National Championship Debate Hits Home

With Alabama gearing up for the national championship game early next month, someone who is most definitely not a Crimson Tide fan has a blog post that Dartmouth fans might find of interest. According to the post, Alabama has won seven national championship, not the 12 it claims. One the writer disputes: 1925, which the Crimson Tide says it shared with a certain Ivy League team. Here's the blog post:

1925: Myth

Alabama claims they "share" this one with Dartmouth. Who gave the Tide the title? Houlgate and Helms. Houlgate started his system in 1927. Wait a second—this means 'Bama won their 1925 national championship using a formula that didn't even exist until 1927? The other title giver, Helms Athletic Foundation, wasn't founded until 1941. Hmm, another mind-blowing retroactive scam.

The exhaustive College Football Data Warehouse, however, still awards shares of the national championship to both Dartmouth and Alabama. The CFDW includes a listing of what various teams claim for national championships, and what it will accept, and unless I'm reading it wrong, Alabama's claim holds up.

Dartmouth's Shawn Abuhoff will be one of the honorees tonight at the FCS All-New England dinner in Wilmington, Mass. The lone sophomore chosen for the all-star team, Abuhoff was recognized for his performance on special teams.

Among the names that have surfaced in the Princeton search for a new coach is former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie. Fact or fiction? Hard to tell but Harvard basketball's hiring of former Michigan coach Tommy Amaker may have changed the landscape just a little bit with regard to high-profile coaches coming to the league. The Daily Princetonian reprises potential candidates gleaned from other sources. (Amaker, by the way, last night led Harvard to its second win at Boston College in as many years. Boston Globe story)

(Harvard, by the way, made a push for Heisman Trophy finalist Toby Gerhart as this Bloomberg story notes.)

While Princeton is looking for a coach, Cornell is standing pat behind Jim Knowles despite a last-place finish in Ithaca this fall. The Ithaca Journal writes:

Cornell athletics director Andy Noel gave football coach Jim Knowles a vote of support in light of the team's last-place finish, and fourth straight losing season in the Ivy League, plus Princeton's decision to cut ties with its own coach.

Following a 2-8 season that ended with an eight-game losing streak, Noel on Monday said Knowles -- who has two years left on his contract -- will be back next season. Cornell finished last in the league with a 1-6 record. Since back-to-back 4-3 league records in 2004 and 2005, Cornell has gone 8-20 in league games.

Speaking of Cornell, the Ithaca paper has a look ahead to next year that includes this:

...(A)s bad as this season was, looking ahead to next season could cause some anxiety.

Cornell is losing a lot: The Big Red's leading rusher for the past three seasons, Randy Barbour; starting quarterback, Ganter; record-breaking receiver and return man, Bryan Walters; triple-threat option Stephen Liuzza; and starting bookend tackles Andrew Bohl and Quentin Bernhard.

The Boston Globe has a lengthy story about the squash heckling incident at Dartmouth last week prompting an apology from Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim to Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust. The Daily Dartmouth also has a story about the aftermath of the incident.