The 1941 college football regular season was the 73rd season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from the Big Ten Conference, the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Big Six Conference, the Southern Conference, the Southwestern Conference, and numerous smaller conferences and independent programs.

The teams ranked highest in the final Associated Press poll in December 1941 were: Minnesota, under head coach Bernie Bierman, compiled a perfect 8–0 record, won the Big Ten championship, and was ranked No. 1. It was Minnesota's fifth national championship in eight years. Duke compiled a 9–0 record in the regular season, won the Southern Conference championship, and was ranked No. 2. Notre Dame, led by head coach Frank Leahy, compiled an 8–0–1 record and was ranked No. 3. Texas, led by head coach Dana X. Bible, compiled an 8–1–1 record and was ranked No. 4. Texas was named by one contemporary major selector, the math-based Williamson System, as its No. 1 team. Michigan, led by head coach Fritz Crisler, compiled a 6–1–1 record and was ranked No. 5.

Minnesota halfback Bruce Smith won the 1941 Heisman Trophy, and Virginia halfback Bill Dudley won the 1941 Maxwell Award. The season's statistical leaders included Frank Sinkwich of Georgia with 1,103 rushing yards, Bud Schwenk of Washington University in St. Louis with 1,457 passing yards, Hank Stanton of Arizona with 820 receiving yards, and Bill Dudley with 134 points scored.

In the four major bowl games, No. 2 Duke lost to PCC champion Oregon State in the Rose Bowl, No. 6 Fordham defeated No. 7 Missouri in the Sugar Bowl, No. 14 Georgia defeated unranked TCU in the Orange Bowl, and No. 20 Alabama defeated No. 9 Texas A&M Aggies in the Cotton Bowl. The Rose Bowl was moved from Pasadena, California, to Durham, North Carolina, due to security concerns on the West Coast following the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Conference and program changes

Conference changes One conference played its final season in 1941: Michigan-Ontario Collegiate Conference – conference active since the 1930 season

School 1940 Conference 1941 Conference Hardin–Simmons Cowboys Independent Border Long Island Blackbirds Independent Dropped Program Sewanee Tigers SEC Independent Washburn Ichabods Missouri Valley Independent West Texas State Buffaloes Alamo Border William & Mary Norfolk Division Braves Independent Dropped Program

September September 20 Tennessee beat Furman 32–6 and Boston College beat St. Anselm, 78–0.

September 27 In Seattle, defending champion Minnesota beat Washington 14–6, while in New Orleans, Boston College fell to Tulane, 21–7. Stanford beat Oregon 19–15, Michigan beat Michigan State 19–7, Texas won at Colorado, 34–6 and Duke beat Wake Forest 43–14. Tennessee was idle

October October 4 Minnesota was idle. Tennessee lost at Duke, 19–0. In New York, Fordham beat SMU 16–10. Elsewhere, it was Stanford over UCLA 33–0, Michigan over Iowa 6–0, Northwestern beating Kansas State 51–3 and Texas defeating LSU 34–0.

October 11 Minnesota beat Illinois 34–6, Northwestern beat Wisconsin 41–14, and Michigan beat Pittsburgh 40–0. In Baltimore, Duke beat Maryland 50–0, while in Dallas, Texas beat Oklahoma 40–7. Fordham won at North Carolina 27–14. Stanford lost at Oregon State 10–0. In the poll that followed, Minnesota was ranked No. 1, followed by Texas, Duke, Fordham, and Northwestern.

On October 16, the penalty flag was used for the first time in the 1941 Oklahoma City vs. Youngstown football game in Youngstown, Ohio.

October 18 No. 1 Minnesota beat Pittsburgh 39–0. No. 2 Texas defeated Arkansas 48–14. No. 3 Duke beat visiting Colgate 27–14. In Ann Arbor, No. 6 Michigan beat visiting No. 5 Northwestern 14–7. No. 7 Navy beat Cornell 14–0 in Baltimore. The next poll featured No. 1 Minnesota, No. 2 Texas, No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Duke, and No. 5 Navy. Fordham dropped from No. 4 to No. 6 despite a 27–0 defeat of West Virginia.

October 25 The biggest game of the year took place in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as No. 1 Minnesota defeated No. 3 Michigan, 7–0. No. 2 Texas beat Rice 40–0. No. 4 Duke won at Pittsburgh 27–7. No. 5 Navy and Harvard played to a 0–0 tie. No. 6 Fordham beat TCU 28–14, while No. 9 Texas A&M won at Baylor 48–0, to reach 5–0–0. In the vote that followed, Minnesota received 60 first place votes, and Texas received 53. When the points were tallied, they both had 1,161 points and were tied for No. 1. Fordham, Duke, and Texas A&M rounded out the top five.

November November 1 In Dallas, No. 1 Texas beat No. 20 SMU 34–0, while in Minneapolis, the other No. 1, Minnesota, edged No. 9 Northwestern 8–7. In New York, No. 3 Fordham defeated Purdue 17–0, and in Atlanta, No. 4 Duke won at Georgia Tech 14–0. In Little Rock, No. 5 Texas A&M beat Arkansas 7–0. Texas was alone at No. 1 the following week, followed by Minnesota, Fordham, Duke and Texas A&M, all unbeaten and untied.

November 8 No. 1 Texas and Baylor played to a 7–7 tie. No. 2 Minnesota beat Nebraska 9–0. No. 3 Fordham lost at Pittsburgh 13–0. No. 4 Duke won at Davidson 56–0. No. 5 Texas A&M beat SMU 21–10. No. 7 Notre Dame beat No. 6 Navy 20–13 in Baltimore and moved into fifth place behind Minnesota, Texas, Duke, and Texas A&M.

November 15 No. 1 Minnesota won at Iowa 34–13. No. 2 Texas lost to Texas Christian (TCU) 14–7. No. 3 Duke beat North Carolina 20–0. In Houston, No. 4 Texas A&M beat Rice 19–6. No. 5 Notre Dame won at No. 8 Northwestern 7–6. No. 7 Michigan, which beat Columbia 28–0, moved up to No. 5 behind Minnesota, Texas A&M, Duke, and Notre Dame.

November 22 No. 1 Minnesota closed its season with a 41–6 win over Wisconsin in Minneapolis. No. 2 Texas A&M was idle as it prepared for its Thanksgiving game. No. 3 Duke won its season closer at N.C. State 55–6 to get a bid to Pasadena’s Rose Bowl. No. 4 Notre Dame beat USC 20–18. No. 5 Michigan closed its season with a 20–20 tie against No. 14 Ohio State. The top four remained the same, but No. 6 Duquesne (which had finished its season at 8–0–0) replaced Michigan at No. 5.

On Thanksgiving Day No. 2 Texas A&M lost to No. 10 Texas 23–0. The top five in the final AP Poll were No. 1 Minnesota, No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Texas, and No. 5 Michigan.

December 2 the Houlgate System published its "final selections" ranking Minnesota first, Navy second, and Alabama No. 3.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7 called into question whether Southern California would be safe from a Japanese attack on New Year's Day. On December 15, bowl officials and U.S. Army officers met in San Francisco and decided to hold the game at Duke's stadium in Durham, North Carolina."Rose Bowl Grid Game is Transferred To Durham, N.C. By Duke, Beavers," Fresno Bee, Dec. 15, 1941, p2-B

Conference standings Major conference standings

Independents

Minor conferences ConferenceChampion(s)RecordCalifornia Collegiate Athletic AssociationFresno StateSan Jose State2–0–1 Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association Morgan State College 6–1 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Pittsburg State 3–1 Far Western Conference Pacific (CA) 3–0 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Luther 4–0–1 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Baker 5–1 Lone Star Conference North Texas State Teachers 4–0 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Alma 4–0–1 Michigan-Ontario Collegiate Conference Lawrence Technological University 3–0 Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference Ripon 5–0–1 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Saint Thomas (MN) 5–0 Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association Missouri School of MinesNorthwest Missouri State Teachers 3–1–1 Nebraska College Athletic Conference Midland Lutheran 4–0 Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Association Nebraska State Teachers (UN–Kearney) 3–0New Mexico Intercollegiate ConferenceNew Mexico Military Institute4–0 North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Iowa State Teachers (Northern Iowa) 5–0 North Dakota College Athletic Conference Jamestown College 5–0 Northern Teachers Athletic Conference St. Cloud State Teachers 4–0 Ohio Athletic Conference Case 4–0 Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference Central State College (OK) 6–0 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Millersville State TeachersWest Chester State Teachers 3–0 Pacific Northwest Conference Willamette 5–0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Colorado College 4–0 South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference Augustana (SD)Northern State Teachers 3–04–0 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Whittier 3–0–1 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Morris Brown 5–0 Texas Collegiate Athletic Conference Howard Payne 6–0 Washington Intercollegiate Conference Pacific Lutheran 4–0–1 Southwestern Athletic Conference No champion — Wisconsin State Teachers College Conference Co-North: La Crosse TeachersCo-North: Stout State TeachersCo-South: Milwaukee State TeachersCo-South: Platteville State Teachers 3–1–03–1–03–0–13–0–1

Minor conference standings

Rankings

Heisman Trophy voting The Heisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player

Player School Position Total Bruce Smith Minnesota HB 554 Angelo Bertelli Notre Dame QB 345 Frankie Albert Stanford QB 336 Frank Sinkwich Georgia HB 249 Bill Dudley Virginia HB 237 Endicott Peabody Harvard G 153 Edgar Jones Pittsburgh RB 151 Bob Westfall Michigan FB 147 Steve Lach Duke HB 126 Jack Crain Texas HB 102

Bowl games

Bowl game Winning team Losing team Rose Bowl No. 12 Oregon State 20 No. 2 Duke 16 Sugar Bowl No. 6 Fordham 2 No. 7 Missouri 0 Orange Bowl No. 14 Georgia 40 TCU 26 Cotton Bowl Classic No. 20 Alabama 29 No. 9 Texas A&M 21 Sun Bowl Tulsa 6 Texas Tech 0

Statistical leaders Team leaders Total offense Rank Team Games played Net yards gained Avg. gain per game First downs 1 Duke 9 3350 372.2 147 2 Arizona 10 3573 357.3 152 3 Georgia 10 3504 350.4 156 4 Utah 8 2803 350.4 112 5 Texas 10 3500 350.0 130 6 Missouri 9 3102 344.7 128 7 Tulane 9 2951 327.9 146 8 Fordham 8 2616 327.0 106 9 Detroit 9 2881 320.1 130 10 Clemson 9 2879 319.9 111

Total defense Rank Team Games played Net Ops. Gained Opps. Av. per Game Oppon. 1st Downs 1 Duquesne 9 885 110.6 50 2 Navy 10 1258 139.8 67 3 Detroit 8 1282 142.4 76 4 Notre Dame 10 1283 142.6 79 5 Georgia 10 1429 142.9 85 6 Texas Tech 9 1432 143.2 82 7 Duke 10 537 145.7 74 8 San Jose 10 1465 146.5 62 9 Virginia 9 1362 151.3 59 10 Rutgers 10 1211 151.4 56

Rushing offense Rank Team Games Rushes Yards gained Yards per game 1 Missouri 9 488 2769 307.7 2 Duke 9 498 2392 265.8 3 Minnesota 8 476 2062 257.8 4 Utah 8 398 2054 256.8 5 Syracuse 8 395 2007 250.9 6 Navy 9 494 2249 249.9 7 Georgia 10 511 2397 239.7 8 Texas 10 460 2372 237.2 9 Clemson 9 437 2132 236.9 10 Michigan 8 420 1871 233.9

Rushing defense Rank Team Games Rushes Net yards gained Yards per game 1 Duquesne 10 235 448 56.0 2 Georgia 10 323 596 59.6 3 Texas Tech 9 328 617 61.7 4 Navy 8 311 560 62.2 5 Texas 9 323 659 65.9 6 Tulane 10 311 597 66.3 7 Santa Clara 10 302 598 66.4 8 Notre Dame 9 340 611 67.9 9 Utah 8 268 602 75.3 10 Rice 9 357 812 81.2

Passing offense Rank Team Games Att. Compl. Int. Pct.Compl. Yards Yds/Game Yds/Attempt 1 Arizona 10 231 106 18 .459 1777 177.7 7.69 2 Texas A&M 10 294 126 30 .429 1657 165.7 5.64 3 Washington University (MO) 9 238 116 20 .487 1472 163.6 6.18 4 Detroit 9 185 94 11 .508 1307 145.2 7.06 5 Notre Dame 9 148 81 14 .547 1223 135.9 8.26 6 Texas Mines 9 261 112 27 .429 1219 135.4 4.67 7 Wake Forest 10 197 88 24 .447 1335 133.5 6.78 8 San Francisco 6 102 41 10 .402 756 126.0 7.41 9 Saint Mary's 9 165 69 23 .418 1116 124.0 6.76 10 SMU 10 200 68 17 .340 1201 120.1 6.01

Passing defense