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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/stayclassypeople on 2024-06-20 17:51:32+00:00.

This is the first post in a series covering the 1950 to 1973 college football seasons, the big games that shaped the race for #1, and how those teams performed in the bowls. The goal of this series is to analyze the weird relationship college football has had with crowning a champion and how things evolved Before I start off with the 1950 season, I think it’s important to lay some ground work to understand how bowls and the polls came to be.

The AP Poll

  • First conducted in 1936
  • Creator: Alan J Gould
  • Each week the poll was conducted by polling various sportswriters across the country (as it still is today). The number of sportswriters varied year to year, but the concept has always been basically the same. You get X number of points for being picked #1, X minus 1 points for being #2 and so on and so forth.
  • First poll on Oct 19th, with Minnesota being ranked #1.
  • From 1936-1960; 1968-89 it ranked the top 20 teams. From 1961-67 It only ranked the top 10. from 1990 to present day, it ranks the top 25 teams.
  • Minnesota finished #1 at the end of the regular season
  • Didn’t start releasing post bowl rankings until 1965, then continuously from 1968 to present.

Alan Gould never intended for the AP to become the premier way to determine the best team in football. Long after it’s creation, Gould later recalled, “It was a case of thinking up ideas to develop interest and controversy. Papers wanted material to fill space between games. That’s all I had in mind, something to keep the pot boiling. Sports was then living off controversy, opinion, whatever. This was just another exercise in hoopla.” So to put it simply, a sportswriter during the Great Depression concocted it as a way to sell newspapers.

The Coaches Poll

  • First poll conducted in the 1950 season
  • Did not start releasing post bowl final rankings until 1974 season.
  • Unlike the AP Poll, schools on probation weren’t recognized in the poll and thus could not be declared it’s national championship.
  • From 1950-1973 it’s final poll was released prior to the bowl games.
  • The Coaches poll ranked various coaches throughout the country as opposed to sportswriters in the AP.
  • It typically ranked the top 20 teams from it’s inception until 1989. Beginning in 1990, it expanded to the top 25 where it remains today.

I wasn’t able to find who or what created the Coaches poll in 1950, but shortly after it’s inception in 1950, it would gain parity the the AP as the premier way to pick the #1 team in college football.

Other ranking services

The AP and Coaches Poll were not the only services to rank teams. Many other services existed throughout college football history, but none quite caught on like the AP and Coaches Polls.’ I’m not going to go into all of them, but the most popular was perhaps the Dickinson System, which was created by an Illinois professor, Frank Dickinson. It existed from 1924-1940 and used a mathematical formula to rank teams. Technically it began in 1926, but he retroactively ranked teams in 1924 and 1925. This was in order to get Knute Rockne’s endorsement for the system, as it ranked his Fighting Irish #1 in 1924.

The system would award points to teams based on strength of victory and losses. It was the first ranking service to gain national attention but would quickly be surpassed by the AP poll, which would come along just 12 years later. Think of it as an early Sagarin rating system. If you’re curious about the Dickinson System, or any other ranking services, Tiptop25.com has a great write up on it (link below).

The Rose Bowl

  • 1902, 1916-22: It was known as the East vs West football game
    • Michigan vs Stanford was the first game, with Michigan winning 49-0.
  • 1923-present: Became known as the Rose Bowl
  • 1916-46: It selected a PCC (PAC 8/10/12 precursor) team vs a top Eastern team.
  • 1946: Big 9 (eventual Big 10) and PCC entered an agreement to meet in the Rose Bowl . No other school from either conference was allowed to compete in a bowl until the 1970s.
  • 1947-1997: The Pac/B1G played the Rose Bowl annually, primarily playing on January 1st.The year was 1890 and members of Pasadena’s Valley Hunt Club were looking for ways to drum up tourism for the city they considered paradise.  Their solution was to create the Tournament of Roses parade.  While the rest of the US was buried in snow, they would showcase their city’s mild weather with blooming flowers and oranges . . . and so they did.  In its early years, it had horse drawn carriages covered in flowers and other games such as foot races and polo matches. As the tournament grew, the Valley Hunt Club gave way to the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association, which was able to handle the growing event.  They continued looking for events to draw interest, including ostrich races.  Looking for additional ways to raise funds, they came up with a new idea, a football game.  The idea was simple. They would pit a local team vs another school from the East.  For the first game, they invited Stanford from the West and Michigan from the East would be the game’s first two participants.  Michigan, led by Fielding Yost, would route Stanford 49-0.  College football’s first bowl game was born.  Unfortunately, the lopsided nature of the first game would scare off organizers from hosting another football game until 1916, where it would be played continuously with increased fan interest.  Still, the game wasn’t designed with the intent to be a ‘national championship’ game, rather a postseason event to match up teams from different regions, who would otherwise rarely play, in an attempt to further advertise and raise money for the Parade of Roses.

Orange Bowl

  • 1926: Leaders of Maimi wanted to start the “Fiesta of the Tropics,” which would be centered around a football game, but it never came to fruition.
  • 1932: George E. Hussey sought organize a game similar to the Rose Bowl to give the city an economic boost.
  • From 1933 to 35, it was known as the Palm Festival Game.
  • 1933: The First game was played with a  local team, Miami vs Manhattan college. Miami won 7-0.
  • 1935: The first recognized bowl game is played (the prior 2 games weren’t recognized by the NCAA because Miami was guaranteed a berth). Bucknell beat Miami 26-0.
  • 1954-1996: The Orange Bowl started featuring the Big 7/8 champ.  Unlike the Rose Bowl, the Big 8 champ was allowed to decline the bid and accept bids to other bowls

The Tournament of Roses and its football game caught on in other corners of the country as well.   George E Hussey, Official Greeter of Miami, organized the first event, which would be centered around a football game as well.  The first game was known as the Festival of Palms Bowl.  Also like the Rose Bowl, they chose to pair two teams from a different region, with the first two games pitting local Miami vs Manhattan College on New Years 1933, then Duquense the following New Years.  Since these games guaranteed berths to Miami, rather than picking teams on merit.  Starting in 1935, it rebranded its name to the Orange Bowl, a game where Bucknell shutout Miami 26-0. 

Sugar Bowl

  • First conceived in 1927 by James S Thompson and Frank Digby
  • First game was played in 1935
  • In 1943, it began featuring the SEC champ. Like the Orange Bowl, this was more of an ‘open marriage’ as teams would be able to turn down the bid in favor of other bowl game bids.Colonel James S Thompson and sports editor Fred Digby first hatched the idea of a local bowl game for New Orleans in 1927, but would not see their idea come to fruition until 1935.  Much like the Orange and Rose, the idea was meant to drum up economic interest for the area, albeit it took a bit longer for city leaders to warm up to the idea.  The first game featured Pop Warner’s Temple Owls vs Tulane, who prevailed 20-14.

Cotton Bowl

  • 1937: Founded by Curtis J Sanford
  • From it’s inception, it began featuring the SWC champ. Except for 1940, it would have an SWC team play every season until the conference’s dissolution in 1995.

It only makes sense that the Texas based Cotton Bowl was first financed with oil money.  Texas oil tycoon Curtis J Sanford financed the game with his own money.  Local school TCU, led by Sammy Baugh, defeated Marquette 16-6.  The game was a money loser, however, it was able to turn a profit the following year.  The Cotton Bowl Athletic Association eventually took over the game and soon became intertwined with the Southwest Conference, who would send its champion there every year from 1941 up until the conference’s dissolution in 1995.  

It’s plain to see the bowls were never intended to be seen as national championship determining events they would eventually become.  They were purely conceived as ways to drum up tourism for the local economies where they were played.  And what better way to do that than with the growing sport of college football.  Although they had admittance requirements, such as winning your conference, the postseason match ups were seen by many as glorified exhibition games.  However, their popularity was undeniable.  Cold weather teams and their fans in the Big 8 and Big 10 celebrated the fact that their successful season could be rewarded with a trip to a sunny paradise.  The regional teams they were paired with relished the chance to play an opponent outside t…

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