1940 Boston College Eagles football team

The 1940 Boston College Eagles represented Boston College in the 1940 college football season. Playing as an independent, the team was led by head coach Frank Leahy in his second year, and played their home games at Fenway Park in Boston and Alumni Field in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They finished their regular season with ten wins and zero losses as the highest scoring team in the country and the Lambert Trophy winner, awarded to the best team in the East. With its victory on January 1, 1941 in the Sugar Bowl over the undefeated SEC champion and regular season national champion, Tennessee,the BC Eagles were widely acclaimed as national champions. Minnesota and Stanford also have viable claims to the national championship.

From 1936-1964 the final Associated Press poll ranking college football teams was taken at the end of the regular season, not after the post-season bowl games. The final AP poll of the 1940 season was published on December 2, 1940. It listed undefeated Minnesota (8-0) No. 1 with its thrilling home win by an extra point 7-6 over No. 3 Michigan (7-1). Stanford (10-0) was ranked number 2. Tennessee (10-0) was listed number 4 in the poll and Boston College (10-0) was number 5.

Neither Minnesota nor Michigan played in a post season bowl game. Stanford defeated No. 7 Nebraska (8-2) in the Rose Bowl. Tennessee outscored its regular season opponents 319-26, soundly beating such football opponents as Alabama, Florida, LSU, Kentucky, Virginia and Duke. Despite where the AP rated teams at the end of the regular season, BC’s post season win over Tennessee was widely deemed the best win of any team in the 1940 season.

The NCAA had no role in determining a national football champion in that era; it did not sponsor a play-off style tournament or recognize an official national champion. For post-season play at that time the national championship, called the Mythical National Championship (MNC) had national championship team(s) independently declared based on the merits of the case made by proponents in the newspapers, magazines and radio outlets that devoted enormous coverage to college football.