1954 NCAA football rankings


Two human polls comprised the 1954 National Collegiate Athletic Association 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

AP Poll

The final AP Poll was released on November 29, at the end of the 1954 regular season, weeks before the major bowls. The AP would not release a post-bowl season final poll regularly until 1968.

Final Coaches' Poll

The final UP Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, on November 29.
UCLA received 21 of the 35 first-place votes; Ohio State received eleven, and one each to Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and Navy.
RankingTeamConferenceBowl
1UCLAPacific Coastnone
2Ohio StateBig TenWon Rose, 20–7
3OklahomaBig Sevennone
4Notre DameIndependentnone
5NavyIndependentWon Sugar, 21–0
6Ole MissSECLost Sugar, 0–21
7ArmyIndependentnone
8ArkansasSouthwestLost Cotton, 6–14
9Miami Independentnone
10WisconsinBig Tennone
11USCPacific CoastLost Rose, 7–20
12MarylandACCnone
13Georgia TechSECWon Cotton, 14–6
14DukeACCWon Orange, 34–7
15MichiganBig Tennone
15Penn StateIndependentnone
17SMUSouthwestnone
18DenverSkylinenone
18RiceSouthwestnone
20MinnesotaBig Tennone