1940 college football season The 1940 college football season ended with the Gophers of the University of Minnesota being named the nation ’ s # 1 team and national champion , and the Stanford University Indians ( later to be renamed the Cardinal ) in second , with the two teams receiving 65 and 44 first place votes respectively . Each writer 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 twenty teams with the highest number of points . September . September 28 Defending champion Texas A & M beat Texas A & I ( later the university ’ s Kingsville campus ) , 26 - 0 . Tennessee beat Mercer 49 - 0 . USC and Washington State played to a 14 - 14 tie . Tulane lost to Boston College 27 - 7 . Michigan won at California 41 - 0 . Minnesota defeated Washington 19 - 14 in Minneapolis . October . October 5 In San Antonio , Texas A & M beat Tulsa 41 - 6 . Tennessee beat Duke 13 - 0 . Cornell beat Colgate 34 - 0 . Northwestern won at Syracuse , 40 - 0 . Minnesota beat Nebraska 13 - 7 . Michigan beat Michigan State 21 - 14 . October 12 Cornell won at Army 45 - 0 . In Los Angeles , Texas A & M beat UCLA , 7 - 0 , and was ranked 2nd in the AP poll that followed . Tennessee beat Chattanooga 53 - 0 and was fifth in the next poll . Northwestern beat Ohio State 6 - 3 . Michigan won at Harvard 26 - 0 . October 19 # 1 Cornell beat Syracuse 33 - 6 . # 2 Texas A & M beat TCU 21 - 7 . # 3 Michigan beat Illinois 28 - 0 . # 4 Northwestern won at Wisconsin 27 - 7 . In Birmingham , # 5 Tennessee beat Alabama , 27 - 12 . In Columbus , # 7 Minnesota beat # 15 Ohio State 13 - 7 . # 6 Notre Dame beat Carnegie Tech 61 - 0 . October 26 # 1 Cornell beat Ohio State 21 - 7 . # 2 Notre Dame won at Illinois 26 - 0 . # 3 Michigan beat Pennsylvania 14 - 0 . # 4 Texas A & M won at Baylor 14 - 7 . # 5 Tennessee beat Florida 14 - 0 . # 6 Minnesota beat Iowa 34 - 6 . November . November 2 # 1 Cornell beat Columbia 27 – 0 . # 2 Notre Dame beat Army 7 – 0 at Yankee Stadium . # 3 Michigan was idle . # 4 Minnesota narrowly won at Northwestern , 13 - 12 . # 5 Texas A & M beat Arkansas 17 - 0 . # 7 Tennessee beat LSU 28 - 0 . November 9 # 1 Cornell beat Yale 21 - 0 , but dropped to second in the next poll . # 2 Minnesota and # 3 Michigan both unbeaten ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) met in Minneapolis , with the Gophers winning by one point , 7 - 6 . # 4 Texas A & M won at SMU 19 - 7 . # 5 Tennessee won at Rhodes College 41 - 0 . # 6 Stanford beat Washington 20 - 10 to advance its record to 7 - 0 - 0 . November 16 # 1 Minnesota beat Purdue 33 - 6 . # 2 Cornell lost at Dartmouth 3 - 0 . # 3 Texas A & M beat Rice 25 - 0 . # 4 Stanford beat Oregon State 28 - 14 . # 5 Tennessee beat Virginia 41 - 14 . # 8 Boston College beat Georgetown 19 - 18 to extend its record to 8 - 0 - 0 November 23 # 1 Minnesota closed its season with a 22 - 13 win at Wisconsin . # 2 Texas A & M and # 3 Stanford were idle . # 4 Boston College beat Auburn 33 - 7 . # 5 Cornell . # 7 Michigan won at Ohio State to close its season at 7 - 1 - 0 . On Thanksgiving Day # 2 Texas A & M lost at Texas 7 - 0 . November 30 # 3 Stanford closed its season with a 13 - 7 win at California . # 4 Boston College defeated Holy Cross 7 - 0 . 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 .