Auburn hasn't played a game since Nov. 30 against Alabama, and won't play again until their Aug. 29 trip to Baylor.
But the Tigers still won seven national titles over night.
The athletics department will now claim nine national championships, an increase from the 1957 and 2010 titles claimed within Jordan-Hare Stadium. The program will also claim three additional conference championships won in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the predecessor to the SEC.
“For too long, Auburn has chosen a humble approach to our program’s storied history – choosing to recognize only Associated Press National Championships. Starting this fall, we have made the decision to honor the accomplishments of our deserving student-athletes, coaches, and teams from Auburn’s proud history,” AD John Cohen told Auburn Sports, who broke the story. “Our visible National Championship recognitions now align with the well-established standard used by the NCAA’s official record book and our peers across the nation.”
The 1957 and 2010 crowns remain Auburn's only AP national championships and, until now, the only crowns claimed within the stadium. The program has also listed national championships won in 1913, 1983, and 1993 within its media guide.
Moving forward, though, Auburn will recognize those titles to the outside world, along with newly-claimed championships in 1910, 1914, 1958, and 2004.
The 2004 team, coached by current Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, is obviously the most well-known of the newly-claimed championships. That team defeated four AP top-10 opponents en route to a 13-0 season. Auburn was denied a chance to compete for the BCS national title in favor of USC and Oklahoma and finished No. 2 in the polls, but was recognized as champions by the Darryl Perry and GBE College Football Ratings. (Who else just learned those ratings existed today?)
Auburn's 1993 team went 11-0 but was ineligible to compete in the postseason, with Alabama taking its place in the SEC Championship. The Tigers finished No. 4 in the AP poll but was listed as champions by the National Championship Foundation and the NCAA football record book. The Tigers' 1983 team went 11-1 and finished No. 3 in both polls, but was recognized as champion by more legitimate pollsters such as Sagarin and Billingsley.
FootballScoop's John Brice will have to provide intel on all claimed titles from 1958 and before.
Claiming national titles more than a century after the fact boils down to one thing: commitment to the bit. At first you're going to be treated as a high schooler who showed up to school on Monday with a fresh, bleach-blonde mohawk. Of course people are going to point and laugh. If you give in, the other kids will never let you down. But if you proudly claim your new identity, by Thursday you're simply the kid with the bleach-blonde mohawk.
Case in point: Alabama. The Crimson Tide claim 18 national championships. Unfortunately for Auburn, most of those are perfectly legitimate. There's also a claimed 1941 championship, where the Tide went 9-2, finished third in the SEC, and 20th in the AP poll.
If Alabama can claim 1941, what's stopping Auburn from claiming 2004, 1993 or 1983?
I'll answer that question with another question: How committed is Auburn to its new hairdo?