1971 NCAA University Division football season
PreseasonAP No. 1	Notre Dame[1]
Regular season	September 10 – December 4, 1971
Number of bowls	12
Bowl games	December 18, 1971 – January 1, 1972
Champion(s)	Nebraska (AP, CoachesFWAA,NFF)
Heisman	Pat Sullivan (quarterback,Auburn)
← 1970 · University Division football seasons · 1972 →

The1971 NCAA University Division football season saw CoachBob Devaney'sNebraska Cornhuskers repeat asnational champions.^[2][3] Ranked a close second behindNotre Dame in the preseason poll, Nebraska moved up to first place the following week, remained there for the rest of 1971, and convincingly won theOrange Bowl38–6 in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game againstAlabama.^[4]

Prior to the 1971 season, two programs were elevated to the University Division. The new programs wereTemple andTexas–Arlington. The change brought the total number of programs in the University Division to 119.^[5]

During the 20th century, the NCAA had no playoff for major college football in its University Division (now theFootball Bowl Subdivision inDivision I). The NCAA Football Guide, however, did note an "unofficial national champion" based on the top ranked teams in the "wire service" (AP and UPI) polls. The"writers' poll" byAssociated Press (AP) was the most popular, followed by the"coaches' poll" byUnited Press International) (UPI). Prior to the1974 season, the UPI issued its final poll before the bowls, but since the1968 season, the AP Trophy was withheld until the postseason was completed. The AP poll in 1971 consisted of the votes of as many as 55 sportswriters, though not all of them voted in every poll. Those who cast votes would give their opinion of the ten best teams. Under a point system of 20 points for first place, 19 for second, etc., the "overall" ranking was determined.

• Thecrackback block was outlawed.
• Punts that land in the end zone untouched will result in an automatic touchback.
• Team time-outs were reduced from four to three.
• After penalties, the clock restarts on the ready-for-play signal. Previously, the clock started after penalties on the snap.
• Penalties occurring behind the scrimmage line are enforced from the previous spot instead of the spot of the foul.

Source:^[6]

• TheMid-Eastern Athletic Conference played its first season of football this year, albeit in theNCAA College Division, not the NCAA University Division; membership included Delaware State, Howard, Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, and South Carolina State.
• TheNew England Small College Athletic Conference, now a Division III conference, began football play in 1971.

In the preseason poll released on September 6,Notre Dame was ranked No. 1, and defending championNebraska was second. Nebraska had more first place votes (26) than Notre Dame (15), but fewer points overall (870 vs. 885).Texas,Michigan andUSC rounded out the Top Five.

September 10–11
On Friday night in Los Angeles, No. 16Alabama beat No. 5 USC, 17–10, marking a successful debut forBear Bryant's newWishbone offense. The next day, No. 2 Nebraska won its opener at home, 34–7 overOregon. No. 4 Michigan won 21–6 at No. 20Northwestern. No. 11Ohio State defeatedIowa 52−21. No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 Texas did not start their seasons until the following week. In the poll that followed, Nebraska received 31 of the 50 first place votes and moved up to No. 1. The remainder of the top five were No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Michigan, and No. 5 Ohio State.

September 18
No. 1 Nebraska beatMinnesota 35–7, and No. 2 Notre Dame opened with a 50–7 win over Northwestern. No. 3 Texas won its opener 28–10 atUCLA, and No. 4 Michigan shut outVirginia56–0,. No. 5 Ohio State was idle, and No. 7Auburn, which beatUT-Chattanooga60–7, moved up to fifth place in the next poll. The top four remained the same.

September 25
No. 1 Nebraska beatTexas A&M, 34–7. No. 2 Notre Dame narrowly won atPurdue, 8–7. No. 3 Texas beatTexas Tech 28–0, and No. 4 Michigan defeated visiting UCLA 38–0. No. 5 Auburn edged No. 9Tennessee at home, 10–9. The next poll featured No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Notre Dame, and No. 5 Auburn.

October 2
Fifteen of the Top 20 teams remained unbeaten, including the Top 12. No. 1Nebraska handledUtah State inLincoln, 42–6, while No. 2Michigan registered its third straight shutout at home, beatingNavy 46–0. No. 3Texas defeated Oregon 35–7, No. 4Notre Dame beatMichigan State 14–2, but fell to seventh in the next poll. No. 5Auburn beatKentucky 38–6. No. 6Colorado, which had defeatedOhio State in Columbus the previous week, beatKansas State 31–21. The next poll featured No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Auburn, and No. 5 Colorado.

October 9
In their first Big Eight conference game and first on the road, No. 1 Nebraska shut outMissouri 36–0. No. 2 Michigan won at Michigan State, 24–13, while No. 3 Texas lost to No. 8 Oklahoma in theirrivalry game at theCotton Bowl inDallas, 48–27. No. 4 Auburn beatSouthern Miss 27–14. No. 5 Colorado won 24–14 atIowa State, but dropped in the poll to sixth, while No. 6 Alabama won 42–0 atVanderbilt and moved up. The next poll featured No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 5 Auburn.

October 16
Top-ranked Nebraska crushedKansas 55–0, raising its record to 6–0 and outscoring its opposition 238–27. No. 2 Oklahoma beat visiting No. 6 Colorado 45–17 and No. 3 Michigan beatIllinois 35–6. No. 4 Alabama beat No. 14Tennessee 32–15 at Birmingham and No. 5 Auburn won overGeorgia Tech inAtlanta, 31–14. The top five remained the same.

October 23
Seven of the top eight teams stayed unbeaten, all playing unranked opponents. No. 1 Nebraska allowedOklahoma State to reach double digits (all previous opponents had scored 7 points or less), but easily won atStillwater, 41–13. No. 2 Oklahoma decimated Kansas State 75–28 inManhattan. No. 3 Michigan won 35–7 atMinnesota, No. 4 Alabama hostedHouston and won 34−20, while No. 5 Auburn beatClemson 35–13. The top five remained the same.

October 30
No. 1 Nebraska handed visiting No. 9 Colorado a 31–7 defeat, and No. 2 Oklahoma beat Iowa State 43–12. No. 3 Michigan rolled overIndiana 61–7, and No. 4 Alabama beatMississippi State 41–10 atJackson. No. 5 Auburn beatFlorida 40–7. The top five again remained the same.

All of the aforementioned games were overshadowed by the death of TCU head coachJim Pittman, who suffered a massiveheart attack during the Horned Frogs'rivalry game withBaylor inWaco. TCU somehow overcame its grief to oust the Bears 34–27. Pittman was in his first season at Fort Worth after five seasons atTulane, where he had guided the Green Wave to an 8–4 record in his final season of1970, capped off by a 17–3 victory overColorado in theLiberty Bowl.

November 6
No. 1Nebraska beatIowa State 37–0 and No. 2Oklahoma won 20–3 atMissouri. No. 3Michigan crushedIowa, 63–7, and No. 4Alabama won at No. 18LSU, 14–7. No. 5Auburn beatMississippi State 30–21, while No. 6Penn State won 63–27 overMaryland. The next poll featured No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 5 Penn State, with all five teams (as well as No. 6 Auburn and No. 7Georgia) being undefeated and untied.

November 13
No. 1 Nebraska won atKansas State 44–17, and No. 2 Oklahoma beatKansas 56–10. No. 3 Michigan narrowly won atPurdue, 20–17, and No. 4 Alabama defeated the visitingMiami Hurricanes, 31–3. No. 5 Penn State beatNorth Carolina State 35–3, but still dropped to sixth after a matchup of two undefeated SEC teams. No. 6 Auburn and No. 7 Georgia met atAthens, with Auburn winning a decisive 35–20 victory. The next poll featured No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 5 Auburn.

November 20
Four of the top five teams were idle. No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Oklahoma prepared for their Thanksgiving Day meeting inNorman, while No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Auburn prepared for their season closer in theIron Bowl inBirmingham. Unusually for a game during the evenly-matched "Ten Year War", undefeated Michigan had already clinched the Big Ten title and aRose Bowl berth against Pac-8 championStanford, while Ohio State was unranked with a relatively pedestrian 6−3 record. The Buckeyes gave the No. 3−ranked Wolverines all they could handle, but Michigan prevailed 10–7. The next poll featured No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Michigan, and No. 5 Auburn.

November 25–27
As the regular season neared its close, four undefeated and untied teams met in rivalry games which werede facto semifinals for the national championship. OnThanksgiving Day, No. 1 Nebraska(10–0) andNo. 2 Oklahoma(9–0) met on the Sooners' field in a game that would determine the Big Eight title, the No. 1 ranking, and a trip to theOrange Bowl in Miami. In the decade'sGame of the Century, Nebraska won aclassic back-and-forth battle 35–31; Husker I-backJeff Kinney scored his fourth and game-deciding touchdown with 98 seconds left, capping a 5½-minute, 74-yard drive.^[7][8] Later that weekend, No. 3 Alabama(10–0) and No. 5 Auburn(9–0) played their annual season-ender at Birmingham with the SEC championship at stake, and Alabama handed the Tigers their first loss,31–7. As SEC champion, Alabama was invited to, but not obligated to play in, theSugar Bowl; they deferred and accepted a bid to play top-ranked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Auburn went to the Sugar Bowl instead, to face Oklahoma in a meeting of conference runners-up. Undefeated No. 6 Penn State was idle, but moved up in the next poll: No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 4 Michigan, and No. 5 Penn State.

December 4
No. 1Nebraska(11–0) had NCAA permission to play a twelfth game againstHawaii; they beat the Rainbows45–3 and ended the regular season at12–0. No. 2Alabama and No. 4Michigan had finished their seasons. No. 3Oklahoma's season ender was in state atStillwater againstOklahoma State, which the Sooners easily won58–14. No. 5Penn State faced No. 12Tennessee(8–2), at Knoxville but lost31–11 for their only defeat of the season. Nevertheless, the Nittany Lions would play SWC championTexas in theCotton Bowl. With the exception of Big Ten champion Michigan, the final regular season poll was dominated by Big 8 and SEC teams: No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Oklahoma (lost only to Nebraska), No. 4 Michigan, No. 5Auburn (lost only to Alabama), No. 6Georgia (lost only to Auburn), and No. 7Colorado (lost only to Nebraska and Oklahoma).

^[9]

Saturday, January 1, 1972

^Last game in which Stanford used nickname "Indians"; it was changed to "Cardinals" early in1972, and to the singular "Cardinal" in1982.

With No. 1Nebraska slated to play No. 2Alabama in theOrange Bowl on New Year's night, there was little suspense as to which game or games would decide the national title.No. 3 Michigan held out the slim hope that, if they handily defeatedStanford while Nebraska or Alabama barely won or tied, they could leapfrog both teams into the top position. For the second year in a row in theRose Bowl, underdog Stanford rallied to defeat the undefeated Big Ten champion, besting Michigan 13–12 on a last second field goal by Rod Garcia. (He had missed all five of his kicks (four field goals and an extra point) when Stanford was upset bySan Jose State on November 13, by the same score.)^[10]

In the final game of the day, Nebraska walloped Alabama in the Orange Bowl38–6 to claim its second straight national title.^[4] Earlier in the day at the Sugar Bowl,Oklahoma intercepted Heisman Trophy winnerPat Sullivan three times and easily handled Auburn40–22,^[11]and regained the runner-up ranking in the final poll. With bowl losses by No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Michigan, and No. 5 Auburn, sixth-rankedColorado, winner of the Bluebonnet Bowl, rose to third. The Big Eight occupied the top three spots in the final AP poll, with Nebraska receiving all 55 first place votes; Oklahoma was second, and Colorado (whose only losses were to Nebraska and Oklahoma) climbed to third.^[2] This was the first time that two teams from the same conference topped the final poll,^[3] and it remains as the only time that a conference had the top three.

1. Nebraska, 1100 (55), 13–0
2. Oklahoma, 990, 11–1
3. Colorado, 746, 10–2
4. Alabama, 674, 11–1
5. Penn State, 666, 11–1
6. Michigan, 479, 11–1
7. Georgia, 471, 11–1
8. Arizona State, 414, 11–1
9. Tennessee, 379, 10–2
10. Stanford, 347, 9–3

Source^[2][3]

• Prior to the1975 season, theBig Ten andPac-8 conferences allowed only one postseason participant each, for the Rose Bowl.
• Notre Dame refused an invitation to the Gator Bowl after Irish players overwhelmingly voted to turn down any invitation from a non-New Year's Day bowl.

TheHeisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player

Source:^[12][13]

• 1971 NCAA University Division football rankings
• 1971 College Football All-America Team

• 1971 NCAA University Division football season

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