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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/stayclassypeople on 2024-06-25 16:48:28+00:00.

This is the third post in a series covering the 1950-1973 seasons. Each year I will cover the big games the shaped the race for #1 and how they performed in the bowls. Season by season you’ll see the gradual evolution of how college football went from a regular season only sport into a game into a sport where bowls would become national championship events. This is my amateur attempt at understanding college football’s bizarre journey in declaring who is #1.

Master Post

A Brief History of the bowls and Polls

https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/1dkhvs5/a_brief_history_of_the_bowls_and_polls/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

News and Notes

  • Michigan St was Big 10 university, but would not compete as a Big 10 team in football until 1953 do to football schedules already being set for the coming years.
  • Notre Dame had a policy of not playing in bowl games from 1925-68 as the school viewed them as glorified exhibition games
  • The Big 7 barred it’s schools from participating in Bowl Games.
  • The Service academies had a long standing agreement of not playing in post season events.
  • Georgia Tech competed in the SEC
  • Preseason #1: Michigan St
  • Bowl Tie ins
    • Rose: PCC and Big 10
      • Illinois and Stanford ineligible for the Rose Bowl this season due to each conferences no-repeat rule.'
    • Sugar: SEC (unofficially)
    • Orange: none
    • Cotton: SWC
  • Total Bowl Games: 8
  • As mentioned in the prior post the San Francisco Dons dropped their football program

Important Regular Season Games

  • SEPT 27th
    • Preseason #4 Oklahoma entered the year with national title aspirations on their mind.  Those hopes took a hit, drawing with Colorado 21-21 in Boulder.
  • OCT 4th
    • 8 Wisconsin (1-0) rolled to a 20-6 upset over #2 Illinois (1-0).  The AP voters would reward the Badgers by elevating them to #1 in the following Monday’s polls.
    • 4 defending champ Tennessee was blanked 7-0 by #10 Duke in Durham.  Their shot of a repeat title was already on life support.
  • OCT 11th
    • Just a week after moving to #1 Wisconsin (2-0) lost in Columbus to OSU (1-1) 23-14. Michigan St would move to #1 in the AP Poll, followed by Maryland.
  • OCT 25th
    • 4 Cal met #7 USC (both 5-0) met in a mid season clash of the unbeatens.  The Trojan D came in clutch for a 10-0 victory.
  • NOV 1st
    • 4 Georgia Tech met #6 Duke (both 6-0) in Durham. GT, likely smarting from last year’s tie to the Blue Devils that cost them a perfect season, and won in a 28-7 route.
  • NOV 8th
    • 4 Oklahoma (5-0-1) had worked its way back into the top 5 after a season opening tie to Colorado.  However, their title hopes were all but eliminated by #10 Notre Dame in South Bend, 21-27.
  • Nov 15th
    • There was still a lot to be decided with two more weeks to go in the season for most teams, but for #1 Michigan St (7-0) their mid November showdown vs #6 Notre Dame (5-1-1) felt like the national title. They still had one game after this, but it was versus lowly Marquette.  The Spartans left no doubt with a resounding 21-3 win over the Irish.  Barring a major upset the following week, the polls were almost certainly going to recognize them as college football’s consensus #1 team.
  • NOV 22nd:
    • 1 Michigan St wrapped up a perfect season, routing Marquette 62-13.  This also extended their winning streak to 24 games.  USC and Georgia Tech were still unbeaten, so they would still need to rely on the voters not changing their mind in the final polls, still over a week away.
    • 5 USC (8-0) met #3 USC (8-0) in a de facto PCC battle with the Rose Bowl on the line.  Winning the hearts and minds of the voters wasn’t always a tangible goal, but a trip to Pasadena was. The Trojans escaped with a 14-12 win to smell the Roses.  With only the PCC champ being postseason eligible, the Bruins season was over.
  • NOV 29th:
    • 3 Georgia Tech routed Georgia 23-9 in Athens to wrap up a perfect season and an SEC title.  This win also continued thier 25 game non losing streak.
    • Rose Bowl bound #2 USC (9-0) faced an uphill battle with the voters to gain recognition as #1.  Maybe a convincing win over #7 Notre Dame (6-2-1) would help them climb that hill.  Like Jack and Jill, they fell down that hill with an ugly 9-0 loss to the Irish.
    • 6 Ole Miss (8-0-2) finished the year unbeaten, with an Egg Bowl win over Mississippi St, 20-14.  Two early season ties foiled both their SEC title and #1 hopes.

Final Polls

First place votes in parentheses

Team Record AP rank Coaches rank Bowl
Michigan St 9-0 1 (207) 1 (32) none
Georgia Tech 11-0 2 (36) 2 (1) Sugar
Notre Dame 7-2-1 3 (4) 3 (1) none
Oklahoma 8-1-1 4 (14) T4 (1) none
USC 9-1 5 (2) T4 Rose
UCLA 8-1 6 (1) 6 none
Ole Miss 8-0-2 7 (3) 7 Sugar

Two teams were perfect, but only one of them garnered the voters affections.  The Yellow Jackets got a heavy dose of wasp spray from the voters, as  Michigan St won the vast majority of votes in each poll to claim their first consensus national title. The Postseason would prove to be lackluster. Due to conference restrictions for Michigan St, Oklahoma, and UCLA and a self imposed bowl ban by Notre Dame, three of the nation’s top 4 teams and 5 of the top 7 would not be playing in a bowl game for the 1952 season. The Sugar Bowl would still feature two unbeaten teams, with Georgia Tech taking on Ole Miss, but the rest of the games left a lot to be desired.

Orange Bowl #9 Alabama vs #14/UNR Syracuse

It seems fitting the Syracuse Orange’s first ever bowl game was the Orange Bowl. Syracuse was able to secure the invite after Navy declined a bid since the service academies had a gentleman’s agreement to not play in postseason events.  They were also winners of something called the Lambert trophy, which went to the ‘best team in the East,’ or more specifically, the Northeast.  Anyway, the committee who awarded them the trophy probably wanted to rescind that offer after the SEC’s 4th place Alabama Tide waxed them 61-6. This still stands as the Tide’s largest bowl victory ever.

Sugar Bowl: #10 Texas vs #8 Tennessee

Back to back October losses to Notre Dame and Oklahoma took Texas out of the national title race early, but they rallied to finish a perfect SWC campaign, earning a Cotton Bowl bid.  They blanked SEC runner up Tennessee 16-0 to finish the year on a 7 game win streak.

Rose Bowl: #11/10 Wisconsin vs #5/4 USC

Prior to it’s season ending loss to Notre Dame, the Trojans had an outside chance of #1.  I still think MSU would’ve held on, but now, their only focus was winning the coveted Rose Bowl.  The two loss and once tied Badgers made them earn it.  The Trojans broke a scoreless tie in the 3rd to take a 7-0 lead, which would prove to be the final score.  This marked the PCC’s/PACs first win over the Big 10 since the two conferences made their 1947 contract to meet annually in the Rose.

Sugar Bowl: #2 Georgia Tech vs #7 Ole Miss

The Yellow Jackets wouldn’t get the satisfaction playing and beating the #1 in a bowl like the year, but handing their conference rival Ole Miss it’s first loss of the year, while claiming a Sugar Bowl trophy would still be a satisfying consolation prize.  The Rebels meanwhile were not only ranked in the top 10 for the first time ever, but were playing in their first ever Sugar Bowl.

GT spotted the Rebels a 7-0 lead after the 1st before the Jackets rallied with a TD and FG to take a 10-7 halftime lead. In the 2nd half, they added two more touchdowns (a rushing in the 3rd and passing in the 4th), while the defense pitched a shutout to roll to a 24-7 victory, securing their second consecutive unbeaten season.

Final results

With a bowl season like 1952, it is apparent why final polls were released before the bowls instead of after. How can you have a fair poll when multiple highly ranked teams aren’t participating in the bowls? I don’t have sympathy for schools like Notre Dame who refused bowl invites at the time, for a team like MSU or Oklahoma, I get it. Their conference disallowing them to play in a bowl is one less data point they have to prove their case for #1 vs teams that had the opportunity to play.

Now onto the question of who deserves the claim of national champion. I personally think both teams have a strong argument for #1 and should be considered co-champions. in fact, both schools claim a national championship for 1952. Michigan St has arguably the best win between the two schools, thrashing Notre Dame, but Georgia Tech also played a competitive schedule that included a win over Orange Bowl champ, Alabama. If you want to read more on this debate, I recommend reading the article linked below.

Minor Selectors champions

Rating System Champion
DeVold Michigan St
College Football Researchers Foundation Michigan St
National Championship Foundation Michigan St
Billingsle…

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