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The 1981 season

Clemson finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 12–⁠0 under Danny Ford, after it beat Nebraska 22–⁠15 in the Orange Bowl. SMU also claims the national title. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 1 USC 28, No. 2 Oklahoma 24 (Sep 26, 1981). Two Division I-A teams finished unbeaten. 48 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Marcus Allen, RB, USC, who also won the Maxwell and Walter Camp.

The Heisman vote: Marcus Allen 1,797 points, Herschel Walker 1,199
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Marcus Allen RB, USC1,79744120466
Herschel Walker RB, Georgia1,199152278187
Jim McMahon QB, BYU70691131171
Dan Marino QB, Pittsburgh2561651106
Art Schlichter QB, Ohio State149211556
Darrin Nelson RB, Stanford487713
Anthony Carter WR, Michigan4221114
Kenneth Sims DT, Texas343613
Reggie Collier QB, Southern Miss302612
Rich Diana RB, Yale233210

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

The 1981 Duke team
The 1981 Duke team: A page from The Chronicle, the student newspaper of Duke UniversityPhoto: The Chronicle, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The 1981 Duke season →

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1ClemsonAtlantic Coast Conference
2TexasSouthwest Conference
3Penn StateIndependent
4PittsburghIndependent
5SMUSouthwest Conference
6GeorgiaSoutheastern Conference
7AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
8MiamiIndependent
9North CarolinaAtlantic Coast Conference
10WashingtonPac-10
11NebraskaBig Eight
12MichiganBig Ten
13BYUWestern Athletic Conference
14USCPac-10
15Ohio StateBig Ten
16Arizona StatePac-10
17West VirginiaIndependent
18IowaBig Ten
19MissouriBig Eight
20OklahomaBig Eight

Biggest upsets

Sep 12, 1981Wisconsin 21, 1Michigan 14
Oct 10, 1981Arizona 13, 1USC 10
Oct 17, 1981Arkansas 42, 1Texas 11
Oct 31, 1981Miami 17, 1Penn State 14
Sep 12, 1981Georgia Tech 24, 2Alabama 21
Oct 24, 1981South Carolina 31, 3North Carolina 13
Nov 14, 1981Washington 13, 3USC 3
Sep 19, 1981Clemson 13, 4Georgia 3
Sep 26, 1981Iowa 20, 6UCLA 7
Oct 24, 1981Minnesota 12, 6Iowa 10
Sep 12, 1981Iowa 10, 7Nebraska 7
Oct 3, 1981Florida State 36, 7Ohio State 27

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 1981, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 3Wk 5Wk 7Wk 9Wk 11Wk 13FinalWashington: Wk 1 No. 15, Wk 2 No. 17, Wk 3 No. 15, Wk 4 No. 16, Wk 5 No. 12, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 unranked, Wk 8 unranked, Wk 9 No. 18, Wk 10 No. 16, Wk 11 unranked, Wk 12 No. 17, Wk 13 No. 12, Wk 14 No. 12, Final No. 1010 WashingtonNorth Carolina: Wk 1 No. 12, Wk 2 No. 13, Wk 3 No. 10, Wk 4 No. 9, Wk 5 No. 6, Wk 6 No. 5, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 9, Wk 10 No. 8, Wk 11 No. 13, Wk 12 No. 12, Wk 13 No. 10, Wk 14 No. 11, Final No. 99 North CarolinaMiami: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 16, Wk 3 No. 16, Wk 4 No. 14, Wk 5 No. 17, Wk 6 No. 16, Wk 7 No. 13, Wk 8 unranked, Wk 9 unranked, Wk 10 No. 13, Wk 11 No. 12, Wk 12 No. 11, Wk 13 No. 9, Wk 14 No. 9, Final No. 88 MiamiAlabama: Wk 1 No. 4, Wk 2 No. 2, Wk 3 No. 12, Wk 4 No. 10, Wk 5 No. 11, Wk 6 No. 7, Wk 7 No. 15, Wk 8 No. 11, Wk 9 No. 8, Wk 10 No. 7, Wk 11 No. 6, Wk 12 No. 4, Wk 13 No. 4, Wk 14 No. 3, Final No. 77 AlabamaGeorgia: Wk 1 No. 10, Wk 2 No. 6, Wk 3 No. 4, Wk 4 No. 17, Wk 5 No. 13, Wk 6 No. 11, Wk 7 No. 9, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 4, Wk 11 No. 4, Wk 12 No. 3, Wk 13 No. 3, Wk 14 No. 2, Final No. 66 GeorgiaSMU: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 No. 20, Wk 5 No. 15, Wk 6 No. 14, Wk 7 No. 10, Wk 8 No. 8, Wk 9 No. 13, Wk 10 No. 10, Wk 11 No. 8, Wk 12 No. 6, Wk 13 No. 6, Wk 14 No. 5, Final No. 55 SMUPittsburgh: Wk 1 No. 8, Wk 2 No. 10, Wk 3 No. 7, Wk 4 No. 5, Wk 5 No. 4, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 2, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 1, Wk 11 No. 1, Wk 12 No. 1, Wk 13 No. 1, Wk 14 No. 10, Final No. 44 PittsburghPenn State: Wk 1 No. 7, Wk 2 No. 9, Wk 3 No. 5, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 2, Wk 6 No. 2, Wk 7 No. 2, Wk 8 No. 1, Wk 9 No. 1, Wk 10 No. 6, Wk 11 No. 5, Wk 12 No. 13, Wk 13 No. 11, Wk 14 No. 7, Final No. 33 Penn StateTexas: Wk 1 No. 9, Wk 2 No. 8, Wk 3 No. 6, Wk 4 No. 4, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 1, Wk 8 No. 10, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 10, Wk 12 No. 8, Wk 13 No. 7, Wk 14 No. 6, Final No. 22 TexasClemson: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 No. 19, Wk 5 No. 14, Wk 6 No. 9, Wk 7 No. 6, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 2, Wk 12 No. 2, Wk 13 No. 2, Wk 14 No. 1, Final No. 11 Clemson
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. Clemsonunranked → No. 1
  2. SMUunranked → No. 5
  3. Miamiunranked → No. 8
  4. West Virginiaunranked → No. 17
  5. Iowaunranked → No. 18

Fell

  1. Notre DameNo. 3 → unranked
  2. OklahomaNo. 2 → No. 20
  3. UCLANo. 13 → unranked
  4. Mississippi StateNo. 14 → unranked
  5. MichiganNo. 1 → No. 12

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

National leaders

Passing yardsSam King (UNLV)3,778 yds
Passing touchdownsDan Marino (Pittsburgh)34 TD
Passer ratingJim McMahon (BYU)155.0
Rushing yardsMarcus Allen (USC)2,427 yds
Rushing touchdownsMarcus Allen (USC)22 TD
Yards per carryTim Martin (App State)6.8
ReceptionsTim Kearse (San José State)71 catches
Receiving yardsJim Sandusky (UNLV)1,346 yds
Yards per catchMike Whitwell (Texas A&M)27.1
Receiving touchdownsJulius Dawkins (Pittsburgh)16 TD
PointsMarcus Allen (USC)120 pts
Points per gameMarcus Allen (USC)12.5
Total offenseSam King (UNLV)3,562 yds
Total offense per gameJim McMahon (BYU)345.8
Punt return averageGlen Young (Mississippi State)16.2
Kickoff return averageFrank Minnifield 30.4

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
Clemson
Big Eight
Nebraska
Big Ten
Iowa and Ohio State (shared)
Ivy League
Dartmouth and Yale (shared)
Mid-American Conference
Toledo
Missouri Valley Conference
Drake and Tulsa (shared)
Pac-10
Washington
Pacific Coast Athletic Association
San José State
Southeastern Conference
Alabama and Georgia (shared)
Southern Conference
Furman
Southwest Conference
SMU
Western Athletic Conference
BYU

Division I-AA

Big Sky
Idaho State
Mid-Continent Conference
Eastern Illinois, Northern Iowa and Western Illinois (shared)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
South Carolina State
Ohio Valley Conference
Eastern Kentucky
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Jackson State
Yankee Conference
Massachusetts and Rhode Island (shared)

Division II and below

Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference
Central Arkansas
Gulf South Conference
Jacksonville State
Lone Star Conference
Texas State
North Central Conference
North Dakota State
Northern California Athletic Conference
UC Davis
South Atlantic Conference
Elon
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Alabama A&M

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 9 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 1981 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 1981 All-America teams page.

The 1981 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Coaches

Bowls and playoff

Scoreboard
Dec 12, 1981Texas A&M 33, Oklahoma State 16Independence Bowl
Dec 13, 1981Tennessee 28, Wisconsin 21Garden State Bowl
Dec 18, 198114BYU 38, 20Washington State 36Holiday Bowl
Dec 19, 1981Missouri 19, 18Southern Miss 17Tangerine Bowl
Dec 19, 1981Toledo 27, San José State 25California Bowl
Dec 26, 1981Oklahoma 40, Houston 14Sun Bowl
Dec 28, 198111North Carolina 31, Arkansas 27Gator Bowl
Dec 30, 198115Ohio State 31, Navy 28Liberty Bowl
Dec 31, 198116Michigan 33, 19UCLA 14Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl
Dec 31, 1981Mississippi State 10, Kansas 0Hall of Fame Classic
Dec 31, 1981West Virginia 26, Florida 6Peach Bowl
Jan 1, 19821Clemson 22, 4Nebraska 15Orange Bowl
Jan 1, 19827Penn State 26, 8USC 10Fiesta Bowl
Jan 1, 198210Pittsburgh 24, 2Georgia 20Sugar Bowl
Jan 1, 19826Texas 14, 3Alabama 12Cotton Bowl
Jan 1, 198212Washington 28, 13Iowa 0Rose Bowl