Factoid 55 - College Football's National Championship Selectors Recognized by the NCAA

On January 4, 1999 Tennessee beat Florida State by a score of 23 to 16 in the first ever BSC Title game and was crowned the unanimous NCAA Division I College Football Champion for the 1998 season. Prior to that there was no national championship game and championships were determined by various types of selectors: mathematical formula selectors; polling selectors; and historical research selectors.

“The NCAA maintains an official records book of historical statistics and records for football. In the records book, with consultation from various college football historians, it has created and maintains a list of ‘major selectors’ of national championships throughout the history of college football along with their championship picks for each season.” - Wikipedia

Major Selectors

A variety of selectors have named national champions throughout the years. They generally can be divided into three categories: those determined by mathematical formula, human polls, and historical research. The selectors below are listed in the official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records as having been deemed to be "major selectors" for which the criteria is that the poll or selector be "national in scope either through distribution in newspaper, television, radio and/or computer online".“ – Wikipedia

As a result of there being no playoff system for the national championship game, there were often co-national championships prior to the BCS era. Our next three factoids will explore each type of a selector and Factoid 59 will provide a complete table.