AFCA Blue Ribbon Commission Champion 1930

Teams named national champions by NCAA-designated selectors
(Underline: claimed title season; +: co-champion/split selection)

Other Possible Contenders

	Alabama	Marquette	Michigan	Notre Dame	Utah
Record	10-0	8-0-1	8-0-1	10-0	8-0
Opponent Win %	0.620	0.423	0.527	0.660	0.486
+.500 Opponents	7	3	4	9	3
Average PF-PA	27.1-1.3	17.2-0.8	12.3-2.6	26.5-7.4	42.5-2.5
FBS Record	9-0	4-0-1	6-0-1	10-0	7-0
FBS Opponent Win %	0.634	0.477	0.535	0.660	0.500
Average FBS PF-PA	25.3-1.4	8.8-1.4	10.1-3.3	26.5-7.4	45.7-1.9
Conference Record	8-0	Ind	5-0	Ind	7-0
Non-Home games	3 ^	4	2	5 $	3
SOS (S-R/BR)	8/3	91/(N/A)	22/15	1/1	98/42

Looking at the data, it’s easy to see that its essentially a 2-team race for the rightful champion in 1930. Michigan and Marquette both suffered blemishes to their record. The Wolverines weren’t particularly overwhelming against their schedule, which was considered decent but lags behind the top 2 teams and who’s only intersectional game was against a sub-.500 Harvard. The Golden Eagles were strong defensively (giving up only 7 points the entire season), but underwhelmed against a very weak schedule. Working worst against Marquette, Billingsley – whose football encyclopedia was used as a source by the BRC – doesn’t even consider them a FBS-equivalent team this season. Utah did manage to go perfect and put up the best scoring numbers of any of these teams, but played a schedule that’s barely above Marquette’s at best and once again featured no significant intersectional games (a common thread for the Rocky Mountain teams). Just on the perfect record and the scoring numbers, I give the Utes a nod as Tier 3.

SoCon champ Alabama entered the season with Hall of Fame coach Wallace Wade announcing prior to the season it would be his last for the Crimson Tide. While never publicly stated why, its rumored that criticism of 1927-1929 teams played a factor, along with a desire to return to coaching a private institution. The 1930 team sent Wade out on a high note with a perfect season and their 3rd recognized national title during his tenure. Alabama defeated 5 Top 25-caliber teams (Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Washington State), along with a win over another top 50 team (Kentucky). The Crimson Tide only had 1 close game during the year enroute to having the 2nd-best average margin of victory among the contenders listed. Alabama would hand the Vols their 1st loss in 4 years and received their 3rd invite to the Rose Bowl, where they maintained their unbeaten record with a drubbing of a Cougars team that would’ve been a title hopeful as well with a win/tie.

Finally, we have Notre Dame, who put together a 2nd straight perfect season in what would ultimately be Knute Rockne’s final year in South Bend. Rockne, who led the Irish to becoming the sport’s first national power as a player and coach, tragically died in a plane crash the following spring. Notre Dame would earn their 3rd recognized national title (all under Rockne at the time) by virtue of playing arguably the nation’s toughest schedule. The Irish played an all-FBS slate, with 5 Top 25-caliber opponents (Army, Navy, Northwestern, SMU, Southern California), 1 in consideration (Carnegie Tech), and with only 1 team not considered a top 50 team for the year. Notre Dame didn’t have as strong of scoring numbers as Alabama/Utah and had 2 closer victories than the Tide, but with such a strong slate and with playing the most games away from home (after playing an entire season away from campus the prior year due to stadium construction), I can see why the Irish got most of the contemporary favor from selectors at the time. All 4 of the contemporary NCAA-designated selectors (Boand, Dickinson, Dunkel, Houlgate) named the Irish #1 for this year.

Ultimately, what does the Blue Ribbon Commission value: Notre Dame’s perfect run over arguably the nation’s best schedule or Alabama’s stronger performance over a schedule that is solid but considered slightly lesser than? The Irish had the contemporary support along with the nation’s best schedule. Alabama’s schedule was nothing to sneeze at, and they were more impressive on the scoreboard, which helps them more with retroactive selectors and systems that factor in scoring. I give the Irish a slight edge as Tier 1 due to the selector support, but make no mistake that the Crimson Tide are a legitimate co-champion team in my eyes. I would be more than okay with the Blue Ribbon Commission awarding dual Coaches Trophies this season because of how strong these 2 teams were, and because this was truly the end of an era for these two schools with the loss of their Hall of Fame coaches.

• Wade’s successor at Alabama, Frank Thomas, managed to produce some title contenders in a fairly successful tenure of his own from 1931-1945. However, the Crimson Tide would fall from national relevance after Thomas’ tenure and wouldn’t recover until Bear Bryant’s arrival in Tuscaloosa.
• Rockne’s successors, Hunk Anderson and Elmer Layden, managed to keep the Irish respectable through the 1930s (including an unclaimed title in 1938), but Notre Dame didn’t become a true force on the national stage again until another Rockne protege, Frank Leahy, arrived in the 1940s.

Tier 1 (Best Case to be awarded AFCA Trophy): Notre Dame
Tier 2 (Legitimate case for champion/co-champion): Alabama
Tier 3 (Minor Contender, could make a case): Utah
Tier 4 (Not Serious Contenders): Marquette, Michigan

[1] – The Southern Conference didn’t officially recognize conference champions for the 1922-1932 seasons, as there were as many as 23 teams in the league during a given season. Any team claiming an outright or shared SoCon title during that stretch is doing so by virtue of an unbeaten SoCon record that year.