In 2015, when Ohio State took on the University of Oregon in the first College Football Playoff championship game, millions of sports fans tuned in. But back in 1869, when Rutgers University and Princeton University played the first-ever college football game, no one predicted the national spectacle that a college football championship game would become. Author Matt Doeden takes readers on a journey from the disorganized games of the early years to the most recent playoffs to determine the best college team in the nation. Along the way, discover some of the most incredible moments, games, blunders, and statistics in the history of college football championships.

Walsh takes a comprehensive view of over a century of controversy in America's college football national champions, breaking teams down into one of three categories: perennial powers, contenders, and former greats. He then details the ten most controversial championships, suggests candidates for the best overall football program, and concludes with some thoughts on the future of the BCS along with a complete appendix listing national champions since 1869.

This powerfully intimate, plain-spoken memoir about fathers and sons, fortitude, and football from the face and voice of college football—Kirk Herbstreit—is not just “a window into the game, but also a peek into what makes him special: his heart” (David Shaw, head coach, Stanford University). Kirk Herbstreit is a reflection of the sport he loves, a reflection of his football-crazed home state of Ohio, where he was a high school star and Ohio State captain, and a reflection of another Ohio State football captain thirty-two years earlier: his dad Jim, who battled Alzheimer’s disease until his death in 2016. In Out of the Pocket, Herbstreit does what his father did for him: takes you inside the locker rooms, to the practice fields, to the meeting rooms, to the stadiums. Herbstreit describes how a combination of hard work, perseverance, and a little luck landed him on the set of ESPN’s iconic College GameDay show, surrounded by tens of thousands of fans who treat their Saturdays like a football Mardi Gras. He takes you into the television production meetings, on to the GameDay set, and into the broadcast booth. You’ll live his life during a football season, see the things he sees, experience every chaotic twist and turn as the year unfolds. Not to mention the relationships he’s established and the insights he’s learned from the likes of coaches and players such as Nick Saban, Tim Tebow, Dabo Swinney, and Peyton Manning, as well as his colleagues, including Chris Fowler, Rece Davis, and his “second dad,” the beloved Coach Lee Corso. Yes, Kirk Herbstreit is the undeniable face and voice of college football—but he’s also a survivor. He’s the quiet kid who withstood the collapse of his parents’ marriage. The boy who endured too many overbearing stepdads and stepmoms. The painfully shy student who always chose the last desk in the last row of the classroom. The young man who persevered through a frustrating Ohio State playing career. The new college graduate who turned down a lucrative sales job after college to pursue a “no way you’ll make it” dream career in broadcasting. Inspiring and powerful, Out of the Pocket “proves the importance of perseverance and family” (Peyton Manning).

Because major college football has never had a playoff system to produce a true champion, controversy has surrounded the issue of which team could be declared a National Champion, even as far back as the early years of the last century. The sports media and followers of college football filled that vacuum by creating polls and mathematical systems to name various teams as National Champions, even retroactively naming champions for college football's early years. Some colleges have seized every opportunity to glorify their football teams by claiming a National Championship for every year possible. An exception has been Auburn University, which has not done all it can to celebrate its success on the gridiron and officially claims a National Championship for only two seasons, 1957 and 2010. Auburn even declines to claim a National Championship for its undefeated 1913 team, although that squad is recognized as a National Champion in the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book. Auburn's Unclaimed National Championships seeks to alter this position of the Auburn University Athletic Department and is perhaps one of the most important books ever written about the Auburn University football program. Author Michael Skotnicki argues that until a playoff system is instituted by the NCAA to establish a true major college football National Champion, multiple teams can make a legitimate claim to a National Championship and the concept of a true single National Champion for any season is mythical. Skotnicki notes that many universities have claimed National Championships for seasons where they were not named such by the two most well-know selectors, the Associated Press and the Coaches Poll, with two universities even adding retroactive National Championship claims to past seasons as recently as this year (2012). This well-researched text brings needed attention to the entire history of Auburn football and makes the case for the position that in addition to the 1957 and 2010 National Championship seasons claimed by the Auburn Athletic Department, there are seven other seasons - 1910, 1913, 1914, 1958, 1983, 1993, and 2004 - for which Auburn should be recognized as a National Champion. Skotnicki, an appellate attorney, provides a history for each of these seasons, brings them to life, and makes the case for why Auburn's claim to recognition as a National Champion for each of those years is as strong or stronger than the teams accepted as national champions in those seasons. Skotnicki argues that in only claiming two National Championship seasons, Auburn University is forsaking much of its great football history, and that it should claim a total of nine National Championships.

An account of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish's unbeaten 1988 season cites the pivotal contributions of such figures as coach Lou Holtz, star quarterback Tony Rice and NFL-bound Ricky Watters, drawing on original reporting and interviews to include coverage of the infamous "Catholics vs. Convicts" game.