The 1965 small college football rankings are rankings of college football teams representing smaller college and university teams during the 1965 college football season, including the 1965 NCAA College Division football season and the 1965 NAIA football season. Separate rankings were published by the Associated Press (AP) and the United Press International (UPI). The AP rankings were selected by a board of sports writers, and the UPI rankings were selected by a board of small-college coaches.
The 1965 North Dakota State Bison football team (11–0) was rated as the small-college champion by both the AP and UPI. Middle Tennessee State (10–0) was rated No. 2 by the AP and No. 3 by the UPI.
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The Pittsburgh Courier, a leading African American newspaper, ranked the top 1965 teams from historically black colleges and universities in an era when college football was often racially segregated.
The rankings were published on December 4:[1]