1951 college football season The 1951 college football season finished with seven unbeaten major college teams , of which five were unbeaten and untied . Ultimately , the Tennessee Volunteers were voted the best team by the Associated Press , followed by the Michigan State Spartans , with the Vols having a plurality of first place votes ( 139 to 104 ) . Tennessee lost in the Sugar Bowl to the equally undefeated and untied # 3 Maryland Terrapins , but the postseason games didn ' t count , so the Terps did not have a share of the national title . 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 " wire service " ( AP and UPI ) polls . The extent of that recognition came in the form of acknowledgment in the annual " NCAA Football Guide " of the " unofficial " national champions . The AP poll in 1951 consisted of the votes of as many as 307 sportswriters . Though not all writers voted in every poll , each 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 . 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 , and a team with two or more defeats was unlikely to remain in the Top 20 . 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 . In the preseason poll released on September 24 , 1951 , Tennessee and Michigan State were ranked first and second , with Tennessee having 60 of the 115 first place votes . MSU had opened its season on the 22nd with a 6 - 0 win over Oregon State . They were followed by # 3 Ohio State , defending champion # 4 Oklahoma , and # 5 California ( which had won its opener against Santa Clara , 34 - 0 ) . As the regular season progressed , a new poll would be issued on the Monday following the weekend ' s games . On September 29 # 1 Tennessee beat Mississippi State 14 - 0 . # 2 Michigan State won at Michigan , 25 - 0 , to take the top spot from the Vols . # 3 Ohio State beat visiting SMU 7 - 0 in a win not deemed good enough to stay in the top five . # 4 Oklahoma beat William & Mary 49 - 7 . # 5 California won in Philadelphia against Penn , 35 - 0 , and rose to second in the next poll . The game was broadcast in New York in a test for color television Notre Dame , which had beaten Indiana 48 - 6 , rose to fifth . The poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . California 3 . Tennessee 4 . Oklahoma 5 . Notre Dame October . October 6 # 1 Michigan State won at Ohio State , 24 - 20 . # 2 California beat Minnesota , 55 - 14 . # 3 Tennessee beat Duke 26 - 0 . # 4 Oklahoma lost at # 10 Texas A & M , 14 - 7 and fell out of the top bracket , and the Aggies took their place . # 5 Notre Dame had beaten Mercy College of Detroit , 40 - 6 , the night before . The poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . California 3 . Tennessee 4 . Texas A & M 5 . Notre Dame October 13 # 1 Michigan State had trouble in defeating Marquette 20 - 14 . # 2 California beat Washington State 42 - 35 and took over the top spot from the Spartans in the next poll . # 3 Tennessee beat the University of Chattanooga ( now UT - Chattanooga ) 42 - 13 . # 4 Texas A & M beat Trinity College 53 - 14 and fell from the top five . # 5 Notre Dame lost to visiting SMU , 27 - 20 . Taking the places of the Aggies and the Irish were # 6 Texas ( which had beaten Oklahoma in Dallas , 9 - 7 ) and # 8 Georgia Tech ( which had beaten LSU 25 - 7 . The poll : 1 . California 2 . Tennessee 3 . Michigan State 4 . Texas 5 . Georgia Tech October 20 In Los Angeles , # 1 California and USC , both unbeaten at 4 - 0 - 0 , faced off , and the Golden Bears lost the game , along with the top spot in the poll , 21 - 14 . Earlier , in Birmingham , # 2 Tennessee defeated Alabama 27 - 13 . # 3 Michigan State won at Penn State , 32 - 21 . # 4 Texas lost at Arkansas , 16 - 14 . # 5 Georgia Tech defeated Auburn 27 - 7 . Appearing in the top five were # 8 Illinois ( which had a 27 - 20 win over Washington ) and # 7 Maryland ( which had beaten North Carolina 14 - 7 ) . The poll : 1 . Tennessee 2 . Michigan State 3 . Georgia Tech 4 . Illinois 5 . Maryland October 27 # 1 Tennessee beat Tennessee Tech 68 - 0 . # 3 Michigan State beat visiting Pitt , 53 - 26 . # 3 Georgia Tech won narrowly at Vanderbilt , 8 - 7 . # 4 Illinois won at Indiana , 21 - 0 . Unbeaten ( 4 - 0 - 0 ) and # 5 Maryland visited once - beaten ( 4 - 1 - 0 ) LSU , and won convincingly , 27 - 0 . With all five teams staying unbeaten , the poll changed slightly : 1 . Tennessee 2 . Michigan State 3 . Illinois 4 . Maryland 5 . Georgia Tech November . November 3 # 1 Tennessee won at North Carolina , 27 - 0 for its fourth shutout . In six games , the Vols had outscored their opponents , 207 - 14 . # 2 Michigan State was idle and dropped to fifth in the next poll . # 3 Illinois beat Michigan 7 - 0 . # 4 Maryland shut out Missouri 35 - 0 . # 5 Georgia Tech was tied by Duke , 14 - 14 . # 6 Princeton , which rose to 5 - 0 - 0 after a 12 - 0 win over Brown , gave an Ivy League addition to the Top Five . Michigan State came back to the five after a 53 - 26 win over Pitt . The poll : 1 . Tennessee 2 . Illinois 3 . Maryland 4 . Princeton 5 . Michigan State . November 10 # 1 Tennessee beat Washington & Lee , 60 - 14 . # 2 Illinois beat Iowa 40 - 13 . In Baltimore , # 3 Maryland beat Navy , 40 - 21 . # 4 Princeton won at Harvard , 54 - 13 , and left the top five . # 5 Michigan State ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) hosted Notre Dame ( 5 - 1 - 0 ) and shut out the Irish , 35 - 0 , and returned to # 1 spot in the poll . In Los Angeles , two unbeaten and untied ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) powers faced off , as # 7 Stanford and USC met . The Stanford Indians ( they would later be called the Cardinal ) beat the Trojans 27 - 20 . The poll : 1 . Michigan State 2 . Tennessee 3 . Illinois 4 . Stanford 5 . Maryland November 17 # 1 Michigan State won at Indiana , 30 - 26 . # 2 Tennessee won at Mississippi , 46 - 21 . # 3 Illinois got a blemish on its record with a 0 - 0 tie at Ohio State . # 4 Stanford beat Oregon State 35 - 14 . # 5 Maryland overwhelmed N . C . State 53 - 0 . Princeton , which had shut out Yale 27 - 0 , came back to the top five . The poll : 1 . Tennessee 2 . Michigan State 3 . Stanford 4 . Maryland 5 . Princeton November 24 # 1 Tennessee beat Kentucky 28 - 0 . # 2 Michigan State beat Colorado 45 - 7 to finish its season at 9 - 0 - 0 . # 3 Stanford suffered its first defeat , falling to California , 20 - 7 . # 4 Maryland stayed unbeaten , over West Virginia 54 - 7 . # 5 Princeton closed its season with a 13 - 0 win over Dartmouth . Illinois , which won at Northwestern 3 - 0 , returned to the top five . The penultimate poll : 1 . Tennessee 2 . Michigan State 3 . Maryland 4 . Illinois 5 . Princeton . On December 1 # 1 Tennessee closed its season unbeaten with a 35 - 27 win over Vanderbilt . The University of San Francisco Dons closed their season — and their football program — with a perfect record of 9 wins , 0 losses and 0 ties . After their November 24 game against Loyola Marymount University , a 20 - 2 win , USF stopped playing football . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings : Final AP Poll . The final rankings were released December 3 after the regular season and without consideration of the postseason bowl games :