5/27/2017 football Edit

UNC Football As The No. 1 Team In The Nation

The Tar Heels of the early 1980s were among seven different UNC teams to receive No. 1 rankings during their seasons.

Andrew Jones • TarHeelIllustrated

Publisher

Andrew Jones has covered sports for 26 years, including all major college & professional sports for daily newspapers & national sites. He's done radio and TV & is entering his seventh year at THI.

Number 1 rankings aren’t uncommon for many of North Carolina’s sports teams. Men’s basketball has been in that spot often over time, so has the men’s and women’s soccer teams, both lacrosse clubs, field hockey, baseball and even women’s basketball.

The football Tar Heels, however, have only sat in the top spot over the rest of the nation just one time in the program’s history.

That occurred the week of Oct. 11, 1948, when the 3-0 Heels were ranked No. 1 in the nation, yet despite defeating N.C. State that week, fell to No. 3 the following week in the rankings. In fact, Carolina won its next two games without regaining its top ranking before a 7-7 ties versus William & Mary. The Heels finished that season at No. 3.

Overall, however, UNC has received No. 1 votes in seven different seasons spanning 33 different weekly polls totaling 359 No. 1 votes.

Note: The only poll used in this research is the Associated Press.

Note that there weren’t as many weekly polls beginning in its first year, 1936, as there are today.

Here’s a breakdown of those seven seasons:

1939 – No. 1 votes in 3 different weeks, one vote each time.

Note: The Heel were 7-0-1 with a tie at Tulane and rose to No. 7 in the rankings getting a No. 1 for a third consecutive week before a 13-3 loss at Duke.

1947 – No. 1 votes in four different weeks totaling 20 votes.

Note: The Heels didn’t get their first No. 1 vote until after a 19-0 win over Maryland in Washington, D.C. improved their record to 6-2. The Heels got No. 1 votes the rest of the way, including 7 in the final poll, in which they were ranked No. 9.

1948 – UNC received No. 1 votes in all nine weekly polls totaling 284 weeks.

Note: The first poll of the season was on Oct. 4 and the 2-0 Heels were No. 2. The following week they were No. 1 for the only time in the program’s history. See above for more on the 1948 season.

1949 - No. 1 votes in two weekly polls totaling 9 votes.

Note: At 3-0, the first poll of the season had UNC at No. 6 in the rankings with 3 No. 1 votes. After a 28-14 win over Wake Forest, Carolina remained at No. 6 but garnered 6 No. 1 votes, but in its next game, UNC lost 13-7 at LSU and didn’t get a No. 1 for another 32 years.

1981 – No. 1 votes in two weekly polls totaling 7 votes.

Note: The Tar Heels rose to the No. 4 spot in the Oct. 12 poll with a 5-0 record. The Heels moved up to No. 3 the following week and got 3 No. 1 votes, but they lost their next game at home to South Carolina and dropped to No. 9 in the rankings.

1982 – No. 1 votes in one poll totaling 2 votes.

Note: UNC was the preseason No. 5 team but lost its opener 7-6 at No. 1 Pittsburgh and dropped to No. 11 the following week.

1997 – No. 1 votes in the first 12 weekly polls of the season totaling 29 votes.

Note: Carolina opened the season 8-0 before falling at home 20-3 to Florida State on No. 8 on what ESPN deemed “Judgement Day” in college football. That was the only time the GameDay crew was at Kenan Stadium and remains the biggest football game ever played in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels were No. 5 with 2 No. 1 votes going into that game.