Auburn Has Decided To Claim 4 Previously Unrecognized National Championships, Including 2004 When the Tigers Notably Did Not Play in the National Championship Game
Auburn University has made a bold move that’s bound to set college football message boards, group chats, and SEC tailgates on fire: it has officially decided to claim four additional national championships, including the ever-controversial 2004 season—yes, the one in which Auburn went undefeated but didn’t even get to play in the BCS National Championship Game. This updated self-recognition raises Auburn’s claimed national titles from five to nine, and while the school’s fans are celebrating the upgraded trophy count, the rest of the college football world is raising its collective eyebrow.
The four newly claimed championships are from the seasons of 1910, 1914, 1958, and 2004. All of these years were, at best, murky in terms of college football’s old and complicated way of determining a national champion. There was no College Football Playoff back then. In fact, until the BCS era, there wasn’t even a consistent structure for deciding who was crowned No. 1. It was often up to voters, random mathematical rating systems, and various organizations with very different criteria. So, many decades later, Auburn has taken a look at those years through a more favorable lens and decided they deserve recognition after all.
Most fans can at least understand the logic in revisiting the 2004 season. That was the year Auburn ran the table in the SEC, going 13-0 and winning the SEC Championship Game. Led by head coach Tommy Tuberville and featuring future NFL stars like Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown, and Jason Campbell, that team was loaded. Auburn steamrolled through its schedule, yet due to preseason rankings and the structure of the BCS system at the time, the Tigers were left out of the national title game. Instead, USC and Oklahoma were selected to play in the Orange Bowl. USC then dismantled Oklahoma in a blowout win and was crowned the national champion. Or so we thought.
Later, due to NCAA violations, USC was forced to vacate that title. Technically, no official champion was named for 2004. Auburn fans have long argued that their team should have been awarded the title retroactively. And now, the university is making that declaration itself. They’re not asking. They’re not waiting for a committee. They’ve decided. To Auburn, the 2004 team is no longer just one of the best teams to not win a national title—it’s now officially a national championship team. At least within the Auburn universe.
The other three years are trickier, and perhaps even more contentious. The 1910 and 1914 teams went undefeated and untied, which was an accomplishment in any era. But these seasons took place in a very different college football world, one where teams often played only five or six games, and the sport was still regional and loosely organized. National champions were declared retroactively, decades later, by various organizations using a range of criteria. Auburn’s 1910 team, coached by Mike Donahue, finished 6-0-1 and shut out five of its seven opponents. In 1914, Auburn again went unbeaten and had a case for being one of the top teams in the country.
As for 1958, things get even more controversial. That year, LSU went 11-0 and was ranked No. 1 in both the AP and Coaches Polls. The Tigers capped their season with a Sugar Bowl victory over Clemson and claimed the consensus national championship. Auburn, meanwhile, also went unbeaten, finishing the season 9-0-1 and boasting one of the most dominant defenses in college football history. They allowed only four touchdowns the entire season. However, Auburn was on NCAA probation and ineligible for a bowl game, which significantly hurt their chances of receiving national recognition at the time. That didn’t stop some selectors from naming Auburn as champions retroactively. Now, Auburn is choosing to embrace those honors officially, 67 years later.
This move by Auburn isn’t unprecedented in college football, but it is bold, and certainly not without pushback. Many programs have revisited past seasons and decided to update their championship totals. Alabama famously added titles retroactively based on recognized selectors, bringing their total to the much-discussed number of 18. Minnesota, Texas A&M, and USC have all done some version of this. But Auburn’s decision to go back and claim a title from a year when another SEC school, LSU, is widely acknowledged to have won it, is guaranteed to keep the rivalry fires burning.
Predictably, LSU fans are already furious. To them, 1958 belongs to Baton Rouge, period. Billy Cannon’s legacy, the perfect record, the accolades—it’s a year enshrined in LSU history. For Auburn to now insert itself into that narrative feels, to many, like revisionist history at best, and outright theft at worst. But Auburn isn’t concerned with outside noise. The school has published the change, made it part of their official records, and will now proudly count all nine championships in their promotional materials, media guides, and probably on stadium signage.
Some might ask: what does this actually mean? Well, in college football, the NCAA doesn’t officially award national championships in the FBS level. That responsibility has always been left up to polls, selectors, or systems like the BCS or CFP. Because of that, there’s an enormous gray area when it comes to defining who truly “owns” a national title. This ambiguity has allowed schools to dig through historical archives and find any shred of validation from recognized selectors and then update their record books accordingly. If even one credible system named you national champs that year? For many schools, that’s enough. Auburn has clearly adopted that philosophy.
From a branding standpoint, this is a smart play. Recruits today want to play for programs with rich legacies. Boosters want to see trophies. Fans want to feel like their team has been part of the elite for more than just a few flashes in time. By expanding their national title count, Auburn strengthens the perception of their football program’s history. Whether or not everyone agrees with it doesn’t matter nearly as much as what it signals to fans, media, and future Tigers.
Of course, there’s a flip side. Some critics say this dilutes the meaning of “national champion.” If you can just go back and claim a title based on a retroactive math formula or an obscure selector, then what’s the point of competing for one in real time? Others argue that you can’t rewrite history just because it makes you feel better about it. Auburn didn’t play in the 2004 title game. Auburn was on probation in 1958. But in the world of college football, logic and emotion are often in a standoff. And history, it turns out, is more flexible than most sports fans would like to admit.
The real test will be how the broader college football community reacts over time. Will other schools follow suit and claim long-forgotten titles? Will the College Football Hall of Fame update its displays? Will ESPN and other networks start using Auburn’s new number in graphics and rankings? Or will the rest of the sport ignore it, dismiss it as fan-service fluff, and continue recognizing only the titles that were undisputed in the moment?
Only time will tell. But one thing’s certain: Auburn has decided it’s no longer willing to leave potential titles collecting dust in the attic of history. They’ve brought them down, dusted them off, and added them to the family photo wall. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to agree with it. But if you tune into a game at Jordan-Hare Stadium this fall, don’t be surprised if you hear fans chanting “Nine-time champs!” And don’t be shocked when the official graphics on the jumbotron back it up.
Whether it’s rewriting the past or just finally acknowledging it, Auburn has made its stance clear. The Tigers are claiming their place in college football’s championship club—and they’re not asking for permission.
