[The following is from an e-mail correspondence triggered by my previous post on the Alabama National Championship Claims, reproduced (and edited) with permission by Andrew McIntosh.]

Ben, before you make it sound as though the Alabama Crimson Tide have always been given the unfair advantage in their claim to 13 National Titles, I think you need to look into the 1966 season and explain why Alabama was not awarded the title for that year.

Secondly, if you think every undefeated team deserves a title, that says nothing about the strength of schedule. There is a reason Alabama has scheduled strong, top 10 teams for the seasons opening game (Clemson 2008 & Virginia Tech 2009) and will face Penn State in Sep of this year; the strength of schedule does matter.

As an Alabama fan, I am tired of the poor press this year's team has received concerning everything from title claims to how Texas would have won had Colt McCoy stayed in the game. Look Colt McCoy is a great player and I think Texas could have beaten Alabama had Colt played a complete game of flag football, but this is not a sandlot game of grabbing flags, this is a game where teams must man up, protect their QB and play to the best of their ability for 60 minutes straight.

Alabama proved in the last 3.02 minutes of that game ( 1 forced fumble, 2 interceptions and 2 offensive rushing touchdowns against the nations #1 rush defense) how dominant they really are. Boise St. is a great team and I wish they had a chance to play Alabama, but until they play a schedule tougher than this years #83/120 compared to Alabama's #5/120 toughest schedule please be respectful of those who have clearly earned the right to be called - The National Champion.

Blessings, Andy

utesfan100: Excellent notes! I wish you had posted this as a comment - or even a fan post!

Ben, feel free to post these comments as you see fit. 

Another afterthought is, that if we apply your (undeafed + untied season = national championship) then Alabama is one short if you take the conservative judgment of Alabama having only 8 national titles, for they have earned 9 undeafted, untied seasons. 

Regardless of how many titles someone wants to give 'Bama, most fans should be looking forward rather than looking back as I beleive our future is bright with Nick Saban and if Saban chooses to stay until retirement (as he has expressed a desire to) then I beleive 'Bama has a few titles ahead of them and I sincerely hope, they will be given the opportunity to play a good Boise State team to earn those titles.
 
Blessings, Andy.

[Editor's note: The NCAA references 17 shares of the national title for Alabama, including 1966. It also references Utah's share in 2008, Missouri and USC's share in 2007, Oklahoma's share in 2003, USC's share in 2002 and Miami's share in 2000 above and beyond the BCS and AP champions since 1998]