1921 college football season

1921 NCAA football season
Bo McMillin scoring on Harvard.
Total # of teams	102
Number of bowls	3
Bowl games	December 26, 1921 – January 2, 1922
Champions	California Golden Bears Cornell Big Red Lafayette Maroon
College football seasons « 1920 1922 »

The 1921 NCAA football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing California Golden Bears, Cornell Big Red, Iowa Hawkeyes, Lafayette Leopards, Washington & Jefferson Presidents, and Vanderbilt Commodores as champions. Only California, Cornell, and Lafayette claim national championships for the 1921 season.

Conference and program changes

• The Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference (now the Midwest Conference, a Division III conference) began football play in 1921.

School	1920 Conference	1921 Conference
Nebraska Cornhuskers	Independent	MVIAA
Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels	Independent	SIAA
Phillips Haymakers	Southwest	Independent

First radio broadcast

A historical highlight of the regular season was the 1921 West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh football game, the first college football game to be broadcast live on radio. Today, college football on radio is common for nearly every game in every division.

C6H0

Main article: 1921 Centre vs. Harvard football game

On October 29, Centre College beat Harvard 6 to 0 in what is widely considered one of the greatest upsets in college football history. Overjoyed students painted the "impossible formula" C6H0 (Centre 6, Harvard 0) on everything in sight.

Rose Bowl

Main article: 1922 Rose Bowl

Image from the Rose Bowl.

In the 1922 Rose Bowl, the heavily favored California Golden Bears played Washington & Jefferson to a scoreless tie. The game holds several distinctions including being the only scoreless Rose Bowl game, the first tie in a Rose Bowl, the first African-American quarterback to play in the Rose Bowl (Charlie West from Washington & Jefferson), the first freshman to play in a Rose Bowl (Herb Kopf of Washington and Jefferson), the last Rose Bowl to be played at Tournament Park, and the smallest school (Washington & Jefferson College had only 450 students at the time) to ever play in a Rose Bowl.

Other bowls

• Dixie Classic
• San Diego Christmas Classic

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1921 Big Ten football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Iowa $ 5 – 0 – 0     7 – 0 – 0 Chicago 4 – 1 – 0     6 – 1 – 0 Ohio State 4 – 1 – 0     5 – 2 – 0 Wisconsin 3 – 1 – 1     5 – 1 – 1 Michigan 2 – 1 – 1     5 – 1 – 1 Indiana 1 – 2 – 0     3 – 4 – 0 Minnesota 2 – 4 – 0     3 – 4 – 0 Illinois 1 – 4 – 0     3 – 4 – 0 Purdue 1 – 4 – 0     1 – 6 – 0 Northwestern 0 – 5 – 0     1 – 6 – 0 $ – Conference champion	1921 Missouri Valley football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Nebraska $ 3 – 0 – 0     7 – 1 – 0 Missouri 4 – 2 – 0     6 – 2 – 0 Kansas State 4 – 2 – 0     5 – 3 – 0 Drake 2 – 2 – 0     5 – 2 – 0 Kansas 3 – 3 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Iowa State 3 – 4 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Oklahoma 2 – 3 – 0     5 – 3 – 0 Washington (MO) 2 – 3 – 0     4 – 3 – 1 Grinnell 0 – 4 – 0     2 – 5 – 0 $ – Conference champion	1921 PCC football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T California $ 4 – 0 – 0     9 – 0 – 1 Washington State 2 – 1 – 1     4 – 2 – 1 Stanford 1 – 1 – 1     4 – 2 – 2 Oregon Agricultural 1 – 2 – 1     4 – 3 – 2 Oregon 0 – 1 – 2     5 – 1 – 3 Washington 0 – 3 – 1     3 – 4 – 1 $ – Conference champion
1921 SAIAA football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Washington & Lee $ 2 – 0 – 0     6 – 3 – 0 Georgetown 1 – 0 – 0     8 – 1 – 0 St. John's (MD) 1 – 0 – 0     1 – 0 – 0 Virginia 5 – 1 – 0     5 – 4 – 0 North Carolina 3 – 1 – 1     5 – 2 – 2 VPI 4 – 2 – 0     7 – 3 – 0 Richmond 2 – 2 – 1     4 – 3 – 1 Maryland 2 – 2 – 1     3 – 5 – 1 Catholic 2 – 2 – 0     3 – 5 – 0 NC State 1 – 1 – 3     3 – 3 – 3 William & Mary 1 – 3 – 1     4 – 3 – 1 Trinity 0 – 1 – 0     6 – 1 – 2 Davidson 0 – 1 – 3     3 – 4 – 3 Johns Hopkins 0 – 2 – 0     1 – 2 – 0 VMI 0 – 3 – 1     3 – 5 – 1 George Washington 0 – 3 – 1     3 – 3 – 2 $ – Conference champion	1921 SIAA football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Centre + 5 – 0 – 0     10 – 1 – 0 Georgia Tech + 4 – 0 – 0     8 – 1 – 0 Georgia + 6 – 0 – 1     7 – 2 – 1 Vanderbilt + 5 – 0 – 1     7 – 0 – 1 Tennessee 4 – 1 – 1     6 – 2 – 1 Florida 4 – 1 – 2     6 – 3 – 2 Mississippi College 3 – 1 – 1     7 – 2 – 1 Sewanee 4 – 2 – 0     6 – 2 – 0 Furman 4 – 2 – 1     7 – 2 – 1 LSU 2 – 1 – 1     6 – 1 – 1 South Carolina 2 – 1 – 1     5 – 1 – 2 Transylvania 2 – 1 – 0     2 – 2 – 0 Auburn 3 – 2 – 0     5 – 3 – 0 The Citadel 2 – 2 – 1     3 – 3 – 2 Mississippi A&M 2 – 3 – 1     4 – 4 – 1 Tulane 3 – 4 – 0     4 – 6 – 0 Alabama 2 – 4 – 2     5 – 4 – 2 Oglethorpe 2 – 4 – 0     5 – 4 – 0 Mercer 2 – 5 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Chattanooga 1 – 3 – 0     4 – 6 – 0 Clemson 0 – 4 – 2     1 – 6 – 2 Kentucky 0 – 2 – 1     4 – 3 – 1 Millsaps 0 – 3 – 1     0 – 3 – 1 Louisville 0 – 1 – 0     2 – 2 – 1 Ole Miss 0 – 3 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 Wofford 0 – 3 – 0     2 – 7 – 0 Georgetown (KY) 0 – 3 – 0     0 – 3 – 0 Howard 0 – 5 – 0     3 – 6 – 0 + – Conference co-champions	1921 Southwest Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Texas A&M $ 3 – 0 – 2     6 – 1 – 2 Texas 1 – 0 – 1     6 – 1 – 1 Arkansas 2 – 1 – 0     5 – 3 – 1 Baylor 2 – 2 – 0     8 – 3 – 0 Oklahoma A&M 1 – 1 – 0     5 – 4 – 1 Rice 1 – 2 – 1     4 – 4 – 1 SMU 0 – 4 – 0     1 – 6 – 1 $ – Conference champion

See also

• 1921 College Football All-America Team
• 1921 All-Big Ten Conference football team