Two human polls comprised the 1958 major college football rankings. Unlike most sports, college football's governing body, the NCAA, does not bestow a national championship, instead that title is bestowed by one or more different polling agencies. There are two main weekly polls that begin in the preseason—the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll.
Legend Increase in ranking Decrease in ranking Not ranked previous week National champion Win–loss record Number of first place votes Tied with team above or below also with this symbol
AP poll
The final AP poll was released on December 1, at the end of the 1958 regular season, weeks before the major bowls. The AP would not release a post-bowl season final poll regularly until 1968.
UPI Coaches Poll The final United Press International (UPI) Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, on This was the first UPI poll following the merger of United Press and International News Service.
LSU received 29 of the 35 first-place votes; Iowa received four, and one each went to Army and Air Force. Ranking Team Conference Bowl 1 LSU SEC Won Sugar, 7–0 2 Iowa Big Ten Won Rose, 38–12 3 Army Independentnone 4 Auburn SEC 5 Oklahoma Big Eight Won Orange, 21–6 6 Wisconsin Big Tennone 7 Ohio State Big Ten 8 Air Force IndependentTied Cotton, 0–0 9 TCU Southwest 10 Syracuse Independent Lost Orange, 6–21 11 Purdue Big Ten none 12 Ole Miss SEC Won Gator, 7–3 13 Clemson ACC Lost Sugar, 0–7 14 Notre Dame Independent none 15 Florida SEC Lost Gator, 3–7 16 California Pacific Coast Lost Rose, 12–38 17 Northwestern Big Tennone 18 SMU Southwest
Prior to the 1975 season, the Big Ten and Pacific Coast (later AAWU / Pac-8) conferences allowed only one postseason participant each, for the Rose Bowl. The Ivy League has prohibited its members from participating in postseason football since the league was officially formed in 1954.
Litkenhous Ratings
The final Litkenhous Ratings, released in December 1958, ranked over 650 teams. The top 50 teams as ranked by Litkenhous were:
1. LSU 2. Army 3. Oklahoma 4. Iowa 5. Wisconsin 6. Ole Miss 7. Syracuse 8. Purdue 9. TCU 10. Ohio State 11. Northwestern 12. SMU 13. Auburn 14. Notre Dame 15. Rice 16. Georgia 17. Florida 18. Penn State 19. Illinois 20. Air Force 21. Pittsburgh 22. Texas 23. North Carolina 24. Vanderbilt 25. Alabama 26. Washington State 27. Kentucky 28. Georgia Tech 29. Mississippi Southern 30. Arkansas 31. Oregon 32. Michigan State 33. Oklahoma State 34. Mississippi State 35. Houston 36. South Carolina 37. Trinity (TX) 38. USC 39. Minnesota 40. West Virginia 41. Florida State 42. Duke 43. Navy 44. Tulsa 45. Colorado 46. Tennessee 47. Texas East 48. Missouri 49. Indiana 50. California 73. Memphis State - 76.5 81. Chattanooga - 74.6
See also
1958 College Football All-America Team
References