One human poll comprised the 1947 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football rankings.
Unlike most sports, college football's governing body, the NCAA, did not bestow a national championship, instead that title was bestowed by various agencies.
There was one weekly poll that began in the preseason—the Associated Press Poll.
The AP Poll did not begin conducting preseason polls until 1950.
The United Press Coaches' Poll began operation that same year.
The final regular season AP Poll was released on December 8, at the end of the 1947 regular season, weeks before the major bowls.
[1] The AP did not release a post-bowl season final poll regularly until 1968.
The final regular season AP poll, taken in early December before the bowls, had Notre Dame No.
1 (107 first-place votes) and Michigan second, with 25 first-place votes.
[1] Michigan won the Rose Bowl 49–0 over USC while Notre Dame did not play in a bowl game.
Detroit Free Press sports editor Lyall Smith arranged a special post-bowl poll with only Michigan or Notre Dame as choices, which favored Michigan 226–119.
[12][13] However, it was stated that "The new ballot does not supersede the Associated Press' regular final season rating of college football teams, released last December 8, which named Notre Dame the mythical National champion with Michigan the runner-up.
"[12] The final Litkenhous Ratings released in December 1947 provided numerical rankings to more than 500 college and military football programs.
The top 100 ranked teams were: 1.
Penn State (9–0–1) - 93.2 13.
Georgia Tech (10–1) - 86.9 20.
Mississippi State (7–3) - 78.0 45.
NC State (5–3–1) - 77.0 51.
Oregon State (5–5) - 76.6 53.
Boston College (5–4) - 75.2 55.
San Jose State (9–3) - 66.4 83.
Oklahoma City (7–3) - 66.2 84.
Iowa State (3–6) - 64.4 91.
Utah State (6–5) - 60.8 103.
San Diego State (7–3–1) - 54.1 131.
Western Reserve (4–5) - 50.7 146.
Kansas State (0–10) - 50.0 150.
Compton - 49.8 The Pittsburgh Courier, a leading African American newspaper, ranked the top 1947 teams from historically black colleges and universities using the Dickinson System in an era when college football was largely segregated.
The rankings were published on December 6.
[14] The Courier also ranked 7 what they called "smaller colleges" teams: The Baltimore Afro-American also published post-season rankings on December 13:[15]