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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/stayclassypeople on 2024-07-02 12:05:18+00:00.

1956 Season

This is the seventh 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 (check out prior seasons here)

A Brief History of the bowls and Polls

News & Notes

  • The Ivy League is born! It’s wild to think the the Ivy League has only existed for a conference for less than 70 years; especially given the fact that they had been playing each other in football since the sport’s infancy in the 1870s. The founding members, as they still are today, include Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn, Brown, Columbia, Harvard and Cornell. To this day, the schools do not allow athletic scholarships, nor do they let any schools participate in the postseason.
  • Number of Bowls: 9
  • Bowl tie ins
    • Rose: PCC and Big 10 champs
      • Michigan St and UCLA ineligible due to each conferences ‘no-repeat’ rule.
    • Sugar: SEC (unofficially)
      • Not required to take the SEC champ
    • Orange: Big 7 and ACC champs
      • Oklahoma ineligible due to the Big 7s ‘no-repeat’ rule.
    • Cotton: SWC champ
  • Notre Dame was on a self-imposed bowl ban, which would not be lifted until 1968
    • Preseason #1: Oklahoma

Big Games

  • September 22
    • #3 Notre Dame opened the season with a loss to SMU at the Cotton Bowl, 13-19. They would finish the year an abysmal 2-8.
  • October 13th: #9 Texas A&M suffered it’s only blemish on the year, a 14-14 tie with Houston. They would finish 9-0-1 to win the SWC, but to prior recruiting violations, were ineligible to play in the postseason.
  • October 19th
    • #11 and 3-0 Miami tied Georgia 7-7. This tie would be the only thing preventing a perfect regular season, finishing 8-0-1.
  • October 22
    • Michigan St jumped Oklahoma for #1 in the AP.
  • October 27th
    • #2 Michigan St (4-0) was stunned in Champaign by Illinois (1-3), 13-20. Oklahoma regained the #1 spot in the AP the following week.
  • November 17th
    • Despite beating a ranked Ole Miss, Tennessee fell to #2 in the AP behind Oklahoma, who beat unranked Missouri.
  • November 3rd
    • #1 Oklahoma (5-0) met #19 Colorado (5-1) in what turned out to be the de facto Big 7 title. The Sooners won 27-19. This would be their only ranked win of the year and only game decided by less than 3 touchdowns.
    • #2 Georgia Tech met #3 Tennessee (both 6-0) in a titanic battle with both SEC title and national title implications. The Vols won a defensive battle, 6-0. This would prove to be the deciding game for the SEC title. The win would propel Tennessee to #1 over Oklahoma in the AP the following Monday.
    • #7 Iowa fell to #17 Michigan 14-17 in Iowa City. This would be their only loss on the year as they would rally to beat Minnesota and Ohio St the ensuing weeks to secure the Big 10 title and Rose Bowl bid.
  • November 27th
    • #3 Iowa waxed Notre Dame 48-8 to finish 8-1 on the year. Their national title hopes would hinge on the slim chance of both Oklahoma and Tennessee losing the following week.
  • December 1st
    • #2 Tennessee trailed Oklahoma in both polls and would more than likely need a win AND a Sooner loss or tie to secure a #1 ranking. They finished the year perfect with a 27-7 win over Vandy.
    • #1 With Tennessee hot on their heels in the polls, Oklahoma continued their favorite end of season tradition, by violently bludgeoning Oklahoma A&M to death by a score of 53-0. They extended their winning streak to 40 consecutive games and were virtually assured a 2nd consecutive consensus national title.

Final Polls

Team Record AP Coaches Bowl
Oklahoma 10-0 1 (104) 1 (26) none
Tennessee 10-0 2 (48) 2 (5) Sugar
Iowa 8-1 3 (15) 3 (3) Rose
Georgia Tech 9-1 4 (4) 9-1 Gator
Texas A&M 9-0-1 5 (2) 5 none
Miami 8-0-1 6 (12) 6 (1) none

*Miami played it’s final game after the final Polls were released. They were upset by #12 Pittsburgh, 7-14, at home.

What sucks more . . . your conference only allowing you to play in one bowl, or having a ‘no-repeat’ rule that disallows you from playing in that one bowl? I’m asking because both rules meant Oklahoma was not playing in January. #1 Oklahoma found itself and it’s 40 game winning streak sitting at home for the holidays. This was the 2nd time in 3 years they were disallowed from going bowling as well, dampening the New Years slate of games.

Still, it’s not as if they could have played Tennessee, since the Big 7 was tied to the Orange Bowl vs the ACC champ. Once bowls started becoming national championship events, we would start to see conferences (excluding the Big 10 and PCC) renege on their tie in and accept other invites, but today was not that day. As it was, Tennessee had to settle for 3rd place SWC Baylor, which wasn’t quite the data point they’d need to ‘prove’ they were the better team than OU.

Meanwhile, the remaining unbeaten (but tied) teams were staying at home. Texas A&M was on probation for recruiting violations, and independent Miami was snubbed by the bowls altogether.

The Bowls

Orange: #20/18 Colorado (7-2-1) vs #19/unranked Clemson (7-1-2)

Like the Huskers two years ago, the Buffs backed their way into the Orange due to 'no-repat rules. Clemson was ACC champion for the first time since joining the young conference. Colorado, playing in their first bowl in nearly two decades, didn’t let this opportunity go to waste. They stunned Clemson with 20 2nd quarter points to take a 20-0 lead at the half. Clemson roared back with 21 unanswered to take a 21-20 lead early 4th quarter. After their last TD, Clemson pulled a Scott Frost kicked did an onside kick despite having both the lead an momentum. Colorado recovered and responded with a score to make it 27-21. Their defense would hold off Clemson the rest of the way for the win.

Cotton: #14 TCU vs #8 Syracuse

Texas A&M’s shame was TCU’s gain as the Horned Frogs were able to represent the SWC in the Cotton Bowl . The match-up lacked high ranking teams but was a fun one. In the first half, TCU raced to a 14-0 lead, but Syracuse evened the score at 14 by halftime. TCU also scored the first 14 points of the 2nd half to take a 28-14 lead, but Syracuse again rallied with two more touchdowns. Only issue is their first score was blocked, making it 28-20. The two point conversion was still a couple years away meaning they weren’t able to tie it on the 2nd TD, which came with just over a minute to go, allowing the frogs to hang on for the win.

Rose: #3 Iowa (8-1) vs #10/#13 Oregon St (7-2-1)

Iowa was playing in it’s first ever bowl game and Oregon St was for only the 2nd time ever. This game was also a rematch from the regular season, where Iowa won 14-13 in Iowa City back in September. The rematch would not be nearly as competitive. Iowa raced to a 14-0 first quarter lead and led 21-6 at the half. They struck early in the 3rd with a long TD run to extend the lead to 28-6 before cruising to a 35-19 victory. Iowa’s narrow loss to Michigan early in the year may have cost them a chance at #1, but that first time being Rose Bowl champs was cause for celebration.

Sugar: #11 Baylor (8-2) vs #2 Tennessee (10-0)

There’s nothing Tennessee could do to change the AP or Coaches poll results, but perhaps a waxing of Baylor would maybe cause them to regret their decision? Baylor being the 3rd best team in the SWC didn’t sound glamorous, but at 8-2 ,they were no slouch. The Bears opened the scoring with a touchdown pass in the 2nd, but missed the XP to make it 6-0, a lead they would take into halftime. Tennessee finally got on the board in the 3rd with a 1 yard rush to take a 7-6. The Bears countered with a 1 yard rush in the 4th to regain the lead, 13-7. Their defense would shutdown the Vols from their, securing a 13-7 upset.

Final Review

Polls vindicated. Yes Oklahoma did not have to play in a bowl, thus not having to risking a loss, but at the end of the day, they were the only unbeaten and untied team in the nation thanks to Tennessee’s loss. If anything, you could argue I Iowa deserves an argument as co champ. Oklahoma only played one ranked team, Orange Bowl champ Colorado. The combined record of their opponents was an abysmal 32-63-6, while Iowa beat multiple ranked teams, including Oregon State twice, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio St. At the end of the day, Oklahoma had a proven track record with 40 straight wins and more Big 7 titles than I had free AOL CDs in the 90s, and it’s not as if they were scraping by their schedule, they beat their opponents by an average score of 47-5. Boomer Sooner!

Other selectors

School Selector
Oklahoma Billingsley Report, Boand System, DeVold System, Dunkel System, FWAA, HAF,…

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