per wiki:
The
Helms Athletic Foundation was an
athleticfoundation based in
Los Angeles,
California, U.S., founded in 1936 by Bill Schroeder and
Paul Helms. It put together a panel of experts[
citation needed] to select National Champion teams and make
All-America team selections in a number of
college sports including
football and
basketball. The panel met annually[
citation needed] to vote on a National Champion until 1982 and retroactively ranked football teams dating back to 1883 and basketball back to 1901. The Helms Foundation also operated a Hall of Fame for both college sports.
Selections prior to 1936 are often disputed as many of them are not derived from actual head-to-head competition and rely on historical documents to interpret champions.