I’m confused, Nixon was in the locker room in 1969 when Texas beat Arkansas and they were declared National Champions, and that was before the bowl games.
They may have taken polls post bowl-game, but I thought the National Champion was still designated before the bowl game.
Then, and this is where my memory played me false, they went back to before the bowl poll in 1966.
Bama was the two-time defending national champ, but dropped to third, supposedly because of its weak opponent, after Notre Dame and Michigan State. And stayed there all year.
Eventually, ND and MState played. Ara Parseghian went for a tie, specifically so he could stay on top of the polls, and he did. Notre Dame had a policy of not playing bowl games and Michigan State was tied to the Rose Bowl. All Alabama could do was whip the tar out of the Nebraska Cornhuskers 34-7 in the Sugar Bowl.
So the only undefeated and untied school did not retain their national championship. I have detested ND ever since. I acquit MS as they did play for a win.
Anyway, to get to my point, the reason it was third was that, I have read, Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times, didn't give Bama any votes for political reasons. But that's neither here, not there.
Bama has been where UCF is, only they were a major team. Politics plays a part in college football, as much as we wish it did not. This being the case, I am not going to complain when it occasionally favors my team instead of the more usual other way around. For instance, in the 70s ND again jumped Alabama.
Bama got in because they were a known, quality team. Can UCF say the same? And Ohio State had a much greater blemish on its record than Bama did on its. IMO. My opinion does not count, but the committee's does.
FYI: here is the relevant passage from Wikipedia on the history or the AP poll
At the end of the 1947 season the AP released an unofficial post-bowl poll which differed from the regular season final poll.[8] Until the 1968 college football season, the final AP poll of the season was released following the end of the regular season, with the lone exception of the 1965 season. In 1964, Alabama was named the national champion in the final AP Poll following the completion of the regular season, but lost in the Orange Bowl to Texas, leaving Arkansas as the only undefeated, untied team after the Razorbacks defeated Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl Classic. In 1965, the AP's decision to wait to crown its champion paid handsomely, as top-ranked Michigan State lost to UCLA in the Rose Bowl, number two Arkansas lost to LSU in the Cotton Bowl Classic, and fourth-ranked Alabama defeated third-ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, vaulting the Crimson Tide to the top of the AP's final poll (Michigan State was named national champion in the final UPI Coaches Poll, which did not conduct a post-bowl poll).
Beginning in the 1968 season, the post bowl game poll became permanent and the AP championship reflected the bowl game results. The UPI did not follow suit with the coaches' poll until the 1974 season
If my memory is correct, there was some minor poll after the bowl game that selected Bama as the champs, but I haven't been able to verify this. However, take a look at this statement from Wikipedia's article on the 1966 squad.
The NCAA recognizes consensus national champions as the teams that have captured a championship by way of one of the major polls since the 1950 college football season.[46]
Although Alabama was the only team with a perfect record at the end of the season as Notre Dame and Michigan State tied in their meeting, it was not recognized as national champion.[47]
Keith Dunnavant suggests in his book about the 1966 season, that the continued segregation of the Alabama football team (the Crimson Tide did not integrate until Wilbur Jackson and John Mitchell made the 1971 team), as well as the Birmingham campaign and Selma to Montgomery marches by white Alabamians during the Civil Rights Movement, cost the Crimson Tide support with voters in 1966 and led to the third-place finish.[48]
The 1966 squad was retroactively recognized as national champion by Berryman and Sagarin (ELO-Chess) but Alabama does not claim either in their official national championship total.[46][49]