CollegeFootballDigestfrom CooperSearch

The 1980 season

Georgia finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 12–⁠0 under Vince Dooley, after it beat Notre Dame 17–⁠10 in the Sugar Bowl. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 4 Oklahoma 18, No. 2 Florida State 17 (Jan 1, 1981). Three Division I-A teams finished unbeaten. 37 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: George Rogers, RB, South Carolina.

The Heisman vote: George Rogers 1,128 points, Hugh Green 861
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
George Rogers RB, South Carolina1,128216179122
Hugh Green DE, Pittsburgh86117912574
Herschel Walker RB, Georgia638 *107120122
Mark Herrmann QB, Purdue405587189
Jim McMahon QB, BYU189303235
Art Schlichter QB, Ohio State158183436
Neil Lomax QB, Portland State69101117
Jarvis Redwine RB, Nebraska6441620
Kenny Easley S, UCLA445519
Anthony Carter WR, Michigan344610

First-, second- and third-place votes (3, 2 and 1 points), from the season’s Wikipedia article, as published. * The votes shown don’t add up to the points shown; the source has a typo in one of them.

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1GeorgiaSoutheastern Conference
2PittsburghIndependent
3OklahomaBig Eight
4MichiganBig Ten
5Florida StateIndependent
6AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
7NebraskaBig Eight
8Penn StateIndependent
9Notre DameIndependent
10North CarolinaAtlantic Coast Conference
11USCPac-10
12BYUWestern Athletic Conference
13UCLAPac-10
14BaylorSouthwest Conference
15Ohio StateBig Ten
16WashingtonPac-10
17PurdueBig Ten
18MiamiIndependent
19Mississippi StateSoutheastern Conference
20SMUSouthwest Conference

Biggest upsets

Nov 1, 1980Mississippi State 6, 1Alabama 3
Oct 25, 1980SMU 20, 2Texas 6
Nov 1, 1980Arizona 23, 2UCLA 17
Nov 15, 1980Washington 20, 2USC 10
Sep 27, 1980Stanford 31, 4Oklahoma 14
Nov 8, 1980Oregon 20, 8UCLA 14
Sep 13, 1980Arizona State 29, 9Houston 13
Sep 27, 1980Miami 10, 9Florida State 9
Nov 1, 1980San José State 30, 10Baylor 22
Sep 20, 1980Boston College 30, 11Stanford 13
Dec 6, 198017USC 20, 2Notre Dame 3
Nov 1, 1980Texas Tech 24, 12Texas 20

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 1980, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 3Wk 5Wk 7Wk 9Wk 11Wk 13Wk 15FinalNorth Carolina: Wk 1 No. 14, Wk 2 No. 15, Wk 3 No. 13, Wk 4 No. 14, Wk 5 No. 10, Wk 6 No. 8, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 14, Wk 11 No. 15, Wk 12 No. 15, Wk 13 No. 13, Wk 14 No. 12, Wk 15 No. 13, Final No. 1010 North CarolinaNotre Dame: Wk 1 No. 11, Wk 2 No. 7, Wk 3 No. 8, Wk 4 No. 8, Wk 5 No. 7, Wk 6 No. 7, Wk 7 No. 5, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 1, Wk 11 No. 6, Wk 12 No. 2, Wk 13 No. 2, Wk 14 No. 2, Wk 15 No. 7, Final No. 99 Notre DamePenn State: Wk 1 No. 18, Wk 2 No. 14, Wk 3 No. 12, Wk 4 No. 11, Wk 5 No. 17, Wk 6 No. 14, Wk 7 No. 12, Wk 8 No. 13, Wk 9 No. 13, Wk 10 No. 10, Wk 11 No. 9, Wk 12 No. 7, Wk 13 No. 5, Wk 14 No. 10, Wk 15 No. 10, Final No. 88 Penn StateNebraska: Wk 1 No. 7, Wk 2 No. 8, Wk 3 No. 6, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 10, Wk 7 No. 10, Wk 8 No. 9, Wk 9 No. 8, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 4, Wk 12 No. 4, Wk 13 No. 10, Wk 14 No. 9, Wk 15 No. 8, Final No. 77 NebraskaAlabama: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 No. 2, 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. 6, Wk 11 No. 5, Wk 12 No. 8, Wk 13 No. 9, Wk 14 No. 8, Wk 15 No. 9, Final No. 66 AlabamaFlorida State: Wk 1 No. 13, Wk 2 No. 10, Wk 3 No. 9, Wk 4 No. 9, Wk 5 No. 16, Wk 6 No. 11, Wk 7 No. 7, Wk 8 No. 6, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 3, Wk 11 No. 3, Wk 12 No. 3, Wk 13 No. 3, Wk 14 No. 3, Wk 15 No. 2, Final No. 55 Florida StateMichigan: Wk 1 No. 12, Wk 2 No. 11, Wk 3 No. 14, Wk 4 No. 17, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 unranked, Wk 8 unranked, Wk 9 No. 18, Wk 10 No. 12, Wk 11 No. 11, Wk 12 No. 10, Wk 13 No. 7, Wk 14 No. 6, Wk 15 No. 5, Final No. 44 MichiganOklahoma: Wk 1 No. 5, Wk 2 No. 4, Wk 3 No. 3, Wk 4 No. 4, Wk 5 No. 12, Wk 6 No. 12, Wk 7 No. 17, Wk 8 No. 17, Wk 9 No. 16, Wk 10 No. 11, Wk 11 No. 10, Wk 12 No. 9, Wk 13 No. 6, Wk 14 No. 5, Wk 15 No. 4, Final No. 33 OklahomaPittsburgh: Wk 1 No. 3, Wk 2 No. 3, Wk 3 No. 5, Wk 4 No. 6, Wk 5 No. 6, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 11, Wk 8 No. 12, Wk 9 No. 11, Wk 10 No. 9, Wk 11 No. 8, Wk 12 No. 6, Wk 13 No. 4, Wk 14 No. 4, Wk 15 No. 3, Final No. 22 PittsburghGeorgia: Wk 1 No. 16, Wk 2 No. 12, Wk 3 No. 10, Wk 4 No. 10, Wk 5 No. 8, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 6, Wk 8 No. 5, Wk 9 No. 4, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 1, Wk 12 No. 1, Wk 13 No. 1, Wk 14 No. 1, Wk 15 No. 1, Final No. 11 Georgia
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. GeorgiaNo. 16 → No. 1
  2. BYUunranked → No. 12
  3. UCLAunranked → No. 13
  4. Baylorunranked → No. 14
  5. Penn StateNo. 18 → No. 8

Fell

  1. ArkansasNo. 6 → unranked
  2. HoustonNo. 8 → unranked
  3. TexasNo. 10 → unranked
  4. Ohio StateNo. 1 → No. 15
  5. StanfordNo. 15 → unranked

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

National leaders

Passing yardsJim McMahon (BYU)4,571 yds
Passing touchdownsJim McMahon (BYU)47 TD
Passer ratingJim McMahon (BYU)176.9
Rushing yardsGeorge Rogers (South Carolina)1,781 yds
Rushing touchdownsSammy Winder (Southern Miss)20 TD
Yards per carryBuster Rhymes (Oklahoma)7.7
ReceptionsDave Young (Purdue)70 catches
Receiving yardsRainey Meszaros (Pacific)1,062 yds
Yards per catchDwight Collins (Pittsburgh)27.6
Receiving touchdownsClay Brown (BYU)15 TD
PointsSammy Winder (Southern Miss)120 pts
Points per gameSammy Winder (Southern Miss)10.9
Total offenseJim McMahon (BYU)4,627 yds
Total offense per gameJim McMahon (BYU)385.6
Punt return averageScott Woerner (Georgia)15.7
Kickoff return averageMike Fox (San Diego State)32.8

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
North Carolina
Big Eight
Oklahoma
Big Ten
Michigan
Ivy League
Yale
Mid-American Conference
Central Michigan
Missouri Valley Conference
Tulsa
Pac-10
Washington
Southeastern Conference
Georgia
Southern Conference
Furman
Southland Conference
McNeese
Southwest Conference
Baylor
Western Athletic Conference
BYU

Division I-AA

Big Sky
Boise State
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
South Carolina State
Ohio Valley Conference
Western Kentucky
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Grambling and Jackson State (shared)

Division II and below

Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference
Central Arkansas
California Collegiate Athletic Conference
Cal Poly
Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
North Carolina Central
Gulf South Conference
North Alabama
Lone Star Conference
Texas State
Mid-Continent Conference
Eastern Illinois
North Central Conference
Northern Colorado
Northern California Athletic Conference
UC Davis
South Atlantic Conference
Elon

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 8 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1980 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1980 All-America teams page.

The 1980 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Coaches

Bowls and playoff

Scoreboard
Dec 13, 1980Southern Miss 16, McNeese 14Independence Bowl
Dec 14, 1980Houston 35, Navy 0Garden State Bowl
Dec 19, 198014BYU 46, 19SMU 45Holiday Bowl
Dec 20, 1980Florida 35, Maryland 20Tangerine Bowl
Dec 26, 198010Penn State 31, 11Ohio State 19Fiesta Bowl
Dec 27, 1980Arkansas 34, Tulane 15Hall of Fame Classic
Dec 27, 19808Nebraska 31, 17Mississippi State 17Sun Bowl
Dec 27, 1980Purdue 28, Missouri 25Liberty Bowl
Dec 29, 19803Pittsburgh 37, 18South Carolina 9Gator Bowl
Dec 31, 198013North Carolina 16, Texas 7Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl
Jan 1, 19819Alabama 30, 6Baylor 2Cotton Bowl
Jan 1, 19811Georgia 17, 7Notre Dame 10Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 19815Michigan 23, 16Washington 6Rose Bowl
Jan 1, 19814Oklahoma 18, 2Florida State 17Orange Bowl
Jan 2, 198120Miami 20, Virginia Tech 10Peach Bowl