Claim jumpers

So Alabama and Georgia play for the alleged national title Monday night, which is nice and all, but it really doesn't mean a whole lot outside Athens, Ga., and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

This is because the national title has already been claimed in Orlando, Fla.

Central Florida, see, has declared itself the national champion, on account of it finished the season undefeated while Alabama and Georgia will not. Plus, in the Peach Bowl, UCF beat Auburn, which beat both the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs.

So, UCF is the people's champ, or some such thing. There's even going to be a parade.

"Well, that's just silly," you're undoubtedly saying now. "Central Florida can't be the national champ just because it says it is. Who does that?"

Well ... as it turns out, a lot of people.

Including, ahem, both Alabama and Georgia.

As Adam Rittenberg of ESPN points out here, 'Bama is actually the leader in the clubhouse in the We're National Champs Because We Say So sweepstakes. The NCAA credits Alabama with 14 national titles; 'Bama claims 16. This includes the 1941 national title, which Minnesota actually won but which the Crimson Tide claims as one of its 16 even though it went 9-2, finished third in the SEC and was ranked 20th in the final Associated Press poll.

But 'Bama declared itself national champ because it was ranked No. 1 in some obscure metric called the Houlgate System.

Similarly, Georgia declared itself national champ the next year, even though Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in the final AP poll. USC and Minnesota, meanwhile, retroactively claimed national titles in 1939 and 1904 -- in Minnesota's case, 108 years after the fact.

So there you have it: Central Florida is the national champ because it says it is. And because history says it can do that.

Enjoy that runnerup game Monday night.