CollegeFootballDigestfrom CooperSearch

The 2012 season

Alabama finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 13–⁠1 under Nick Saban, after it beat Notre Dame 42–⁠14 in the BCS National Championship. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 2 Alabama 42, No. 1 Notre Dame 14 (Jan 7, 2013). One FBS team finished unbeaten. 52 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Johnny Manziel, QB, Texas A&M, who also won the Davey O’Brien and Manning.

The Heisman vote: Johnny Manziel 2,029 points, Manti Te’o 1,706
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Johnny Manziel QB, Texas A&M2,029474252103
Manti Te’o LB, Notre Dame1,706 *321309126
Collin Klein QB, Kansas State89460197320
Marqise Lee WR, USC207193384
Braxton Miller QB, Ohio State14432977
Jadeveon Clowney DE, South Carolina6141323
Jordan Lynch QB, Northern Illinois523827
Tavon Austin WR, West Virginia476421
Kenjon Barner RB, Oregon4211215
Jarvis Jones LB, Georgia4111018

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

1Alabama (59)Southeastern Conference
2OregonPac-12
3Ohio StateBig Ten
4Notre DameFBS Independents
5GeorgiaSoutheastern Conference
5Texas A&MSoutheastern Conference
7StanfordPac-12
8South CarolinaSoutheastern Conference
9FloridaSoutheastern Conference
10Florida StateAtlantic Coast Conference
11ClemsonAtlantic Coast Conference
12Kansas StateBig 12
13LouisvilleBig East
14LSUSoutheastern Conference
15OklahomaBig 12
16Utah StateWestern Athletic Conference
17NorthwesternBig Ten
18Boise StateMountain West Conference
19TexasBig 12
20Oregon StatePac-12
21San José StateWestern Athletic Conference
22Northern IllinoisMid-American Conference
23VanderbiltSoutheastern Conference
24MichiganBig Ten
25NebraskaBig Ten

Biggest upsets

Nov 17, 2012Baylor 52, 2Kansas State 24
Oct 6, 2012NC State 17, 3Florida State 16
Oct 13, 2012Texas Tech 49, 5West Virginia 14
Sep 15, 201221Stanford 21, 2USC 14
Oct 27, 2012Washington 20, 7Oregon State 17
Sep 8, 2012UL Monroe 34, 8Arkansas 31
Sep 27, 2012Washington 17, 8Stanford 13
Jan 2, 201322Louisville 33, 4Florida 23
Oct 27, 2012Arizona 39, 10USC 36
Nov 10, 2012Syracuse 45, 11Louisville 26
Nov 10, 201215Texas A&M 29, 1Alabama 24
Sep 8, 2012Oregon State 10, 13Wisconsin 7

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 2012, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 3Wk 5Wk 7Wk 9Wk 11Wk 13Wk 15FinalFlorida State: Wk 1 No. 7, Wk 2 No. 6, Wk 3 No. 5, Wk 4 No. 4, Wk 5 No. 4, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 12, Wk 8 No. 12, Wk 9 No. 11, Wk 10 No. 9, Wk 11 No. 8, Wk 12 No. 10, Wk 13 No. 10, Wk 14 No. 13, Wk 15 No. 13, Final No. 1010 Florida StateFlorida: Wk 1 No. 23, Wk 2 No. 24, Wk 3 No. 18, Wk 4 No. 14, Wk 5 No. 11, Wk 6 No. 10, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 8, Wk 11 No. 7, Wk 12 No. 7, Wk 13 No. 6, Wk 14 No. 5, Wk 15 No. 4, Final No. 99 FloridaSouth Carolina: Wk 1 No. 9, Wk 2 No. 9, Wk 3 No. 8, Wk 4 No. 7, Wk 5 No. 6, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 9, Wk 9 No. 17, Wk 10 No. 11, Wk 11 No. 12, Wk 12 No. 12, Wk 13 No. 13, Wk 14 No. 11, Wk 15 No. 11, Final No. 88 South CarolinaStanford: Wk 1 No. 21, Wk 2 No. 25, Wk 3 No. 21, Wk 4 No. 9, Wk 5 No. 8, Wk 6 No. 18, Wk 7 No. 17, Wk 8 No. 22, Wk 9 No. 19, Wk 10 No. 15, Wk 11 No. 16, Wk 12 No. 14, Wk 13 No. 11, Wk 14 No. 8, Wk 15 No. 8, Final No. 77 StanfordGeorgia: Wk 1 No. 6, Wk 2 No. 7, Wk 3 No. 7, Wk 4 No. 5, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 5, Wk 7 No. 14, Wk 8 No. 13, Wk 9 No. 12, Wk 10 No. 7, Wk 11 No. 5, Wk 12 No. 5, Wk 13 No. 3, Wk 14 No. 3, Wk 15 No. 6, Final No. 55 GeorgiaTexas A&M: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 unranked, Wk 3 unranked, Wk 4 unranked, Wk 5 unranked, Wk 6 unranked, Wk 7 No. 22, Wk 8 No. 20, Wk 9 No. 22, Wk 10 No. 16, Wk 11 No. 15, Wk 12 No. 9, Wk 13 No. 9, Wk 14 No. 10, Wk 15 No. 10, Final No. 55 Texas A&MNotre Dame: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 22, Wk 3 No. 20, Wk 4 No. 11, Wk 5 No. 10, Wk 6 No. 9, Wk 7 No. 7, Wk 8 No. 5, Wk 9 No. 5, Wk 10 No. 4, Wk 11 No. 4, Wk 12 No. 3, Wk 13 No. 1, Wk 14 No. 1, Wk 15 No. 1, Final No. 44 Notre DameOhio State: Wk 1 No. 18, Wk 2 No. 14, Wk 3 No. 12, Wk 4 No. 16, Wk 5 No. 14, Wk 6 No. 12, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 9, Wk 10 No. 6, Wk 11 No. 5, Wk 12 No. 6, Wk 13 No. 4, Wk 14 No. 4, Wk 15 No. 3, Final No. 33 Ohio StateOregon: Wk 1 No. 5, Wk 2 No. 4, Wk 3 No. 4, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 2, 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. 1, Wk 13 No. 5, Wk 14 No. 6, Wk 15 No. 5, Final No. 22 OregonAlabama: 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. 4, Wk 13 No. 2, Wk 14 No. 2, Wk 15 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. Notre Dameunranked → No. 4
  2. Texas A&Munranked → No. 5
  3. Ohio StateNo. 18 → No. 3
  4. StanfordNo. 21 → No. 7
  5. FloridaNo. 23 → No. 9

Fell

  1. USCNo. 1 → unranked
  2. MichiganNo. 8 → No. 24
  3. ArkansasNo. 10 → unranked
  4. West VirginiaNo. 11 → unranked
  5. WisconsinNo. 12 → unranked

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

National leaders

Passing yardsNick Florence (Baylor)4,309 yds
Passing touchdownsGeno Smith (West Virginia)42 TD
Passer ratingA.J. McCarron (Alabama)175.3
Rushing yardsKa’Deem Carey (Arizona)1,929 yds
Rushing touchdownsKenneth Dixon (Louisiana Tech)27 TD
Yards per carryDri Archer (Kent State)9.0
ReceptionsMarqise Lee (USC)118 catches
Receiving yardsTerrance Williams (Baylor)1,832 yds
Yards per catchWillis Wright (Florida International)25.3
Receiving touchdownsStedman Bailey (West Virginia)25 TD
PointsKenneth Dixon (Louisiana Tech)168 pts
Points per gameKenneth Dixon (Louisiana Tech)16.8
Total offenseJohnny Manziel (Texas A&M)5,116 yds
Total offense per gameJohnny Manziel (Texas A&M)393.5
Punt return averageTramaine Thompson (Kansas State)19.8
Kickoff return averageQuincy McDuffie (UCF)34.2

The NCAA’s official leaders; our own top-five lists are hidden for 2012, because our source’s player stats miss players for too many teams that season to rank the nation fairly. From Wikipedia’s yearly NCAA leader lists for passing, rushing, receiving, scoring, total offense and returns.

Conference champions

FBS

Atlantic Coast Conference
Florida State
Big 12
Kansas State and Oklahoma (shared)
Big East
Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers and Syracuse (shared)
Big Ten
Wisconsin
Conference USA
Tulsa
Mid-American Conference
Northern Illinois
Mountain West Conference
Boise State, Fresno State and San Diego State (shared)
Pac-12
Stanford
Southeastern Conference
Alabama
Sun Belt Conference
Arkansas State
Western Athletic Conference
Utah State

FCS

Big Sky
Cal Poly, Eastern Washington and Montana State (shared)
Big South
Coastal Carolina, Liberty and Stony Brook (shared)
Colonial Athletic Association
Richmond, Towson and Villanova (shared)
Ivy League
Pennsylvania
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Bethune-Cookman
Missouri Valley Football Conference
North Dakota State
Northeast Conference
UAlbany and Wagner (shared)
Ohio Valley Conference
Eastern Illinois
Patriot League
Colgate
Pioneer Football League
Butler, Drake and San Diego (shared)
Southern Conference
App State, Georgia Southern and Wofford (shared)
Southland Conference
Central Arkansas and Sam Houston (shared)
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Arkansas–Pine Bluff

Division II and below

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
St. Thomas (MN)
Northeast-10 Conference
New Haven

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

26 playersAll 11 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 2012 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 2012 All-America teams page.

The 2012 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Defensive player of the year

Scholarship and character

Coaches

The champion’s staff

Every title staff

Alabama 57 on the staff list

Support staff (47)

Analysts and quality control

  • Dean Altobelli defensive analyst
  • Russ Callaway defensive analyst
  • Wesley Neighbors defensive analyst
  • Kevin Garver offensive analyst
  • Jules Montinar offensive analyst
  • Jeff Norrid offensive analyst
  • Kelvin Sigler offensive analyst
  • Jody Wright offensive analysts
  • John Wozniak special teams analysts
  • George Helow defensive Intern
  • Wes Neighbors football analyst
  • Joe Pendry special adviser, consultant-NFL liaison (off-field staff)

Strength and conditioning

  • Scott Cochran director of strength and conditioning
  • Terry Jones assistant head strength coach
  • Mark Hocke strength & conditioning
  • Kindal Moorehead strength & conditioning

Operations and recruiting

  • Joe Pannunzio director of football operations
  • Patrick Suddes associate director football operations
  • Paul Gonnella director of player personnel
  • Ashleigh Kimble assistant director of player personnel
  • Candice Rosenkranz recruiting operations coordinator
  • J.R. Sandlin recruiting Intern
  • Glenda Edwards administrative assistant for head coach
  • Kevin Sherrer director of player development
  • Willie Carl Martin director of player development (Academics)
  • Lance Walker Academic Program advisor
  • Thad Turnipseed associate athletic director for special Projects, director of football External Affairs under Nick Saban

Sports medicine and nutrition

  • Jeff Allen assistant athletics director for sports medicine
  • Rodney Brown director of Rehab services
  • Ginger Gilmore athletic trainer
  • Jeremy Gsell athletic trainer
  • Amy Bragg director of performance nutrition

Equipment

  • Jeff Springer athletic equipment director
  • Jeremy “Bear” Jordan assistant equipment manager

Video, communications and other staff

  • Troy Finney senior director of video operations
  • Daniel Lyerly director of video operations for football
  • Mark Perschel assistant director video operations for football
  • Buddy Overstreet director of creative media
  • Cedric Burns coordinator of athletic relations
  • Brandy Moore athletics Intern
  • Jeff Purinton associate athletics director, football communications
  • Kent Gidley athletics director of Photography
  • Roots Woodruff associate director of athletics communications (football credentials)
  • Jon Dever assistant athletics director for Student services (academic support)
  • Josh Maxson assistant director of athletics communications (football)
  • Jessica Pare athletics communications (football game notes)
  • Doug Walker associate athletics director for communications

The staff as the school listed it that season, roles in the source’s words (students and graduate assistants left out). Names link to coach pages where we have one, else to Wikipedia. Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages.

Final BCS standings

1Notre Dame12–⁠0
2Alabama12–⁠1
3Florida11–⁠1
4Oregon11–⁠1
5Kansas State11–⁠1
6Stanford11–⁠2
7Georgia11–⁠2
8LSU10–⁠2
9Texas A&M10–⁠2
10South Carolina10–⁠2
11Oklahoma10–⁠2
12Florida State11–⁠2
13Oregon State9–⁠3
14Clemson10–⁠2
15Northern Illinois12–⁠1
16Nebraska10–⁠3
17UCLA9–⁠4
18Michigan8–⁠4
19Boise State10–⁠2
20Northwestern9–⁠3
21Louisville10–⁠2
22Utah State10–⁠2
23Texas8–⁠4
24San José State10–⁠2
25Kent State11–⁠2

The last standings of the season, released December 2: the Bowl Championship Series’ formula of polls and computer rankings that matched No. 1 and No. 2 in the title game, 1998–⁠2013. From Wikipedia’s season rankings article (CC BY-SA); records as it lists them.

Bowls and playoff

Scoreboard
Dec 15, 2012Arizona 49, Nevada 48New Mexico Bowl
Dec 15, 201218Utah State 41, Toledo 15Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Dec 20, 2012BYU 23, San Diego State 6Poinsettia Bowl
Dec 21, 2012UCF 38, Ball State 17Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg
Dec 22, 2012Louisiana 43, East Carolina 34New Orleans Bowl
Dec 22, 201220Boise State 28, Washington 26Maaco Bowl Las Vegas
Dec 24, 2012SMU 43, Fresno State 10Hawai’i Bowl
Dec 26, 2012Central Michigan 24, Western Kentucky 21Little Caesars Bowl
Dec 27, 201224San José State 29, Bowling Green 20Military Bowl
Dec 27, 2012Cincinnati 48, Duke 34Belk Bowl
Dec 27, 2012Baylor 49, 17UCLA 26Holiday Bowl
Dec 28, 2012Ohio 45, UL Monroe 14Independence Bowl
Dec 28, 2012Virginia Tech 13, Rutgers 10Russell Athletic Bowl
Dec 28, 2012Texas Tech 34, Minnesota 31Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas
Dec 29, 2012Rice 33, Air Force 14Armed Forces Bowl
Dec 29, 2012Syracuse 38, West Virginia 14Pinstripe Bowl
Dec 29, 2012Arizona State 62, Navy 28Fight Hunger Bowl
Dec 29, 2012Texas 31, 15Oregon State 27Alamo Bowl
Dec 29, 2012Michigan State 17, TCU 16Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
Dec 31, 2012Vanderbilt 38, NC State 24Music City Bowl
Dec 31, 2012Georgia Tech 21, USC 7Sun Bowl
Dec 31, 2012Tulsa 31, Iowa State 17Liberty Bowl
Dec 31, 201214Clemson 25, 9LSU 24Chick-fil-A Bowl
Jan 1, 201321Northwestern 34, Mississippi State 20Gator Bowl
Jan 1, 2013Oklahoma State 58, Purdue 14Heart of Dallas Bowl
Jan 1, 201311South Carolina 33, 19Michigan 28Outback Bowl
Jan 1, 20136Georgia 45, 23Nebraska 31Capital One Bowl
Jan 1, 20138Stanford 20, Wisconsin 14Rose Bowl
Jan 1, 201313Florida State 31, 16Northern Illinois 10Orange Bowl
Jan 2, 201322Louisville 33, 4Florida 23Sugar Bowl
Jan 3, 20135Oregon 35, 7Kansas State 17Fiesta Bowl
Jan 4, 201310Texas A&M 41, 12Oklahoma 13Cotton Bowl
Jan 5, 2013Ole Miss 38, Pittsburgh 17BBVA Compass Bowl
Jan 6, 2013Arkansas State 17, 25Kent State 13GoDaddy.com Bowl
Jan 7, 20132Alabama 42, 1Notre Dame 14BCS National Championship

Rule book changes

Every rule book

The 2012–⁠13 NCAA rule book against the one before: 3 new, 6 changed and 2 retitled articles.

Rule 1: The Game, Field, Players and Equipment

  • Changed Rule 1-4-1 Recommended Numbering (Players and Playing Equipment)

Rule 2: Definitions

  • Changed Rule 2-20-1 (Penalty)

Rule 3: Periods, Time Factors and Substitutions

  • New Rule 3-3-9 Helmet Comes Off--Timeout (Timeouts: Starting and Stopping the Clock)
  • Changed Rule 3-4-4 (Delays/Clock Tactics)

Rule 6: Kicks

  • Retitled Rule 6-1-7 Ball Dead in End Zone (Free Kicks)
  • New Rule 6-1-11 Player Out Of Bounds (Free Kicks)
  • Changed Rule 6-2-2 Receiving Team (Free Kick Out of Bounds)

Rule 8: Scoring

  • Changed Rule 8-3-1 How Scored (Try Down)
  • Changed Rule 8-6-2 Snap After a Touchback (Touchback)

Rule 9: Conduct of Players and Others Subject to the Rules

  • New Rule 9-1-17 Continued Participation Without Helmet (Personal Fouls)
  • Retitled Rule 9-4-2 Batting a Backward Pass in Flight (Batting and Kicking)

Only the first sentence of each article is compared, so a change deeper in an article (most penalty clauses, the overtime procedure) doesn’t show here, and a change that shows may be rewording. No rule text is kept: only numbers and headings. Rule books: NCAA, via Pierce’s provision dataset (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0).