Alternate universes
The belt has exactly one rule and one starting point. Change either and the same 111,304 games produce a different history — sometimes a wildly different one. These are four of them, computed the same way as the real belt, over every game since 1869.
Baylor
Whoever beats the holder takes it; a pre-overtime tie stayed with the holder; bowls count; since Rutgers–Princeton, 1869.
335 reigns106 programsthe one that counts
Ties pass the beltBaylor same as the real belt
A tie hands the belt to the challenger instead of leaving it with the holder.
412 reigns108 programsagrees with the real belt 48% of the time
Bowls don't countUSC
Postseason games can't move the belt; the holder carries it through the winter untouched.
323 reigns109 programsagrees with the real belt 54% of the time
The poll eraBaylor same as the real belt
The belt is born the week the first AP poll comes out, in October 1936, held by that poll's No. 1.
260 reigns81 programsagrees with the real belt 100% of the time
The BCS eraBaylor same as the real belt
The belt starts with the 1998 preseason AP No. 1 and follows the modern game from there.
106 reigns49 programsagrees with the real belt 85% of the time
Every universe uses the real engine with one change. A holder that stops playing (a program that dropped football, or vanishes from the record) hands the belt back to the program it took it from, the same rule the FBS and FCS scopes use. Agreement is the share of days since the universe began on which it and the real belt named the same holder.