USC and Ohio State would soon hit the superpower sweet spot, but the mid-1960s represented a lull for both programs.
In the 1964 college football season, USC and Ohio State were far from the top tier of the sport. The 1964 campaign was a Southern and Southwestern season, with Arkansas winning the national title and Alabama playing Texas in a classic Orange Bowl game.
USC won the 1962 national championship but then went through a lull of several seasons before its late-1960s rise to supreme power under O.J. Simpson, which launched the heart of the John McKay dynasty and fed into the greatest 13-year run in program history, from 1967 through 1979. Ohio State similarly became a true college football superpower in the late 1960s, delivering annual top-tier results on a regular basis.
