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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/stayclassypeople on 2024-06-27 12:12:21+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

News and Notes

  • The ACC is born!
    • 7 members of the Southern Conference (Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest) left it to form the ACC. This was due, in part, to the Southern Conference’s ban on postseason play, which had been in effect since 1951. Virginia would join the following year to become the 8th member. The ACC also agreed to send its champ to the Orange Bowl, joining the Big 7.
  • Michigan St became a full member of the Big 10 in football, and was now eligible to compete for a Rose Bowl Bid
  • Notre Dame had a self imposed bowl ban from 1925-1968. The administration viewed bowls as 'glorified exhibition games.'
  • Preseason #1: Notre Dame
  • Bowl tie ins
    • Rose: PCC and Big 10 champs
      • Each conference’s ‘no-repeat’ rule meant Wisconsin and USC were ineligible.
    • Sugar: SEC (unofficial agreement.)
    • Cotton: SWC champ
    • Orange: Big 7 and ACC

Big Games

  • September 26th
    • The 1953 season kicked off with an epic showdown between #1 Notre Dame vs #6 Oklahoma.  The Irish survived 28-21 in Norman.
  • October 3rd
    • Fresh off an opening season loss to Notre Dame, #8 Oklahoma tied unranked Pitt 7-7.  The Sooners would not lose again.
  • October 17th
    • #4 UCLA (4-0) fell 20-21 at Stanford (2-2) 20-21.  The Bruins would not lose again, claiming a Rose Bowl berth by season’s end.
  • October 24th
    • #2 Michigan St saw their 28 game winning streak end at the hands of unranked Indiana with a 6-0 shutout in Lafayette.
  • November 14
    • #2 Maryland (8-0) met it’s first ranked opponent of the season vs #11 Ole Miss (7-1) and won easily, 38-0.
    • #4 Michigan St (6-1) wrapped up it’s Big 10 schedule with a 14-6 win over Michigan (5-2).
    • #3 Illinois (6-0-1) was the last unbeaten Big 10 team when they met Wisconsin (5-2) at Camp Randall.  The Badgers rolled to a 34-7 upset, opening the door for both themselves and Michigan St to claim a share of the conference crown with one week of play to go.
  • November 21
    • #1 Notre Dame vs #20 Iowa:  The Irish were a wire to wire #1 in both polls and had been since the preseason. With a win over the #20 Hawkeyes, they were a lock to be a consensus #1 in the final polls (provided they also beat USC the following week), which would be released just over a week later.  Instead they fell victim to a 21-21 tie, opening the door for Maryland and Michigan St
    • #2 Maryland vs #11 Alabama: The Terrapins had already wrapped up the inaugural ACC championship, but now, in their final regular season game, a bigger prize was on the line; the national title.  It would require a win vs bama and a loss or tie by the Irish.  They didn’t take the opportunity lightly with a 21-0 shutout of the Tide.  coupled with no other unbeaten and untied teams (thanks to Notre Dame’s tie), the Terps were almost certainly going to finish #1.
    • #3 Michigan St needed help to claim a 2nd straight natty. It would likely require losses by both Michigan St and Maryland. They struggled to put away a bad Marquette team, 21-15 to complete an 8-1 season. They finish tied for first place with Illinois at 5-1 in conference play. The B1G’s tiebreaker at the time was to give the Rose Bowl bid to the member with the longest drought.  By default, Michigan St was smelling Roses in the first season in the conference.
    • #4 Oklahoma wrapped up another Big 7 title, pounding Nebraska 30-7. With their earlier season loss and tie, there was almost no chance of finishing #1.
    • #5 UCLA (7-1) knocked off USC 13-0 to claim an outright PCC title and Rose Bowl berth.
    • #8 Wisconsin was ineligible for the Rose Bowl due to the Big 10’s no repeat rule, but still had a chance to claim at least a share of B1G title.  They would tie 21-21 at Minnesota to lose that opportunity.
    • #7 Illinois would escape Northwestern 3-0 to finish tied for first in the Big 10 at 5-1 and co-champs with Michigan St. Unfortunately the lost out on the Rose Bowl tiebreaker as mentioned earlier.
  • November 28th
    • #2 Notre Dame’s odds of jumping unbeaten Maryland in the polls were slim, but they did their best to impress the voters with a 48-14 walloping of USC.
    • #8 Rice routed #17 Baylor 41-19 to secure a share of the SWC title with Texas (whom they beat in the regular season). The Owls were rewarded with a Cotton Bowl berth.

Final Polls

*Both released on November 30th.

Team Record AP Coaches Bowl
Maryland 10-0 1 (187) 1 (20) Orange
Notre Dame 8-0-1 2 (141) 2 (13) none
Michigan St 8-1 3 (8) 3 (1) Rose
Oklahoma 8-1-1 4 (10) 5 (1) Orange
UCLA 8-1-1 5 (1) 4 (1) Rose
Rice 8-2 6 (2) 6 Cotton

*The Irish played SMU on December 5th, after the final polls were released, winning 40-14 to move to 9-0-1.

It was a close vote, but the voters ultimately sided with Maryland as the #1 team in the land. This was the Terps first, and to date, only national title (they do not claim 1951). I don’t fault voters who picked once tied Notre Dame, who beat more teams in the finals polls (3 to Maryland’s 0). Despite their season being over, Notre Dame could still claim a transitive victory over Maryland. The Terps would meet #4/#5 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, whom the Irish beat 28-21 to open the season. An OU win would give them a ‘national title’ in the court of public opinion.

The Bowls

Sugar Bowl: #10/13 West Virginia (8-1) vs #8/9 Georgia Tech (8-2-1)

The Yellow Jackets didn’t match the success of their perfect 1952 season, dropping two games and tying another, but managed to find their way back to the postseason nonetheless, which was no small task given the small number of bowl games.  Their challenger was SOCON champ, West Virginia, playing in its first ever bowl game. The Mountaineers filled the vacuum left by Maryland and six others leaving  to create the ACC. The Mountaineers first bowl wouldn’t be pretty for them. The Jackets raced to a 29-6 lead through 3 quarters before cruising to a 42-19 victory to claim back to back Sugar Bowl wins.

Cotton Bowl: #6 Rice (8-2) vs #13/11 Alabama (6-2-3)

Believe it or not, the Owls weren’t half bad in the 1950s, playing in the second of what would be three Cotton Bowl appearances that decade.  Their opponent, Alabama won the SEC despite tying in three games in conference play (6-2-3 overall). Bama opened up the scoring in the first to go up 6-0, but Rice controlled the rest of the game, scoring 28 unanswered to win 28-6. The game is probably most famous for an Alabama player coming off the bench to tackle a Maryland player on break away TD run. The referee’s ultimately ruled the play a touchdown for Maryland.

Rose Bowl: #3 Michigan St (8-1) vs #5 UCLA (9-1)

Purdue spoiled a third consecutive perfect season and shot at back to back nattys for Michigan St.  All was not lost as they found themselves in the Rose Bowl in their first year as a full Big 10 member.  UCLA similarly fell heartrendingly short of a perfect season with a one point loss to Stanford in October.  It may feel like a consolation prize, but in this era, the Rose Bowl was the ultimate prize.  The Bruins jumped on the Spartans early with a rushing and receiving TD by Paul Cameran to make it 14-0 in the 2nd.  Sparty final found a spark later that quarter with a blocked punt for a TD to make it 14-7 by half.  They used this momentum to add two more TDs in the 3rd to make it 21-14 before hanging on for a 28-20 win.

Orange Bowl: #4/ 5 Oklahoma (8-1-1) vs #1 Maryland (10-0)

After an ugly 0-1-1 start, the Sooners exploded for 8 straight wins to clinch it’s 2nd ever Orange Bowl appearance, and first as part of it’s conference tie in.  The #1 Terps would have their hands full.  It was even reported that Oklahoma Coach Bud Wilkinson distributed fake playbooks in areas where Maryland personnel would find them.  To add fuel to the fire, Maryland’s coach, Jim Tatum coached at Oklahoma in 1946, where Bud Wilkinson was his assistant.

 Defense ruled the day for the day for the Sooners.  In the first quarter, the Terps drove all the way to the Sooner 1 but an epic goal line stand forced them to turn it over on downs.  Later in the quarter, Maryland again drove it deep into the red zone and once again turned it over on downs.  In the 2nd, they finally decided to give their kicker a try, only to see the  kick go wide right.  Oklahoma finally made them pay for their near misses with a 25 yard TD run to make it 7-0, a lead they would take to the half.  In 3rd, Oklahoma’s special teams cam…

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