(06-11-2019 07:33 AM)mikeinsec127 Wrote: (06-10-2019 03:20 PM)quo vadis Wrote: (06-10-2019 01:14 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote: True for NCAA team championships. However, since 1949 RU won 2 national championships in sports that did not have NCAA tournaments or were not compulsive at the time. The NCAA simply ignores these.
1. 1982 AIAW womens basketball
2. 1955 USILA mens lacrosse
In fairness, the 1982 NCAA champions, Louisiana Tech, were surely better than Rutgers that year. They were #1 in the AP poll the entire year, Rutgers IIRC never was ranked higher than #7 or so.
Yes, I understand that. However, in fairness, in 1982 the AIAW was on par with the NCAA nad you never know what could happen in a one game match-up in a single elimination tournament. This surely isn't a case of NIT vs NCAA on the men's side. Speaking of which, the NIT was the superior tournament to the NCAA for MANY years, again until the NCAA compelled member schools to accept a bid. Still the NCAA official record book simply ignores that its tournament was the second choice.
Well, before Rutgers could play LA-Tech in a final and maybe get a one-off fluke win, they'd have to earn their way there. Wiki says that in 1982, only three of the AP top 20 teams played in the AIAW tournament, whereas 17, including the top 4, played in the NCAA tournament. There's just no comparing the achievements in winning those respective events. Sad, because the AIAW took women's hoops seriously before anyone else did. IIRC, the AIAW sued the NCAA that year for monopoly practices, and probably should have won.
Getting back to your original point, I don't see a problem with the NCAA ignoring AIAW or any other championships not sanctioned by the NCAA. That's like expecting the NBA or NFL to acknowledge basketball or football championships won in other leagues. It's just not relevant to them.
So e.g., there are no NCAA women's hoops champions before 1982, and there are no NCAA division I football champions, ever to this day.
Now of course that doesn't mean *we* have to, or should, ignore them, as we are not the NCAA. So definitely, AIAW titles won in 1981 and before should be fully recognized as national champions by us.
But if it makes you feel better, on page 5 of the 2018 NCAA Women's Basketball Record Book, you can find a list of all the AIAW national champions, including Rutgers in 1982:
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_basketba...9/AIAW.pdf