there are arguments for as many as 19, i believe.

you have a host of polling services going back as far as 1919 who evaluated which teams were the national title winners. pretty much as arbitrary as what we recognize a legitimate today – the bcs. prior to the “ap poll era” the rose bowl was exactly what the BCSNC game is today – a quasi-arbitrary matchup of two of the best teams in college football.

(and to demonstrate how goofy this all can get, if the AP-poll-era is the standard we are going by, it is arguable that winning the BCS since 2004 should not be included since they are of the post-AP-era.)

one of the reasons this year’s championship game was so important to us as alabama fans was the importance of the rose bowl in our history. three of the games we played there – 1931 vs Washington State, 1927 vs Stanford and, most importantly, 1926 vs Washington – we count as national championships. regardless of if they are “valid” or not the fact is the stature of these games make them loom large over the history of our program and, in the case of the 1926 game, southern football as a whole.

but the correct answer to the question of how many championships alabama has is zero – just like every other team. the ncaa does not award a national championship for football.