Rockne's Roundtable

Is the way Alabama publicizes that its 13 national titles are the most by any school. So a victory over LSU would make it 14 ... but then it would probably find a way to make it 16.

Let's get something straight. Alabama has it all over ND in football right now. They are a machine under Nick Saban, earned the title in 2009 and could be the Team of The Decade from 2010-19.

But if we used every known football poll ever used, ND could claim it has 21 national titles. Instead, it only claims the "consensus" titles, starting from 1924 with the Four Horsemen through 1988. The school doesn't even include 1964 as a national title year even though it won The MacArthur Bowl that season — one of four NCAA recognized national title outlets. Meanwhile, Alabama includes 1973 as a national title year even though it lost 24-23 to ND in the Sugar Bowl. The reason is the UPI didn't have a vote after the bowl, so therefore the Crimson Tide is "a national champ."

The one that displays even more chutzpah is claiming 1941 as a national title year. There were 15 different services that awarded a national title in 1941, and Minnesota was recognized as the “consensus” champion because 12 different organizations (including AP) voted the 8-0 Golden Gophers No. 1. Two gave the nod to 8-1-1 Texas (4th in the AP) and one gave it to 9-2 Alabama — an organization named Houlgate (1927-58), a mathematical rating system developed by Deke Houlgate of Los Angeles, Calif., and syndicated to newspapers.

Alabama finished No. 20 in the AP poll that year with a 9-2 record (with shutout losses to Mississippi State and Vanderbilt) — yet it still claims it as “a national title year.” (ND that same year was 8-0-1 and finished No. 3 in the AP.)

Maybe it's small of me, but that is why I prefer an LSU victory.