Hang the Banner: Second Matrix Tabs Ducks as 2024 National Champion

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Dale Bliss | Last updated Jan 25, 2025 8:35 AM ET

In the old days this used to be the way teams claimed national titles. Friday in Seattle, Jeff Anderson and Chris Hester, known together as Anderson Sports, released their final computer rankings for FBS college football in the 2024 season.

Anderson and Hester use a system they created in 1992 while they roommates at the University of Washington. During the season their rankings are published weekly by The Seattle Times and under the old BCS formula, they were part of the basis for choosing the teams that earned a spot in the national championship. When newspapers and ESPN college football hosts talked about "The Seattle Times Computer" they were talking about Anderson and Hester.

They've crowned a national champion every year since 1997, based on won-loss percentage, strength of schedule, schedule rank, record versus the current top ten, record versus teams ranked 11-25, and other losses. It's science. In the previous five years beginning with 2019, their picks for the national champion were LSU, Alabama, Georgia, Georgia, and Michigan.

2nd NCAA selector poll has claimed Oregon as #1

Anderson & Hester ratings put Oregon as the 2024-25 national champions.https://t.co/6NZpBixAZU pic.twitter.com/XXj5NhR9xb
— CFB Home (@CFBHome) January 25, 2025

Realize, these are a couple of Huskies. So it was a shock when at their website Friday when they published their 2024 national rankings, based on the findings of the computer and said:

While national champion (14-2) Ohio State had a much stronger finish, Big Ten champion (13-1) Oregon had the better overall, season-long results

The Ducks and Buckeyes each played the other twice and #12 Michigan once, with 1 of those games at home, 1 on the road, and 1 at a neutral site—and the Ducks went 2-1 in those games while the Buckeyes went 1-2 (with neither team losing otherwise)

Versus the season-ending top-12, Oregon went 5-1 and Ohio State 5-2 (with neither team losing to a team ranked outside the top-12).

This is the Anderson Sports computer rankings talking, not me. While no serious person should serve up these rankings as being the true reality of the 2024 season-- we all saw what happened in Pasadena-- they illustrate two things, and both are important. One the 2024 Ducks had a damn fine season, and they are very close to playing at a national championship level. Statistically, they had all the qualifications a national championship-caliber team should have.

Two, all of the claims of national titles, prior to 1998 when teams actually started playing a game to win one (Tennessee beat Florida State 23-16 in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 4, 1999) were based on reputation, hot air, and the results of this or that poll or computer ranking.

A few days ago the Wolfe ratings also named the Ducks national champions. While this is what's known in speech class as an appeal to an authority, sometimes fandom demands sophistry.

Objectively, Oregon's claim to a national title has just as much validity as the titles claimed in 1991 or 1960, in that it was achieved in the same way.

Oregon fans should have fun with this, and they will. Polls and rankings are a stupid way to determine a national champion, and Ohio State won the 2024 national championship fair and square by being the best team money could buy. But hey, The Seattle Times computer said the Ducks were pretty good. And there's always next year.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: