College Football Playoff: Who would win it all in 1951?

A 1951 playoff positions college football as ultimate land of opportunity

By 1951, the Cold War was beginning to ramp up to fever pitch. Any goodwill generated by the alliance of the United States and Soviet Union in World War II was lost. Now the two sides were embarking on a series of proxy battles both military and non-military in nature.

The Berlin Blockade and Airlift launched the first peals of adversarial geopolitics that would mark the next four decades of international relations. The Korean War had commenced a year earlier, and the two forces fighting the proxy battle in Asia had spent the summer battling around the 38th parallel. And sport was beginning to emerge as a key venue for contestation as well.

Imagine what a public relations coup it would have been for the US to be able to show off a playoff system that provides opportunity to all student-athletes. Tournament play was still rare at the professional level, but it was beginning to gain popularity at the collegiate level.

It was ultimately an opportunity lost for college football.

Instead of presenting an egalitarian and meritocratic method for determining the national champion, it was another missed opportunity for the NCAA. With college basketball mired in the CCNY point shaving scandal, the door was open for the gridiron to take charge by forming the preeminent intercollegiate tournament.

A tournament would have helped sort out a field filled with unbeaten squads. Determining a national champion in the system as it existed in 1951 was nigh impossible. That is especially true given the fact that the crown was handed out before the postseason.

A playoff would have kept Tennessee from getting rewarded before mailing it in at the Sugar Bowl. It would have provided opportunity for (at least some of) the other eight unbeaten squads around the country to have a shot at the title.