Our MNC Wednesday miniseries returns with prequels! We are reviewing the pre-Associated Press mythical national championships prior to 1936, in reverse chronological order. Sabermetric data exists in minimal form, and we will sort through all other information available to make careful decision, even as several experts have done this already. Their names/systems will come up, aplenty. We have our rules, too.

The 1934 MNC: Minnesota (Helms, NCF); Minnesota (DMP)

The Minnesota Golden Gophers had quite the dynasty in the 1930s, didn’t they? The school can claim three straight MNCs from 1934-1936, basically, even though we don’t agree with the 1935 and 1936 decisions. Remember, though, we did buy into the 1940 and the 1941 hype—albeit not the 1960 nonsense. See, isn’t this fun? Hindsight is always 20/20 or better, so we’re happy to apply it whenever we can to solve mysteries.

Either way, the Golden Gophers went 8-0, a record that includes seven victories over major-college opponents for an SOS rank of 25th. They posted a 5-0 mark in the Western Conference, so they won what would become the B1G later in time. They pitched three shutouts in those five league wins, too, allowing just 19 points total against Western foes. Oddly, they coughed up 19 points in their other three games, as well.

Who can challenge them? Well, there is the Alabama Crimson Tide: 10-0 overall, including a Rose Bowl victory over Stanford. The Tide went 7-0 in the SEC, played just one small school, and finished with the No. 39 SOS. That discrepancy in strength of schedule truly leaves Minnesota well ahead of Alabama here, even with the extra wins on the Crimson Tide slate. Clearly, it was a weak year for the SEC, and they couldn’t lie.

The only other real challenge here comes from Navy, which posted an 8-1 record‚ all against major-college teams. The Midshipmen earned the No. 9 SOS rating, so that’s more than enough to make up for the one loss. But which team did Navy lose to? Pittsburgh, which was one of the Golden Gophers’ victims. Now, we know transitive-score comparisons are crap, but there’s this to consider, still, in our analysis decades later.

Minnesota went on the road to Pittsburgh to win, while Pittsburgh went on the road to Navy to win. The context matters, even if the scores do not. The Midshipmen also were nowhere near as dominant against their tougher schedule (of course), but the Golden Gophers had a plus-232 point differential, while Navy only managed a plus-68 scoring margin. All things being equal, there’s dominance there we can’t ignore.

We’re going to confirm Minnesota’s MNC here, which is the school’s third overall with us through the years.