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The Power Four => Big Ten => Topic started by: medinabuckeye1 on February 03, 2026, 07:11:47 PM

Title: 90 Years of AP Polls, the second 15: 1951-1965:
Post by: medinabuckeye1 on February 03, 2026, 07:11:47 PM
All data from College Poll Archive (https://www.collegepollarchive.com/football/index.cfm).  

I've broken the 90 years of AP Polls into six 15 year segments and I plan to make a post like this each week for six weeks, one for each segment.  Here is the previous post for the first 15 years of AP Polls (https://www.cfb51.com/big-ten/90-years-of-ap-polls-the-first-15-1936-1950/).  Each week I'll list the top 25 programs of that segment as measured by total appearances, top-10 appearances, and top-5 appearances.  For this week I'm showing the top-25 from 1951-1965 along with all of the teams that are top-25 for the first 30 years and for the entire 90 years just so you can see how good or bad they were in each segment.  Here goes:

AP Poll Appearances:
(https://i.imgur.com/g7MOO1C.png)
Specific note for this particular segment:  The AP Poll included 20 teams from 1936-1960 then only 10 from 1061-1967 then back to 20 and eventually 25.  It matters here because five of the current 15 years (1961-1965 out of 1951-1965) only had 10 teams.  

AP Top-10 appearances:
(https://i.imgur.com/5Nts51x.png)

AP Top-5 Appearances:
(https://i.imgur.com/75waqFW.png)
Title: Re: 90 Years of AP Polls, the second 15: 1951-1965:
Post by: ManHawk on February 04, 2026, 11:59:14 AM
I would have expected Minnesota to be higher, at least top 10.  I thought they still had some good teams in the 50's and early 60"s.  Guess they were not as good as I thought.
Title: Re: 90 Years of AP Polls, the second 15: 1951-1965:
Post by: medinabuckeye1 on February 04, 2026, 12:40:57 PM
Quote from: ManHawk on Today at 11:59:14 AM
I would have expected Minnesota to be higher, at least top 10.  I thought they still had some good teams in the 50's and early 60"s.  Guess they were not as good as I thought.
They claim a NC in 1960 but it is a dubious claim by modern standards and it was kinda out-of-the-blue. They really never recovered after WWII. Until the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, (https://youtu.be/V8lT1o0sDwI?si=ILgiU6g7mYm8oeo2) Minnesota was a top notch program, since then they haven't been. 
Title: Re: 90 Years of AP Polls, the second 15: 1951-1965:
Post by: Brutus Buckeye on February 04, 2026, 12:58:48 PM
I didn't know that Army and Navy hung on that long after WWII. 
Title: Re: 90 Years of AP Polls, the second 15: 1951-1965:
Post by: Brutus Buckeye on February 04, 2026, 12:59:37 PM
Also wouldn't have expected MSU and Ole Miss to be 1 and 2. 
Title: Re: 90 Years of AP Polls, the second 15: 1951-1965:
Post by: medinabuckeye1 on February 04, 2026, 03:32:53 PM
Quote from: ManHawk on Today at 11:59:14 AM
I would have expected Minnesota to be higher, at least top 10.  I thought they still had some good teams in the 50's and early 60"s.  Guess they were not as good as I thought.
More detail on the Gophers:
The peaks of Minnesota football were the early 1900s and the mid-30s through 1941.  Here are their League titles:
They won seven league titles in 12 years from 1900-1911.  That is REALLY good.  Then from 1933-1941 the Gophers won seven league titles in 9 years only missing in 1936 and 1939.  They also won three of the first six AP National Championships in 1936, 1940, and 1941.  

1960 was very different.  They hadn't won a league title in almost 20 years (1941) and hadn't had a winning season nor finished ranked since 1956.  Then they out-of-the-blue won the league and national titles in 1960.  Minnesota had an unusually easy league schedule in 1960.  The two teams that they missed finished 3rd and 4th in the league.  They did beat second place Iowa but that was their only win over a team that finished above .500 in the league.  Also, there was no post-bowl AP Poll in 1960 so Minnesota won the NC on the basis of the regular season (where they had a really easy schedule) and didn't get dinged for losing the Rose Bowl.  

On the Rose Bowl loss, it was really unusual for a Big Ten team to lose in those days.  The BigTen/Pac contract started for the 1947 Rose Bowl (1946 season) and the Big Ten won the first six straight with Ohio State and Northwestern each winning one while Michigan and Illinois each won two.  Wisconsin lost the 1953 (52 season) and 1960 (59 season) Rose Bowls but the Big Ten won the other 12 from 1947 (46 season) through 1960 (59 season) then Minnesota lost.  Big Ten Rose Bowl records from 1947 (46 season) through 1961 (60 season):

Minnesota's other post-WWII league title came in the goofy season of 1967.  The league title was shared by Indiana, Minnesota, and Purdue.  That was the most recent title for Purdue until 2000 and for Indiana until a few weeks ago.  It is STILL the most recent league title for the Gophers.  

Here are the league standings from 1967 with who they lost to and who they missed for the top teams:

It should be noted that in the games among the top-3:

IMHO the best teams were:


Much like 1961, Minnesota's league title in 1967 was completely out-of-the-blue.  That isn't the same thing as winning a slew of league titles and NC's like they did in the late 30s and early 40s.  
Title: Re: 90 Years of AP Polls, the second 15: 1951-1965:
Post by: medinabuckeye1 on February 04, 2026, 05:16:28 PM
Quote from: Brutus Buckeye on Today at 12:59:37 PM
Also wouldn't have expected MSU and Ole Miss to be 1 and 2.
For both of them 1951-1965 roughly coincides with their one glorious era.  Appearance rankings:
The other programs with the most appearances from 1951-1965 are mostly all also near the top for the whole 90 years:

Outside of that one era, both programs are borderline top-25 at best but from 51-65 they were dynamite.