David Pollack weighs in on legitimacy of college football’s 2020 national champion

David Pollack believes the winner of the 2020 national title in college football will be a legitimate champion. He makes that claim even though four conferences, including the B1G and Pac-12 out of the Power 5, have postponed their fall football seasons.

In an interview with Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit believes there will be an asterisk beside the name of the champion this year, regardless of who wins. He cited that because teams like Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon — all top 10 squads in the AP Poll — aren’t playing, there’s some issues with legitimacy.

Pollack disagrees with that take. And he points to college football’s history of “claimed national championships” to back up his argument on the legitimacy of a champion.

“I have no problem with it,” Pollack said, per 247Sports. “Here’s where my line would change: if you have three of the five [Power 5 conferences playing], I’m good with it. We’ve seen teams claim national titles in the past that are abysmal — crazy. UCF did it a couple of years ago. We’ve seen Alabama do it. People have claimed national titles going back a long way with a lot easier circumstances than this. I think if you have three of the five, to me, it would be warranted.”

Already, the College Football Playoff has stated it plans to move forward with a four-team field as scheduled. It has already released the dates of its rankings shows for the 2020 season, even though six conferences will be all that are playing, not the traditional 10.

There are currently no plans to crown a spring football national champion.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB