The relevant recognition before 1998 came from various entities, including coach polls and media ballots, which each voted to recognize their own national champions, and is similar to the newspaper decision used in early boxing matches.
However, their effort to host a national championship was hampered by the lack of participation of the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions, who instead opted to play in the Rose Bowl.
Since the 2014 season, the College Football Playoff—in association with Division I FBS collegiate conferences and independent schools, along with six bowl games—has been played among the top four teams (as selected by a thirteen-member committee) to play two semifinal bowl games followed by a CFP National Championship Game between the semifinal winners.
The Official NCAA Men's Basketball Records Book lists title selections of pre-tournament era teams by the Helms Athletic Foundation.
[10] Most recently, the retroactive end-of-year Premo-Porretta Power Poll has provided the first national rankings of college basketball teams for the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons.
[13] During World War II, from 1943 to 1945, the NCAA, NIT and Madison Square Garden cooperated to host "mythical national championship games" between winners of each year's NCAA and NIT tournaments in order to benefit the American Red Cross' War Fund.
[15][16] During the early years of the two tournaments, the NCAA and NIT competed against each other, giving rise to debate over their relative prowess.
[17] In 1943, in a shrewd competitive move the NCAA tournament began sharing Madison Square Garden with the NIT.
In addition, many schools claim or recognize pre-tournament era national college basketball championships by virtue of being selected retrospectively by third-party selectors, such as Bill Schroeder at the Helms Athletic Foundation, including the Kansas,[22] Purdue,[23] Stanford,[24] North Carolina,[25] Pittsburgh,[26] Wisconsin,[27] Syracuse,[28] and Washington State.
[29] LSU claims the 1935 championship by virtue of winning the American Legion Bowl game against Pittsburgh in a match-up of regional powers.
[30] Multiple schools claim a national championship based on their NIT championships: Temple (1938),[31] Long Island (in 1939 and 1941),[32] West Virginia (1942),[33] DePaul (1945),[34] Utah (1947),[35] San Francisco (1949),[36] BYU (1951 and 1966),[37] La Salle (1952),[38] Seton Hall (1953),[39] Holy Cross (1954),[40] Duquesne (1955),[41] Louisville (1956),[42] Xavier (1958),[43] Providence (1961 and 1963),[44] and Southern Illinois (1967).
[47][48] The following table is a partial list of schools that claim a national championship from the pre-NCAA Tournament era of college basketball.
Tournament/playoff winners Retrospective selections In 1941, Southern University, coached by the famed football coach Ace Mumford, defeated North Carolina Central, 48–42, in the National Invitational Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament; this tournament was held because the NIT would not invite HBCUs at the time.
A single-game playoff for football, however, was attempted in 1938 and 1939, it was particularly difficult at that time due to many states' prohibition of postseason games.
Some publications and internet sites release nationwide rankings for high school sports based on polls or mathematical formulas which take into account various factors like average margin of victory and strength of schedule.
In 1932, two teams tied atop the standings led to a one-game playoff for the championship, which was made permanent the next year.