Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The 1954 NCAA football season saw three teams finish unbeaten and untied, with Ohio State Buckeyes and the UCLA Bruins sharing the national championship as the #1 picks of the AP Poll and the UPI Poll, respectively. Although the winners of the Big Ten and the Pacific conferences normally met in the Rose Bowl, a "no repeat" prevented the two champions from meeting. UCLA, which had been in the Rose Bowl earlier in the year, was replaced by conference runner-up USC.
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 "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 1954 consisted of the votes of as many as 419 sportswriters.[3]
Though not all writers voted in every poll, each would give their opinion of the twenty best teams. Under a point system of 20 points for first place, 19 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).
In 1954, a limit of 10 games per season, excluding a bowl game, was imposed on all teams, with the exception that existing contracts would not be changed. Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_college_football_season

Final Stats:

AP Poll Summary




School Conf Final


Ohio State Big Ten 1


UCLA PCC 2


Oklahoma Big 7 3


Notre Dame Ind 4


Navy Ind 5


Mississippi SEC 6


Army Ind 7


Maryland ACC 8


Wisconsin Big Ten 9


Arkansas SWC 10


Miami (FL) Ind 11


West Virginia Southern 12


Auburn SEC 13


Duke ACC 14


Michigan Big Ten 15


Virginia Tech Southern 16


Southern California PCC 17


Baylor SWC 18


Rice SWC 19


Penn State Ind 20








Drafted Players




Rnd Pick Tm
Pos College/Univ
1 1 BAL George Shaw QB Oregon
1 2 CRD Max Boydston E Oklahoma
1 3 BAL Alan Ameche FB Wisconsin
1 4 WAS Ralph Guglielmi QB Notre Dame
1 5 GNB Tom Bettis LB Purdue
1 6 PIT Frank Varrichione T Notre Dame
1 7 RAM Larry Morris LB Georgia Tech
1 8 NYG Joe Heap HB Notre Dame
1 9 PHI Dick Bielski E Maryland
1 10 SFO Dicky Moegle DB Rice
1 11 CHI Ron Drzewiecki HB Marquette
1 12 DET Dave Middleton E Auburn
1 13 CLE Kurt Burris C Oklahoma






Other notable draft picks




2 16 BAL Dick Szymanski C Notre Dame
3 31 NYG Rosey Grier DT Penn St.
3 36 DET Darris McCord DE Tennessee
4 45 SFO Matt Hazeltine LB California
5 51 BAL George Preas T Virginia Tech
8 88 BAL Dale Meinert LB Oklahoma St.
8 92 NYG Jimmy Patton DB Mississippi
9 102 PIT Johnny Unitas HOF QB Louisville
19 220 WAS Bob Dee DE Holy Cross

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