College Football Researchers Association

The College Football Researchers Association was founded in 1982 by Anthony Kusher and Bob Kirlin. They selected their mythical national champion (MNC) each season based on a top 10 vote of their membership, which was published in their monthly newsletter. The CFRA wasn't around long, and their last champion was named just 10 years later, in 1992. But in addition to selecting contemporary champions, they retroactively selected champions for 1919-1981, based on a poll of members conducted by Harry Frye.

The College Football Researchers Association was resurrected in the Fall of 2009, in name at least, and the website of the current incarnation can be found here. I will discuss the new CFRA at the end of this article, but here's a spoiler: it is quite lame.

Like Helms and the National Championship Foundation, the CFRA is a source for national championship selections prior to the AP poll's 1936 launch. However, it's hard to trust the CFRA's pre-1936 selections because, even more than the National Championship Foundation's picks, too many of the CFRA's modern day "champions" are simply ridiculous.

CFRA Selections 1919-1972

The CFRA's selections for 1919-1935 are adequate-- little better or worse, overall, than those of the NCF and Helms. But the CFRA was greatly hampered, particularly compared to the NCF, by their lack of ties, a side effect of their selection process (which was similar to the AP poll's). Their selection of Alabama as the lone "champion" of 1926 looks quite poor compared to Helms and the NCF's splitting of the title between 9-0-1 Alabama and 10-0-1 Stanford, since the two teams tied in the Rose Bowl. And the CFRA is the only non-computer organization that proclaims 10-0 Alabama the lone "champion" of 1930 over 10-0 Notre Dame. A shared title would have been far better.

Like the NCF and Helms, the CFRA's selections for 1936-1967 are much better than those of the AP poll, since the CFRA counted bowl games. However, while the CFRA did a decent job selecting retroactive champions through 1972, they did an awful job selecting champions for seasons they had actually witnessed, and in fact they are easily the worst selector, aside from computer rankings, listed in the NCAA Records Book for 1973-1992, after which they mercifully stopped bothering.

CFRA Selections 1973-1992

The CFRA's selections for this 20 year period resemble the selections of a computer, and it looks like they voted for the team they thought was the best, regardless of wins and losses. That, of course, is a power rating, and while interesting, it is a bad way to crown a national champion, and they certainly were not taking that approach in their selections for 1919-1972.

For the 1973 "title," the CFRA retroactively selected 10-0-1 Oklahoma over consensus choice 11-0 Notre Dame. Now, an unusual choice is not necessarily a bad one. As I discussed when fixing the 1973 AP poll, the National Championship Foundation split that year's title 3 ways amongst Notre Dame, 10-0-1 Ohio State, and 10-0-1 Michigan (OSU and Michigan tied each other), but while this choice was unusual, it was also astute and logically valid, whereas the CFRA's selection of Oklahoma was not. Oklahoma may well have been the best team in the country in 1973, but the fact is that they were tied by Southern Cal, whom both Notre Dame and Ohio State defeated by more than a touchdown.

For 1976, the CFRA selected 11-1 Southern Cal over 12-0 Pittsburgh, and as with their selection of Oklahoma '73, they were the only non-computer system to do so. Southern Cal lost to 6-5 Missouri 46-25. They defeated Notre Dame at home 17-13, whom Pitt beat 31-10 on the road.

For 1977, the CFRA split the title between Alabama and Notre Dame, and for 1978 they named Alabama the lone "champion." You can read my opinions on those poor choices here (1977) and here (1978).

The Current "College Football Researchers Association"