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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/stayclassypeople on 2024-06-30 15:56:16+00:00.

1955 Season

This is the sixth 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 & Notes

  • Preseason (AP) #1: UCLA
  • Bowl Tie ins
    • Rose: PCC & Big 10 champs
      • USC and Ohio St ineligible due to each conferences’ ‘no-repeat’ rule
    • Sugar: SEC (unofficially)
      • they also weren’t obligated to take the conference champ
    • Cotton: SWC champ
    • Orange: Big 7 and ACC
      • Nebraska ineligible due to the Big 7’s 'no-repeat rule.'

Big Games

*rankings mentioned are AP only. I don’t have data on weekly Coaches Polls, only the final one.

  • Sept 24th
    • In a rare regular season cross country match up, #1 UCLA traveled to College Park to take on #5 Maryland.  The Terps shutdown the Bruins 7-0, severely damaging their shot at back to back titles. Maryland moved to #1 in the AP.
    • 8 Ole Miss fell to Kentucky 14-21.  They wouldn’t drop another game.
  • Oct 1st
    • 8 Ohio St’s title defense, like UCLA’s, was quickly snuffed out with a similar 6-0 shutout at the hands of Stanford.
    • 2 Michigan took on Michigan St in an early Big 10 match up that would have important national title implications.  The Wolverines won a defensive battle 14-7.
  • October 10th
    • 3-0 Michigan jumped 2-0 Maryland for the #1 spot in the AP.
  • Oct 15th
    • 7 TCU started the year unranked but quickly moved up in the polls after a 4-0 start.  #19 Texas A&M ruined their ride with a 16-19 upset.
    • 13 Michigan St handed #4 Notre Dame their only loss of the year with a 21-7 upset.
  • Oct 24th
    • Maryland (6-0) and Oklahoma (5-0) jumped Michigan (5-0) in the AP Poll.
  • November 5th
    • 6-0 #3 Michigan was stunned on the road vs Illinois in a 25-6 route.  Their Rose Bowl hopes were still alive, but their hopes of finishing the year #1 was damaged.
  • November 7th
    • Oklahoma jumped Maryland for #1.
  • November 19th
    • ’The Game’ between OSU (6-2) and Michigan (7-1) came with major implications.  For Ohio St, the Rose Bowl was off the table thanks to the B1G’s ‘no repeat’ rule, but a win would assure them an outright Big 10 title and perfect conference record.   Additionally, it would send Michigan St to the Rose Bowl over Michigan (not like they needed the incentive to want to beat UM).  For Michigan, a win would make them co-champs with Michigan St and ensure a Rose Bowl berth as MSU had played in the game more recently (the Big 10’s tiebreaker was to give the team with the longer Rose Bowl drought the bid).  The Buckeyes blanked the Wolverines 17-0 to finish perfect in conference play and
    • 1 Oklahoma (8-0) met 5-4 Nebraska for a de facto Big 7 title. The Sooners pasted the Huskers 41-0 to secure an Orange Bowl bid.
    • 2 Michigan St rolled Marqutte to finish 8-1.  Despite an L on the resume, they were in great shape to stay #2nd in the polls, ahead of unbeatens Maryland.
    • 3 Maryland moved to 9-0 with a 19-0 blanking of George Washington
    • .  Unfortunately they would be hard pressed to move ahead of unbeaten Oklahoma in the AP.  To add insult to injury, they were even behind 1 loss MSU in the Coaches poll.
  • November 26th
    • Michigan St and Maryland’s season’s were complete, however, the Sooners had one to go and a loss hear meant the polls would have to come to a decision to crown Maryland or once beaten MSU #1. Instead, consensus #1 Oklahoma finished a perfect regular season by routing in-state rival Oklahoma A&M 53-0.

Final Polls

The Final Polls were released on November 28th

Conference champs in bold

Team Record AP Coaches Bowl
Oklahoma 10-0 1 (218) 1 (24) Orange
Michigan St 8-1 2 (88) 2 (7) Rose
Maryland 10-0 3 (55) 3 (2) Orange
UCLA 9-1 4 (9) 4 (2) Rose
Ohio St 7-2 5 (4) 5 none
TCU 9-1 6 (9) 6 Cotton
Georgia Tech 8-1-1 7 7 Sugar
Auburn 8-1-1 8 (6) 8 Gator
Ole Miss 9-1 9 (1) 9 Cotton

Miami Ohio finished 9-0, finishing #15 in the AP and #20 in the Coaches Poll.

The 1950 Sooners, led by Bud Wilkinson were, to live up to their nick name, a wagon. They were now on a 29 game win streak (which would extend to an NCAA record 47 games by 1957) and perfect for back to back years. Not exactly easy to ignore if you’re a sportswriters or football coach with a vote in either poll.

For the third time in 5 seasons, Maryland finished the regular season unbeaten. However, for the 2nd time in that span, they were denied recognition from either poll as the nations best team. Also for the 2nd time in that span, as luck would have it, they were invited to play the #1 team in a bowl game, this time the Orange Bowl for a de facto national title game vs OU. Regardless of what the polls may think, beating their #1 team and being the final unbeaten is a national champ in most people’s book. The rest of the bowl slate was also a cause for excitement as the Rose Bowl would feature a top 5 match up between Michigan St and defending co-national champ UCLA. The Cotton bowl would also feature two top 10 teams, both conference champs . . . which brings me to my next point.

While the other three major bowls were obligated to take their conference tie in’s champion (barring a no-repeat rule preventing that team from playing), the Sugar was under no such obligation. In fact, they were not even obligated to even take an SEC team, let alone the conference champion. It was just a ‘good ole boy’ handshake agreement that they take an SEC school. Instead of picking SEC champion, Ole Miss, they took Georgia Tech, who finished 3rd in conference play. Despite the slight, Ole Miss found a New Years home in the Cotton Bowl vs TCU. If you’re curious, he SEC’s relationship with the Sugar wouldn’t be official until 1976.

The Bowls

Sugar Bowl: #7 Georgia Tech vs #11 Pittsburgh

Typically in this segment, I talk about how the game played out, but this game is much more known, the events around it.  During the 1950s northern teams were slowly becoming integrated with African American players, while Southern teams were segregated.  When a northern team did play in the South, they typically agreed to not bring/play their African American players, otherwise southern teams would refuse to play.  Pitt’s team featured one black player, Bobby Greir. Despite the ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ to not bring black players South, Pitt’s chose to play as an integrated team with their motto being “No Greir, no game.”  Georgia’s Governor privately told Pitt coach and Georgia Tech’s president the game could proceed with Greir playing, but publicly condemned it.  As word got out, 2,000 Georgia Tech students rioted, breaking windows and even hanging an effigy of the governor.  Georgia Tech board of regents ended up voting 13-1 to allow the game to proceed with Grier anyway.  

Georgia Tech would go on to win a defensive battle, 7-0.  After the game, Grier praised the GT players for being good sportsmen.  GT players even invited him to the after game ceremonies (the rest of his team already being invited) at a segregated hotel.  

Rose Bowl: #2 Michigan St vs #5 UCLA

The Rose Bowl was on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to the Sugar Bowl.  UCLA entered the game with six African American players to Michigan State’s 7, making them two of the most integrated teams in the country.  UCLA opened up the scoring with a rushing TD in the first, but UCLA countered with a passing TD in the 2nd to tie it 7-7 at the half.  After a scoreless 3rd, both offenses heated up.  Sparty scored on a 67 yard bomb to take their first lead of the game, but UCLA countered with a 1 yard rushing TD to make it 14 all.  With 7 seconds to go, Michigan St kicker, Dan Kaiser would nail his first career field goal to lead the Spartans to a 17-14 victory.

Cotton Bowl #6/5 Ole Miss vs #10/9 Ole Miss.  

I didn’t give these teams much attention in the regular season write up, but neither did the polls either, as neither reach the top 5 despite both finishing the year 9-1 and champions of major conferences.  TCU scored touchdowns in the first and second quarter to take a 13-0 lead before Ole Miss got on the board with to cut the lead to 13-7 by halftime.  The rebels defense held strong in the 2nd half and the offense scored a rushing TD in the 4th to complete the comeback 14-13. Being 10-1 with an SEC title and a Cotton Bowl trophy isn’t a half bad year.

Orange Bowl #1 Oklahoma vs #3 Maryland

The de facto national title. The Sooners entered this contest on a 29 game win streak and 10 consecutive Big 7 titles to boot. Maryland was also a wagon in the 50s, having gone 52-7-2 so far in the decade.  Defense’s…

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