1946 college football season The 1946 college football season finished with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame crowned as the national champion in the AP Poll , with the United States Military Academy the runner up . The two teams had won all of their games , with the exception of their November 9 meeting at New York ’ s Yankee Stadium , where they had played to a 0 - 0 tie . During the 20th century , the NCAA had no playoff for the college football teams that would later be described as " Division I - A " . The NCAA did recognize a national champion based upon the final results of the Associated Press poll of sportswriters ( the UPI coaches poll would not start until 1950 ) . The extent of that recognition came in the form of acknowledgment in the annual " NCAA Football Guide " of the " unofficial " national champions . Though not all writers voted in every poll , each would give their opinion of the ten best teams . 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 . Although the rankings were based on the collective opinion of the representative sportswriters , the teams that remained " unbeaten and untied " were generally ranked higher than those that had not . A defeat , even against a strong opponent , tended to cause a team to drop in the rankings . This left Georgia as the only such team . They would even hammer this point home with a decisive Sugar Bowl win , while UCLA lost big in the Rose Bowl , and both Notre Dame and Army would not play in a bowl . Most third party observers would consider them National Champions . Generally , the top teams played on New Year ' s Day in the four major postseason bowl games : the Rose Bowl ( near Los Angeles at Pasadena ) , the Sugar Bowl ( New Orleans ) , the Orange Bowl ( Miami ) , and the Cotton Bowl ( Dallas ) . September . The Associated Press did not poll the writers until the third week of the season . Among the teams that had been ranked highest at the end of 1946 , the two service academies — Army and Navy , as well as Alabama , Indiana and Oklahoma State , several had faltered before the first poll . Army beat Villanova 35 - 0 on September 21 , and Oklahoma State beat Denver , 40 - 7 , but Indiana lost to the University of Cincinnati , 15 - 6 . On September 28 , Army beat Oklahoma 21 - 7 , and Navy beat Villanova 7 - 0 . Alabama edged Southern Mississippi in a game at Montgomery , 13 - 12 . Indiana lost again , 21 - 0 at Michigan , and OK State was tied 21 - 21 by Arkansas . Notre Dame won at Illinois , 26 - 6 , and UCLA beat Oregon State 50 - 7 . October . On October 5 , Army beat Cornell 46 - 21 . Navy lost at Columbia and dropped the rest of its games , finishing 1 - 8 - 0 . Oklahoma State lost 54 - 6 at Texas and would finish at 3 - 7 - 1 . Notre Dame beat Pittsburgh 33 - 0 . Michigan beat Iowa 14 - 7 . UCLA won at Washington , 39 - 13 . In the poll that followed , One voter split his first place vote between Texas , Army , and Notre Dame , who received 69⅓ , 21⅓ and 15⅓ votes respectively . Michigan and UCLA rounded out the Top Five . October 12 In Dallas , # 1 Texas beat Oklahoma 20 - 13 . # 2 Army and # 4 Michigan met in Ann Arbor , MI , and the visiting Cadets won 20 - 13 . # 3 Notre Dame beat Purdue 49 - 6 . # 5 UCLA beat # 17 Stanford 26 - 6 . October 19 # 1 Army beat # 11 Columbia 48 - 14 . # 2 Notre Dame was idle . # 3 Texas beat # 14 Arkansas 20 - 0 . # 4 UCLA won at California 13 - 6 . # 5 Michigan and # 10 Northwestern played to a 14 - 14 tie . # 9 Tennessee beat # 7 Alabama 12 - 0 . October 26 At the Polo Grounds in New York , # 1 Army beat # 13 Duke 19 - 0 . # 2 Notre Dame won at # 17 Iowa , 49 - 6 . In Houston , # 3 Texas lost to # 16 Rice , 18 - 13 . # 4 Tennessee lost to unranked Wake Forest , 19 - 6 . # 5 UCLA beat Santa Clara 33 - 7 . # 6 Penn beat Navy 32 - 19 and # 7 Georgia won at Furman , 70 - 7 November . November 2 # 1 Army beat West Virginia , 19 - 0 . In Baltimore , # 2 Notre Dame defeated Navy 28 - 0 . # 3 Pennsylvania lost to Princeton , 17 - 14 . # 5 Georgia beat # 15 Alabama 14 - 0 . # 4 UCLA had beaten St . Mary ’ s , 46 - 20 , in a Friday night game . # 8 Rice beat Texas Tech 41 - 6 . November 9 A crowd of 74 , 000 turned out at New York ' s Yankee Stadium to watch # 1 Army and # 2 Notre Dame in a meeting of the nation ' s two unbeaten and untied teams . Both teams missed scoring opportunities . In the opening quarter , Army recovered a fumble on the Irish 24 , but was stopped on fourth down at the 13 yard line . The Irish drove to the Army three yard line in the second quarter but no further . Army reached the Irish 20 yard line in the third quarter , but Notre Dame ' s Terry Brennan picked off a pass from Glenn Davis . In the last quarter , a bad punt was returned by Davis to the Irish 39 yard line , but they forced a fumble and stopped any further scoring chances . The game ended in a scoreless tie , 0 - 0 . . In Jacksonville , # 3 Georgia beat Florida 33 - 14 . In Portland , # 4 UCLA beat Oregon 14 - 0 . # 5 Rice lost in Little Rock to Arkansas , 7 - 0 . # 9 Penn returned to the Top Five after beating Columbia in New York ' s " other " football game , 41 - 6 . November 16 In its third meeting against a Top Five team , # 1 Army beat # 5 Pennsylvania in Philadelphia , 34 - 7 . # 2 Notre Dame beat Northwestern , 27 - 0 . # 3 Georgia beat Auburn 41 - 0 in a neutral site in Columbus , Georgia . # 4 UCLA beat Montana 61 - 7 . # 9 Illinois beat # 13 Ohio State , 16 - 7 . November 23 # 1 Army was idle . # 2 Notre Dame beat Tulane in New Orleans , 41 - 0 . # 3 Georgia won at Chattanooga , 48 - 27 . # 4 UCLA defeated # 10 USC 13 - 6 . # 5 Illinois won at Northwestern , 20 - 0 , to close its season with an 8 - 1 - 0 record November 30 # 1 Army barely beat a 1 - 7 - 0 Navy team , 21 - 18 . # 2 Notre Dame beat # 16 USC , 26 - 6 # 3 Georgia defeated # 7 Georgia Tech 35 - 7 . # 4 UCLA beat Nebraska 18 - 0 and accepted an invitation to face # 5 Illinois in the Rose Bowl . 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 .