1944 college football season The 1944 college football season was played during the Second World War . The football team of the United States Military Academy , more popularly known as Army , was crowned as the nation ’ s # 1 team by 95 of the 121 writers who participated in the AP poll . As in 1943 , the AP poll included service teams , drawn from flight schools and training centers which were preparing men for fighting in World War II , and the teams played against the colleges as part of their schedules . Half of the final Top 20 teams were composed of service teams , in addition to the two service academies at West Point and Annapolis . Most colleges that had suspended their programs in 1943 were back in 1944 , including the entire Southeastern Conference . In the AP poll , each participating 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 top twenty results . September . On September 16 the Great Lakes Naval Training Center team defeated Fort Sheridan , 62 – 0 , before a crowd of 25 , 000 at its base north of Chicago . Michigan beat Iowa Pre - Flight , 12 – 7 before a crowd of 22 , 000 in Ann Arbor . September 23 Great Lakes won at Purdue , 27 – 18 . In Milwaukee , Michigan beat Marquette 14 – 0 . At San Antonio , Randolph Field defeated Abilene Field , 67 – 0 . September 30 Notre Dame won at Pittsburgh 58 – 0 . Great Lakes and Illinois played to a 26 - 26 tie . Michigan lost to Indiana , 20 – 0 . In Houston , Randolph Field beat Rice 59 – 0 . Army beat North Carolina , 46 – 0 . North Carolina Pre - Flight , quarterbacked by Otto Graham ( formerly of Northwestern , and a future Cleveland Browns star ) upset Navy , 21 – 14 . October . October 7 Notre Dame beat Tulane 26 - 0 and Army defeated Brown 59 - 7 . In games between service teams and colleges , the servicemen triumphed , as N . C . Pre - Flight won at Duke , 13 - 6 , Great Lakes won at Northwestern 25 - 0 , and Randolph Field won at Texas 42 - 6 . In the poll that followed , Notre Dame was first , and Army third , with the service teams occupying the other spots . October 14 In Boston , # 1 Notre Dame beat Dartmouth , 64 - 0 . # 2 North Carolina Pre - Flight was tied by Virginia , 13 - 13 . # 3 Army beat Pittsburgh , 69 - 7 . # 4 Randolph Field , quarterbacked by “ Bullet Bill ” Dudley , beat SMU at home in San Antonio , 41 - 0 . # 5 Great Lakes beat Western Michigan 38 - 0 . # 8 Ohio State won at Wisconsin , 20 - 7 and # 11 Iowa Pre - Flight won at Purdue , 13 - 6 . N . C . Pre - Flight and Great Lakes fell out of the top five : 1 . Notre Dame 2 . Army 3 . Randolph Field 4 . Ohio State 5 . Iowa Pre - Flight . October 21 # 1 Notre Dame defeated Wisconsin 28 - 13 . # 2 Army beat the Coast Guard Academy , 76 - 0 . # 3 Randolph Field and Camp Polk played a Sunday game at Fort Worth , Texas , with Randolph ' s Ramblers winning 67 - 0 . # 4 Ohio State beat Great Lakes , 26 - 6 . # 5 Iowa Pre - Flight defeated Fort Warren , 30 - 0 . In Atlanta , # 8 Georgia Tech defeated Navy 17 - 15 . October 28 # 1 Notre Dame won at Illinois , 13 - 7 . At a war bonds fundraiser at the Polo Grounds in New York , # 2 Army beat Duke 27 - 7 . # 3 Randolph Field defeated Morris Field 19 - 0 . # 4 Ohio State beat Minnesota 34 - 14 . # 5 Georgia Tech reached 5 - 0 - 0 after a 13 - 7 over the flight training school located on the U . Ga . campus , Georgia Pre - Flight . November . November 4 # 1 Army rolled over Villanova , 83 - 0 . In six games , the Cadets had outscored their opponents by an average of 60 to 3 . In Baltimore , # 2 Notre Dame lost to # 6 Navy , 32 - 13 . # 3 Ohio State beat Indiana 21 - 7 . # 4 Randolph Field beat North Texas Agricultural ( later called the University of Texas - Arlington ) 68 - 0 . # 5 Georgia Tech lost at Duke , 19 - 13 , and fell out of the top five , as Navy moved up . November 11 At Yankee Stadium in New York , # 1 Army crushed # 5 Notre Dame , 59 - 0 . # 2 Ohio State beat Pittsburgh 54 - 19 . # 3 Navy beat Cornell , 48 - 0 . # 4 Randolph Field defeated Maxwell Field , 25 - 0 . # 8 Michigan , which beat Illinois , 14 - 0 , took Notre Dame ' s place in the Top Five . November 18 In Philadelphia , # 1 Army beat Pennsylvania , 62 - 7 . In Georgetown , Texas , # 2 Randolph Field beat Southwestern University , 54 - 0 . # 3 Navy defeated Purdue in Baltimore , 32 - 0 . In Cleveland , before a crowd of 83 , 627 fans , # 4 Ohio State beat Illinois 26 - 12 . # 5 Michigan defeated Wisconsin , 14 - 0 . In a Sunday game between service teams , # 6 Bainbridge NTC of Maryland defeated Camp Lejeune , 33 - 6 . November 25 # 1 Army ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) and # 2 Navy ( 6 - 2 - 0 ) were both idle as they prepared for the annual Army – Navy Game . # 3 Ohio State beat Michigan 18 - 14 . The next day , # 4 Randolph Field beat Amarillo Field , 33 - 0 , and # 5 Bainbridge Naval beat Camp Perry , 21 - 13 . December 2 # 1 Army and # 2 Navy met in Baltimore . Army ' s offense was held to its lowest score of the season , but won 23 - 7 to cap a perfect season . Army had scored 59 points or more in seven of its nine games , with a 504 to 35 aggregate over its opponents . # 3 Ohio State had finished its season , while # 4 Randolph Field and # 5 Bainbridge Naval were idle . After the release of the final poll , Randolph Filed participated in two more games for the sale of bonds . In Los Angeles , the " Ramblers " beat the Fourth Air Force team ( March Field ) , 20 - 7 , on December 10 . Six days later , Randolph Field met the Second Air Force Superbombers at the Polo Grounds in New York for the “ Treasury Bond Bowl ” , and won 13 - 6 to complete their season at 11 - 0 - 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 .