1964 NCAA University Division football season

The NCAA was without a playoff for the major college football teams in the University Division, later known as Division I-A, during the 20th century. The NCAA recognizes Division I-A national champions based on the final results of polls including the "wire service" (AP and UPI), FWAA and NFF. The 1964 AP poll continued to rank only ten teams, compiling the votes of 55 sportswriters, each of whom would give their opinion of the ten best. Under a point system of 10 points for first place, 9 for second, etc., the "overall" ranking was determined.

The 1964 season ended with controversy as to whether Alabama or Arkansas should be recognized as the national champion:

• Alabama finished the regular season at 10–0 and, ranked No. 1 in the final AP and UPI Coaches Polls, is considered their national champions. The AP and UPI did not conduct post-bowl game polling at that time, so, despite its loss in the 1965 Orange Bowl to No. 5 Texas, Alabama remained the national champion in the AP and UPI polls.
• Arkansas, ranked No. 2 in the AP and UPI polls, defeated No. 6 Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl, had also defeated common opponent Texas in Austin, and finished as the only undefeated and untied major college team. In polling conducted after the bowl games, a five-man committee of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) selected Arkansas as the winner of the Grantland Rice Trophy as the top college football team in the country. Arkansas received four of five first-place votes, with Texas receiving the fifth vote. Alabama did not receive a single vote for first, second, or third place.^[2] Arkansas is also recognized as the 1964 national champion by Billingsley Report, College Football Researchers Association, Helms Athletic Foundation, National Championship Foundation, Poling System, Sagarin, and Sagarin (ELO-Chess).^[3]

After a one-year trial run in 1965, the AP Poll began its current practice of naming their national champion at the conclusion of the bowl games in 1968. The UPI Poll followed suit in 1974, after its choice for national champions in each of 1965, 1970, and 1973 lost their respective bowl games.