The 1961 NAIA football season was the sixth season of college football sponsored by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The season was played from August to December 1961, culminating in the sixth annual NAIA Football National Championship, played this year at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, California. During its three years in Sacramento, the game was called the Camellia Bowl (separate from the present day bowl game with the same name in Montgomery, Alabama).