Two human polls comprised the 1954 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 preseasonâÂÂthe AP Poll and the Coaches 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.
The final UP Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, on November 29. <br>UCLA received 21 of the 35 first-place votes; Ohio State received eleven, and one each to Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and Navy.
The Litkenhous Ratings released in mid-December 1954 provided numerical rankings to over 600 college football programs. The top 50 ranked teams were:
1. UCLA (9-0) - 115.3<br> 2. Ohio State (10-0) - 113.3<br> 3. Oklahoma (10-0) - 111.8<br> 4. Maryland (7-2-1) - 107.4<br> 5. Notre Dame (9-1) - 107.4<br> 6. Wisconsin (7-2) - 106.7<br> 7. Iowa (5-4) - 104.9<br> 8. Ole Miss (9-2) - 103.6<br> 9. Purdue (5-3-1) - 102.5<br> 10. Michigan (6-3) - 102.0<br> 11. Miami (FL) (8-1) - 101.6<br> 12. Navy (8-2) - 101.5<br> 13. Arkansas (8-3) - 100.8<br> 14. Baylor (7-4) - 100.4<br> 15. Minnesota (7-2) - 99.6<br> 16. Auburn (8-3) - 99.2<br> 17. Army (7-2) - 98.9<br> 18. Michigan State (3-6) - 98.9<br> 19. Rice (7-3) - 98.7<br> 20. USC (8-4) - 98.7<br> 21. SMU (6-3-1) - 98.6<br> 22. Colorado (7-2-1) - 97.8<br> 23. Georgia Tech (8-3) - 97.0<br> 24. Texas Tech (7-2-1) - 97.0<br> 25. Texas (4-5-1) - 96.5<br> 26. California (5-5) - 96.3<br> 27. TCU (4-6) - 96.0<br> 28. Indiana (3-6) - 93.1<br> 29. Duke (8-2-1) - 93.0<br> 30. Miami (OH) (8-1) - 92.8<br> 31. Northwestern<br> 32. Florida (5-5) - 89.8<br> 33. Penn State<br> 34. Pittsburgh<br> 35. Nebraska<br> 36. Kentucky (7-3) - 88.2<br> 37. West Virginia<br> 38. Southeastern Louisiana<br> 39. Alabama (4-5-2) - 87.5<br> 40. Arizona<br> 41. Mississippi State (6-4) - 87.4<br> 42. Wichita<br> 43. Cincinnati<br> 44. Missouri<br> 45. LSU (5-6) - 86.9<br> 46. Oregon<br> 47. Illinois (1-8) - 86.4<br> 48. Georgia (6-3-1) - 85.6<br> 49. Texas A&M (1-9) - 85.0<br> 50. Oklahoma A&M<br> 51. Clemson<br> 52. Trinity (TX)<br> 53. Virginia Tech<br> 54. South Carolina<br> 55. Vanderbilt (2-7) - 82.2<br> 56. Kansas State<br> 57. Denver<br> 58. Mississippi Southern<br> 59. Boston University<br> 60. Iowa State<br> 61. Tennessee (4-6) - 79.0<br> 62. Delaware<br> 63. Boston College<br> 64. Tulane (1-6-3) - 77.8<br> 65. Texas Western<br> 66. Houston<br> 67. North Carolina<br> 68. Wake Forest<br> 69. Washington State<br> 70. Stanford<br> 71. Chattanooga<br> 72. San Jose State<br> 73. Florida State<br> 74. North Texas<br> 75. Washington<br> 76. Wyoming<br> 77. Kent State<br> 78. Pacific<br> 79. Brown<br> 80. Howard Payne<br> 81. Virginia<br> 82. Abilene Christian<br> 83. Cornell<br> 84. Detroit<br> 85. Princeton<br> 86. Marquette<br> 87. New Hampshire<br> 88. Colgate<br> 89. Syracuse<br> 90. Richmond<br> 91. McMurry<br> 92. NC State<br> 93. Yale<br> 94. Bucknell<br> 95. Omaha<br> 96. Dayton<br> 97. Eastern Kentucky<br> 98. Utah<br> 99. William & Mary<br> 100. Kansas<br> 101. Hardin-Simmons<br> 102. George Washington<br> 103. Mt. San Antonio<br> 104. Louisiana Tech<br> 105. Memphis State<br> 106. East Texas<br> 107. Sam Houston<br> 108. Stephen F. Austin<br> 109. Harvar<br> 110. Youngstown<br> 111. Bakersfield<br> 112. Holy Cross<br> 113. Utah State<br> 114. Ohio<br> 115. Rutgers<br> 116. Arizona State<br> 118. Xavier<br> 119. Rhode Island<br> 120. Idaho<br> 121. Oregon State<br> 122. South Dakota State<br> 123. Toledo<br> 124. Tulsa<br> 125. West Texas<br> 126. New Mexico<br> 127. Maine<br> 128. Tampa (8-2) - 62.4<br> 129. Temple (3-5) - 61.1<br> 130. VMI (4-6) - 61.1<br> 131. Washington University (6-3) - 60.4<br> 132. Furman (5-5) - 60.3<br> 136. Delta State - 59.9<br> 137. Penn (0-9) - 59.7<br> 138. Dartmouth (3-6) - 59.6<br> 144. Trinity (CT) (7-0) - 59.2<br> 146. John Carroll - 59.1<br> 147. Marshall (4-5) - 59.1<br> 148. Western Michigan (4-5) - 59.1<br> 151. Northeastern - 58.6<br> 152. Montana (3-6) - 58.5<br> 153. Villanova (1-9) - 58.4<br> 154. Lafayette (7-2) - 58.2<br> 155. Tennessee Tech - 58.2<br> 157. Colorado A&M (3-7) - 58.1<br> 160. Montana State (8-1) - 57.6<br> 161. Missouri Valley - 57.6<br> 162. West Chester - 57.6<br> 163. Lehigh (2-5-2) - 56.9<br> 166. Murray - 56.7<br> 167. BYU (1-8) - 56.2<br> 168. Peru State - 56.2<br> 170. Florence - 56.1<br> 177. Davidson (6-3) - 54.8<br> 178. Muhlenberg - 54.7<br> 179. St. John's - 54.0<br> 183. Sul Ross - 53.8<br> 184. Fordham (1-7-1) - 53.7<br> 187. Valparaiso - 53.2<br> 188. Western Kentucky (7-3) - 53.0<br> 190. Vermont (5-1-1) - 53.0<br> 193. San Francisco State (8-2) - 52.8<br> 198. Wofford - 51.7<br> 200. Amherst - 51.4<br> 205. Hawaii (4-4) - 51.0<br>
The Pittsburgh Courier, a leading African American newspaper, ranked the top 1954 teams from historically black colleges and universities in an era when college football was largely segregated. The rankings were published on December 11:
The Associated Negro Press also published rankings on December 25: