Tennessee football: 10 seasons Vols could claim national championships

5. 1927 Tennessee Volunteers

8-0-1 (5-0-1 SoCon)

Tennessee football’s least convincing year for a national title during the early Robert Neyland run was 1928. The year before, though, Neyland’s second year at the helm, they should definitely claim one. And they have a much stronger case.

In 1927, the Vols won a share of the Southern Conference Championship with the Georgia Tech Golden Tornadoes by going 8-0-1 overall and 5-0-1 in the conference. Their only blemish was a tie against the 8-1-2 Vanderbilt Commodores. But that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Meanwhile, Georgia Tech did lose a game on the year. And the Georgia Bulldogs, who actually had a loss as well to Georgia Tech specifically, managed to be one of four teams to claim a share of the national title. That comes even though they were in the same conference as the Vols and GT and didn’t go undefeated.

In addition to the Dawgs, the 7-1 Yale Bulldogs were able to claim a share of the title. Both of those teams had a loss, which the Vols didn’t. The other two teams to claim a share were the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Texas A&M Aggies, both teams who, like the Vols, had a tie as their only blemish.

So this year, there were four national champions in college football. All of them had either a loss or a tie as their only blemish. One of them was from the Southern Conference. But a team from the Southern Conference with a tie as their only blemish doesn’t get to get in on the action?

No. That’s not fair. The Vols should immediately go back and claim a national title here. They would have no reason to apologize for it either.