The 1940Boston College Eagles represented Boston College in the 1940 college football season. Playing as an independent, the team was led by head coachFrank Leahy in his second year, and played their home games at Fenway Park in Boston and Alumni Field in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They won all ten games in the regular season, were the highest-scoring team in the country, and took the Lambert Trophy winner, awarded to the best team in the East. With its victory on New Year's Day in the Sugar Bowl over the undefeated SEC champion Tennessee, the BC Eagles were widely acclaimed as national champions. Minnesota and Stanford also have viable claims to the national championship. From 1936 to 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. In 1940, it was published on December 2, and listed undefeated Minnesota first with its thrilling home win by an extra point 7–6 over No. 3 Michigan. Stanford was ranked second, Tennessee fourth, and Boston College was fifth. Neither Minnesota nor Michigan played in a post seasonbowl game, and Stanford defeated No. 7 Nebraska 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 had national championship team 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. Boston College, Minnesota and Stanford were all deemed “national champions” by various media outlets. A leading neutral authority concluded that “…BC should be considered a co-MNC. And when you look at their coach and players you have to think BC would have had a least as good a chance as Minnesota or Stanford to win a playoff in 1940.”
