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The 1979 season

Alabama finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 12–⁠0 under Bear Bryant, after it beat Arkansas 24–⁠9 in the Sugar Bowl. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 3 USC 17, No. 1 Ohio State 16 (Jan 1, 1980). Three Division I-A teams finished unbeaten. 47 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Charles White, RB, USC, who also won the Maxwell and Walter Camp.

The Heisman vote: Charles White 1,695 points, Billy Sims 773
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Charles White RB, USC1,69545314448
Billy Sims RB, Oklahoma77382180167
Marc Wilson QB, BYU58972124125
Art Schlichter QB, Ohio State251195486
Vagas Ferguson RB, Notre Dame162123850
Paul McDonald QB, USC92111823
George Rogers RB, South Carolina8182017
Mark Herrmann QB, Purdue5451215
Ron Simmons MG, Florida State415810
Steadman Shealy QB, Alabama321109

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

The 1979 Michigan team
The 1979 Michigan teamPhoto: Robert Kalmbach, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The 1979 Michigan season →

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
2USCPac-10
3OklahomaBig Eight
4Ohio StateBig Ten
5HoustonSouthwest Conference
6Florida StateIndependent
7PittsburghIndependent
8ArkansasSouthwest Conference
9NebraskaBig Eight
10PurdueBig Ten
11WashingtonPac-10
12TexasSouthwest Conference
13BYUWestern Athletic Conference
14BaylorSouthwest Conference
15North CarolinaAtlantic Coast Conference
16AuburnSoutheastern Conference
17TempleIndependent
18MichiganBig Ten
19IndianaBig Ten
20Penn StateIndependent

Biggest upsets

Sep 15, 1979UCLA 31, 5Purdue 21
Sep 22, 1979Texas A&M 27, 6Penn State 14
Oct 13, 1979Arizona State 12, 6Washington 7
Dec 1, 1979Texas A&M 13, 6Texas 7
Dec 21, 1979Indiana 38, 9BYU 37
Sep 15, 1979Wake Forest 22, 12Georgia 21
Oct 6, 1979Minnesota 31, 12Purdue 14
Sep 8, 1979Tulane 33, 13Stanford 10
Sep 22, 1979North Carolina 17, 13Pittsburgh 7
Oct 13, 1979Georgia 21, 13LSU 14
Nov 10, 1979Tennessee 40, 13Notre Dame 18
Sep 8, 1979BYU 18, 14Texas A&M 17

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 1979, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 3Wk 5Wk 7Wk 9Wk 11Wk 13FinalPurdue: Wk 1 No. 6, Wk 2 No. 5, Wk 3 No. 17, Wk 4 No. 10, Wk 5 No. 12, Wk 6 No. 20, Wk 7 No. 16, Wk 8 No. 16, Wk 9 No. 15, Wk 10 No. 14, Wk 11 No. 12, Wk 12 No. 12, Wk 13 No. 12, Wk 14 No. 12, Final No. 1010 PurdueNebraska: Wk 1 No. 8, Wk 2 No. 8, Wk 3 No. 7, Wk 4 No. 6, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 5, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 2, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 3, Wk 12 No. 3, Wk 13 No. 7, Wk 14 No. 7, Final No. 99 NebraskaArkansas: Wk 1 No. 20, Wk 2 No. 17, Wk 3 No. 15, Wk 4 No. 13, Wk 5 No. 13, Wk 6 No. 12, Wk 7 No. 10, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 9, Wk 10 No. 9, Wk 11 No. 8, Wk 12 No. 7, Wk 13 No. 8, Wk 14 No. 6, Final No. 88 ArkansasPittsburgh: Wk 1 No. 17, Wk 2 No. 16, Wk 3 No. 13, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 No. 17, Wk 8 No. 12, Wk 9 No. 12, Wk 10 No. 12, Wk 11 No. 11, Wk 12 No. 11, Wk 13 No. 11, Wk 14 No. 10, Final No. 77 PittsburghFlorida State: Wk 1 No. 19, Wk 2 No. 18, Wk 3 No. 14, Wk 4 No. 12, Wk 5 No. 9, Wk 6 No. 9, Wk 7 No. 7, Wk 8 No. 8, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 7, Wk 11 No. 5, Wk 12 No. 5, Wk 13 No. 4, Wk 14 No. 4, Final No. 66 Florida StateHouston: Wk 1 No. 16, Wk 2 No. 13, Wk 3 No. 10, Wk 4 No. 8, Wk 5 No. 6, Wk 6 No. 7, Wk 7 No. 5, Wk 8 No. 6, Wk 9 No. 4, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 9, Wk 12 No. 9, Wk 13 No. 10, Wk 14 No. 8, Final No. 55 HoustonOhio State: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 15, Wk 3 No. 16, Wk 4 No. 14, Wk 5 No. 8, Wk 6 No. 8, Wk 7 No. 6, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 3, Wk 11 No. 2, Wk 12 No. 2, Wk 13 No. 3, Wk 14 No. 1, Final No. 44 Ohio StateOklahoma: Wk 1 No. 3, Wk 2 No. 3, Wk 3 No. 3, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 7, Wk 10 No. 6, Wk 11 No. 7, Wk 12 No. 8, Wk 13 No. 5, Wk 14 No. 5, Final No. 33 OklahomaUSC: Wk 1 No. 1, Wk 2 No. 1, Wk 3 No. 1, Wk 4 No. 1, Wk 5 No. 1, Wk 6 No. 1, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 4, Wk 11 No. 4, Wk 12 No. 4, Wk 13 No. 2, Wk 14 No. 3, Final No. 22 USCAlabama: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 No. 2, Wk 3 No. 2, Wk 4 No. 2, Wk 5 No. 2, Wk 6 No. 2, 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. 2, Final No. 11 Alabama
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. Ohio Stateunranked → No. 4
  2. Florida StateNo. 19 → No. 6
  3. BYUunranked → No. 13
  4. ArkansasNo. 20 → No. 8
  5. Baylorunranked → No. 14

Fell

  1. Notre DameNo. 9 → unranked
  2. Michigan StateNo. 10 → unranked
  3. Penn StateNo. 5 → No. 20
  4. GeorgiaNo. 11 → unranked
  5. MissouriNo. 12 → unranked

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

National leaders

Passing yardsMarc Wilson (BYU)3,720 yds
Passing touchdownsMarc Wilson (BYU)29 TD
Passer ratingTurk Schonert (Stanford)163.0
Rushing yardsCharles White (USC)2,050 yds
Rushing touchdownsBilly Sims (Oklahoma)22 TD
Yards per carryGwain Durden (Chattanooga)7.8
ReceptionsDave Petzke (Northern Illinois)91 catches
Receiving yardsDave Petzke (Northern Illinois)1,215 yds
Yards per catchJoe Burke (Chattanooga)28.1
Receiving touchdownsGerald Lucear (Temple)13 TD
PointsBilly Sims (Oklahoma)132 pts
Points per gameBilly Sims (Oklahoma)12.0
Total offenseMarc Wilson (BYU)3,580 yds
Total offense per gameMarc Wilson (BYU)325.5
Punt return averageJeffrey Shockley (Tennessee State)16.9
Kickoff return averageStevie Nelson (Ball State)31.4

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

Conference champions

Division I-A

Atlantic Coast Conference
NC State
Big Eight
Oklahoma
Big Ten
Ohio State
Ivy League
Yale
Mid-American Conference
Central Michigan
Pac-10
USC
Pacific Coast Athletic Association
Utah State
Southeastern Conference
Alabama
Southern Conference
Chattanooga
Southland Conference
McNeese
Southwest Conference
Arkansas and Houston (shared)
Western Athletic Conference
BYU

Division I-AA

Big Sky
Montana State
Mid-Continent Conference
Youngstown State
Ohio Valley Conference
Murray State
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Alcorn State and Grambling (shared)
Yankee Conference
Massachusetts

Division II and below

California Collegiate Athletic Conference
Cal Poly
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Morgan State
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
St. Thomas (MN)
North Central Conference
North Dakota
Northern California Athletic Conference
UC Davis

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

24 playersAll 7 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1979 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1979 All-America teams page.

The 1979 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Coaches

Bowls and playoff

Scoreboard
Dec 15, 1979Syracuse 31, McNeese 7Independence Bowl
Dec 15, 197920Temple 28, California 17Garden State Bowl
Dec 21, 1979Indiana 38, 9BYU 37Holiday Bowl
Dec 22, 1979LSU 34, Wake Forest 10Tangerine Bowl
Dec 22, 1979Penn State 9, 15Tulane 6Liberty Bowl
Dec 22, 197913Washington 14, 11Texas 7Sun Bowl
Dec 25, 197910Pittsburgh 16, Arizona 10Fiesta Bowl
Dec 28, 1979North Carolina 17, 14Michigan 15Gator Bowl
Dec 29, 1979Missouri 24, 16South Carolina 14Hall of Fame Classic
Dec 31, 197919Baylor 24, 18Clemson 18Peach Bowl
Dec 31, 197912Purdue 27, Tennessee 22Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl
Jan 1, 19802Alabama 24, 6Arkansas 9Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 19808Houston 17, 7Nebraska 14Cotton Bowl
Jan 1, 19805Oklahoma 24, 4Florida State 7Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 19803USC 17, 1Ohio State 16Rose Bowl