1953 college football rankings

Two human polls comprised the 1953 college football rankings. Unlike most sports, college football's governing body, the NCAA, does not bestow a national championship, instead that title is bestowed by one or more different polling agencies. There are two main weekly polls that begin in the preseason—the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll.

Legend   Increase in ranking   Decrease in ranking   Not ranked previous week   National champion   Win–loss record   Number of first place votes Tied with team above or below also with this symbol

AP Poll The final AP Poll was released on November 30, at the end of the 1953 regular season, weeks before the major bowls. The AP would not release a post-bowl season final poll regularly until 1968.

United Press Coaches Poll The final United Press (UP) Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, on November 30. Maryland received 20 of the 35 first-place votes; Notre Dame received thirteen, and one each went to Michigan State and UCLA. Ranking Team Conference Bowl 1 Maryland ACC Lost Orange, 0–7 2 Notre Dame Independentnone 3 Michigan State Big Ten Won Rose, 28–20 4 UCLA Pacific Coast Lost Rose, 20–28 5 Oklahoma Big Seven Won Orange, 7–0 6 Rice Southwest Won Cotton, 28–6 7 Illinois Big Tennone 8 Texas Southwest 9 Georgia Tech SEC Won Sugar, 42–19 10 Iowa Big Ten none 11 Alabama SEC Lost Cotton, 6–26 12 Texas Tech Border Won Gator, 35–13 13 West Virginia Southern Lost Sugar, 19–42 14 Wisconsin Big Tennone 15 Kentucky SEC 16 Army Independent 17 Stanford Pacific Coast 18 Duke ACC 19 Michigan Big Ten 20 Ohio State Big Ten Prior to the 1975 season, the Big Ten and Pacific Coast (later AAWU / Pac-8) conferences allowed only one postseason participant each, for the Rose Bowl.

Litkenhous Ratings The Litkenhous Ratings released in mid-December 1953 provided numerical rankings to over 683 college football programs. The top 120 ranked teams were:

1. Notre Dame (9–0–1) - 110.4 2. Maryland (10–1) - 108.5 3. Oklahoma (9-1-1) - 107.3 4. Rice (9–2) - 106.8 5. Michigan State (9–1) - 103.9 6. Wisconsin (6–2–1) - 103.7 7. Iowa (5–3–1) - 103.4 8. UCLA (8–2) - 102.8 9. Illinois (7–1–1) - 102.5 10. Texas Tech (11–1) - 101.7 11. Ole Miss (7–2–1) - 100.9 12. Michigan (6–3) - 100.3 13. Texas (7–3) - 99.4 14. Georgia Tech (9–2–1) - 98.9 15. Kentucky (7–2–1) - 98.2 16. Auburn (7–3–1) - 97.7 17. Mississippi State (5–2–3) - 97.1 18. Baylor (7–3) - 97.1 19. Ohio State (6–3) - 96.0 20. West Virginia (8–2) - 94.9 21. SMU (5-5) - 94.7 22. Minnesota (4–4–1) - 94.5 23. LSU (5–3–3) - 94.3 24. Marquette (6–3–1) - 94.0 25. Florida (3–5–2) - 93.9 26. Stanford (6–3–1) - 93.8 27. Penn State (6–3) - 93.6 28. Duke (7–2–1) - 93.5 29. California (4–4–2) - 92.2 30. Cincinnati (9–1) - 92.2 31. Alabama (6–3–3) - 92.1 32. Miami (FL) (4–5) - 92.1 33. Army (7–1–1) - 91.9 34. USC (6–3–1) - 91.9 35. Syracuse (5–3–1) - 91.8 36. Tennessee (6–4–1) - 91.3 37. Missouri (6–4) - 90.2 38. Navy (4–3–2) - 89.6 39. Purdue (2–7) - 89.5 40. TCU (3–7) - 89.5 41. Arkansas (3–7) - 89.2 42. Texas A&M (4–5–1) - 89.0 43. Oklahoma A&M (7–3) - 88.2 44. Houston (4–4–1) - 88.1 45. Northwestern (3–6) - 88.1 46. Kansas State (6–3–1) - 87.8 47. Miami (OH) (7–1–1) - 87.4 48. Pittsburgh (3–5–1) - 86.7 49. Detroit (6–4) - 85.6 50. Penn (3–5–1) - 85.2 51. Fordham (4–5) - 85.0 52. Colorado (6–4) - 84.2 53. Boston University (5–3–1) - 83.8 54. South Carolina (7–3) - 83.8 55. East Texas (10–0–1) - 83.6 56. Indiana (2–7) - 82.9 57. Mississippi Southern (9–2) - 82.6 58. Arizona (4–5–1) - 82.5 59. Utah (8–2) - 82.2 60. Nebraska (3–6–1) - 81.7 61. Oregon (4–5–1) - 81.2 62. Washington (3–6–1) - 81.2 63. Wyoming (5–4–1) - 81.2 64. Georgia (3–8) - 81.1 65. Tulane (1–8–1) - 80.6 66. Holy Cross (5-5) - 80.4 67. Kansas (2–8) - 79.9 68. North Carolina (4–6) - 79.6 69. Pacific (4–4–2) - 77.6 70. Texas Western (8–2) - 77.5 . Trinity (TX) (8–1) - 76.4 71. Boston College (5–3–1) - 76.1 . Wichita (4–4–1) - 75.9 72. Utah State (8–3) - 75.6 73. Clemson (3–5–1) - 75.3 . Cal. P.N. - 75.2 . Colorado A&M (4–5) - 75.2 74. Villanova (4–6) - 74.6 75. Washington State (4–6) - 74.6 . Tyler JC - 74.4 76. Harvard (6–2) - 73.8 77. Hardin–Simmons (6–5) - 73.6 . Pasadena CC - 73.5 . North Texas (3–6–1) - 73.1 78. Vanderbilt (3–7) - 72.8 79. Cornell (4–3–2) - 72.6 80. Tulsa (3–7) - 72.2 81. Delaware (7–1) - 72.0 82. Arizona State (4–5–1) - 71.7 83. Yale (5–2–2) - 70.9 84. New Mexico (5–3–1) - 70.7 85. Ohio (6–2–1) - 70.7 86. Colgate (3–4–2) - 70.6 87. Oregon State (3–6) - 69.9 88. Columbia (4–5) - 69.8 . Sam Houston (9–1) - 69.8 . Memphis State (6–4) - 69.6 89. Iowa State (2–7) - 69.5 90. Chattanooga (3–7) - 69.3 91. Dartmouth (2–7) - 69.3 92. Wake Forest 93. Arkansas State 94. College of Idaho 95. Princeton 96. Valparaiso 97. Rutgers 98. Maine 99. Butler 100. Virginia 101. Wabash 102. NC State 103. New Hampshire 104. Idaho 105. 106. North Dakota 107. Ball State 108. Indiana State 109. Carnegie Tech 110. Evansville

HBCU rankings The Pittsburgh Courier, a leading African American newspaper, ranked the top 1953 teams from historically black colleges and universities in an era when college football was largely segregated. The rankings were published on December 19:

Prairie View A&M (12–0) Florida A&M (10–1) Tennessee A&I (8–0–1) Lincoln (MO) (8–0–1) Maryland State (7–1) Southern (9–2) North Carolina College (5–3) Virginia State (5–3–1) Morgan State (6–2) Texas Southern (7–3) West Virginia State (6–3) Grambling (8–2)

The Associated Negro Press also published rankings on December 25:

Prairie View A&M (12–0) Tennessee A&I (8–0–1) Lincoln (MO) (8–0–1) Florida A&M (10–1) Southern (9–2) Maryland State (7–1) North Carolina College (5–3) Virginia State (5–3–1) Texas Southern (7–3) South Carolina State (6–3)

See also

1953 College Football All-America Team

References