1941 college football season The 1941 college football regular season ended with the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota repeating as the AP Poll national champion . This was Minnesota ' s fifth national championship in eight years . The Big Ten Conference did not allow their teams to participate in the post - season bowl games , therefore the undefeated , untied Duke Blue Devils , faced the # 12 - ranked Oregon State University Beavers in the Rose Bowl . The Rose Bowl game had been temporarily moved from Pasadena , California to Durham , North Carolina following the attack on Pearl Harbor . Oregon State beat Duke , 20 - 16 , but postseason results did not affect the AP Poll standings . Each writer listed his choice for the top ten teams , and points were tallied based on 10 for first place , 9 for second , etc . The AP then ranked the twenty teams with the highest number of points . Mississippi State , who won the SEC championship , was unable to participate in the post - season due to the wartime airport and train station closings . Therefore , the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide were selected to play in the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl , respectively . Georgia defeated TCU 40 - 26 and Alabama defeated the Texas A & M Aggies 29 - 21 . In addition to Minnesota ' s regular season AP national championship , the Golden Gophers were also selected national champions by Billingsley , Boand , DeVold , Dunkel , Football Research , Helms , Litkenhous , the National Championship Foundation , Poling , Sagarin and Sagarin ( ELO - Chess ) . The Texas Longhorns were selected national champions by the Berryman and Wilson polling systems . The University of Texas doesn ' t recognize this national championship though . The Alabama Crimson Tide were selected national champions by the Houlgate Poll . All selectors of national title teams are documented in the official 2010 NCAA FBS College Football Record Book . These selectors were nationally - syndicated in newspapers and magazines during the 1941 - 1942 football season . , September . September 20 Tennessee beat Furman 32 - 6 and Boston College beat St . Anselm , 78 - 0 . September 27 In Seattle , defending champion Minnesota beat Washington 14 - 6 , while in New Orleans , Boston College fell to Tulane , 21 - 7 . Stanford beat Oregon 19 - 15 , Michigan beat Michigan State 19 - 7 , Texas won at Colorado , 34 - 6 and Duke beat Wake Forest 43 - 14 . Tennessee was idle October . October 4 Minnesota was idle . Tennessee lost at Duke , 19 - 0 . In New York , Fordham beat SMU 16 - 10 . Elsewhere , it was Stanford over UCLA 33 - 0 , Michigan over Iowa 6 - 0 , Northwestern beating Kansas State 51 - 3 and Texas defeating LSU 34 - 0 . October 11 Minnesota beat Illinois 34 - 6 , Northwestern beat Wisconsin 41 - 14 , and Michigan beat Pittsburgh 40 - 0 . In Baltimore , Duke beat Maryland 50 - 0 , while in Dallas , Texas beat Oklahoma 40 - 7 . Fordham won at North Carolina 27 - 14 . Stanford lost at Oregon State 10 - 0 . In the poll that followed , Minnesota was ranked # 1 , followed by Texas , Duke , Fordham , Northwestern and Michigan . October 18 # 1 Minnesota beat Pittsburgh 39 - 0 . # 2 Texas defeated Arkansas 48 - 14 . # 3 Duke beat visiting Colgate 27 - 14 , and # 4 Fordham beat West Virginia 27 - 0 . In Ann Arbor , # 6 Michigan beat visiting # 5 Northwestern 14 - 7 . # 7 Navy beat Cornell 14 - 0 in Baltimore . In the next poll , Michigan and Navy moved up while Fordham and Northwestern dropped out of the top five . October 25 The biggest game of the year took place in Ann Arbor , Michigan , as # 1 Minnesota defeated # 3 Michigan , 7 - 0 . # 2 Texas beat Rice 40 - 0 . # 4 Duke won at Pittsburgh 27 - 7 . # 5 Navy and Harvard played to a 0 - 0 tie . # 6 Fordham beat TCU 28 - 14 , while # 9 Texas A & M won at Baylor 48 - 0 , to reach 5 - 0 - 0 . In the vote that followed , Minnesota received 60 first place votes , and Texas received 53 . When the points were tallied , they both had 1 , 161 points and were tied for # 1 . November . November 1 In Dallas , # 1 Texas beat SMU 34 - 0 , while in Minneapolis , the other # 1 , Minnesota , edged # 9 Northwestern 8 - 7 . In New York , # 3 Fordham defeated Purdue 17 - 0 , and in Atlanta , # 4 Duke won at Georgia Tech 14 - 0 . In Little Rock , # 5 Texas A & M beat Arkansas 7 - 0 . Texas was the new # 1 the following week , followed by Minnesota , Fordham , Duke and Texas A & M , all unbeaten and untied . November 8 # 1 Texas and Baylor played to a 7 - 7 tie . # 2 Minnesota beat Nebraska 9 - 0 . # 3 Fordham lost at Pittsburgh 13 - 0 . # 4 Duke won at Davidson 56 - 0 . # 5 Texas A & M beat SMU 21 - 10 . # 7 Notre Dame beat Navy 20 - 13 in Baltimore and moved into the Top Five as Fordham dropped out . November 15 # 1 Minnesota won at Iowa 34 - 13 . # 2 Texas lost to Texas Christian ( TCU ) 14 - 7 . # 3 Duke beat North Carolina 20 - 0 . In Houston , # 4 Texas A & M beat Rice 19 - 6 . # 5 Notre Dame won at # 8 Northwestern 7 - 6 . # 7 Michigan , which beat Columbia , 28 - 0 , moved up as Texas dropped out . November 22 # 1 Minnesota closed its season with a 41 - 6 win over Wisconsin in Minneapolis . # 2 Texas A & M was idle as it prepared for its Thanksgiving game . # 3 Duke won its season closer at N . C . State 55 - 6 to get a bid to Pasadena ’ s Rose Bowl . Fifteen days later , the bombing of Pearl Harbor called into question whether Southern California would be safe from a Japanese attack on New Year ' s Day . On December 15 , bowl officials and U . S . Army officers met in San Francisco and decided to hold the game at Duke ' s stadium in Durham , North Carolina . # 4 Notre Dame beat USC 20 - 18 . # 5 Michigan closed its season with a 20 - 20 tie # 14 against Ohio State . The Top four remained the same , but # 6 Duquesne ( which had finished its season at 8 - 0 - 0 ) replaced Michigan at # 5 . On Thanksgiving Day # 2 Texas A & M lost to Texas 23 - 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 .