1940 Boston College Eagles football team

The 1940 Boston College Eagles represented Boston College in the 1940 college football season. Playing as an independent, the team was led by head coach Frank Leahy in his second year, and played their home games at Fenway Park in Boston and Alumni Field in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They finished their regular season with ten wins and zero losses as the highest scoring team in the country and the Lambert Trophy winner, awarded to the best team in the East. With its victory on January 1, 1941 in the Sugar Bowl over the undefeated SEC champion and regular season national champion, Tennessee,^[1][2]the BC Eagles were widely acclaimed as national champions.^[3] Minnesota and Stanford also have viable claims to the national championship.

From 1936-1964 the final Associated Press poll ranking college football teams was taken at the end of the regular season, not after the post-season bowl games. The final AP poll of the 1940 season was published on December 2, 1940.^[4] It listed undefeated Minnesota (8-0) No. 1 with its thrilling home win by an extra point 7-6 over No. 3 Michigan (7-1). Stanford (10-0) was ranked number 2. Tennessee (10-0) was listed number 4 in the poll and Boston College (10-0) was number 5.

Neither Minnesota nor Michigan played in a post season bowl game. Stanford defeated No. 7 Nebraska (8-2) in the Rose Bowl. Tennessee outscored its regular season opponents 319-26, soundly beating such football opponents as Alabama, Florida, LSU, Kentucky, Virginia and Duke.^[5] Despite where the AP rated teams at the end of the regular season, BC’s post season win over Tennessee was widely deemed the best win of any team in the 1940 season. ^[6][7]

The NCAA had no role in determining a national football champion in that era; it did not sponsor a play-off style tournament or recognize an official national champion. ^[8][9][10] For post-season play at that time the national championship, called the Mythical National Championship (MNC)^[11] had national championship team(s) independently declared based on the merits of the case made by proponents in the newspapers, magazines and radio outlets that devoted enormous coverage to college football.^[12]

Boston College, Minnesota and Stanford were all deemed “national champions” by various media outlets. A leading neutral authority concluded that “…BC should be considered a co-MNC. And when you look at their coach and players (5 college football Hall of Fame players in contrast to three for both Minnesota and Stanford^[13]) you have to think BC would have had a least as good a chance as Minnesota or Stanford to win a playoff in 1940.”^[14]

Schedule

Date	Opponent#	Rank#	Site	Result	Attendance
September 21	Centre		Alumni Field • Chestnut Hill, MA	W 40–0	18,000
September 28	at Tulane		Tulane Stadium • New Orleans, LA	W 27–7	42,000
October 12	Temple		Fenway Park • Boston, MA	W 33–20	24,000
October 19	Idaho	No. 8	Fenway Park • Boston, MA	W 60–0	8,000
October 26	St. Anselm	No. 10	Alumni Field • Chestnut Hill, MA	W 55–0	15,000
November 2	Manhattan	No. 9	Alumni Field • Chestnut Hill, MA	W 25–0	5,000
November 9	Boston University	No. 8	Fenway Park • Boston, MA (Rivalry)	W 21–0	15,000
November 16	Georgetown	No. 8	Fenway Park • Boston, MA	W 19–18	41,700
November 23	Auburn	No. 4	Fenway Park • Boston, MA	W 33–7	30,000
November 30	Holy Cross	No. 4	Fenway Park • Boston, MA (Rivalry)	W 7–0	39,000
January 1, 1941	vs. No. 4 Tennessee	No. 5	Tulane Stadium • New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl)	W 19–13	73,181
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. #Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Eastern Time.

*Schedule Source:^[15]

References