Texas A&M 1919
This was the 6th of 7 straight years that a Southwest team went unbeaten and untied. Texas A&M had previously taken their turn in 1917, going 8-0, and they were 10-0 in 1919, but in both seasons, the Aggies did something a little extra: they shut out every opponent. The coach for both seasons was Hall of Famer Dana Xenophon Bible (pictured at left). He had departed for the war in 1918, so Dana X. Bible had a personal streak of 18 straight shut-outs in his first 2 years of coaching at A&M in 1917 and 1919. And that streak continued all the way to the last game of the 1920 season, when Texas beat the Aggies 7-3: that ended a string of 25 straight shut-outs. Bible went 72-19-9 at Texas A&M 1917 and 1919-1928, 50-15-7 at Nebraska 1929-1936, and 63-31-3 at Texas 1937-1946. Overall he was 198-72-23 at 5 schools, posting a winning record in 30 of 33 seasons, and winning 8 SWC titles and 6 Big 6 titles.
Texas A&M was led by a pair of All-SWC backs, and though the rest of the nation took no notice, at least the two are enshrined in the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame: fullback and captain Jack Mahan and halfback Roswell Grady "Little Hig" Higginbotham. Little Hig scored the touchdown that beat Texas 7-0 in their finale, then he pitched a no-hitter against the Longhorns the following Spring.
Texas A&M played a schedule that was far weaker than even Notre Dame's, as they faced no opponent who would merit even a top 50 ranking, and they struggled to win 2 of those games, beating 3-5 Southwestern (Texas) and 6-3 Texas by the same 7-0 score. Texas wasn't a bad team, but they lost to 5-2-3 Oklahoma and to Phillips, a minor Oklahoma school. The Southwest region as a whole had yet to record a nationally significant intersectional win. But Dana Bible would win the first on January 2nd, 1922, when 6-1-2 Texas A&M pulled off a huge 22-14 upset of Charlie Moran's 10-1 Centre team in the Dixie Classic in Dallas. Obviously, Texas A&M is by far the worst selection of the 6 teams I've covered for a 1919 MNC, and it's no surprise that it's the National Championship Foundation and Billingsley's computer making the pick. But the school itself does not claim a national championship for this season, so no harm done. 2012 UPDATE: well, as of 2012, Texas A&M now claims themselves national champions of 1919, and they put it up in big letters on their stadium to let everyone know that it must be true. How very--is there any other way to put it?--aggy of them. Sad, really. I suppose that 90 years from now, Marshall will claim themselves national champions of 1999. They were 13-0 that season, and finished ranked #10 in the AP poll. Of course, Marshall 1999 actually has a better case than Texas A&M, because they at least played a couple of top 50 caliber opponents, and Texas A&M would not have come close to #10 had there been an AP poll in 1919. More like #16-25. I have them ranked #23 for 1919. Well, at least Notre Dame still has the dignity not to claim an MNC for 1919.
But national championship or not, it was still a great year for the Aggies, so let's end on a positive note-- a picture of Little Hig tumbling over the goal line for the winning touchdown in the finale against Texas
http://www.tiptop25.com/champ1919.html