1951 college football season

In the preseason poll released on September 24, 1951, Tennessee and Michigan State were ranked first and second, with Tennessee having 60 of the 115 first place votes. MSU had opened its season on the 22nd with a 6–0 win over Oregon State. They were followed by No. 3 Ohio State, defending champion No. 4 Oklahoma, and No. 5 California (which had won its opener against Santa Clara, 34–0). As the regular season progressed, a new poll would be issued on the Monday following the weekend's games.

On September 14, the Central Missouri Jules played the Southwestern Moundbuilders in the rejected touchdown game where Southwestern's head coach Harold Hunt "rejected" a touchdown awarded by officials because his player stepped out of bounds.[3]

On September 29 No. 1 Tennessee beat Mississippi State 14–0. No. 2 Michigan State won at Michigan, 25–0, to take the top spot from the Vols. No. 3 Ohio State beat visiting SMU 7–0 in a win not deemed good enough to stay in the top five. No. 4 Oklahoma beat William & Mary 49–7. No. 5 California won in Philadelphia against Penn, 35–0, and rose to second in the next poll. The game was broadcast in New York in a test for color television [4] Notre Dame, which had beaten Indiana 48–6, rose to fifth. The poll: 1.Michigan State 2.California 3.Tennessee 4.Oklahoma 5.Notre Dame

October 6 No. 1 Michigan State won at Ohio State, 24–20. No. 2 California beat Minnesota, 55–14. No. 3 Tennessee beat Duke 26–0. No. 4 Oklahoma lost at No. 10 Texas A&M, 14–7 and fell out of the top bracket, and the Aggies took their place. No. 5 Notre Dame had beaten Mercy College of Detroit, 40–6, the night before. The poll: 1.Michigan State 2.California 3.Tennessee 4.Texas A&M 5.Notre Dame

October 13 No. 1 Michigan State had trouble in defeating Marquette 20–14. No. 2 California beat Washington State 42–35 and took over the top spot from the Spartans in the next poll. No. 3 Tennessee beat the University of Chattanooga (now UT Chattanooga, but athletically branded simply as "Chattanooga") 42–13. No. 4 Texas A&M beat Trinity College 53–14 and fell from the top five. No. 5 Notre Dame lost to visiting SMU, 27–20. Taking the places of the Aggies and the Irish were No. 6 Texas (which had beaten Oklahoma in Dallas, 9–7) and No. 8 Georgia Tech (which had beaten LSU 25–7). The poll: 1.California 2.Tennessee 3.Michigan State 4.Texas 5.Georgia Tech

October 20 In Los Angeles, No. 1 California and USC, both unbeaten at 4–0–0, faced off, and the Golden Bears lost the game, along with the top spot in the poll, 21–14. Earlier, in Birmingham, No. 2 Tennessee defeated Alabama 27–13. No. 3 Michigan State won at Penn State, 32–21. No. 4 Texas lost at Arkansas, 16–14. No. 5 Georgia Tech defeated Auburn 27–7. Appearing in the top five were No. 8 Illinois (which had a 27–20 win over Washington) and No. 7 Maryland (which had beaten North Carolina 14–7). The poll: 1.Tennessee 2.Michigan State 3.Georgia Tech 4.Illinois 5.Maryland

Another significant game on this date, though for a far different reason, was the Drake–Oklahoma A&M matchup. Then-unbeaten Drake was led by quarterback Johnny Bright, who was leading the nation in total offense at the time and had been touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate. Two years earlier, he had been the first black player to appear in a game at A&M's home field, without incident. The same could not be said about this game. Bright was forced to leave the game in the first quarter after suffering three concussions and a broken jaw as the result of a racially motivated attack by white A&M player Wilbanks Smith, and A&M ultimately won 27–14. The attack was immortalized in a photo sequence in the Des Moines Register that won the photographers a Pulitzer Prize. It also had an enduring legacy on the sport:

• By the end of the school year, Drake and Bradley withdrew from the Missouri Valley Conference in protest over both the attack and the failure of either the conference or Oklahoma A&M to discipline Smith. Bradley would return to the MVC for non-football sports in 1955, with Drake doing the same a year later, but Bradley never returned for football (dropping the sport in 1970) and Drake did not return to MVC football until 1971.
• The attack led to new NCAA rules regarding illegal blocking and mandating the use of helmets with face guards.

October 27 No. 1 Tennessee beat Tennessee Tech 68–0. No. 3 Michigan State beat visiting Pitt, 53–26. No. 3 Georgia Tech won narrowly at Vanderbilt, 8–7. No. 4 Illinois won at Indiana, 21–0. Unbeaten (4–0–0) and No. 5 Maryland visited once-beaten (4–1–0) LSU, and won convincingly, 27–0. With all five teams staying unbeaten, the poll changed slightly: 1.Tennessee 2.Michigan State 3.Illinois 4.Maryland 5.Georgia Tech

November 3 No. 1 Tennessee won at North Carolina, 27–0 for its fourth shutout. In six games, the Vols had outscored their opponents, 207–14. No. 2 Michigan State was idle and dropped to fifth in the next poll. No. 3 Illinois beat Michigan 7–0. No. 4 Maryland shut out Missouri 35–0. No. 5 Georgia Tech was tied by Duke, 14–14. No. 6 Princeton, which rose to 5–0–0 after a 12–0 win over Brown, gave an Ivy League addition to the Top Five. Michigan State came back to the five after a 53–26 win over Pitt. The poll: 1.Tennessee 2.Illinois 3.Maryland 4.Princeton 5.Michigan State.

November 10 No. 1 Tennessee beat Washington & Lee, 60–14. No. 2 Illinois beat Iowa 40–13. In Baltimore, No. 3 Maryland beat Navy, 40–21. No. 4 Princeton won at Harvard, 54–13, and left the top five. No. 5 Michigan State (6–0–0) hosted Notre Dame (5–1–0) and shut out the Irish, 35–0, and returned to No. 1 spot in the poll. In Los Angeles, two unbeaten and untied (7–0–0) powers faced off, as No. 7 Stanford and USC met. The Stanford Indians (they would later be called the Cardinal) beat the Trojans 27–20. The poll: 1.Michigan State 2.Tennessee 3.Illinois 4.Stanford 5.Maryland

November 17 No. 1 Michigan State won at Indiana, 30–26. No. 2 Tennessee won at Mississippi, 46–21. No. 3 Illinois got a blemish on its record with a 0–0 tie at Ohio State. No. 4 Stanford beat Oregon State 35–14. No. 5 Maryland overwhelmed N.C. State 53–0. Princeton, which had shut out Yale 27–0, came back to the top five. The poll: 1.Tennessee 2.Michigan State 3.Stanford 4.Maryland 5.Princeton

November 24 No. 1 Tennessee beat Kentucky 28–0. No. 2 Michigan State beat Colorado 45–7 to finish its season at 9–0–0. No. 3 Stanford suffered its first defeat, falling to California, 20–7. No. 4 Maryland stayed unbeaten, over West Virginia 54–7. No. 5 Princeton closed its season with a 13–0 win over Dartmouth. Illinois, which won at Northwestern 3–0, returned to the top five. The penultimate poll: 1.Tennessee 2.Michigan State 3.Maryland 4.Illinois 5.Princeton. On December 1 No. 1 Tennessee closed its season unbeaten with a 35–27 win over Vanderbilt.

The University of San Francisco Dons closed their season—and their football program—with a perfect record of 9 wins, 0 losses and 0 ties. After their November 24 game against in-state Jesuit rival Loyola University (since merged into Loyola Marymount University), a 20–2 win, USF stopped playing football.