It is with great pride and a full heart that we here at Card Chronicle would like to announce that the University of Louisville Cardinal football team is the national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision.
Sure when Florida pounded Ohio State and hoisted the crystal football in Glendale you assumed that the Gators were the champions of '06, but who put Urban Meyer's bunch in that game? The computers. And what are the computers saying now? That Louisville is the national champion.
The Maurer rankings, the Gindin rankings, the Elrods, and the world-renowned "Pickle" rankings all have tabbed the Cardinals as the nation's top team in their final rankings. So there's your proof, four-fold baby.
At this time we'd also like to send a special thank you out to the University of Kentucky Athletic Department. Them taking the initiative to issue a press release stating that the Wildcats were the first concurrent football and men's basketball champions because in 1997 Jeff Sagarin's ratings for the 1950 season came out with UK on top, really inspired us to come out and tell the world that Louisville is #1. Hell, we might even have more national championships, we'll have to look into it.
Of course, as SMQ points out, the Cardinals aren't the only ones with an extremely valid and holeless claim to the '07 title. Florida, USC and Boise State each found themselves atop at least one set of rankings, and while their fans are free to celebrate, all serious football fans knows that if you're not tops in the Pickle, you're nothing.
The Card Chronicle is also proud to announce that the final calculations have been tabulated in our computer generated rankings, and somehow Nevada has finished the season as the top team in the land. Congratulations and go crazy Wolfpack fans.
When you have a system as proposterous as the one currently in place in college football, people can absolutely make legitimate arguments for multiple teams to be the national champion. Do they carry much weight? No, but the fact that they're out there says all you need to know.
Who wants to help me put up the banner?