The Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs football program claims three national titles in the nearly one hundred years that the sport has been played at the college in the Dallas, Texas area. The three national championships are from:
- 1935
- 1981
- 1982
While SMU has never been awarded the distinction of a football national championship from the most highly regarded polls generated by the Associated Press (AP) or the Coaches Poll or even the more recently created Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system the university does claim football national championships based on designations bestowed on them by alternative sources.
When it comes to the highest level of college football the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which has tournaments and formally recognizes a national champion for every other college sport, has refrained from officially crowning a college football national champ at the highest level. Prior to 2006 the highest level of college football was called Division 1-A. Since 2006 the term Division 1-A has been replaced with Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). With regards to both Division 1-A and more recently Division I FBS the NCAA only states that "a number of polling organizations provide a final ranking."
Despite the fact that the NCAA organizes a tournament and pronouncing an eventual national champion at the Division-II and Division-III levels of college football the governing body of college football has chosen to abstain from officially declaring a FBS (formerly Division-IA) national champion. Because of this fact a number of colleges have chosen to claim national titles for historical seasons despite consensus opinions to the contrary.
In 1935 the SMU football program went 12-1 in a season that was concluded with a bowl victory after beating Stanford 7-0 in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Three different organizations declared the SMU team led by head coach Madison Bell as the best in the country. Those three organizations were (1) Dickinson, (2) Houlgate System, and (3) Sagarin Ratings.
In 1981 the Dallas based institution of higher learning claimed a second national championship after a 10-1 season under coach Ron Meyer where the Mustangs did not conclude their season with a bowl game. The low profile organization that declared SMU the best college football team in the country after that season was the little known group called the National Championship Foundation.
In 1982 Bobby Collins coached the SMU Mustangs to an 11-0-1 record over the course of a season that concluded with a thrilling 7-3 Cotton Bowl victor over the University of Pittsburgh. Future NFL Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson led the squad that finished second in the AP and Coaches Polls.
Although Penn State was widely accepted as the national champion with a substantially more difficult schedule than SMU the Penn State program finished with an 11-1 record. The lone loss to then number four ranked University of Alabama gave an organization that calls itself the Helms Athletic Foundation sufficient reason to declare SMU the national champion because the Mustangs finished with one tie and no losses while Penn State had one loss in week five of the 1982 season.
Kim, the author of this piece, imagines that despite the NCAA sanctions laid on the football program in the late 1980s that Eric Dickerson still proudly uses a red blue SMU golf bag when he plays a relaxing game of golf with former teammates. Because a Southern Methodist University golf bag is very difficult to find online Kim recommends getting a plain golf bag with the school colors and adding the Mustangs logos on separately.
For more tips on creating your own SMU golf bag readers are encouraged to check out the links in the previous paragraph.
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