The 1956 college football rankings were an effort to rank the American football teams participating in the 1956 college football season. College football's governing body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), did not issue rankings or conduct a championship game or playoffs to determine a national champion. The most widely-reported rankings were published by two of the major news agencies based on polling conducted on a weekly basis during the season.
At the end of the regular season, Oklahoma was ranked No. 1 in both the AP and UPI polls. Oklahoma did not participate in a bowl game. Neither agency conducted polling after the bowl games.
Though not as widely reported as the AP and UPI polls, some newspapers also reported on a mathematical ranking system developed by Vanderbilt University professor Edward Litkenhous. These were known as the Litkenhous Ratings. Oklahoma was also ranked No. 1 in the Litkenhouse Ratings. Whereas the AP and UPI polls ranked the top 20 teams, Litkenhouse ranked every college football team, and his rankings from 1 to 100 are included below.
| Increase in ranking | |||
| Decrease in ranking | |||
| Not ranked previous week | |||
| National champion | |||
| Win–loss record | |||
| Number of first place votes | |||
| Tied with team above or below also with this symbol |
The final AP poll was released on December 3, at the end of the regular season, weeks before the major bowls. The AP did not release poll after the bowl season regularly until 1968.
The final UPI poll was released prior to the bowl games, on December 4.[1]
Oklahoma received 26 of the 35 first-place votes; Tennessee received five, Iowa three, and Miami one.[2]
| Rank | Team | 1st | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma | 26 | 337 | |
| 2 | 5 | 301 | ||
| 3 | Iowa | 3 | 247 | |
| 4 | Georgia Tech | 0 | 211 | |
| 5 | Texas A&M | 0 | 202 | |
| 6 | Miami (FL) | 1 | 134 | |
| 7 | Michigan | 0 | 115 | |
| 8 | Syracuse | 0 | 63 | |
| 9 | 0 | 60 | ||
| 10 | Michigan State | 0 | 55 | |
| 11 | Baylor | 0 | 46 | |
| 12 | Pittsburgh | 0 | 36 | |
| 13 | Oregon State | 0 | 21 | |
| 14 | TCU | 0 | 18 | |
| 15 | 0 | 15 | ||
| 16 | 0 | 13 | ||
| 17 | Yale | 0 | 10 | |
| 18 | Colorado | 0 | 9 | |
| 19 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 20 | Duke | 0 | 6 |
The final Litkenhous Ratings, released in December 1956, ranked over 600 teams. The top 100 teams as ranked by Litkenhous were:[4] 1. Oklahoma
2. Tennessee
3. Georgia Tech
4. Michigan State
5. Michigan
6. Iowa
7. Texas A&M<br>8. TCU
9. Ohio State
10. Minnesota
11. Ole Miss
12. Baylor
13. Florida
14. Miami (FL)
15. Duke
16. Texas Western
17. Auburn
18. USC
19. Pittsburgh
20. Oregon State
21. Kentucky
22. Syracuse
23. Penn State
24. Washington University
25. Arizona State
26. Houston
27. Illinois
28. Purdue
29. UCLA
30. Oregon
31. Colorado
32. Stanford
33. Mississippi Southern
34. Vanderbilt
35. Tulane
36. Northwestern
37. Arkansas
38. Rice
39. Wisconsin
40. California
41. Navy
42. Virginia Tech
43. Clemson
44. Florida State
45. Army
46. South Carolina
47. Mississippi State
48. LSU
49. SMU
50. Southeastern Louisiana
51. Georgia
52. Missouri
53. West Texas
54. Alabama
55. Villanova
56. Pacific
57. Texas
58. Wake Forest
59. Maryland
60. Tulsa
61. North Carolina
62.
63.
64. Kansas
65. West Virginia
66. Washington State
67. Oklahoma A&M<br>68. Yale
69. Texas Tech
70. Notre Dame
71. Xavier
72. NC State
73. Wyoming
74.
75. Utah
76.
77.
78. Virginia
79.
80. Hardin Simmons
81. Arizona
82. George Washington
83. Boston College
84. Miami (OH)
85. Nebraska
86. Indiana
87.
88. Bowling Green
89.
90.
91.
92. Memphis State
93. Holy Cross
94. Cincinnati
95.
96. Princeton
97. Chattanooga