American college football season
The 1938 college football season ended with the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University (TCU) being named the nation's No. 1 team by 55 of the 77 voters in the final Associated Press writers' poll in early December. Tennessee was also chosen by six contemporary math system selectors as a national champion; both teams won every game. Notre Dame was chosen by the Dickinson System and won the Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy.
Conference and program changes
Conference changes
- Two conferences began play during 1938:
- One conference changed its name in 1938:
Membership changes
September
September 24 Defending champion Pittsburgh beat West Virginia, 19β0. California defeated St. Mary's 12β7. In Los Angeles, Alabama beat USC 19β7. Minnesota defeated Washington 15β0, and Dartmouth beat Bates 46β0.
October
October 1 Alabama defeated Samford 34β0, Fordham beat Upsala 47β0, Dartmouth beat St Lawrence 51β0, and Notre Dame beat Kansas 52β0. Pitt defeated Temple 28β6, California beat Washington State 27β3, and Minnesota beat Nebraska 16β7.
October 8 Minnesota defeated Purdue 7β0. Alabama beat North Carolina State 14β0. Dartmouth stayed unscored upon, winning at Princeton 22β0. Pittsburgh beat cross-town rival Duquesne 27β0. Fordham beat Waynesburg College 53β0. California played a double-header for the fans, with the reserves beating the California Agricultural school (lager UC-Davis) 48β0, and the varsity and reserves beating College of the Pacific 39β0. In Atlanta, Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech 14β6.
October 15 Pittsburgh won at Wisconsin 26β6. California defeated UCLA 20β7. Dartmouth beat Brown 34β13, and Notre Dame beat Illinois 14β6. Minnesota edged Michigan, 7β6. Fordham was tied by Purdue 6β6, and in Birmingham, Alabama was shut out by Tennessee, 13β0. When the first round of balloting was finished, the defending champion Panthers were again No. 1, followed by Minnesota, California, Dartmouth, and Notre Dame.
October 22 No. 1 Pittsburgh beat SMU 34β7. No. 2 Minnesota was idle. No. 3 California won at Seattle over Washington 14β7. No. 4 Dartmouth won at Harvard 13β7. No. 5 Notre Dame beat No. 13 Carnegie Tech 7β0. No. 6 Santa Clara beat Arkansas 21β6 in San Francisco, while in Milwaukee, No. 7 TCU beat Marquette 21β0, and the two winners replaced Dartmouth and Notre Dame in the Top Five: No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 2 Minnesota, No. 3 California, No. 4 TCU, and No. 5 Santa Clara.
October 29
No. 1 Pittsburgh beat No. 9 Fordham, 24β13. No. 2 Minnesota fell to No. 12 Northwestern, 6β3. No. 3 California beat Oregon State 13β7. No. 4 TCU beat Baylor 39β7, and No. 5 Santa Clara won at Michigan State 7β6. No. 6 Dartmouth won at Yale 24β6 and No. 7 Notre Dame beat Army in Yankee Stadium, 19β7, and both returned to the Top Five: No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 2 TCU, No. 3 California, No. 4 Notre Dame, and No. 5 Dartmouth.
November
November 5 In Pittsburgh, the No. 1 Panthers lost to No. 19 Carnegie Tech, 20β10. No. 2 TCU won at Tulsa 21β0. No. 3 California lost at No. 13 USC 13β7. In Baltimore, No. 4 Notre Dame beat Navy 15β0. No. 5 Dartmouth beat Dickinson College, 44β6. No. 6 Tennessee beat Chattanooga 45β0 to extend its record to 7β0β0. The Horned Frogs of TCU leaped into the top spot, ahead of Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, and Dartmouth.
November 12 No. 1 TCU beat Texas 28β6. No. 2 Notre Dame beat No. 12 Minnesota 19β0. No. 3 Pittsburgh beat Nebraska 19β0. No. 4 Tennessee won at Vanderbilt 14β0. No. 5 Dartmouth lost at No. 20 Cornell 14β7. No. 7 Duke remained unbeaten (7β0β0), untied, and unscored upon with a 21β0 win at Syracuse. In the next poll, the Irish moved up to the top rung, followed by TCU, Tennessee, Duke, and Pittsburgh.
November 19 No. 1 Notre Dame won at No. 16 Northwestern 9β7. No. 2 TCU won at Rice 29β7. No. 3 Tennessee was idle as it prepared for a holiday game. No. 4 Duke beat N.C. State, 7β0. No. 5 Pittsburgh beat Penn State 26β0. The rankings shuffled to No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 2 TCU, No. 3 Duke, No. 4 Pittsburgh, and No. 5 Tennessee.
On Thanksgiving Day No. 5 Tennessee beat Kentucky 46β0, while No. 6 Oklahoma beat Oklahoma A&M 19-0. Two days later, November 26, No. 1 Notre Dame remained idle. No. 2 TCU beat SMU in Dallas, 20β7. No. 3 Duke and
No. 4 Pittsburgh met at Durham, with the hosts winning 7β0. With a record of 9β0β0, Duke had outscored its opponents 114β0, but stayed in third in the next set of rankings. On November 29 the "final" AP Poll was released with Notre Dame No. 1, followed by No. 2 TCU, No. 3 Duke, No. 4 Tennessee, and No. 5 Oklahoma.
On December 3, No. 1 Notre Dame lost in Los Angeles to No. 8 USC, 13β0. As a result the AP Poll was extended for another week. On December 6 previously No. 2-ranked TCU received 55 first place votes in the second final poll and accepted a bid to the Sugar Bowl. No. 4 Tennessee beat Ole Miss 47β0 in Memphis, and moved up to second place. Though the SEC champion would be Sugar Bowl bound in later years, a No. 1 vs. No. 2 match was not to be had, as Tennessee instead took a bid for the Orange Bowl. No. 3 Duke stayed in third place, despite having never been scored upon in 1938, and accepted an invitation to the Rose Bowl. No. 5 Oklahoma beat Washington State 28β0 and moved up to fourth place. Both unbeaten and untied at 10β0β0, Tennessee and Oklahoma would meet in Miami, but the title had been awarded to 10β0β0 TCU. Notre Dame fell to fifth place.
Conference standings
For this article, major conferences defined as those including multiple state flagship public universities.
Major conference standings
Independents
Minor conferences
Minor conference standings
Rankings
Heisman Trophy voting
The Heisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player
Bowl games
See also
References
- "October 17, 1938 AP Football Poll". CollegePollArchive.com. Archived from the original on March 27, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
- Dickinson, Frank G. (February 1941). Dickinson's Football Ratings β from Grange to Harmon. Omaha, Nebraska: What's What Publishing Company.
- Fullerton, Hugh S. Jr. (November 29, 1938). Written at New York. "Irish Still Top Scribes' Ballot". The Indianapolis News. Indianapolis. Associated Press. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
In the final Associated Press football ranking poll of the year, ninety sports writers and editors chose Notre Dame as the nation's No. 1 team with Duke in third place. Texas Christian, which hoped for a Rose bowl bid, came in between them.
- Middleton, Drew (December 6, 1938). "Texas Christian Places On Pinnacle In Final AP Poll". Associated Press. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
The poll was extended for another week because of the select quality of last Saturday's games, three of which had a direct bearing on the ranking.
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