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1961 college football season

1961 AAWU football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
#16 UCLA $ 3 1 0     7 4 0
USC 2 1 1     4 5 1
Washington 2 1 1     5 4 1
Stanford 1 3 0     4 6 0
California 1 3 0     1 8 1
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll
1961 ACC football standings
Conf     Overall
Team   W   L         W   L  
#20 Duke $   5 1         7 3  
North Carolina   4 3         5 5  
Maryland   3 3         7 3  
Clemson   3 3         5 5  
NC State   3 4         4 6  
South Carolina   3 4         4 6  
Wake Forest   3 4         4 6  
Virginia   2 4         4 6  
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll
1961 Big 8 football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
#7 Colorado $ 7 0 0     9 2 0
#11 Missouri 5 2 0     7 2 1
Kansas 5 2 0     7 3 1
Oklahoma 4 3 0     5 5 0
Iowa State 3 4 0     5 5 0
Oklahoma State 2 5 0     4 6 0
Nebraska 2 5 0     3 6 1
Kansas State 0 7 0     2 8 0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll
1961 Big Ten football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
#2 Ohio State $ 6 0 0     8 0 1
#6 Minnesota 6 1 0     8 2 0
#8 Michigan State 5 2 0     7 2 0
#12 Purdue 4 2 0     6 3 0
Wisconsin 4 3 0     6 3 0
Michigan 3 3 0     6 3 0
Iowa 2 4 0     5 4 0
Northwestern 2 4 0     4 5 0
Indiana 0 6 0     2 7 0
Illinois 0 7 0     0 9 0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll
1961 Border Conference football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Arizona State § 3 0 0     7 3 0
West Texas State 3 1 0     6 4 0
New Mexico State 2 1 0     5 4 1
Texas Western 1 3 0     3 7 0
Hardin-Simmons 0 4 0     0 10 0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll
1961 Ivy League football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Columbia + 6 1 0     6 3 0
Harvard + 6 1 0     6 3 0
Dartmouth 5 2 0     6 3 0
Princeton 5 2 0     5 4 0
Yale 3 4 0     4 5 0
Cornell 2 5 0     3 6 0
Penn 1 6 0     2 7 0
Brown 0 7 0     0 9 0
  • + – Conference co-champions
Rankings from AP Poll
1961 Missouri Valley Conference football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Wichita State $ 3 0 0     8 3 0
North Texas State 1 2 0     5 4 1
Cincinnati 1 2 0     3 7 0
Tulsa 1 2 0     2 8 0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll
1961 MSC football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
Utah State + 5 0 1     9 1 1
Wyoming + 5 0 1     6 1 2
Utah 3 3 0     6 4 0
New Mexico 3 3 0     7 4 0
Montana 2 4 0     2 6 0
BYU 2 4 0     2 8 0
Colorado State 0 6 0     0 10 0
  • + – Conference co-champions
  • Final season for conference
Rankings from AP Poll
1961 SEC football standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   T     W   L   T
#1 Alabama + 7 0 0     11 0 0
#4 LSU + 6 0 0     10 1 0
#5 Ole Miss 5 1 0     9 2 0
#13 Georgia Tech 4 3 0     7 4 0
Tennessee 4 3 0     6 4 0
Florida 3 3 0     4 5 1
Auburn 3 4 0     6 4 0
Kentucky 2 4 0     5 5 0
Georgia 2 5 0     3 7 0
Mississippi State 1 5 0     5 5 0
Tulane 1 5 0     2 8 0
Vanderbilt 1 6 0     2 8 0
  • + – Conference co-champions
Rankings from AP Poll

During the 20th century, the NCAA had no playoff for the major college football teams in the University Division, later known as Division I-A. The NCAA did recognize a national champion based upon the final results of "wire service" (AP and UPI) polls. The extent of that recognition came in the form of acknowledgment in the annual 'NCAA Football Guide of the "unofficial" national champions. The AP poll in 1961 consisted of the votes of 45 sportswriters, each of whom 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 10. The top teams played on New Year's Day in the four major postseason bowl games: the Rose (near Los Angeles at Pasadena), Sugar (New Orleans), Orange (Miami) and Cotton (Dallas).

In the preseason poll released on September 18, Iowa was the #1, and its Big Ten rival Ohio State #2. SEC teams Alabama and LSU were third and fifth, and Texas was fourth. Rounding out the top ten were 6.Michigan State 7.Penn State 8.Kansas 9.Mississippi and 10.Syracuse.


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