Two human polls comprised the 1959 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 preseasonâÂÂthe AP Poll and the Coaches Poll.
The final AP poll was released on December 7, at the end of the 1959 regular season, weeks before the major bowls.
The final UPI Coaches Poll was released prior to the bowl games, on December 8. <br>Syracuse received 31 of the 35 first-place votes; Mississippi received three and Washington one.
The final Litkenhous Ratings were released in December 1959. The top 25 teams according to Litkenhous were:
1. Syracuse (11-0) - 111.0<br> 2. Ole Miss (10-1) - 110.5<br> 3. LSU (9-2) - 105.1<br> 4. TCU (8-3) - 102.4<br> 5. Texas (9-2) - 102.0<br> 6. Auburn (7-3) - 100.8<br> 7. Georgia (10-1) - 100.2<br> 8. Northwestern (6-3) - 98.1<br> 9. Iowa (5-4) - 97.9<br> 10. Purdue (5-2-2) - 96.7<br> 11. Michigan State (5-4) - 96.5<br> 12. USC (8-2) -96.6<br> 13. Arkansas (9-2) - 96.3<br> 14. Washington (10-1) - 96.2<br> 15. Wisconsin (7-3) - 95.8<br> 16. Penn State (9-2) - 95.2<br> 17. Georgia Tech - 94.9<br> 18. Illinois - 94.7<br> 19. Oklahoma - 04.7<br> 20. Clemson - 94.3<br> 21. Indiana - 93.7<br> 22. Kentucky - 93.6<br> 23. SMU - 93.0<br> 24. Florida - 92.9<br> 25. UCLA - 91.5<br>