1961 college football season

The 1961 college football season was the 93rd season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Two teams have a claim to the 1961 major college national championship:
 * Alabama (11–0), led by Bear Bryant, won the Southeastern Conference championship and defeated No. 9 Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama was ranked No. 1 in the final Associated Press (AP) writers poll and United Press International (UPI) coaches poll and recognized as national champion by nine other selectors, including the National Football Foundation. The team was led on offense by quarterback Pat Trammell. Tackle Billy Neighbors was a consensus All-American.
 * Ohio State (8–0–1), led by Woody Hayes, won the Big Ten championship. The Buckeyes were invited to the Rose Bowl, but the university faculty council voted to reject the invitation. Ohio State was ranked No. 2 in the final AP and UPI polls and were rated as the national champion by the Football Writers Association of America. Fullback Bob Ferguson won the Maxwell Award.

Pittsburg State (11–0) was declared small college national champion by the AP and UPI and also won the NAIA national championship. Florida A&M (10–0) was the black college national champion. Washington and Lee (9–0) won Timmie Trophy as the outstanding small college football team in the country.

Syracuse halfback Ernie Davis won the Heisman Trophy. Wisconsin quarterback Ron Miller won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, and Utah State tackle Merlin Olsen won the Outland Trophy. Individual statistical leaders in major college football for 1961 included Iowa State halfback Dave Hoppmann with 1,638 yards of total offense, San Jose State quarterback Chon Gallegos with 117 pass completions and 14 touchdown passes, Washington State end Hugh Campbell with 53 pass receptions, and New Mexico State halfback Preacher Pilot with 1,278 rushing yards and 138 points scored.

September
In the preseason poll released on September 18, Iowa was ranked No. 1, and Ohio State No. 2. SEC teams Alabama and LSU were third and fifth, and Texas was fourth. Rounding out the top ten were No. 6 Michigan State, No. 7 Penn State, No. 8 Kansas, No. 9 Mississippi, and No. 10 Syracuse.

As the regular season progressed, new polls were issued on the Monday following the weekend's games. The Big Ten schools would not kick off until September 30. On September 23, No. 3 Alabama won, 32–6, at Georgia, and No. 4 Texas won at California, 28–3. In Houston, No. 5 LSU lost to Rice, 16–3. No. 9 Mississippi, which had shut out Arkansas 16–0, and No. 10 Syracuse, which had beaten Oregon State 19–8 in Portland, rose into the top five. In the poll that followed, Iowa remained No. 1, followed by No. 2 Mississippi, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 5 Syracuse. Texas dropped to sixth place.

September 30 California played a top-ranked team for the second straight week, losing at No. 1 Iowa 28–7. No. 2 Mississippi won 20–6 at Kentucky. Texas Christian University (TCU) tied No. 3 Ohio State 7–7 at Columbus. In a game at Mobile, No. 4 Alabama beat Tulane 9–0. No. 5 Syracuse defeated visiting West Virginia 29–14, but fell to seventh in the next ratings. No. 6 Texas, which beat Texas Tech at home, 42–14, returned to the Top Five, along with previously unranked Georgia Tech, which shut out Rice 24–0. In the poll that followed, Iowa remained No. 1, followed by No. 2 Mississippi, No. 3 Georgia Tech, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 5 Texas.

October
October 7 No. 1 Iowa won 35–34 at USC. No. 2 Mississippi won 33–0 against Florida State. No. 3 Georgia Tech lost to LSU 10–0. No. 4 Alabama won 35–6 at Vanderbilt. No. 5 Texas routed Washington State 41–8. No. 6 Michigan State defeated Stanford 31–3. In the poll that followed, Mississippi took over first place from Iowa, which dropped to second. These were followed by No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Texas, and No. 5 Michigan State.

October 14 No. 1 Mississippi met the Houston Cougars at Memphis and won 47–7. No. 2 Iowa beat Indiana 27–8 at home. No. 3 Alabama beat North Carolina State 26–7 at Birmingham, and No. 4 Texas played its annual game against Oklahoma at Dallas, winning 28–7. No. 5 Michigan State won at No. 6 Michigan, shutting out the Wolverines 28–0. On the next poll, Michigan State took the No. 1 spot from Ole Miss by a margin of only two points (431 to 429), though the Rebels had more first place votes than the Spartans (21 vs. 16). They were followed by No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Iowa, and No. 5 Alabama.

On October 21, No. 1 Michigan State got by No. 6 Notre Dame 17–7 at home, and No. 2 Mississippi shut out Tulane in a game at Jackson, 41–0. No. 3 Texas won at No. 10 Arkansas, 33–7, No. 4 Iowa hosted Wisconsin, winning 47–15, and No. 5 Alabama defeated Tennessee at Birmingham, 34–3. The top three (Michigan State, Ole Miss and Texas) were unchanged, while Alabama and Iowa traded places at 4th and 5th.

October 28 In a week of shutouts, No. 1 Michigan State beat Indiana 35–0, and No. 2 Mississippi had an even bigger blowout, 47–0, against Vanderbilt. No. 3 Texas beat the visiting Rice Owls, 34–7, while No. 4 Alabama won at Houston over the Cougars, 17–0. No. 5 Iowa was on the wrong side of a shutout, losing 9–0 at Purdue. The top 4 stayed the same, while No. 6 Ohio State, which had won at Wisconsin 30–21, took fifth place from Iowa, whom they would play the following Saturday.

November
November 4 No. 1 Michigan State fell to unranked Minnesota, 13–0. At the same time, No. 2 Mississippi lost to No. 6 LSU 10–7 at Baton Rouge. The No. 3 Texas Longhorns beat the SMU Mustangs at Dallas, 27–0. No. 4 Alabama shut out Mississippi State 24–0. At Columbus, No. 5 Ohio State beat No. 9 Iowa 29–13. Texas, Alabama and Ohio State moved up to 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and giant-killers LSU and Minnesota were 4th and 5th. Michigan State and Ole Miss fell to 6th and 7th.

November 11 No. 1 Texas beat Baylor, 33–7. No. 2 Alabama crushed the visiting Richmond Spiders (which would be I-AA later) 66–0 at home. No. 3 Ohio State won 16–7 at Indiana, No. 4 LSU won 30–0 at North Carolina, and No. 5 Minnesota handed Iowa its third straight loss, 16–9. The Hawkeyes, ranked first in the preseason poll, would finish just 5–4. No. 6 Michigan State, too, lost its second straight, falling 7–6 at Purdue. The Top Five remained unchanged.

November 18 Texas Christian University had earlier tied Ohio State 6–6 in Columbus, and bested that with a win over No. 1 Texas in Austin, 6–0. After his team's loss, legendary Texas coach Darrell Royal uttered his immortal description of TCU: "They're like a bunch of cockroaches. It's not what they eat and tote off, it's what they fall into and mess up that hurts."

No. 2 Alabama beat Georgia Tech in Birmingham, 10–0. No. 3 Ohio State defeated visiting Oregon, 22–12, and No. 4 LSU hosted Mississippi State and won 14–6. No. 5 Minnesota defeated No. 7 Purdue, 10–7, at home. Alabama (9–0) rose to No. 1, with Ohio State (7–0–1) at No. 2. Minnesota (7–1) rose to No. 3, LSU (8–1) stayed at No. 4 and Texas (8–1) fell from No. 1 to No. 5.

Post-Thanksgiving (November 25) No. 1 Alabama was idle. No. 2 Ohio State won at Michigan, 50–20. No. 3 Minnesota narrowly lost to Wisconsin 23–21. No. 4 LSU crushed visiting Tulane, 62–0. No. 5 Texas won 25–0 over Texas A&M, wrapping up the SWC title and a berth in the Cotton Bowl. Ole Miss, which was idle, returned to the Top Five: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Texas, and No. 5 Mississippi.

December
December 2, No. 1 Alabama won its annual Birmingham game against the Auburn Tigers, 34–0, to close the season with a 10–0–0 record, an SEC championship, and a berth in the Sugar Bowl against No. 9 Arkansas. No. 5 Mississippi closed its season at 9–1–0 with a 37–7 win against Mississippi State and prepared to meet Texas in the Cotton Bowl. For the third year in a row, Ole Miss was undefeated and untied against all opponents other than LSU, which had beaten them in 1959 and 1961 and tied them in 1960. The Bayou Bengals would meet the Big 8 champion, No. 7 Colorado, in the Orange Bowl.

With 26 of the 48 first place votes, Alabama was awarded the AP trophy, ahead of Ohio State (by a margin of 26 votes to 20). The point total was even closer, with 16 points separating Alabama and Ohio State (452 to 436). Unbeaten and tied only once, Ohio State University qualified for the Rose Bowl. In a move that stunned the sports world, however, the university's faculty council voted, 28–25, on November 28 not to accept the invitation, declaring that the school's emphasis on sports over academics was excessive. The wire service commented that "A team of 57 Ohio State University faculty members handed the second ranked Buckeyes their only defeat of the season.". Minnesota took the Buckeyes' place in the Rose Bowl, where they would play UCLA.

Small college polls
In 1961, both United Press International (UPI) and the Associated Press (AP) conducted "small college" polls. The number one selection of both wire services was the Pittsburg State Gorillas, who compiled a regular season record of 9–0 while outscoring opponents 299–25 and registering seven shutouts. The Gorillas went on to win two NAIA postseason games and finished 11–0 for the season.

United Press International (coaches) final poll Published on November 22 †Baldwin–Wallace was 9–0 when the poll was taken.

Associated Press (writers) final poll Published on November 22

Major bowls
Monday, January 1, 1962

Other bowls

 * Prior to the 1975 season, the Big Ten and AAWU (later Pac-8) conferences allowed only one postseason participant each, for the Rose Bowl.

NAIA post-season
The 1961 NAIA season culminatied in the sixth annual NAIA Football National Championship, played at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, California. During its three years in Sacramento, the game was called the Camellia Bowl (separate from the present day bowl game with the same name in Montgomery, Alabama).

Pittsburg State defeated Linfield in the championship game, 12–7, to win their second NAIA national title and first since 1957.

Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player

Source:

All-Americans
For the year 1961, the NCAA recognizes six published All-American teams as "official" designations for purposes of its consensus determinations. The following chart identifies the NCAA-recognized consensus All-Americans and displays which first-team designations they received.

Other awards

 * Maxwell Award - Bob Ferguson, Ohio State
 * Sammy Baugh Trophy - Ron Miller, Wisconsiin
 * Outland Trophy (best lineman) - Merlin Olsen, Utah State
 * AFCA Coach of the Year Award - Bear Bryant, Alabama
 * FWAA Coach of the Year Award - Darrell Royal, Texas

Total offense
The following players were the individual leaders in total offense during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college

Passing
The following players were the individual leaders in pass completions during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college

Rushing
The following players were the individual leaders in rushing yards during the 1961 season: Major college

Small college

Receiving
The following players were the individual leaders in receptions during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college

Scoring
The following players were the individual leaders in scoring during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college

Total offense
The following teams were the leaders in total offense during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college

Scoring offense
The following teams were the leaders in scoring offense during the 1961 season:

Major college

Rushing offense
The following teams were the leaders in rushing offense during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college

Passing offense
The following teams were the leaders in passing offense during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college

Total defense
The following teams were the leaders in total defense during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college

Scoring defense
The following teams were the leaders in scoring defense during the 1961 season:

Major college

Rushing defense
The following teams were the leaders in rushing defense during the 196q season:

Major college

Small college

Passing defense
The following teams were the leaders in passing defense during the 1961 season:

Major college

Small college