1981 saw Clemson finish atop the RPR after a historic season where the Tigers won their 1st national championship in the major polls following their Orange Bowl victory over Nebraska. The Tigers, the only undefeated team in the country this season, would also boast the best Score Ratio to go along with best Win %. Pittsburgh and Penn State would fall within the CCT cutoff by having better SOS marks, but when comparing overall body of work, neither team warranted serious consideration for co-champion status.

Co-champion Consideration Threshold: 0.0312; CCT Rating Cutoff: 0.6814

Rank	Team	Rating
1	Clemson (AP/C)	0.7127
2	Pittsburgh	0.7091
3	Penn State	0.7063
4	Nebraska	0.6746
5	Southern Methodist	0.6704
6	Georgia	0.6695
7	Miami, FL	0.6634
8	Texas	0.6594
9	North Carolina	0.6493
10	Alabama	0.6384
11	Arizona State	0.6336
12	Southern Mississippi	0.6272
13	Michigan	0.6269
14	Hawaii	0.6243
15	Brigham Young	0.6235
16	Southern California	0.6190
17	Yale	0.6165
18	West Virginia	0.6140
19	Washington	0.6100
20	Drake	0.6064
21	Oklahoma	0.6014
22	Iowa	0.5987
23	Ohio State	0.5968
24	Missouri	0.5959
25	Washington State	0.5954
26	Wyoming	0.5896
27	UCLA	0.5894
28	The Citadel	0.5876
29	Utah	0.5864
30	Miami, OH	0.5864
31	Toledo	0.5816
32	Arkansas	0.5813
33	Houston	0.5802
34	Mississippi State	0.5794
35	San Jose State	0.5743
36	Furman	0.5742
37	Florida	0.5738
38	Temple	0.5676
39	Navy	0.5634
40	West Texas A&M	0.5615
41	McNeese State	0.5598
42	Tulsa	0.5592
43	Illinois	0.5582
44	Chattanooga	0.5574
45	Wisconsin	0.5523
46	Virginia Tech	0.5520
47	Texas A&M	0.5519
48	Central Michigan	0.5518
49	Southern Illinois	0.5504
50	Kansas	0.5501
51	Colgate	0.5448
52	South Carolina	0.5387
53	Notre Dame	0.5370
54	Florida State	0.5369
55	Boston College	0.5327
56	Cincinnati	0.5324
57	San Diego State	0.5295
58	Oklahoma State	0.5272
59	Tennessee	0.5238
60	Dartmouth	0.5209
61	Syracuse	0.5190
62	Tulane	0.5185
63	Arkansas State	0.5184
64	Iowa State	0.5165
65	Duke	0.5156
66	VMI	0.5148
67	Holy Cross	0.5148
68	Utah State	0.5091
69	Minnesota	0.5090
70	Indiana State	0.5075
71	Wichita State	0.5067
72	Maryland	0.5053
73	Baylor	0.5037
74	Auburn	0.5032
75	Western Michigan	0.5014
76	Arizona	0.5011
77	Michigan State	0.5009
78	UNLV	0.4997
79	Purdue	0.4947
80	East Carolina	0.4941
81	Bowling Green	0.4923
82	Harvard	0.4918
83	Texas-Arlington	0.4914
84	Stanford	0.4889
85	Rutgers	0.4849
86	North Carolina State	0.4842
87	East Tennessee State	0.4791
88	Louisville	0.4772
89	Pacific	0.4772
90	Vanderbilt	0.4727
91	William & Mary	0.4694
92	Ohio	0.4689
93	Lousiana-Monroe	0.4660
94	Mississippi	0.4643
95	New Mexico	0.4638
96	Princeton	0.4608
97	Louisiana Tech	0.4607
98	Lamar	0.4606
99	Appalachian State	0.4578
100	Richmond	0.4511
101	Fresno State	0.4507
102	Western Carolina	0.4505
103	Rice	0.4470
104	Texas Christian	0.4467
105	Kentucky	0.4452
106	Army	0.4391
107	Kent State	0.4379
108	California	0.4371
109	Wake Forest	0.4365
110	Air Force	0.4352
111	Cal State – Fullerton	0.4290
112	Kansas State	0.4279
113	Colorado	0.4252
114	Indiana	0.4183
115	Ball State	0.4180
116	Louisiana State	0.4161
117	Long Beach State	0.4040
118	Texas Tech	0.4029
119	Oregon	0.3974
120	Northern Illinois	0.3926
121	North Texas	0.3847
122	Cornell	0.3846
123	Brown	0.3798
124	Illinois State	0.3797
125	Virginia	0.3793
126	Louisiana-Lafayette	0.3701
127	New Mexico State	0.3662
128	Georgia Tech	0.3660
129	Marshall	0.3475
130	Memphis	0.3405
131	Colorado State	0.3383
132	Texas-El Paso	0.3334
133	Columbia	0.3297
134	Oregon State	0.3230
135	Pennsylvania	0.3106
136	Northwestern	0.3086
137	Eastern Michigan	0.2755

Best Win Percentage: Clemson
Best SOS: Penn State
Best Score Ratio: Clemson