1943 college football season The 1943 college football season concluded with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame crowned as the nation ’ s # 1 team by a majority of the voters in the AP poll , followed by the Iowa Pre - Flight Seahawks as the runner - up . For the third time in the history of the AP Poll , a team that had lost a game was the mythical national champion ; Minnesota had been the first AP champion in 1936 , and Ohio State was champion in 1942 . Notre Dame lost its final game of the season , a Chicago contest against the Great Lakes Naval Training Center . Along the way , however , the Fighting Irish had played one of the toughest college schedules ever , beating two # 2 ranked teams ( Michigan and Iowa Pre - Flight ) and another two # 3 ranked teams ( Navy and Army ) . In 1943 , as many as 131 sportswriters participated in the AP poll , which included , for the first time , “ service teams “ . Drawn from flight schools and training centers for participants in World War II , the service teams played against the colleges . At the same time , a number of universities suspended their football programs . Most of the members of the Southeastern Conference ( SEC ) - - Alabama and Auburn , Florida , Kentucky , Mississippi and Mississippi State , Tennessee and Vanderbilt - - did not field teams in 1943 . In addition , Pacific Conference teams Oregon and Oregon State , Washington State , and Stanford , did not play , nor did Boston College , the Citadel , Duquesne , Fordham , Harvard , Michigan State , Syracuse , and William & Mary . Each participating writer in the AP Poll listed his choice for the top ten teams , and points were tallied based on 10 for first place , 9 for second , etc . , and the AP then ranked the top twenty results . September . On September 17 , Georgia beat Presbyterian College 25 - 7 . The next day , September 18 , Michigan won at Camp Grant , 26 - 0 . Wisconsin lost to Marquette , 33 - 7 , on its way to a 1 - 9 - 0 finish . September 25 Ohio State lost to Iowa Pre - Flight 28 - 13 . Michigan beat Western Michigan 57 - 6 . Notre Dame won at Pitt , 42 - 0 . Army beat Villanova 27 - 0 and Navy beat North Carolina Pre - Flight , 31 - 0 . Georgia lost at LSU , 34 - 27 . Tulsa beat SMU 20 - 7 , Georgia Tech beat North Carolina 20 - 7 . October . October 2 Michigan won at Northwestern 21 - 7 . Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech 55 - 13 . Army defeated Colgate 42 - 0 and Navy beat Cornell 46 - 7 . October 9 # 1 Notre Dame beat # 2 Michigan , 35 - 21 . # 3 Army registered another shutout , defeating Temple 51 - 0 . In Baltimore , # 4 Navy edged # 5 Duke , 14 - 13 . # 6 Penn edged Dartmouth 7 - 6 . # 7 Purdue went to 4 - 0 - 0 with a 19 - 0 win over Camp Grant . October 16 # 1 Notre Dame won at Wisconsin 50 - 0 . # 2 Army won at Columbia , 52 - 0 . In four games , the Cadets had outscored their opponents 172 - 0 . # 3 Navy beat Penn State 14 - 6 . # 4 Penn beat the Lakehurst Naval Air Station 74 - 6 . # 5 Purdue beat Ohio State 30 - 7 at a game in Cleveland . October 23 # 1 Notre Dame beat Illinois 47 - 0 . # 2 Army yielded its first points , but won at Yale , 39 - 7 . # 3 Navy beat Georgia Tech 28 - 14 in Baltimore . # 4 Purdue beat Iowa 28 - 7 . # 5 Penn won at Columbia , 33 - 0 , but dropped from the Top Five . # 7 USC stayed unbeaten , untied , and unscored upon with a 6 - 0 win over Pacific . October 30 In Cleveland , # 1 Notre Dame beat # 3 Navy , 33 - 6 . In Philadelphia , # 2 Army and # 6 Pennsylvania played to a 13 - 13 tie . # 4 Purdue won at Wisconsin , 32 - 0 . # 5 USC beat California , 13 - 0 , for its sixth straight shutout . November . November 6 At Yankee Stadium in New York , # 1 Notre Dame beat # 3 Army , 26 - 0 . # 2 Purdue won at Minnesota , 14 - 7 . # 4 USC lost at San Diego to the San Diego Navy team . # 5 Penn lost to # 7 Navy , 24 - 7 . # 6 Michigan beat Indiana 23 - 6 . # 8 Iowa Pre - Flight continued its unbeaten streak with a 46 - 19 win at Marquette on November 7 , and became the first “ service team ” to ever reach the AP ’ s Top Five . November 13 # 1 Notre Dame won at Northwestern 25 - 6 . # 2 Purdue was idle . # 3 Navy won at Columbia 61 - 0 . # 4 Michigan beat Wisconsin 27 - 0 . # 5 Iowa Pre - Flight beat Camp Grant 28 - 13 . November 20 # 1 Notre Dame edged # 2 Iowa Pre - Flight , 14 - 13 . # 3 Purdue closed its season undefeated ( 9 - 0 - 0 ) with a 7 - 0 win at Indiana . # 4 Michigan closed its season at 8 - 1 - 0 with a 45 - 7 win over Ohio State . # 5 Navy was idle . The following week , it closed its season with a 13 - 0 win over Army in the Army – Navy Game , which took place at West Point . Duke closed its season at 8 - 1 - 0 with a 27 - 6 win over North Carolina . November 27 # 1 Notre Dame closed its season with a 19 - 14 loss to Great Lakes NTC , 19 - 14 , but still finished # 1 in the final rankings . # 2 Iowa Pre - Flight beat Minnesota , 32 - 0 , to finish at 9 - 1 - 0 . # 3 Michigan , # 4 Purdue , and # 5 Duke had finished their seasons , as had # 6 Navy , which rose to fourth place in the final poll . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings : Final Associated Press Poll . Prior to 1968 the final AP Poll was released before the bowl games were played .