1968 NCAA University Division football season

• The 1967 punting rule requiring five linemen on the kicking team to remain at the line of scrimmage until the ball is punted was repealed.
• Eliminating the "flex shift" (offensive linemen raising up then dropping back down into position, used by Kansas and UCLA the previous season and later popularized by the Dallas Cowboys) by requiring an offensive player to hold his position when he gets "on or near the ground".
• The game clock will be stopped on all first downs to move the chains, then restarted again.
• The "tackle-eligible" pass play was declared illegal by requiring five offensive lineman numbered 50–79 to be on the line of scrimmage and declaring none of them are eligible receivers.
• Prohibiting the receiver of a fair catch who does not catch the ball to then become a blocker.
• Limiting the legal clipping zone to a rectangular point three feet by four yards on either side of the ball.
• Defensive players who intercept a pass within five yards of the end zone and his momentum takes him into the end zone, the ball will be put in play at the spot of the interception if the defensive player does not attempt to advance the ball out of the end zone.
• Length of time-outs are shortened from 120 seconds to 90 seconds.

• Prior to the season, the Athletic Association of Western Universities officially renamed itself as the Pacific-8 Conference.

In the preseason poll released on September 9, the Purdue Boilermakers were picked No. 1, followed by the defending champion USC Trojans. Third was the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, followed by the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns. A second poll was taken on September 16 (with Texas and Oklahoma trading places), although most teams would not begin play until the 21st.

September 21 No. 1 Purdue beat Virginia 44–6, and No. 2 USC won 29–20 at No. 15 Minnesota. No. 3 Notre Dame beat No. 5 Oklahoma 45–21 at South Bend, while No. 4 Texas was tied 20–20 at home by No. 11 Houston. In a proud moment for football in Indiana, Purdue remained at first, and Notre Dame rose to second, days before the annual meeting between the two schools. No. 10 Penn State beat Navy 31–6 and took Oklahoma's place at fourth in the poll. No. 6 Florida defeated Air Force 23–20 in Tampa and was fifth.
The poll was 1.Purdue 2.Notre Dame 3.USC 4.Penn State 5.Florida

September 28 No. 1 Purdue traveled to No. 2 Notre Dame and won, 37–22. No. 3 USC won 24–7 at Northwestern, No. 4 Penn State beat Kansas State 25–9, and No. 5 Florida won at Florida State 9–3.
The poll was 1.Purdue 2.USC 3.Penn State 4.Florida 5.Notre Dame

October 5 No. 1 Purdue won at Northwestern, 43–6, and No. 2 USC beat visiting Miami (FL), 28–3. No. 3 Penn State won at West Virginia 31–20, No. 4 Florida beat Mississippi State 31–14, but fell from the Top Five, and No. 5 Notre Dame won at Iowa 51–28. With a 21–6 win over Oregon, Ohio State reached fourth place.
The poll was 1.Purdue 2.USC 3.Penn State 4.Ohio State 5.Notre Dame

October 12 No. 1 Purdue lost 13–0 at No. 4 Ohio State, and No. 2 USC won 27–24 at No. 18 Stanford. No. 3 Penn State won at UCLA 21–6, No. 5 Notre Dame beat Northwestern 27–7, and No. 6 Kansas won 23–13 at No. 9 Nebraska, and rose to fourth.
The poll was 1.USC 2.Ohio State 3.Penn State 4.Kansas 5.Purdue

October 19 No. 1 USC beat Washington 14–7, and No. 2 Ohio State beat Northwestern 45–21. No. 3 Penn State was idle, No. 4 Kansas beat Oklahoma State 49–14, No. 5 Purdue edged Wake Forest 28–27 and dropped to seventh, and Notre Dame beat Illinois 58–8 and rose to fifth.
The poll was 1.USC 2.Ohio State 3.Kansas 4.Penn State 5.Notre Dame

October 26 No. 1 USC was idle, and No. 2 Ohio State won at Illinois 31–24. No. 3 Kansas won at Iowa State 46–25, No. 4 Penn State won at Boston College 29–0, and No. 5 Notre Dame was upset at unranked Michigan State, 21–17. Tennessee, which had reached 4–0–1 the week before with a 10–9 win over Alabama, was fifth.
The poll was 1.USC 2.Ohio State 3.Kansas 4.Penn State 5.Tennessee

November 2 No. 1 USC won at Oregon, 20–13, and No. 2 Ohio State beat No. 16 Michigan State 25–20. No. 3 Kansas posted its seventh win, over visiting Colorado, 27–14. No. 4 Penn State slipped past Army, 28–24 and No. 5 Tennessee beat visiting UCLA 42–18.

The poll was 1.USC 2.Ohio State 3.Kansas 4.Penn State 5.Tennessee

November 9 No. 1 USC turned back No. 11 California 35–17, and No. 2 Ohio State stayed unbeaten as well, downing Wisconsin 43–8. No. 3 Kansas, however, lost to unranked Oklahoma, 27–23, No. 4 Penn State beat visiting Miami (FL) 22–7, and No. 5 Tennessee lost to No. 18 Auburn in Birmingham, 28–14. No. 7 Michigan, with a 36–0 win over Illinois, rose to fourth. No. 9 Georgia, which was unbeaten (6–0–2) after a 51–0 win over Florida in Jacksonville, reached fifth. The poll was 1.USC 2.Ohio State 3.Penn State 4.Michigan 5. Georgia

November 16 No. 1 USC beat No. 13 Oregon State 17–13 in a game that decided the Pac-8 title; Oregon State finished 5–1 and USC 6–0 in the renamed conference, formerly the AAUW (but commonly referred to as the Pac-8). No. 2 Ohio State won at unranked Iowa 33–27. No. 3 Penn State won its eighth straight at Maryland 57–13, and No. 4 Michigan beat Wisconsin 34–9. No. 5 Georgia won 17–3 at No. 12 Auburn.
The poll was 1.USC 2.Ohio State 3.Penn State 4.Michigan 5.Georgia

November 23 No. 1 USC beat UCLA 28–16 to stay unbeaten, as did No. 2 Ohio State, which hosted No. 4 Michigan; both teams were unbeaten in Big Ten conference play, and the game would determine who would go to Pasadena (and who would stay home). Woody Hayes' Buckeyes triumphed 50–14 over the Wolverines. After seven weeks at second place, Ohio State took the lead from USC. No. 3 Penn State traveled and crushed Pittsburgh 65–9. No. 5 Georgia was idle. Kansas clinched the Big 8 title and the Orange Bowl bid with a 21–19 win at No. 13 Missouri, finished 9–1 and placed fifth.

Two undefeated teams Yale and Harvard met and ended their game in a 29–29 tie. The game was the basis of Harvard Crimson newspaper headline (and later the title of a documentary) Harvard Beats Yale 29–29.

In the polls released on November 25, there was a disagreement between the AP writers and the UPI coaches as the AP made Ohio State its new No. 1.[2] Though USC had more first place votes than Ohio State (24½ vs 21½), the Buckeyes were 10 points ahead overall in the AP poll (935–925).
In the UPI poll of coaches, however, USC remained in first place and Ohio State second. (332–321 in total points). In the two polls, Ohio State and USC alternated first and second, and the remainder was 3.Penn State 4.Georgia 5.Kansas

November 30 No. 2 USC was tied by visiting No. 9 Notre Dame, 21–21. No. 4 Georgia closed its season unbeaten at 8–0–2, with a 47–8 win at home over Georgia Tech, were SEC champs and went to the Sugar Bowl. Following USC's 9–0–1 finish, the UPI coaches voted unbeaten and untied (9–0–0) Ohio State as the national champion for their final poll on December 3. At the time, the UPI did not do a poll following the postseason bowl games, and the result would have been unaffected by the OSU and USC meeting in the Rose Bowl. The result was 28 first place votes (and 334 points) for OSU, and only 4 first place (and 277 points) for USC.[3]

Winless after two games, the No. 6 Texas Longhorns (8–1–1) won their last eight and finished with a 35–14 victory over Texas A&M two days earlier on Thanksgiving Day. The Longhorns returned to the Top 5, including a 39–29 win over Arkansas that tied them for the SWC title and got them the Cotton Bowl bid. No. 3 Penn State beat Syracuse 30–12 on December 7 to go to 10–0. Ohio State had 34 of the 39 first place votes cast.

The final regular season poll for both AP and UPI was 1.Ohio State 2.USC 3.Penn State 4.Georgia 5.Texas

1. O. J. Simpson, RB – USC, 2,853 points
2. Leroy Keyes, RB-CB – Purdue, 1,103
3. Terry Hanratty, QB – Notre Dame, 387
4. Ted Kwalick, TE – Penn State, 254
5. Ted Hendricks, DE - Miami (FL), 174
6. Ron Johnson, RB – Michigan, 158
7. Bobby Douglass, QB – Kansas, 132
8. Chris Gilbert, RB – Texas, 124
9. Brian Dowling, QB – Yale, 119
10. Ron Sellers, WR – Florida State, 91

Source:[5]

• 1968 NCAA University Division football rankings
• 1968 College Football All-America Team