1975 college football season

The 1975 college football season saw University of Oklahoma repeat as national champion in the Associated Press (AP) writers' poll. With the Sooners having completed two seasons of NCAA probation, they were ranked #1 in the United Press International (UPI) coaches' poll as well. 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 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). The AP poll consisted of the votes of as many as 63 writers, though not all voted in each poll, and the UPI poll was taken of a 25 member board of coaches.

eptember

In the preseason poll released on September 1, 1975, the AP ranked Oklahoma #1, followed by #2 Alabama, #3 Michigan, #4 Ohio State and #5 USC.

September 6 Most teams had yet to open their seasons, but #2 Alabama lost its home opener in Birmingham to unranked Missouri, 20-7. #6 Penn State was the only other Top 10 team to play the weekend, and struggled to defeat Temple University in a game in Philadlephia, winning 26-25. In the next poll, Missouri rose to fifth place, while Alabama dropped to 13th. Penn State fell from 6th to 10th. The poll: 1.Oklahoma 2.Michigan 3.Ohio State 4.USC 5.Missouri

September 13 #1 Oklahoma beat Oregon 62-7. #2 Michigan won at Wisconsin, 23-6. #3 Ohio State won at #11 Michigan State, 21-0. #4 USC beat Duke 35-7 at home.
#5 Missouri was idle. The poll was unchanged: 1.Oklahoma 2.Michigan 3.Ohio State 4.USC 5.Missouri

September 20 #1 Oklahoma beat #15 Pittsburgh 46-10. #2 Michigan was tied by Stanford at home, 19-19. #3 Ohio State beat #7 Penn State 17-9. #4 USC defeated Oregon State 24-7. #5 Missouri won at Illinois, 30-20. Missouri's Big Eight rival, #6 Nebraska, beat Indiana 45-0, and rose to fourth. The poll: 1.Oklahoma 2.Ohio State 3.USC 4.Nebraska 5.Missouri

In a Friday night game in Miami, #1 Oklahoma eked out a win over the Hurricanes, 20-17. The next day, September 27 #2 Ohio State beat North Carolina 32-7. #3 USC beat visiting Purdue, 19-6. #4 Nebraska beat TCU, 56-14. #5 Missouri beat Wisconsin, 27-21.The poll was unchanged: 1.Oklahoma 2.Ohio State 3.USC 4.Nebraska 5.Missouri

October

October 4 #1 Oklahoma had another narrow win, beating visiting #19 Colorado, 21-20, while in Los Angeles,#2 Ohio State had no problems in defeating #13 UCLA, 41-20. The Buckeyes and Bruins would meet again at season's end. #3 USC won at Iowa, 27-16. #4 Nebraska defeated the Miami Hurricanes at home, 31-16. #5 Missouri played its third straight game against a Big Ten team, losing at #12 Michigan, 31-7. After a promising start, the Tigers would go on to a 6-5-0 finish. #7 Texas, which beat Utah State 61-7, rose to fifth. Ohio State took over first place from Oklahoma, with 47 of the 62 first place votes. The poll was 1.Ohio State 2.Oklahoma 3.USC 4.Nebraska 5.Texas

October 11
#1 Ohio State beat visiting Iowa 49-0. In their annual meeting in Dallas, #2 Oklahoma defeated #5 Texas in Dallas, 24-17. #3 USC beat Washington State 28-10. #4 Nebraska beat visiting Kansas 16-0. #6 Texas A&M, which won at Texas Tech 38-9, rose to fifth. The poll was 1.Ohio State 2.Oklahoma 3.USC 4.Nebraska 5.Texas A & M October 18 #1 Ohio State had a second straight shutout at home, a 56-0 win over Wisconsin. #2 Oklahoma won at Kansas State, 25-3. #3 USC beat visiting Oregon 17-3. #4 Nebraska won at Oklahoma State, 28-20. #5 Texas A&M won at TCU, 14-6. The poll was unchanged: 1.Ohio State 2.Oklahoma 3.USC 4.Nebraska 5.Texas A & M

October 25 #1 Ohio State won at Purdue, 35-6. #2 Oklahoma beat Iowa State, 39-7. #3 USC won at #14 Notre Dame, 24-17. #4 Nebraska beat #10 Colorado, 63-21. #5 Texas A&M beat Baylor at home, 19-10. The poll was 1.Ohio State 2.Oklahoma 3.Nebraska 4.USC 5.Texas A & M

November

November 1 #1 Ohio State defeated Indiana at home, 24-14. #2 Oklahoma won at #19 Oklahoma State, 27-7. #3 Nebraska won at #12 Missouri, 30-7. #4 USC lost at California, 28-14, beginning a four game losing streak after a 7-0 start. #5 Texas A&M was idle. #6 Alabama beat Mississippi State in Jackson, 21-10. #5 Texas A&M was idle. The poll was 1.Ohio State 2.Oklahoma 3.Nebraska 4.Texas A & M 5.Alabama

November 8 #1 Ohio State won at Illinois, 40-3. #2 Oklahoma lost to the visiting Kansas Jayhawks, 23-3. #3 Nebraska won at Kansas State, 12-0. #4 Texas A&M beat SMU, 36-3. #5 Alabama won at LSU 23-10. #6 Michigan, which beat Purdue 28-0, rose to fourth. The poll was: 1.Ohio State 2.Nebraska 3.Texas A & M 4.Michigan 5.Alabama

November 15 #1 Ohio State beat Minnesota 38-6. #2 Nebraska beat Iowa 52-0.
#3 Texas A&M won at Rice, 33-14. #4 Michigan won at Illinois, 21-15, to extend its record to 8-0-2. #5 Alabama beat Southern Mississippi at home, 27-6. The poll was unchanged: 1.Ohio State 2.Nebraska 3.Texas A & M 4.Michigan 5.Alabama

November 22 The game that determined the Big Ten championship took place in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as unbeaten (10-0-0) and (#1 Ohio State faced unbeaten, but twice tied (8-0-2) #4 Michigan (8-0-2). OSU won 21-14 and got the trip to the Rose Bowl, where it would have a rematch with 11th-ranked UCLA (The Bruins would earn their Rose Bowl bid by beating USC, 25-22, the following Friday). In Norman, Oklahoma, a trip to the Orange Bowl was on the line as #2 Nebraska (10-0-0) closed its season against (9-1-0) #7 Oklahoma in a game that would determine the Big Eight title. Oklahoma handed the Cornhuskers their first loss, 35-10. Nebraska was invited instead to play in the Fiesta Bowl. #3 Texas A&M and #5 Alabama were both idle. #6 Texas (9-1-0) was also idle, but rose to fifth. The poll was: 1.Ohio State 2.Texas A & M 3.Oklahoma 4.Alabama 5.Texas

November 29 The #2 Texas A&M Aggies (9-0-0) hosted the #5 Texas Longhorns (9-1-0) at College Station, with the Aggies winning, 20-10. #4 Alabama closed its season with its 10th straight win after its opening loss, a 28-0 win over Auburn in Birmingham. In the final AP poll released on December 1, #1 Ohio State (11-0-0), #2 Texas A&M (10-0-0) and #7 Arizona State (11-0-0) were all undefeated. On December 6, however, the Aggies lost in Little Rock to #18 Arkansas, 31-6. The Southwest Conference race finished with a three way tie between Arkansas, Texas and Texas A&M, all 6-1 in conference play. Arkansas got the Cotton Bowl berth, while Texas went to the Bluebonnet Bowl and Texas A&M to the Liberty Bowl.

Bowl Games

This was the first season that both the Pac-10 and Big Ten conferences allowed their teams to play in bowl games other than the Rose Bowl Game.

Ohio State had beaten UCLA in Los Angeles on October 4, 41-20. When the two teams won the Big 10 and Pac 8 titles, respectively, they met again in the L.A. area, at Pasadena's Rose Bowl. The 11th ranked Bruins (8-2-1) handed the previously undefeated and #1 ranked Buckeyes a 23-10 loss. Texas A&M, which had been ranked #2 in the final regular season poll, faced the unranked (7-4-0) USC Trojans at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, and was shut out, 20-0. The Orange Bowl was a matchup between #3 Oklahoma (10-1) and #5 Michigan (8-1-2), each with only one loss on their records.

Heisman Trophy voting

"The Heisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player"

*Winner: Archie Griffin, Sr. Ohio State RB (1,800 pts)
*2. Chuck Muncie, Sr. California RB (730 pts)

ee also

*1976 Rose Bowl

References