The 1960 college football season was the 92nd season of
intercollegiate football in the United States. Five teams have a claim to the 1960 major college national championship:
Minnesota (8–2) tied for the
Big Ten championship and was ranked No. 1 in the final
AP and
UPI polls. Minnesota lost to
Washington in the
Rose Bowl, but the final polls were issued prior to the bowl games, leaving intact Minnesota's claim as AP and UPI national champion.
Missouri lost their final game of the regular season 7–23 to
rivalKansas on November 19, but on December 8 the Big Eight faculty committee ruled a Kansas player ineligible and ordered the Jayhawks to forfeit their last two victories. Missouri, therefore, officially ended the season 11–0 rather than 10–1 after defeating No. 5
Navy in the
Orange Bowl. They were recognized by the
Poling System as the national champion.
Iowa (8–1) tied for the Big Ten championship, was ranked No. 2 in the final UPI poll, and was recognized as national champion in the
Litkenhous Ratings.
Washington (10–1) was ranked No. 5 in the final UPI poll. After the final polls, Washington defeated No. 1 Minnesota in the Rose Bowl and was declared national champion by the
Helms Athletic Foundation
Other major college teams compiling undefeated and untied records were
Yale (9–0, AP No. 14) and
New Mexico State (11–0, AP No. 17, top scoring offense [37.4 points per game]). At the small college level,
Ohio (10–0) was recognized as the small college national champion by both the AP and UPI;
Southern (9–1) was recognized as the
black college national champion; and
Lenoir Rhyne (11–0–1) defeated
Humboldt State in the Holiday Bowl to win the
NAIA national championship.
After the
Big Seven Conference, still officially known as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, added Oklahoma State, the conference's unofficial name became the Big Eight Conference. This name would remain until the league's dissolution in 1995.
In the preseason poll released on September 12, the defending champion
Syracuse Orangemen and 1959's second-place finisher, the
Mississippi Rebels, were No. 1 and No. 2, with 26 and 21 first place votes respectively. They were followed by the No. 3
Washington Huskies from Seattle, the No. 4
Texas Longhorns and the No. 5
Illinois Fighting Illini.[2] As the regular season progressed, a new poll would be issued on the Monday following the weekend's games.
The Big Ten schools would not kick off until September 24. On September 17, No. 2 Mississippi beat the
Houston Cougars in Houston, 42–0. No. 3 Washington crushed the visiting
College of the Pacific, 55–6 (the school became the University of the Pacific in 1961). No. 4 Texas opened its season with a loss at home to Nebraska, falling 14–13. Ole Miss was voted No. 1, followed by No. 2 Syracuse, No. 3 Washington, and No. 4 Illinois. Previously unranked Alabama, which had beaten No. 13 Georgia 21–6 in
Birmingham, was fifth.
September 24 No. 1 Mississippi beat
Kentucky in Memphis, 21–6. No. 2 Syracuse opened its season with a 55–7 win over
Boston University. No. 3 Washington won at home again, beating the
University of Idaho Vandals 41–12. No. 4 Illinois beat
Indiana 17–6. In Lincoln, Minnesota beat No. 12 Nebraska 26–14. No. 5 Alabama was tied 6–6 by
Tulane in New Orleans. Mississippi, Syracuse, Washington, and Illinois remained as the top four in the next poll, but
Kansas, which had crushed
Kansas State 41–0 on the road, rose from No. 7 to No. 5. Minnesota entered the poll at the No. 18 spot.
October
October 1No. 1 Mississippi played its second straight game in Memphis, Tennessee, beating Memphis State 31–20.
No. 2 Syracuse defeated
No. 5 Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, 14–7, to reclaim the top spot.
No. 3 Washington narrowly lost 15–14 at home to the No. 17 Navy Midshipmen.
No. 4 Illinois beat West Virginia 33–0. No. 8 Iowa beat No. 6 Northwestern 42-0 on the road. No. 9 Ohio State shut out visiting USC 20-0. No. 18 Minnesota beat Indiana 42–0. The following poll featured No. 1 Syracuse and No. 2 Mississippi, followed by three
Big Ten teams: No. 3 Iowa, No. 4 Illinois, and No. 5 Ohio State. Also from the Big Ten, Purdue was 7th, Michigan State 13th, and Minnesota 14th.
October 8No. 1 Syracuse struggled to beat Holy Cross 15–6 in Worcester, Mass.
No. 2 Mississippi won in their third consecutive trip to Tennessee, beating Vanderbilt 26–0 in Nashville.
No. 3 Iowa beat No. 13 Michigan State in East Lansing, 27–15.
No. 4 Illinois lost in Champaign, Ill., to
No. 5 Ohio State, 34–7.
No. 6 Navy, which had beaten SMU 26–7 at a game in the naval port of
Norfolk, Virginia, came in at fifth. No. 14 Minnesota beat Northwestern 7–0. The next poll was: No. 1 Mississippi, No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Syracuse, and No. 5 Navy. Minnesota reached the Top Ten at No. 10.
On October 15,
No. 1 Mississippi beat Tulane in New Orleans 26–13, and
No. 2 Iowa beat No. 12 Wisconsin at home, 28–21.
No. 3 Ohio State lost a close one at Purdue 24–21.
No. 4 Syracuse beat No. 20 Penn State 21–15, and
No. 5 Navy beat the Air Force Academy 35–3 in
Baltimore. No. 6
Missouri reached 5–0 after a 45–0 win over Kansas State at Manhattan, KS. No. 10 Minnesota beat Illinois 21–10. The Iowa Hawkeyes narrowly topped the next poll, with 23 first place votes to 22 for Ole Miss, and only two points to separate No. 1 and No. 2 (442–440). They were followed by No. 3 Syracuse, No. 4 Navy, and No. 5
Missouri. Minnesota rose from 10th to 6th.
October 22No. 1 Iowa beat No. 10 Purdue 21–14 and
No. 2 Mississippi edged No. 14 Arkansas 10–7 in Little Rock.
No. 3 Syracuse won at West Virginia 45–0, while
No. 4 Navy beat the Ivy League's Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, 27–0.
No. 5 Missouri, which had held all of its opponents to single digits, continued winning with a 34–8 thrashing of Iowa State. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, No. 6 Minnesota beat Michigan 10–0. Iowa tightened its hold on No. 1 in the next poll, with 34 of the 48 votes for first place. The next week's Top 20 had only nineteen teams, with Kansas at No. 19 with 2 points. The top five remained the same.
October 29No. 1 Iowa beat No. 19 Kansas 21–7.
No. 2 Mississippi played its 7th game of the season, but its first at home in Oxford, and was tied 6–6 by the LSU Tigers, the only team which had defeated them in 1959.
No. 3 Syracuse lost to Pittsburgh 10–0. In
Philadelphia,
No. 4 Navy beat Notre Dame 14–7.
No. 5 Missouri crushed Nebraska in Lincoln, 28–0, to go 7–0–0. At this time, they had outscored their opponents 210–31. No. 6 Minnesota beat Kansas State 48–7.
No. 8 Ohio State defeated No. 10 Michigan State in East Lansing, 21–10. The next poll again featured three Big Ten teams in the top five: No. 1 Iowa, No. 2 Missouri, No. 3 Minnesota, No. 4 Navy, and No. 5 Ohio State.
November
November 5 The battle between the Big Ten's two 6–0–0 teams took place in Minneapolis, where
No. 1 Iowa lost to
No. 3 Minnesota, 27–10.
No. 2 Missouri beat No. 18 Colorado at home 16–6.
No. 4 Navy lost in Durham, North Carolina, to No. 13 Duke 19–10.
No. 5 Ohio State handled Indiana 36–7. Having dethroned the No. 1 team, the Minnesota Gophers took the top spot in the poll released on November 7, 1960, with 40 of the 47 voters voting them as No. 1.
No. 6 Mississippi, still unbeaten, returned to the Top Five after a 45–0 win over the University of Chattanooga. The top five was No. 1 Minnesota, No. 2 Missouri, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Mississippi, and No. 5 Iowa.
November 12No. 1 Minnesota lost to Purdue, 23–14.
No. 2 Missouri gave up more than a touchdown for the first time, but still won 41–19 at Oklahoma.
No. 3 Ohio State lost at
No. 5 Iowa, 35–12.
No. 4 Mississippi beat No. 14 Tennessee in Knoxville, 24–3.
No. 6 Washington, which had beaten California 27–7, moved into the Top Five. The Missouri Tigers captured the top spot in the next poll, which was No. 1 Missouri, No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Mississippi, No. 4 Minnesota, and No. 5 Washington.
November 19
Unbeaten
No. 1 Missouri, with only a home game left between it and the national championship, lost to visiting Kansas, 23–7, but the game was later forfeited to Missouri due to the Jayhawks' use of an ineligible player.[3][4]No. 2 Iowa defeated Notre Dame in South Bend, 28–0.
No. 3 Mississippi was idle.
No. 4 Minnesota closed its season with a 26–7 win at Wisconsin. They tied with Iowa atop the Big Ten standings and earned a
Rose Bowl berth by virtue of their head-to-head victory over the Hawkeyes. Their opponent would be
No. 5 Washington, which played its season ender against 4–4–1 Washington State in Spokane and won only by a 2–point conversion, 8–7. In the penultimate poll, released November 21, No. 1 Minnesota, No. 2 Iowa, and No. 3 Mississippi had 13½, 17½ and 13 first place votes respectively (voters were allowed to split their choices for No. 1), followed by No. 4 Washington and No. 5 Missouri.
November 26No. 3 Mississippi finished its season unbeaten (9–0–1) with a 35–9 win at home over Mississippi State, earning the SEC title and a spot in the
Sugar Bowl. All of the other Top Five teams had finished their schedules, but No. 7 Navy moved up in the final poll with a 17–12 victory against Army. The Midshipmen would face off against Missouri in the Orange Bowl.
With both the AP and UPI
finishing their voting before the bowl games, the championship was determined in December. The AP writers divided among No. 1 Minnesota (8–1), No. 2 Mississippi (9–0–1), and No. 3 Iowa (8–1), and some voters split their choices. As such, the Minnesota Gophers received 17½ votes for No. 1, Mississippi got 16, and Iowa 12½. Minnesota had 433½ poll points, ahead of 411 for Ole Miss and 407½ for Iowa. The next tier of teams all had one loss and also were closely packed together: No. 4 Navy had 262 poll points, No. 5 Missouri had 253, and No. 6 Washington had 250.[5] The UPI Coaches Poll placed the teams in a slightly different order, but also settled on Minnesota as the No. 1 choice.
Because the final Associated Press and United Press International polls were conducted after the final game of the regular season, Minnesota is considered the national champion for 1960 despite their loss to Washington in the
Rose Bowl. After the bowl games, the Helms Athletic Foundation recognized Washington as national champion,[6] while the
Football Writers Association of America crowned Mississippi as national champion. Had the polls been taken after the bowl games, Missouri would likely also have been a contender for the national championship, as the Tigers beat Navy in the Orange Bowl and their 10–1 record was improved to 11–0 when the Kansas game was declared a forfeit.
The MAC's Ohio Bobcats were also crowned the world small college football champions in 1960, after an undefeated season.
December
December 8
The Big Eight faculty committee, meeting in Kansas City, ruled
Kansas halfback
Bert Coan ineligible and ordered the Jayhawks to forfeit their last two victories on November 12 and 19.[4] The reversal brought Missouri's record to 11–0 instead of 10–1.
† Kansas' conference victories against Colorado and Missouri were forfeited by Big Eight sanctions, though both are recognized as Kansas victories by Kansas and the NCAA.[8]
In 1960, both
United Press International (UPI) and the
Associated Press (AP) conducted "small college" polls. This was the first year that the AP (polling a panel of eight "selectors" from NCAA districts) conducted their poll, and the third year that UPI (polling a panel of coaches) conducted their poll. Both wire services named the
Ohio Bobcats – who had a record of 10–0, registered five shutouts, and held all their opponents to eight points or less[12] – as the number one team.[13][14]
United Press International (coaches) final poll
Published on November 25[15]
Because the
final polls came out in November, the outcome of the post-season bowl games had no effect on the championships already awarded by the AP and UPI polls. As winner of the Big Ten title, No. 1 Minnesota went to the Rose Bowl to face Washington, which had the best record of the five teams in the AAWU (today's Pac-12). No. 2 Mississippi, as winner of the SEC, was invited to the Sugar Bowl to face unranked Rice University. The Big Ten did not allow its teams to play in a postseason game other than the Rose Bowl, so No. 3 Iowa stayed home. Although Washington upset Minnesota 17–7 in Pasadena, the post-season loss did not affect the Gophers' championship as determined by the AP and UPI. Washington also claims the 1960 National Championship.
Lenoir Rhyne, who lost the 1959 championship game, defeated
Humboldt State in the championship game, 15–14, to win their first NAIA national title.[17]
For the year 1960, the NCAA recognizes six published All-American teams as "official" designations for purposes of its consensus determinations. The following chart identifies the NCAA-recognized consensus All-Americans and displays which first-team designations they received.
^Jenkins, Dan (September 11, 1967),
"This Year The Fight Will Be in the Open", Sports Illustrated, 27 (11), Chicago, IL: Time Inc.: 33, retrieved March 16, 2016, In 1948, the Helms Athletic Foundation decided to name a national champion … and name past champions. The director of Helms since its beginning, Bill Schroeder, did the work, and he now heads the committee that selects No. 1 after the bowl games. 'A committee of one – me,' he says.
^Morey, Earl (December 9, 1960).
"Big Eight voted 5-3 to strip KU's title in Bert Coan action". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. (Kansas). p. 1. The Big Eight faculty committee, meeting in Kansas City, found that Kansas violated league rules in recruiting Coan and order the Jayhawks to forfeit their last two victories-over Colorado and Missouri.
The 1960 college football season was the 92nd season of
intercollegiate football in the United States. Five teams have a claim to the 1960 major college national championship:
Minnesota (8–2) tied for the
Big Ten championship and was ranked No. 1 in the final
AP and
UPI polls. Minnesota lost to
Washington in the
Rose Bowl, but the final polls were issued prior to the bowl games, leaving intact Minnesota's claim as AP and UPI national champion.
Missouri lost their final game of the regular season 7–23 to
rivalKansas on November 19, but on December 8 the Big Eight faculty committee ruled a Kansas player ineligible and ordered the Jayhawks to forfeit their last two victories. Missouri, therefore, officially ended the season 11–0 rather than 10–1 after defeating No. 5
Navy in the
Orange Bowl. They were recognized by the
Poling System as the national champion.
Iowa (8–1) tied for the Big Ten championship, was ranked No. 2 in the final UPI poll, and was recognized as national champion in the
Litkenhous Ratings.
Washington (10–1) was ranked No. 5 in the final UPI poll. After the final polls, Washington defeated No. 1 Minnesota in the Rose Bowl and was declared national champion by the
Helms Athletic Foundation
Other major college teams compiling undefeated and untied records were
Yale (9–0, AP No. 14) and
New Mexico State (11–0, AP No. 17, top scoring offense [37.4 points per game]). At the small college level,
Ohio (10–0) was recognized as the small college national champion by both the AP and UPI;
Southern (9–1) was recognized as the
black college national champion; and
Lenoir Rhyne (11–0–1) defeated
Humboldt State in the Holiday Bowl to win the
NAIA national championship.
After the
Big Seven Conference, still officially known as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, added Oklahoma State, the conference's unofficial name became the Big Eight Conference. This name would remain until the league's dissolution in 1995.
In the preseason poll released on September 12, the defending champion
Syracuse Orangemen and 1959's second-place finisher, the
Mississippi Rebels, were No. 1 and No. 2, with 26 and 21 first place votes respectively. They were followed by the No. 3
Washington Huskies from Seattle, the No. 4
Texas Longhorns and the No. 5
Illinois Fighting Illini.[2] As the regular season progressed, a new poll would be issued on the Monday following the weekend's games.
The Big Ten schools would not kick off until September 24. On September 17, No. 2 Mississippi beat the
Houston Cougars in Houston, 42–0. No. 3 Washington crushed the visiting
College of the Pacific, 55–6 (the school became the University of the Pacific in 1961). No. 4 Texas opened its season with a loss at home to Nebraska, falling 14–13. Ole Miss was voted No. 1, followed by No. 2 Syracuse, No. 3 Washington, and No. 4 Illinois. Previously unranked Alabama, which had beaten No. 13 Georgia 21–6 in
Birmingham, was fifth.
September 24 No. 1 Mississippi beat
Kentucky in Memphis, 21–6. No. 2 Syracuse opened its season with a 55–7 win over
Boston University. No. 3 Washington won at home again, beating the
University of Idaho Vandals 41–12. No. 4 Illinois beat
Indiana 17–6. In Lincoln, Minnesota beat No. 12 Nebraska 26–14. No. 5 Alabama was tied 6–6 by
Tulane in New Orleans. Mississippi, Syracuse, Washington, and Illinois remained as the top four in the next poll, but
Kansas, which had crushed
Kansas State 41–0 on the road, rose from No. 7 to No. 5. Minnesota entered the poll at the No. 18 spot.
October
October 1No. 1 Mississippi played its second straight game in Memphis, Tennessee, beating Memphis State 31–20.
No. 2 Syracuse defeated
No. 5 Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, 14–7, to reclaim the top spot.
No. 3 Washington narrowly lost 15–14 at home to the No. 17 Navy Midshipmen.
No. 4 Illinois beat West Virginia 33–0. No. 8 Iowa beat No. 6 Northwestern 42-0 on the road. No. 9 Ohio State shut out visiting USC 20-0. No. 18 Minnesota beat Indiana 42–0. The following poll featured No. 1 Syracuse and No. 2 Mississippi, followed by three
Big Ten teams: No. 3 Iowa, No. 4 Illinois, and No. 5 Ohio State. Also from the Big Ten, Purdue was 7th, Michigan State 13th, and Minnesota 14th.
October 8No. 1 Syracuse struggled to beat Holy Cross 15–6 in Worcester, Mass.
No. 2 Mississippi won in their third consecutive trip to Tennessee, beating Vanderbilt 26–0 in Nashville.
No. 3 Iowa beat No. 13 Michigan State in East Lansing, 27–15.
No. 4 Illinois lost in Champaign, Ill., to
No. 5 Ohio State, 34–7.
No. 6 Navy, which had beaten SMU 26–7 at a game in the naval port of
Norfolk, Virginia, came in at fifth. No. 14 Minnesota beat Northwestern 7–0. The next poll was: No. 1 Mississippi, No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Syracuse, and No. 5 Navy. Minnesota reached the Top Ten at No. 10.
On October 15,
No. 1 Mississippi beat Tulane in New Orleans 26–13, and
No. 2 Iowa beat No. 12 Wisconsin at home, 28–21.
No. 3 Ohio State lost a close one at Purdue 24–21.
No. 4 Syracuse beat No. 20 Penn State 21–15, and
No. 5 Navy beat the Air Force Academy 35–3 in
Baltimore. No. 6
Missouri reached 5–0 after a 45–0 win over Kansas State at Manhattan, KS. No. 10 Minnesota beat Illinois 21–10. The Iowa Hawkeyes narrowly topped the next poll, with 23 first place votes to 22 for Ole Miss, and only two points to separate No. 1 and No. 2 (442–440). They were followed by No. 3 Syracuse, No. 4 Navy, and No. 5
Missouri. Minnesota rose from 10th to 6th.
October 22No. 1 Iowa beat No. 10 Purdue 21–14 and
No. 2 Mississippi edged No. 14 Arkansas 10–7 in Little Rock.
No. 3 Syracuse won at West Virginia 45–0, while
No. 4 Navy beat the Ivy League's Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, 27–0.
No. 5 Missouri, which had held all of its opponents to single digits, continued winning with a 34–8 thrashing of Iowa State. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, No. 6 Minnesota beat Michigan 10–0. Iowa tightened its hold on No. 1 in the next poll, with 34 of the 48 votes for first place. The next week's Top 20 had only nineteen teams, with Kansas at No. 19 with 2 points. The top five remained the same.
October 29No. 1 Iowa beat No. 19 Kansas 21–7.
No. 2 Mississippi played its 7th game of the season, but its first at home in Oxford, and was tied 6–6 by the LSU Tigers, the only team which had defeated them in 1959.
No. 3 Syracuse lost to Pittsburgh 10–0. In
Philadelphia,
No. 4 Navy beat Notre Dame 14–7.
No. 5 Missouri crushed Nebraska in Lincoln, 28–0, to go 7–0–0. At this time, they had outscored their opponents 210–31. No. 6 Minnesota beat Kansas State 48–7.
No. 8 Ohio State defeated No. 10 Michigan State in East Lansing, 21–10. The next poll again featured three Big Ten teams in the top five: No. 1 Iowa, No. 2 Missouri, No. 3 Minnesota, No. 4 Navy, and No. 5 Ohio State.
November
November 5 The battle between the Big Ten's two 6–0–0 teams took place in Minneapolis, where
No. 1 Iowa lost to
No. 3 Minnesota, 27–10.
No. 2 Missouri beat No. 18 Colorado at home 16–6.
No. 4 Navy lost in Durham, North Carolina, to No. 13 Duke 19–10.
No. 5 Ohio State handled Indiana 36–7. Having dethroned the No. 1 team, the Minnesota Gophers took the top spot in the poll released on November 7, 1960, with 40 of the 47 voters voting them as No. 1.
No. 6 Mississippi, still unbeaten, returned to the Top Five after a 45–0 win over the University of Chattanooga. The top five was No. 1 Minnesota, No. 2 Missouri, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Mississippi, and No. 5 Iowa.
November 12No. 1 Minnesota lost to Purdue, 23–14.
No. 2 Missouri gave up more than a touchdown for the first time, but still won 41–19 at Oklahoma.
No. 3 Ohio State lost at
No. 5 Iowa, 35–12.
No. 4 Mississippi beat No. 14 Tennessee in Knoxville, 24–3.
No. 6 Washington, which had beaten California 27–7, moved into the Top Five. The Missouri Tigers captured the top spot in the next poll, which was No. 1 Missouri, No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Mississippi, No. 4 Minnesota, and No. 5 Washington.
November 19
Unbeaten
No. 1 Missouri, with only a home game left between it and the national championship, lost to visiting Kansas, 23–7, but the game was later forfeited to Missouri due to the Jayhawks' use of an ineligible player.[3][4]No. 2 Iowa defeated Notre Dame in South Bend, 28–0.
No. 3 Mississippi was idle.
No. 4 Minnesota closed its season with a 26–7 win at Wisconsin. They tied with Iowa atop the Big Ten standings and earned a
Rose Bowl berth by virtue of their head-to-head victory over the Hawkeyes. Their opponent would be
No. 5 Washington, which played its season ender against 4–4–1 Washington State in Spokane and won only by a 2–point conversion, 8–7. In the penultimate poll, released November 21, No. 1 Minnesota, No. 2 Iowa, and No. 3 Mississippi had 13½, 17½ and 13 first place votes respectively (voters were allowed to split their choices for No. 1), followed by No. 4 Washington and No. 5 Missouri.
November 26No. 3 Mississippi finished its season unbeaten (9–0–1) with a 35–9 win at home over Mississippi State, earning the SEC title and a spot in the
Sugar Bowl. All of the other Top Five teams had finished their schedules, but No. 7 Navy moved up in the final poll with a 17–12 victory against Army. The Midshipmen would face off against Missouri in the Orange Bowl.
With both the AP and UPI
finishing their voting before the bowl games, the championship was determined in December. The AP writers divided among No. 1 Minnesota (8–1), No. 2 Mississippi (9–0–1), and No. 3 Iowa (8–1), and some voters split their choices. As such, the Minnesota Gophers received 17½ votes for No. 1, Mississippi got 16, and Iowa 12½. Minnesota had 433½ poll points, ahead of 411 for Ole Miss and 407½ for Iowa. The next tier of teams all had one loss and also were closely packed together: No. 4 Navy had 262 poll points, No. 5 Missouri had 253, and No. 6 Washington had 250.[5] The UPI Coaches Poll placed the teams in a slightly different order, but also settled on Minnesota as the No. 1 choice.
Because the final Associated Press and United Press International polls were conducted after the final game of the regular season, Minnesota is considered the national champion for 1960 despite their loss to Washington in the
Rose Bowl. After the bowl games, the Helms Athletic Foundation recognized Washington as national champion,[6] while the
Football Writers Association of America crowned Mississippi as national champion. Had the polls been taken after the bowl games, Missouri would likely also have been a contender for the national championship, as the Tigers beat Navy in the Orange Bowl and their 10–1 record was improved to 11–0 when the Kansas game was declared a forfeit.
The MAC's Ohio Bobcats were also crowned the world small college football champions in 1960, after an undefeated season.
December
December 8
The Big Eight faculty committee, meeting in Kansas City, ruled
Kansas halfback
Bert Coan ineligible and ordered the Jayhawks to forfeit their last two victories on November 12 and 19.[4] The reversal brought Missouri's record to 11–0 instead of 10–1.
† Kansas' conference victories against Colorado and Missouri were forfeited by Big Eight sanctions, though both are recognized as Kansas victories by Kansas and the NCAA.[8]
In 1960, both
United Press International (UPI) and the
Associated Press (AP) conducted "small college" polls. This was the first year that the AP (polling a panel of eight "selectors" from NCAA districts) conducted their poll, and the third year that UPI (polling a panel of coaches) conducted their poll. Both wire services named the
Ohio Bobcats – who had a record of 10–0, registered five shutouts, and held all their opponents to eight points or less[12] – as the number one team.[13][14]
United Press International (coaches) final poll
Published on November 25[15]
Because the
final polls came out in November, the outcome of the post-season bowl games had no effect on the championships already awarded by the AP and UPI polls. As winner of the Big Ten title, No. 1 Minnesota went to the Rose Bowl to face Washington, which had the best record of the five teams in the AAWU (today's Pac-12). No. 2 Mississippi, as winner of the SEC, was invited to the Sugar Bowl to face unranked Rice University. The Big Ten did not allow its teams to play in a postseason game other than the Rose Bowl, so No. 3 Iowa stayed home. Although Washington upset Minnesota 17–7 in Pasadena, the post-season loss did not affect the Gophers' championship as determined by the AP and UPI. Washington also claims the 1960 National Championship.
Lenoir Rhyne, who lost the 1959 championship game, defeated
Humboldt State in the championship game, 15–14, to win their first NAIA national title.[17]
For the year 1960, the NCAA recognizes six published All-American teams as "official" designations for purposes of its consensus determinations. The following chart identifies the NCAA-recognized consensus All-Americans and displays which first-team designations they received.
^Jenkins, Dan (September 11, 1967),
"This Year The Fight Will Be in the Open", Sports Illustrated, 27 (11), Chicago, IL: Time Inc.: 33, retrieved March 16, 2016, In 1948, the Helms Athletic Foundation decided to name a national champion … and name past champions. The director of Helms since its beginning, Bill Schroeder, did the work, and he now heads the committee that selects No. 1 after the bowl games. 'A committee of one – me,' he says.
^Morey, Earl (December 9, 1960).
"Big Eight voted 5-3 to strip KU's title in Bert Coan action". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. (Kansas). p. 1. The Big Eight faculty committee, meeting in Kansas City, found that Kansas violated league rules in recruiting Coan and order the Jayhawks to forfeit their last two victories-over Colorado and Missouri.