Most Successful Top-Division College Football Programs of the 40's (1941-1950)

Because of World War II, things were pretty unsettled for college football during the 40's. We only ranked teams who competed at the top division of football for at least four years during the decade (which eliminated most of the very successful military teams that sprang up to compete with the major college teams for the duration of the war). According to our analysis, the program of the decade for the years 1941-1950 was the Michigan Wolverines.

The Wolverines fininshed in the Top Twenty every single year and were ranked #1 in our analysis for 1948 and #2 for 1947. Second-place Notre Dame had, in some ways, an even more impressive decade, finishing #1 twice and in the top three five times. However, in 1950, the Fighting Irish finished the season 4-4-1 and fell to #67 in that season's rankings, allowing the Wolverines to pass them in the final decade rankings. Here are the final rankings for the years 1941-1950:

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

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