The 1968 season in NCAA Football was a season of change. In previous seasons the bowl games were not used as a “playoff” game necessarily. The final polls would be released before the bowls were played. This meant that the best teams in the league would not necessarily play each other in bowl games to better determine who should be national champions. While there was not a true “playoff” game to determine the national championship, the AP poll was not released until the bowl games were played in this season.
There was also a difference in the way the polls worked. For several years the polls only included the top 10 teams in the nation. This season they would go back to ranking the top 20 teams in the nation as they had in the 1950s.
The favorites coming into the season would be the Purdue Boilermakers. They were followed by the USC Trojans, the champions of the previous season. The third ranked team would be the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns would take the 4th and 5th spots in the preseason poll.
The first week already featured some moves as Notre Dame beat down Oklahoma. This impressive victory allowed them to move to number 2 in the nation just before playing Purdue. This meant that as early as week two the top two teams in the nation would play. The Boilermakers proved to be the far superior team in the matchup. They dominated on both sides of the ball and won the game 37-22. USC continued to win as well and moved back to the number 2 spot.
A few weeks later Purdue would square off against number 4 Ohio State. The Buckeyes were too strong on the defensive end and managed to shutout Purdue in a 13-0 effort. USC edged out Stanford and managed to move into the number 1 spot.
USC and Ohio State would go on to win week after week. These teams were clearly the two favorite teams in the nation. After sitting in 2nd place for 7 weeks the Buckeyes passed USC with an impressive victory over number 4 Michigan.
USC tied Notre Dame in the following week, solidifying Ohio State as the top team in the nation.
USC and Ohio State would square off against each other in the Rose Bowl to likely determine which team would finish as they were the top two teams in the nation. The Buckeyes came out strong and managed to finish atop the nation with a 27-16 victory over USC. The Buckeyes would be voted the AP National Champions.
While USC did not win the national championship, they did have another honor come to their team. OJ Simpson was named the Heisman Trophy Winner for USC. This is the award that is given to the best player in the nation.
After the bowl games were played Penn State was voted the second best team in the nation, Texas third, USC 4th and Notre Dame 5th.
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