One human poll comprised the 1942 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 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 preseason—the AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll.
The Coaches' Poll began operation in 1950; in addition, the AP Poll did not begin conducting preseason polls until that same year.
The final AP Poll was released on November 30, at the end of the 1942 regular season, weeks before the major bowls.
The AP would not release a post-bowl season final poll regularly until 1968.
On December 2, a special panel of 91 sportswriters for the Associated Press released a ranking of the US service academy football teams, as they had not been permitted in the regular 1942 AP poll (this practice would be reversed in 1943).
The Great Lakes Naval Training Station football team was awarded service champion, garnering the most overall (812) and 1st place votes (50) in the special poll.
[9] The ranking system was ten points to the first place team, nine for 2nd place, and so on, with the sportswriters ranking their top ten.
Teams that did not finish in the overall top ten but still received individual votes were also added to the final standings.
The final Litkenhous Ratings were released in January 1943, after the bowl games had been played.
The top 30 ranked teams were:[10] 1.
Great Lakes Navy (106.4) 5.
North Carolina Pre-Flight (94.7) 26.
Missouri (93.1) The final Williamson System rankings for 1942 were issued in January 1943, after the bowl games.
Amherst (87.0) Williamson also separately ranked the top service teams as follows: 1.
Great Lakes Navy (94.7) 3.
North Carolina Pre-Flight (92.6) 4.
Manhattan Beach Coast Guard (88.0) 8.
Corpus Christi NAS (85.6) 9.
Saint Mary's Pre-Flight (85.4) 10.
Santa Ana Air Force (77.9) 18.