1945 college football season

1945 NCAA football season
Total # of teams	101
First AP #1 of season	Army Black Knights
Number of bowls	8
Champions	Army Black Knights
Heisman	Doc Blanchard, Army FB
College football seasons « 1944 1946 »

The 1945 NCAA football season finished with the undefeated United States Military Academy, more popularly known as “Army”, being the unanimous choice for the nation’s number one team by the 116 voters in the Associated Press writers’ poll. The runner up was the undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide, followed by the United States Naval Academy, more popularly known as “Navy”.

During the 20th century, the NCAA had no playoff for the college football teams that would later be described as "Division I-A". The NCAA did recognize a national champion based upon the final results of the Associated Press poll of sportswriters (the UPI Coaches Poll would not start until 1950). The extent of that recognition came in the form of acknowledgment in the annual NCAA Football Guide of the "unofficial" national champions.

Several new bowl games would debut at the end of the 1945 season, among them the Gator Bowl.

Conference and program changes

School	1944 Conference	1945 Conference
Wichita Shockers	Independent	Missouri Valley

September

The Associated Press did not poll the writers until the third week of the season. Among the teams that had been ranked highest at the end of 1944, the two service academies—Army and Navy, as well as Ohio State, USC and Michigan. Among the service teams that had ranked high in 1944, Randolph Field, Bainbridge Naval, and Iowa Pre-flight no longer played against college teams. Some service teams still remained in place, even after the end of World War II.

On September 15, Michigan beat Great Lakes Navy, 27-2. On September 22, Michigan lost to Indiana, 13-7. Minnesota beat Missouri, 34-0. In a Friday night game in Los Angeles, USC beat UCLA 13-6. September 29 Notre Dame beat Illinois 7-0, Army beat Louisville Field, 32-0, and Navy beat Villanova 49-0. USC won at California, 13-2, and Ohio State won at Missouri 47-6.

October

On October 6, Army beat Wake Forest, 54-0 and Navy beat Duke, 21-0. Ohio State beat Iowa 42-0. Minnesota won at Nebraska 61-7. Notre Dame won at Georgia Tech, 40-7. UCLA beat St. Mary’s Pre-Flight, 26-14.

October 13 At Yankee Stadium in New York, #1 Army beat #9 Michigan, 28-7. #2 Navy stayed unscored upon with a 28-0 win over Penn State. #3 Notre Dame beat Dartmouth, 34-0. #4 Ohio State beat Wisconsin, 12-0. #5 Minnesota beat Fort Warren, 14-0.

October 20 #1 Army beat Melville PT Boats 55-13. In Baltimore, #2 Navy beat Georgia Tech 20-6. #3 Notre Dame won at Pittsburgh, 39-9. #4 Ohio State lost to #9 Purdue, 35-13. #5 Minnesota defeated Northwestern, 30-7.

October 27 In New York, #1 Army beat #19 Duke 48-13. #2 Notre Dame beat Iowa 56-0. In Philadelphia, #3 Navy defeated #7 Penn, 14-7. #4 Purdue lost to unranked Northwestern, 26-14. #5 Minnesota lost to #12 Ohio State, 20-7. In Birmingham, #6 Alabama beat Georgia 28-14. #8 Indiana beat #14 Tulsa 7-2, to reach 5-0-1.

November

November 3 #1 Army beat Villanova, 54-0. #2 Notre Dame and #3 Navy, both 5-0-0, met in Cleveland, and played to a 6-6 tie. In Louisville, #4 Alabama defeated Kentucky, 60-19. #5 Indiana beat Cornell College of Iowa, 46-6, but dropped to sixth in the next poll. In Los Angeles, #8 St. Mary's beat USC, 26-0.

November 10 #1 Army (6-0-0) and #2 Notre Dame (5-0-1) met for a contest at Yankee Stadium, and it was no contest, with the Cadets winning 48-0. #3 Alabama was idle. In Baltimore, #4 Navy beat #7 Michigan 33-7. #5 St. Mary's beat Fresno State, 32-6. #6 Indiana won at Minnesota, 49-0.

November 17 In Philadelphia, #1 Army beat #6 Penn, 61-0 #2 Navy defeated Wisconsin 36-7 in Baltimore. In Nashville, #3 Alabama beat Vanderbilt, 71-0. #4 Indiana won at Pittsburgh, 19-0. #5 St. Mary's lost to UCLA, 13-7. #7 Notre Dame won at Northwestern, 34-7.

November 24 #1 Army (8-0-0) and #2 Navy (7-0-1), both unbeaten, were idle as they prepared for the Army–Navy Game. #3 Alabama beat the Pensacola Naval Air Station, 55-6. #4 Indiana closed its season at 9-0-1 with a 26-0 win over #18 Purdue. In New Orleans, #5 Notre Dame beat Tulane, 32-6.

December 1 In the second #1 and #2 matchup of the year, #1 Army (8-0-0) and #2 Navy (7-0-1) met at the Army–Navy Game in Philadelphia, with Army winning 32-13 to close a perfect season. #3 Alabama defeated Mississippi State, 55-13. #4 Indiana had finished its season. #5 Notre Dame lost to the Great Lakes Navy team, 39-7. #6 Oklahoma State, which had finished the season 9-0-0 and accepted an invitation to the Sugar Bowl, rose to fifth in the final poll.

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1945 Big 6 football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Missouri $ 5 – 0 – 0     6 – 4 – 0 Oklahoma 4 – 1 – 0     5 – 5 – 0 Iowa State 2 – 2 – 1     4 – 3 – 1 Nebraska 2 – 3 – 0     4 – 5 – 0 Kansas 1 – 3 – 1     4 – 5 – 1 Kansas State 0 – 5 – 0     1 – 7 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1945 Big Ten football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #4 Indiana $ 5 – 0 – 1     9 – 0 – 1 #6 Michigan 5 – 1 – 0     7 – 3 – 0 #12 Ohio State 5 – 2 – 0     7 – 2 – 0 Northwestern 3 – 3 – 1     4 – 4 – 1 Purdue 3 – 3 – 0     7 – 3 – 0 Wisconsin 2 – 3 – 1     3 – 4 – 2 Illinois 1 – 4 – 1     2 – 6 – 1 Minnesota 1 – 5 – 0     4 – 5 – 0 Iowa 1 – 5 – 0     2 – 7 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1945 New England Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team   W   L         W   L   Connecticut $   2 – 0         7 – 1   Rhode Island $   1 – 0         2 – 1   Maine   0 – 3         0 – 4   $ – Conference champion
1945 PCC football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #11 USC $ 5 – 1 – 0     7 – 4 – 0 Washington State 6 – 2 – 1     6 – 2 – 1 Washington 6 – 3 – 0     6 – 3 – 0 Oregon State 4 – 4 – 0     4 – 4 – 1 UCLA 2 – 3 – 0     5 – 4 – 0 California 2 – 4 – 1     4 – 5 – 1 Oregon 3 – 6 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Idaho 1 – 5 – 0     1 – 7 – 0 Montana 0 – 1 – 0     1 – 4 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1945 SEC football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #2 Alabama $ 6 – 0 – 0     10 – 0 – 0 #14 Tennessee 3 – 1 – 0     8 – 1 – 0 #15 LSU 5 – 2 – 0     7 – 2 – 0 #18 Georgia 4 – 2 – 0     9 – 2 – 0 Ole Miss 3 – 3 – 0     4 – 5 – 0 Georgia Tech 2 – 2 – 0     4 – 6 – 0 Mississippi State 2 – 3 – 0     6 – 3 – 0 Auburn 2 – 3 – 0     5 – 5 – 0 Vanderbilt 2 – 4 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Florida 1 – 3 – 1     4 – 5 – 1 Tulane 1 – 3 – 1     2 – 6 – 1 Kentucky 0 – 5 – 0     2 – 8 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll	1945 Southern Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #13 Duke $ 4 – 0 – 0     6 – 2 – 0 #19 Wake Forest 4 – 1 – 1     5 – 3 – 1 William & Mary 4 – 2 – 0     6 – 3 – 0 Clemson 2 – 1 – 1     6 – 3 – 1 Maryland 3 – 2 – 0     6 – 2 – 1 VMI 3 – 2 – 0     5 – 4 – 0 North Carolina 2 – 2 – 0     5 – 4 – 0 NC State 2 – 4 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 VPI 2 – 5 – 0     2 – 6 – 0 South Carolina 0 – 3 – 2     2 – 4 – 3 Richmond 0 – 4 – 0     2 – 6 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll
1945 Southwest Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T #10 Texas $ 5 – 1 – 0     10 – 1 – 0 SMU 4 – 2 – 0     5 – 6 – 0 Texas A&M 3 – 3 – 0     6 – 4 – 0 TCU 3 – 3 – 0     5 – 5 – 0 Rice 3 – 3 – 0     5 – 6 – 0 Baylor 2 – 4 – 0     5 – 5 – 1 Arkansas 1 – 5 – 0     3 – 7 – 0 $ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Final polls

Main article: 1945 NCAA football rankings

Bowl games

Bowl	Winning team	points	Losing team	points
Rose Bowl	#3 Alabama Crimson Tide	34	#11 USC Trojans	14
Sugar Bowl	#5 Oklahoma State Cowboys	33	#7 St. Mary's Gaels	13
Orange Bowl	Miami Hurricanes	13	#16 Holy Cross Crusaders	6
Cotton Bowl	#10 Texas Longhorns	40	Missouri Tigers	27
Sun Bowl	New Mexico Lobos	34	Denver Pioneers	24
Gator Bowl	#19 Wake Forest Demon Deacons	26	South Carolina Gamecocks	14
Oil Bowl	Georgia Bulldogs	20	Tulsa Golden Hurricane	6
Raisin Bowl	Drake Bulldogs	13	Fresno State Bulldogs	12

See also

• 1945 College Football All-America Team