1961 college football season
1961Heisman Trophy winnerErnie Davis
Preseason AP No. 1	Iowa[1]
Regular season	September 23 – December 2, 1961
Number of bowls	11
Bowl games	December 9, 1961 – January 1, 1962
Champion(s)	Alabama (AP, Coaches,NFF) Ohio State (FWAA)
Heisman	Ernie Davis (halfback,Syracuse)
← 1960 · football seasons · 1962 University Division → 1962 College Division →

The1961 college football season was the 93rd season ofintercollegiate football in the United States. Two teams have a claim to the 1961 major college national championship:

• Alabama (11–0), led byBear Bryant, won theSoutheastern Conference championship and defeated No. 9Arkansas in theSugar Bowl. Alabama was ranked No. 1 in the finalAssociated Press (AP) writers poll andUnited Press International (UPI) coaches poll and recognized as national champion by nine other selectors, including theNational Football Foundation. The team was led on offense by quarterbackPat Trammell. TackleBilly Neighbors was a consensus All-American.
• Ohio State (8–0–1), led byWoody Hayes, won theBig 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 theFootball Writers Association of America. FullbackBob Ferguson won theMaxwell Award.

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

Syracuse halfbackErnie Davis won theHeisman Trophy.WisconsinquarterbackRon Miller won theSammy Baugh Trophy, andUtah State tackleMerlin Olsen won theOutland Trophy. Individual statistical leaders in major college football for 1961 includedIowa State halfbackDave Hoppmann with 1,638 yards oftotal offense,San Jose State quarterbackChon Gallegos with 117 pass completions and 14 touchdown passes,Washington State endHugh Campbell with 53 pass receptions, andNew Mexico State halfbackPreacher Pilot with 1,278 rushing yards and 138 points scored.

In the preseason poll released on September 18,Iowa was ranked No. 1, andOhio State No. 2. SEC teamsAlabama andLSU were third and fifth, andTexas 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.^[2]

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. OnSeptember 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. 2Mississippi 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. 5Syracuse 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 unrankedGeorgia 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 7No. 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 14No. 1 Mississippi met theHouston 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, andNo. 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.

OnOctober 21,No. 1 Michigan State got by No. 6 Notre Dame 17–7 at home, andNo. 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, andNo. 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, andNo. 2 Mississippi had an even bigger blowout, 47–0, against Vanderbilt.No. 3 Texas beat the visiting Rice Owls, 34–7, whileNo. 4 Alabama won atHouston 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 4No. 1 Michigan State fell to unranked Minnesota, 13–0. At the same time,No. 2 Mississippi lost toNo. 6 LSU 10–7 at Baton Rouge. TheNo. 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 beatNo. 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 11No. 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, andNo. 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 overNo. 1 Texas in Austin, 6–0. After his team's loss, legendary Texas coachDarrell 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, andNo. 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 theCotton 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 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 theSugar 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 theOrange 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.".^[3] Minnesota took the Buckeyes' place in the Rose Bowl, where they would play UCLA.