Factoid 40 - College Football from 1960 to 1969

The 1960s saw the UNLV Rebels add college football as a sport; they were founded in 1968; however, they were in Division II. They made the jump to Division I in 1978.

This decade would see 17 schools claim a national title through one poll or another: Michigan; Minnesota; LSU; Texas; Oklahoma; Notre Dame; Iowa; Alabama; Georgia; USC; Tennessee; Mississippi; Washington; Ohio State; Arkansas; Michigan State; and Penn State.

Alabama would claim four titles in this decade. Ohio State, Texas, and Notre Dame would each claim three. Bear Bryant (Alabama), Woody Hayes (Ohio State), Ara Parseghian (Notre Dame), and Darrell Royal (Texas) were also at the peak of their careers.

Archaic rules were disappearing on the Division I landscape as various polls moved to releasing their final polls after the end of the bowl season starting with the 1968/1969 season, thereby adding competitive significance to the bowl system. Coincidentally, Notre Dame removed its ban on bowl participation the following year. The Pac 8 was also changing its rules, allowing teams to go in consecutive years to the Rose Bowl, if they were so deserving.