re: 1969 football season final rankings

It's complicated. You got the basics, although I disagree with having many bowl options. Back then conferences didn't orchestrate the bowl match ups. They were negotiated between the bowls and the teams themselves.

Prior to ND coming into the picture, LSU wanted the Cotton and the Cotton wanted LSU. The Sugar made arrangements to take the team that beat us, Ole Miss. When ND made their decision late in the process, the Cotton jumped on it (from a business perspective can't blame them as it was quite the coup) and LSU didn't have many options.

I believe they could have gone to the Peach Bowl, but we had played in the inaugural game the prior year and it just wasn't that appealing to return. They may have had another unappealing option, but McClendon was butt hurt (understandable) and convinced the team to vote to protest by not accepting any bowl invitation (a mistake imo, but as I said understandable).

As far as ranking goes, this was a team that needed to go undefeated and have have a significant bowl victory to get the respect it deserved. Take a look at the schedule; it was pretty weak. The signature win was a 1 pt home victory against Auburn (14th ranked at the time 20th final). The only other win over a team with a winning record was a 5 pt home victory against Alabama (6-5 final record).