Tennessee football: 10 seasons Vols could claim national championships

10. 1989 Tennessee Volunteers

11-1 (6-1 SEC)

This is the team that began Tennessee football’s magical run into the early 2000s that included 16 straight bowl trips, four SEC championships and a national championship. Johnny Majors’s 12-year rebuilding job was finally taking shape. And he should claim a title for it. Why not this year?

The national champions in 1989 were the Miami Hurricanes. They finished the year 11-1 and beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl. Tennessee football, meanwhile, lost to Alabama but won every other game, including a huge Cotton Bowl win over the Arkansas Razorbacks to finish 11-1 as well.

However, they somehow finished No. 5 while Miami finished No. 1. The Vols even inexplicably finished behind the Florida State Seminoles, who had two losses on the year.

Now, it is true that Miami beat Alabama, who beat the Vols. But they also lost to FSU. And Tennessee lost to Alabama at Alabama in a week that they made a quarterback switch and lost their star player, Reggie Cobb, to suspension after he failed a drug test.

So at the end of the year, their loss to a co-SEC champion was very explainable. Miami does get credit for thrashing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who also finished ahead of the Vols. And the other team to finish ahead of them were the Colorado Buffaloes, who lost to Notre Dame but went 11-1 on the year.

When you take all this into account, Tennessee football has as much a claim to the national title as anybody else in that Top 5. Florida State doesn’t belong since they had two losses. So they could stake a claim with the other three teams and at least get a split national title. Why not? In addition to Arkansas, they beat the Auburn Tigers, SEC co-champions of the year, and the Duke Blue Devils, ACC co-champions. That means they beat three conference champions since the Hogs won the Southwest Conference. So there’s nothing wrong with a title claim here.