We always have enjoyed our MNC Wednesday miniseries, as it is was one of the originals here when we expanded to near-daily postings at the onset of the 2020 Covid lockdown. We started then with the 1936 since to coincide with the Associated Press poll, although much later in time, we decided to go back and look at the era before the mediot polling began. So here we are now, with our ninth prequel entry in the series.

The 1927 MNC: Illinois (Helms, NCF); Notre Dame (DMP)

The Illinois Fighting Illini were named retroactively as the mythical champions for this season, based on … what? We’re not sure. The school finished No. 8 in the SRS rankings, with the No. 15 SOS rating. Yes, the Illini won the Western Conference with a 5-0 mark, but the only other game against a real school resulted in a tie against Iowa State. The other two wins on the overall record (7-0-1) came against small-time schools.

This leaves the door wide open for some better teams to bust through and claim the MNC. Which teams are those? Well, let’s start with Georgia (No. 1 SRS, No. 16 SOS). The Southern Conference played a ridiculously uneven schedule, and the Bulldogs finished with a 6-1 conference record. That’s good enough for us to consider them worthy here, in the absence of a fair champion. Georgia (9-1) did lose its final game, though.

Still, that profile is better than Illinois’ credentials right now. So, which school is the next challenger? Well, Notre Dame posted a 7-1-1 record, on the backs of the No. 3 SRS ranking and the No. 2 SOS rating. The Fighting Irish also played five of their games on the road, which is impressive, and that SOS mark is significantly better than Georgia’s mark—and enough to overcome the extra tie on their overall record.

One a neutral field, the sabermetrics say the Bulldogs would have won by a point, but the Notre Dame road-warrior mentality here has to be factored into the equation as well as the significant SOS advantage. It really does come down to Georgia or Notre Dame here, as all the other pretenders fall away based on clear factors like head-to-head competition, a loss in the Rose Bowl, and/or vastly inferior SOS marks. So be it.

We find it hard to deny the Irish this MNC, due to the SOS. You take on a schedule like that and still finish just one sabermetric point behind an opponent you didn’t face while playing the majority of your games on the road? You need to be rewarded for that schedule and the finishing of it with such a significant record. Notre Dame, therefore, wins its ninth mythical national championship from us and a third in four years.