1952 college football season The 1952 college football season ended with the unbeaten Michigan State Spartans ( 9 - 0 - 0 record ) and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets ( 12 - 0 - 0 record ) each claiming the national championship according to different polls . Michigan State finished first according to two of the " wire service " ( AP and UP ) polls which also both placed Georgia Tech second . Georgia Tech was first in the ( Hearst chain ) International News Service poll . UP and INS merged in 1958 to form UPI . Although the Spartans would become members of the Big Ten conference for football in 1950 , full participation would not come until 1953 , and under the terms of their entry into the conference , they were not allowed to participate in postseason play . The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets , won the Sugar Bowl on New Year ' s Day in New Orleans . September . September 20 Maryland won at Missouri 13 - 10 , and Texas won at LSU 35 - 14 . In the preseason poll released on September 22 , 1952 , the Michigan State Spartans were rated first , followed by the Maryland Terrapins . Maryland actually had more first place votes 79 to 77 , but MSU had an edge on points , 1720 - 1696 . The remainder of the Top Five was # 3 Georgia Tech ( which beat The Citadel 54 - 6 ) , # 4 Oklahoma and # 5 Illinois . Defending champion Tennessee was 6th . As the regular season progressed , a new poll would be issued on the Monday following the weekend ' s games . On September 27 # 1 Michigan State won at Michigan , 27 - 13 . # 2 Maryland beat Auburn 13 - 7 in Birmingham # 3 Georgia Tech narrowly beat Florida 17 - 14 and fell to 6th place in the next poll . # 4 Oklahoma visited Colorado and was tied , 21 - 21 . # 5 Illinois , which beat Iowa State 33 - 7 , rose to second place in the next poll . # 8 California , which was 2 - 0 - 0 after a 28 - 14 win over Missouri , and # 11 Texas ( which had won at North Carolina 28 - 7 ) , took their places . The poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . Illinois 3 . Maryland 4 . California 5 . Texas October . October 4 # 1 Michigan State narrowly defeated Oregon State 17 - 14 at Portland . # 2 Illinois lost at # 8 Wisconsin , 20 - 6 , and would end up finishing 1952 with a losing ( 4 - 5 - 0 ) record . Meanwhile , the Wisconsin Badgers were catapulted to first place in the next poll . # 3 Maryland beat Clemson 28 - 0 . # 4 California won at Minnesota , 49 - 13 . # 6 Georgia Tech , which beat SMU 20 - 7 in Dallas , returned to the Top Five : 1 . Wisconsin 2 . Michigan State 3 . California 4 . Maryland 5 . Georgia Tech October 11 The new # 1 , Wisconsin , lost at Columbus to unranked Ohio State , 23 - 14 . # 2 Michigan State beat visiting Texas A & M 48 - 6 . # 3 California beat Oregon at Portland , 41 - 7 . # 4 Maryland won at Georgia , 37 - 0 . # 5 Georgia Tech beat Tulane 14 - 0 . # 6 Duke , which won at South Carolina 33 - 7 , was fifth in the next poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . Maryland 3 . California 4 . Georgia Tech 5 . Duke October 18 # 1 Michigan State beat visiting Syracuse 48 - 7 . # 2 Maryland beat Navy 38 - 7 . # 3 California beat Santa Clara 27 - 7 . # 4 Georgia Tech beat Auburn 33 - 0 . # 5 Duke won at N . C . State , 57 - 0 , but was still bounced out of the top five . # 6 Oklahoma , which had won at # 8 Kansas 42 - 20 , was third in the next poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . Maryland 3 . Oklahoma 4 . California 5 . Georgia Tech October 25 # 1 Michigan State beat # 17 Penn State 34 - 7 . # 2 Maryland beat LSU 34 - 6 . # 3 Oklahoma beat Kansas State 49 - 6 . In Los Angeles , a matchup of unbeaten teams pitted # 4 California ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) against the 5 - 0 - 0 and # 7 USC Trojans . USC won 10 - 0 . Cal would lose this and the next two games after its perfect start . # 5 Georgia Tech beat Vanderbilt 30 - 0 . The poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . Maryland 3 . Oklahoma 4 . Georgia Tech 5 . USC November . November 1 # 1 Michigan State narrowly won at # 8 Purdue , 14 - 7 . # 2 Maryland won at Boston University , 34 - 7 . # 3 Oklahoma won at Iowa State 41 - 0 . # 4 Georgia Tech ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) faced unbeaten # 6 Duke ( also 6 - 0 - 0 ) and won 28 - 7 . # 5 USC was idle , and its place was taken by # 7 UCLA , which handed # 11 California a 28 - 7 defeat . The poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . Maryland 3 . Georgia Tech 4 . Oklahoma 5 . UCLA November 8 # 1 Michigan State won at Indiana 41 - 14 . # 2 Maryland was idle . # 3 Georgia Tech beat Army 45 - 6 . # 4 Oklahoma lost at # 10 Notre Dame , 27 - 21 , and dropped back out of the Top Five . # 5 UCLA beat visiting Oregon State 57 - 0 . # 6 USC rose to fifth after a 54 - 7 win at Stanford . The poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . Georgia Tech 3 . Maryland 4 . UCLA 5 . USC November 15 Unbeaten # 1 Michigan State hosted once - beaten ( 5 - 1 - 1 ) # 6 Notre Dame and won 21 - 3 . In Atlanta , unbeaten ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) # 2 Georgia Tech faced once - beaten ( 7 - 1 - 0 ) # 12 Alabama and won , 7 - 3 . And on the road , unbeaten ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) # 3 Maryland faced unbeaten ( 6 - 0 - 2 ) lost at # 11 Mississippi , 21 - 14 . # 4 UCLA was idle . # 5 USC beat # 17 Washington 33 - 0 . # 8 Oklahoma , which had beaten Missouri 47 - 7 , returned to the Top Five . The poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . Georgia Tech 3 . UCLA 4 . USC 5 . Oklahoma November 22 # 1 Michigan State won 62 - 13 over Marquette to close its season unbeaten . # 2 Georgia Tech stayed unbeaten as it beat Florida State 30 - 0 . Both unbeaten , # 3 UCLA ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) and # 4 USC ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) met in Los Angeles , with USC winning 14 - 12 to take the crown of the Pacific Coast Conference and a trip to the Rose Bowl . # 5 Oklahoma beat Nebraska 34 - 13 . The new poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . USC 3 . Georgia Tech 4 . Oklahoma 5 . UCLA November 29 # 1 Michigan State had closed its season . # 2 USC hosted # 7 Notre Dame and lost 9 - 0 . # 3 Georgia Tech finished its season unbeaten ( 11 - 0 - 0 ) and was invited to the Sugar Bowl to face unbeaten , but twice tied ( 8 - 0 - 2 ) and # 6 Mississippi . # 4 Oklahoma closed its season at Oklahoma State , winning 54 - 7 to finish 8 - 1 - 1 . In the Final AP poll , released December 1 , # 1 Michigan State was the champion , followed by # 2 Georgia Tech , # 3 Notre Dame , # 4 Oklahoma , and # 5 USC . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings : Final AP Top Poll . The final rankings were made on November 29 , after the regular season and without consideration of the postseason bowl games : Bowl games . As late as 1952 , many colleges , and some football conferences , did not participate in postseason bowl games . # 1 Michigan State had joined the Big Ten conference in 1950 for football , but as part of the terms of membership , was ineligible to play in a bowl game until the 1953 season . # 3 Notre Dame had a policy against playing in postseason games . # 4 Oklahoma was a member of the Big 7 conference ( which later , as the Big 8 and Big 12 , would send its best team to the Orange Bowl ) , and that conference banned post - season games . The Oklahoma University Board of Regents considered a motion to allow the team to accept an invitation from the Orange Bowl , and passed a resolution that stated that " Oklahoma belongs to the Big Seven Conference and has followed its rules in the past and should follow them in the future . " . Thus , three of the nation ' s four " top teams " did not play in a bowl game . The exception was Georgia Tech , which played as the SEC champ in the Sugar Bowl . In a forerunner of the SEC championship game , the two best teams in the conference met , with # 7 Ole Miss accepting the invitation to play against Tech .