1949 college football season

The 1949 college football season finished with four teams that were unbeaten and untied-- Notre Dame, Oklahoma, #3 California and Army had won all their games at season’s end. Notre Dame, however, was the overwhelming choice for national champion, with 172 of 208 first place votes. The Fighting Irish did not participate in the New Year’s Day bowl games, which were played on January 2, 1950.

During the 20th century, the NCAA had no playoff for the college football teams that would later be described as "Division I-A". The NCAA did recognize a national champion based upon the final results of the Associated Press poll of sportswriters (the UPI coaches poll would not start until 1950). The extent of that recognition came in the form of acknowledgment in the annual "NCAA Football Guide" of the "unofficial" national champions. [ appollarchive.com/football/ap ] .

Though not all writers voted in every poll, each would give their opinion of the ten best teams. Under a point system of 10 points for first place, 9 for second, etc., the "overall" ranking was determined. Although the rankings were based on the collective opinion of the representative sportswriters, the teams that remained "unbeaten and untied" were generally ranked higher than those that had not. A defeat, even against a strong opponent, tended to cause a team to drop in the rankings, and a team with two or more defeats was unlikely to remain in the Top 20. Generally, the top teams played on New Year's Day in the four major postseason bowl games: the Rose Bowl (near Los Angeles at Pasadena), the Sugar Bowl (New Orleans), the Orange Bowl (Miami), and the Cotton Bowl (Dallas).

eptember

The Associated Press did not poll the writers until the third week of the season. Among the five teams that had been ranked highest in 1948, California opened play on September 17 with a 21-7 win over Santa Clara. #13 Tulane #16 Minnesota

By September 24, most teams were in action. Defending champion Michigan beat visiting Michigan State, 7-3. Notre Dame beat Indiana 49-6. North Carolina beat N.C. State 26-6. California beat St. Mary’s 29-7. The night before, Oklahoma had won at Boston College, 46-0.

October

On October 1 in Seattle, Notre Dame beat Washington 27-7. Oklahoma beat Texas A&M 33-13, North Carolina beat Georgia 21-14, and Michigan won at Stanford, 27-7. When the first poll was issued, Michigan had 34 of the 80 votes cast, followed by Notre Dame and Oklahoma. Tulane University, which had beaten Alabama 28-14 and Georgia Tech 18-0, placed fourth. Minnesota, which had victories over Washington (48-20) and at Nebraska (28-6) was fifth. North Carolina, which had been in the final top five in 1948, was at sixth place.

October

October 8 #1 Michigan was beaten at home by #7 Army. #2 Notre Dame won at Purdue 35-12. #3 Oklahoma beat Texas in Dallas, 20-14. #4 Tulane beat Southeastern Louisiana 40-0. #5 Minnesota beat Northwestern 21-7.

October 15 In South Bend, #1 Notre Dame beat #4 Tulane 46-7.
#2 Army won at Harvard, 54-14.
#3 Oklahoma beat Kansas 48-26. #9 California, which beat USC 16-10, was fifth in the next poll.
#5 Minnesota stayed unbeaten with a win in Columbus over Ohio State, 27-0.

October 22 #1 Notre Dame was idle. #2 Army beat Columbia 63-6. #3 Minnesota lost at Michigan, 14-7.
#4 Oklahoma won at Nebraska 48-0. #5 California beat Washington 21-7. #9 Rice won at Texas, 17-15, and was fifth in the next poll. October 29 In Baltimore, #1 Notre Dame defeated Navy, 40-0. #2 Army (the United States Military Academy) defeated the VMI (the Virginia Military Institute) 40-14. #3 Oklahoma beat Iowa State 34-7. In Los Angeles, #4 California beat UCLA 35-21. #5 Rice beat Texas Tech 28-0 to extend its record to 5-1-0. #6 Michigan, which won at Illinois 13-0, returned to the Top Five with a 4-2-0 record.

November

November 5
#1 Notre Dame won at Michigan State, 34-21. #2 Army defeated Fordham, 35-0. #3 Oklahoma won at Kansas State 39-0. #4 California beat Washington State 33-14. #5 Michigan beat Purdue 20-12. The top five stayed unchanged.

November 12 At Yankee Stadium, #1 Notre Dame beat North Carolina, 42-6. #2 Army had a scare in Philadelphia, edging Penn 14-13.
#3 Oklahoma won at Missouri, 27-7. #4 California beat Oregon 41-14. #5 Michigan beat Indiana 20-7.

November 19 #1 Notre Dame defeated Iowa 28-7. #2 Oklahoma beat Santa Clara 28-21. #3 California defeated Stanford 33-14 to finish its season unbeaten. #4 Army was idle as it prepared for the Army-Navy Game. #5 Michigan was tied by #7 Ohio State, 7-7.

November 26 #1 Notre Dame defeated visiting USC, 32-0.
#3 Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State 41-0. #4 Army returned to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy Game and defeated Navy 38-0. #2 California at 10-0-0, and #5 Ohio State, at 6-1-2, accepted bids to play in the Rose Bowl.

The final poll was released on November 28, although some colleges had not completed their schedules. On December 3, the national champs, #1 Notre Dame closed a perfect season in Dallas with a 27-20 win over Southern Methodist University (SMU).

Final AP Top 20

The final rankings were released November 27 even before the regular season had concluded, and without consideration of the postseason bowl games:

Bowl games

References