Most Successful College Football Programs of the 50's (1951-1960)

The San Francisco Dons played their last season of top-division football in 1951. They went a perfect 9-0 and ended up ranked #4 in our rankings for that year. You can't do much better than perfect, and since they didn't play as a top division program for the rest of the decade, they would clearly be the #1 ranked team of the 50's. Except that for our rankings, we have established a rule that in order for a team to be eligible for ranking under a certain decade, they must have competed as a top-division football team for at least three years during that decade. There are few teams that can have that kind of success without continuing to compete - the Dons had to drop football because of financial considerations - but it still seems a bit out-of-order to call a program the most successful program of the decade, when they didn't even have a program for 9 of the 10 years.

So who was the team of the decade for 1951 through 1960? How about the Ole Miss Rebels? The Rebels' did not finish outside the Top 20 at all during the decade. They had six Top Ten finishes and ended up #1 in our rankings for 1959. The Rebels edged out the Oklahoma Sooners, who basically owned college football between 1952 and 1958. never finishing outside the Top Five during those years, but lost the top spot because of a 1960 season in which they finished with only three wins, six losses and a tie and ended up ranked #63 for the year in our rankings. (Some would not even consider 1960 a part of the 50's, in which case Oklahoma would be the team of the decade - having finished #4 in 1950 - but this is how we have chosen to do it consistently for all of our decade rankings.)

Here are the complete rankings:

1. Ole Miss Rebels
2. Oklahoma Sooners
3. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
4. Michigan State Spartans
5. Ohio State Buckeyes
6. UCLA Bruins
7. Navy Midshipmen
8. Auburn Tigers
9. Penn State Nittany Lions
10. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
11. Tennessee Volunteers
12. Florida Gators
13. Texas Longhorns
14. Syracuse Orange
15. TCU Horned Frogs
16. Wisconsin Badgers
17. Army Black Knights
18. Duke Blue Devils
19. Iowa Hawkeyes
20. Kentucky Wildcats
21. Maryland Terrapins
22. Purdue Boilermakers
23. USC Trojans
24. Arkansas Razorbacks
25. Wyoming Cowboys
26. LSU Tigers
27. Michigan Wolverines
28. Colorado Buffaloes
29. Pittsburgh Panthers
30. Baylor Bears
31. Arizona State Sun Devils
32. Rice Owls
33. Miami Hurricanes
34. Illinois Fighting Illini
35. Clemson Tigers
36. Texas A&M Aggies
37. Princeton Tigers
38. Yale Bulldogs
39. Mississippi State Bulldogs
40. SMU Mustangs
41. West Virginia Mountaineers
42. Houston Cougars
43. Georgia Bulldogs
44. Oregon Ducks
45. Air Force Falcons
46. Minnesota Golden Gophers
47. Holy Cross Crusaders
48. South Carolina Gamecocks
49. Utah Utes
50. Washington Huskies
51. Alabama Crimson Tide
52. Missouri Tigers
53. Stanford Cardinal
54. Texas Tech Red Raiders
55. California Golden Bears
56. Vanderbilt Commodores
57. Boston College Eagles
58. Oklahoma State Cowboys
59. Kansas Jayhawks
60. Northwestern Wildcats
61. Washington State Cougars
62. Dartmouth Big Green
63. Pacific Tigers
64. North Texas Mean Green
65. Oregon State Beavers
66. Florida State Seminoles
67. Pennsylvania Relays
68. Tulsa Golden Hurricane
69. Tulane Green Wave
70. North Carolina Tar Heels
71. UTEP Miners
72. Cincinnati Bearcats
73. Boston University Terriers
74. Denver Pioneers
75. VMI Keydets
76. Virginia Tech Hokies
77. Arizona Wildcats
78. Wake Forest Demon Deacons
79. Cornell Big Red
80. Washington & Lee Generals
81. Colorado State Rams
82. Wichita State Shockers
83. New Mexico Lobos
84. Nebraska Cornhuskers
85. Colgate Raiders
86. Utah State Aggies
87. Fordham Rams
88. Harvard Crimson
89. George Washington Colonials
90. Detroit Mercy Titans
91. Hardin-Simmons Cowboys
92. Iowa State Cyclones
93. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
94. Virginia Cavaliers
95. San Jose State Spartans
96. Villanova Wildcats
97. NC State Wolfpack
98. Indiana Hoosiers
99. Brown Bears
100. Marquette Golden Eagles
101. William & Mary Tribe
102. Kansas State Wildcats
103. New Mexico State Aggies
104. West Texas A&M Buffaloes
105. Idaho Vandals
106. Richmond Spiders
107. Citadel Bulldogs
108. BYU Cougars
109. Furman Paladins
110. Drake Bulldogs
111. Columbia Lions
112. Davidson Wildcats
113. Dayton Flyers
114. Montana Grizzlies

Special thanks to James Howell's College Football Scores, which provided the data for our analysis.