1967 college football season The 1967 college football season was the last one in which college football ' s champion was crowned before the bowl games . During the 20th century , the NCAA had no playoff for the college football teams that would later be described as Division I - A and now as Division I FBS . The NCAA Football Guide , however , did note an " unofficial national champion " based on the top ranked teams in the " wire service " ( AP and UPI ) polls . The " writers ' poll " by Associated Press ( AP ) was the most popular , followed by the " coaches ' poll " by United Press International ) ( UPI ) . In 1967 , both AP and UPI issued their final polls at the close of the regular season , but before teams competed in bowl games . The Associated Press presented the " AP Trophy " to the winner . The AP poll in 1967 consisted of the votes of as many as xx sportswriters , though not all of them voted in every poll . Those who cast votes 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 . September . In the preseason poll released on September 11 , 1967 , first place went to the defending champion Notre Dame Fighting Irish , followed by the # 2 Alabama Crimson Tide , the # 3 Michigan State Spartans , # 4 Texas , and # 5 Miami . Pacific - 8 ( still officially called the AAWU until the following season ) teams USC and UCLA were 7 and 8 , and Big 8 champ Colorado was 10th . Alabama ' s SEC rivals , Georgia and Tennessee were 6th and 9th , respectively . September 16 The AAWU began its season a week ahead of most of the other conferences . # 7 USC beat Washington State 49 - 0 in a Friday night game at Los Angeles , and the next day , # 8 UCLA hosted # 9 Tennessee and won 20 - 16 . California beat Oregon 21 - 13 in advance of its game against # 1 Notre Dame . USC reached the Top Five in the next poll , while Miami dropped to 8th before it had played a game . The poll was 1 . Notre Dame 2 . Alabama 3 . Michigan State 4 . USC 5 . Texas On September 23 , # 1 Notre Dame hosted the California Golden Bears and won 41 - 8 . At Birmingham , # 2 Alabama played to a 37 - 37 tie with Florida State . # 3 Michigan State lost at home to the Houston Cougars 37 - 7 , and proved the preseason prognosticators wrong on its way to a 3 - 7 - 0 finish . The big matchup was in L . A . between # 4 USC and # 5 Texas . The Trojans won 17 - 13 . Alabama and Michigan State fell out of the Top Five . # 6 UCLA , which had beaten the Panthers at Pittsburgh 40 - 8 , rose to fourth and # 7 Georgia , following a 30 - 0 home win against Mississippi State , reached fifth . The next poll was 1 . Notre Dame 2 . USC 3 . Houston 4 . UCLA 5 . Georgia In a Friday night game , # 3 Houston rolled over Wake Forest at home , 50 - 6 . September 30 , in West Lafayette , Indiana , # 1 Notre Dame lost at # 10 Purdue , 28 - 21 . # 2 USC won at Michigan State 21 - 17 . In a game at Spokane , # 4 UCLA trampled Washington State , 51 - 23 , and # 5 Georgia won at Clemson 24 - 17 . Notre Dame fell from the Top 5 in the next poll and USC took the lead , followed by 2 . Houston 3 . UCLA 4 . Purdue 5 . Georgia October . October 7 # 1 USC beat Stanford at home , 30 - 0 . The # 2 Houston Cougars , who had come from nowhere to reach a top ranking , lost at home to unranked North Carolina State , 16 - 6 . # 3 UCLA edged Penn State 17 - 15 . In a Big Ten matchup , # 4 Purdue beat Northwestern 25 - 16 , and # 5 Georgia shut out South Carolina at home , 21 - 0 . In South Bend , # 6 Notre Dame crushed Iowa 56 - 6 to reach the Top Five as it prepared to face # 1 USC . The next poll was : 1 . USC 2 . Purdue 3 . Georgia 4 . UCLA 5 . Notre Dame October 14 In South Bend , the # 1 USC Trojans played the # 5 Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and won 24 - 7 . Over in Columbus , # 2 Purdue beat Ohio State 41 - 6 . # 3 Georgia lost to Mississippi at Jackson , 29 - 20 . # 4 UCLA beat California at home , 37 - 14 . Taking the place of the Irish and Georgia in the Top Five were # 6 Colorado , which had beaten Missouri 23 - 9 , and # 9 N . C . State , which won at Maryland 31 - 9 . The poll was 1 . USC 2 . Purdue 3 . UCLA 4 . Colorado 5 . North Carolina State October 21 # 1 USC beat the Washington Huskies in Seattle , 23 - 6 , for its sixth straight win . The Trojans ' cross - town rival , # 3 UCLA was also 6 - 0 - 0 , beating Stanford at home in Los Angeles , 21 - 16 . # 2 Purdue lost its first game of the season , falling to visiting Oregon State , 22 - 14 . # 4 Colorado won at Nebraska 21 - 16 , and # 5 N . C . State hosted Wake Forest and won 24 - 7 . # 6 Alabama and # 7 Tennessee squared off in Birmingham , with the Tennessee Volunteers beating the Crimson Tide , 24 - 13 . The Vols would win the SEC championship ahead of Alabama , but accepted an invitation to the Orange Bowl rather than the Sugar Bowl . In the next poll , USC was the unanimous choice for # 1 , with all 37 first place votes . The rankings were : 1 . USC ( all 37 votes ) 2 . UCLA 3 . Colorado 4 . Tennessee 5 . NC State October 28 # 1 USC continued winning , hosting Oregon with a 28 - 6 score , while # 2 UCLA was idle . # 3 Colorado lost to visiting Oklahoma State 10 - 7 . # 4 Tennessee narrowly beat LSU at home , 17 - 14 , and # 5 N . C . State beat Duke 28 - 7 . Replacing Colorado in the Top Five was # 6 Georgia which won at Kentucky 31 - 7 . The poll : 1 . USC 2 . UCLA 3 . Tennessee 4 . NC State 5 . Georgia November . November 4 : # 1 USC beat California at Berkeley , 31 - 12 , to extend its record to 8 - 0 - 0 . # 2 UCLA stayed unbeaten , but was tied by visiting Oregon State 16 - 16 . # 3 Tennessee visited Tampa and beat the Spartans , 38 - 0 . # 4 N . C . State won at Virginia 30 - 8 . The # 5 Georgia Bulldogs narrowly lost at Houston 15 - 14 . # 6 Purdue , which had won at Illinois 42 - 9 , returned to the Top Five . 1 . USC 2 . Tennessee 3 . NC State 4 . UCLA 5 . Purdue November 11 : # 1 USC finally lost , falling in the rain and mud at Oregon State 3 - 0 . As it turned out , Oregon State , who ended the season 7 - 2 - 1 , beat USC when it was # 1 , Purdue when it was # 2 , and tied UCLA when it was # 2 . # 2 Tennessee beat Tulane 35 - 14 . # 3 N . C . State lost at Penn State 13 - 8 . # 4 UCLA shut out the visiting Washington Huskies , 48 - 0 , and # 5 Purdue beat Minnesota 41 - 12 . UCLA took USC ' s place at the top , leapfrogging Tennessee , who the Bruins had beaten earlier in the year . Tennessee remained # 2 , and USC fell to fourth . Purdue rose to third and Purdue ' s rival , # 6 Indiana , rose to fifth after winning at Michigan State 14 - 13 . 1 . UCLA 2 . Tennessee 3 . Purdue 4 . USC 5 . Indiana November 18 : In Los Angeles , the # 1 UCLA Bruins and the # 4 USC Trojans met at the Coliseum in the 1967 USC vs . UCLA football game . USC reclaimed its place at the top , edging UCLA 21 - 20 to win the Pac - 8 title ( 6 - 1 vs . 4 - 1 - 1 for Oregon State and UCLA ) . # 2 Tennessee faced Mississippi in Memphis and won 20 - 7 . # 3 Purdue beat Michigan State 21 - 7 , but # 5 Indiana lost to Minnesota 33 - 7 . # 7 Oklahoma , which had beaten Kansas 14 - 10 at home , took I . U . ' s place in the Top Five . 1 . USC 2 . Tennessee 3 . Purdue 4 . UCLA 5 . Oklahoma November 25 In the final week of games before the final polls , # 1 USC had completed its season at 9 - 1 - 0 , qualified for the Rose Bowl , and was in no danger of losing again . # 2 Tennessee won at Kentucky 17 - 7 . The Indiana Hoosiers , who had fallen out of the Top Ten , made their way back in when they beat # 3 Purdue at home in Bloomington . There was a three - way tie in Big Ten Conference play . Not only were Indiana , Purdue and Minnesota each 6 - 1 - 0 , Indiana beat Purdue , Purdue beat Minnesota , and Minnesota beat Indiana . The Indiana Hoosiers , with the better overall record ( 9 - 1 vs . 8 - 2 and 8 - 2 ) , qualified for the Rose Bowl . # 4 UCLA , without injured Heisman Trophy winner Gary Beban and little motivation after their heartbreaking loss to USC the week before , lost a meaningless game to Syracuse 32 - 14 , and # 5 Oklahoma beat Nebraska 21 - 14 . # 6 Notre Dame , which had won a Friday night game at Miami , 24 - 22 , returned to the top five with unranked Indiana . In the final poll , USC was tops in both the AP and UPI polls , and was awarded the AP Trophy . Wyoming , which was the only major team to go unbeaten ( 10 - 0 - 0 ) was at 6th place . The final regular season poll was 1 . USC 2 . Tennessee 3 . Oklahoma 4 . Indiana 5 . Notre Dame 6 . Wyoming 7 . Oregon State 8 . Alabama 9 . Purdue 10 . UCLA . On December 2 , # 3 Alabama played Auburn in its annual game at Birmingham and won 7 - 3 , and # 3 Oklahoma won over Oklahoma State , 38 - 14 as Big 8 champion , and got the bid for the Orange Bowl . Ironically , Oregon State played 3 teams that were ranked 1st or 2nd when they played them ( UCLA , USC , and Purdue ) and went 2 - 0 - 1 in those games . But an early season 13 - 6 loss to Washington kept them out of the Rose Bowl . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings : Bowl Games . In the final AP poll , 9 - 1 - 0 USC had been the top choice of the writers for the AP Trophy , with 36 of the 49 first place votes , and Tennessee followed with 11 . Though there was no # 1 vs . # 2 matchup , the Rose and Orange bowls featured the four top - ranked teams , with # 1 USC meeting # 4 Indiana at Pasadena , and # 2 Tennessee facing # 3 Oklahoma at Miami . The Sugar Bowl , at that time , did not automatically get the SEC champion . Ultimately , the New Orleans game featured the Wyoming Cowboys , 10 - 0 - 0 in Western Athletic Conference play , against the LSU Tigers . LSU had finished behind Tennessee , Alabama , Florida , Mississippi and Georgia in the Southeastern Conference and was 6th out of ten teams . But LSU justified their selection by knocking off Wyoming , 20 - 13 . In the Cotton Bowl , unranked Texas A & M upset # 8 Alabama 20 - 16 . USC then went out and claimed the national title with a 14 - 3 over Indiana in the Rose Bowl . Effectively eliminated from finishing # 1 after USC ' s win , # 2 Tennessee went out and lost in the Orange Bowl to # 3 Oklahoma , 26 - 24 . The final poll was 1 . USC 2 . Oklahoma 3 . Oregon State 4 . Notre Dame 5 . Indiana 6 . Purdue 7 . Texas A & M 8 . UCLA 9 . Tennessee 10 . Alabama San Diego State was voted the # 1 " small college " football team ( equivalent to today ' s Division I - AA ) in the polls conducted by AP and UPI , and North Dakota State was second The Aztecs then announced that they would play major college ball Other bowls : Other champions . NCAA member schools outside the University Division were ranked in the " small college poll " , taken by both the UPI ( coaches ) and AP ( a panel of writers ) . Most of these schools became members of Division II or Division III when the NCAA reorganized in 1973 , although a number have moved to either the current Division I FCS or FBS . In 1967 , both services ranked the San Diego State Aztecs # 1 . The North Dakota State Bison were ranked # 2 . San Diego State then went on to defeat San Francisco State 34 - 6 in the Camellia Bowl ( San Diego State is currently a member of the Division I - FBS Mountain West Conference ) . In the NAIA championship game , the Fairmont State Falcons defeated the Eastern Washington Savages 28 - 21 ( EWU ' s team became the Eagles in 1973 ) .