CollegeFootballDigestfrom CooperSearch

The 1971 season

Nebraska finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 13–⁠0 under Bob Devaney, after it beat Alabama 38–⁠6 in the Orange Bowl. The Game of the Century: No. 1 Nebraska 35, No. 2 Oklahoma 31 (Nov 25, 1971). 31 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Pat Sullivan, QB, Auburn, who also won the Walter Camp.

The Heisman vote: Pat Sullivan 1,597 points, Ed Marinaro 1,445
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Pat Sullivan QB, Auburn1,597355
Ed Marinaro RB, Cornell1,445295
Greg Pruitt RB, Oklahoma58664
Johnny Musso RB, Alabama36523
Lydell Mitchell RB, Penn State25129
Jack Mildren QB, Oklahoma20835
Jerry Tagge QB, Nebraska16823
Chuck Ealey QB, Toledo13731
Walt Patulski DE, Notre Dame1218
Eric Allen RB, Michigan State10915

First-, second- and third-place votes (3, 2 and 1 points), from the season’s Wikipedia article, as published.

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1NebraskaBig Eight
2OklahomaBig Eight
3ColoradoBig Eight
4AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
5Penn StateIndependent
6MichiganBig Ten
7GeorgiaSoutheastern Conference
8Arizona StateWestern Athletic Conference
9TennesseeSoutheastern Conference
10StanfordPac-8
11LSUSoutheastern Conference
12AuburnSoutheastern Conference
13Notre DameIndependent
14ToledoMid-American Conference
15Ole MissSoutheastern Conference
16ArkansasSouthwest Conference
17HoustonIndependent
18TexasSouthwest Conference
19WashingtonPac-8
20USCPac-8

Biggest upsets

Oct 23, 1971USC 28, 6Notre Dame 14
Sep 25, 1971Tulsa 21, 7Arkansas 20
Oct 30, 1971Texas A&M 17, 8Arkansas 9
Sep 11, 1971Colorado 31, 9LSU 21
Nov 6, 1971Michigan State 17, 9Ohio State 10
Oct 23, 1971Washington State 24, 10Stanford 23
Nov 13, 1971San José State 13, 10Stanford 12
Oct 16, 1971Oregon State 24, 11Arizona State 18
Oct 30, 1971Ole Miss 24, 11LSU 22
Oct 9, 1971Clemson 3, 14Duke 0
Jan 1, 197216Stanford 13, 4Michigan 12
Sep 10, 197116Alabama 17, 5USC 10

Ranked teams that lost as the betting favorite, the longest shots first, with the winner’s odds on the line; before lines are on file, ranked teams beaten by unranked or lower-ranked ones.

The AP poll, week by week

The AP poll’s top 10 in 1971, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 3Wk 5Wk 7Wk 9Wk 11Wk 13FinalStanford: Wk 1 No. 19, Wk 2 No. 13, Wk 3 No. 13, Wk 4 No. 10, Wk 5 No. 19, Wk 6 No. 15, Wk 7 No. 10, Wk 8 No. 17, Wk 9 No. 12, Wk 10 No. 10, Wk 11 No. 18, Wk 12 No. 16, Wk 13 No. 16, Wk 14 No. 16, Final No. 1010 StanfordTennessee: Wk 1 No. 8, Wk 2 No. 8, Wk 3 No. 9, Wk 4 No. 12, Wk 5 No. 13, Wk 6 No. 14, Wk 7 No. 18, Wk 8 No. 16, Wk 9 No. 11, Wk 10 No. 11, Wk 11 No. 11, Wk 12 No. 11, Wk 13 No. 12, Wk 14 No. 9, Final No. 99 TennesseeArizona State: Wk 1 No. 14, Wk 2 No. 16, Wk 3 No. 15, Wk 4 No. 13, Wk 5 No. 12, Wk 6 No. 11, Wk 7 No. 14, Wk 8 No. 13, Wk 9 No. 10, Wk 10 No. 9, Wk 11 No. 9, Wk 12 No. 9, Wk 13 No. 9, Wk 14 No. 8, Final No. 88 Arizona StateGeorgia: Wk 1 No. 18, Wk 2 No. 11, Wk 3 No. 14, Wk 4 No. 11, Wk 5 No. 10, Wk 6 No. 8, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 7, Wk 10 No. 7, Wk 11 No. 8, Wk 12 No. 7, Wk 13 No. 7, Wk 14 No. 6, Final No. 77 GeorgiaMichigan: Wk 1 No. 4, Wk 2 No. 4, Wk 3 No. 4, Wk 4 No. 2, Wk 5 No. 2, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 3, Wk 11 No. 3, Wk 12 No. 4, Wk 13 No. 4, Wk 14 No. 4, Final No. 66 MichiganPenn State: Wk 1 No. 12, Wk 2 No. 14, Wk 3 No. 12, Wk 4 No. 9, Wk 5 No. 9, Wk 6 No. 9, Wk 7 No. 7, Wk 8 No. 6, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 6, Wk 12 No. 6, Wk 13 No. 5, Wk 14 No. 10, Final No. 55 Penn StateAlabama: Wk 1 No. 16, Wk 2 No. 9, Wk 3 No. 8, Wk 4 No. 7, Wk 5 No. 6, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 4, Wk 10 No. 4, Wk 11 No. 4, Wk 12 No. 3, Wk 13 No. 2, Wk 14 No. 2, Final No. 44 AlabamaColorado: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 12, Wk 3 No. 10, Wk 4 No. 6, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 11, Wk 8 No. 9, Wk 9 No. 13, Wk 10 No. 12, Wk 11 No. 10, Wk 12 No. 8, Wk 13 No. 8, Wk 14 No. 7, Final No. 33 ColoradoOklahoma: Wk 1 No. 10, Wk 2 No. 10, Wk 3 No. 11, Wk 4 No. 8, Wk 5 No. 8, Wk 6 No. 2, Wk 7 No. 2, Wk 8 No. 2, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 2, Wk 12 No. 2, Wk 13 No. 3, Wk 14 No. 3, Final No. 22 OklahomaNebraska: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 No. 1, Wk 3 No. 1, Wk 4 No. 1, Wk 5 No. 1, Wk 6 No. 1, Wk 7 No. 1, Wk 8 No. 1, Wk 9 No. 1, Wk 10 No. 1, Wk 11 No. 1, Wk 12 No. 1, Wk 13 No. 1, Wk 14 No. 1, Final No. 11 Nebraska
The top 10 of the final AP poll and where each stood every week before it; a gap is a week out of the Top 25. Hover or tab to a line for its weeks.

Climbed

  1. Coloradounranked → No. 3
  2. AlabamaNo. 16 → No. 4
  3. Toledounranked → No. 14
  4. GeorgiaNo. 18 → No. 7
  5. Ole Missunranked → No. 15

Fell

  1. TexasNo. 3 → No. 18
  2. USCNo. 5 → No. 20
  3. Ohio StateNo. 11 → unranked
  4. SyracuseNo. 13 → unranked
  5. Notre DameNo. 1 → No. 13

From the season’s first AP poll (the preseason poll) to the final one.

National leaders

Passing yardsGary Huff (Florida State)2,736 yds
Passing touchdownsGary Huff (Florida State)23 TD
Passer ratingJerry Tagge (Nebraska)150.9
Rushing yardsEd Marinaro (Cornell)1,881 yds
Rushing touchdownsTerry Metcalf (Long Beach State)28 TD
Yards per carryGreg Pruitt (Oklahoma)9.0
ReceptionsTom Reynolds (San Diego State)67 catches
Receiving yardsBrian Baima (The Citadel)1,230 yds
Yards per catchTom Scott (Washington)23.4
Receiving touchdownsMike Siani (Villanova)14 TD
PointsLydell Mitchell (Penn State)174 pts
Points per gameEd Marinaro (Cornell)16.44
Total offenseDon Bunce (Stanford)2,805 yds
Total offense per gameGary Huff (Florida State)241.2
Punt return averageGolden Richards (BYU)18.9
Kickoff return averagePaul Loughran (Temple)33.5

The NCAA’s official leaders. From Wikipedia’s yearly NCAA leader lists for passing, rushing, receiving, scoring, total offense and returns.

Conference champions

Major college

Atlantic Coast Conference
North Carolina
Big Eight
Nebraska
Big Sky
Idaho
Big Ten
Michigan
Ivy League
Cornell and Dartmouth (shared)
Mid-American Conference
Toledo
Missouri Valley Conference
Memphis
Ohio Valley Conference
Western Kentucky
Pac-8
Stanford
Southeastern Conference
Alabama
Southern Conference
Richmond
Southwest Conference
Texas
Western Athletic Conference
Arizona State
Yankee Conference
Massachusetts and UConn (shared)

Small college

California Collegiate Athletic Conference
Cal Poly
Conference Carolinas
Elon
Gulf South Conference
Troy
Lone Star Conference
Texas State
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Morgan State
North Central Conference
North Dakota
Northern California Athletic Conference
UC Davis
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
Northern Colorado
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Alabama A&M
Southland Conference
Lamar and Louisiana Tech (shared)
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Grambling

From each program’s Wikipedia article, with the conference’s name that season. Titles come from the articles of today’s FBS and FCS programs, so a title shared with a school outside them lists only one champion.

Consensus All-Americans

22 playersAll 9 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1971 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1971 All-America teams page.

The 1971 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Coaches

Bowls and playoff

Scoreboard
Dec 18, 197111LSU 33, Iowa State 15Sun Bowl
Dec 18, 1971Memphis 28, San José State 9Pasadena Bowl
Dec 20, 19719Tennessee 14, 18Arkansas 13Liberty Bowl
Dec 27, 19718Arizona State 45, Florida State 38Fiesta Bowl
Dec 28, 197114Toledo 28, Richmond 3Tangerine Bowl
Dec 30, 197117Ole Miss 41, Georgia Tech 18Peach Bowl
Dec 31, 19717Colorado 29, 15Houston 17Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl
Dec 31, 19716Georgia 7, North Carolina 3Gator Bowl
Jan 1, 19721Nebraska 38, 2Alabama 6Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 19723Oklahoma 40, 5Auburn 22Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 197210Penn State 30, 12Texas 6Cotton Bowl
Jan 1, 197216Stanford 13, 4Michigan 12Rose Bowl