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1910 college football season


1910 college football season
Michigan vs. Penn
Harvard
football seasons

The 1910 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Harvard and Pittsburgh as having been retrospectively selected national champions, by four "major selectors" in about 1927, 1947, 1980 and 2003. Harvard claims a national championship for the 1910 season. Auburn also claims a national title based on a selection in Richard Billingsley's unrevised original math system.

Cartoon by Ryan Walker on the ongoing attempt to make a brutal sport more effete through rules changes.

Rule changes were made prior to the 1910 season to permit more use of the forward pass, with complicated limitations:

  • The only eligible receivers were the two ends, who could catch a pass no more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and could not be interfered with until the ball was caught.
  • A legal pass could not be thrown unless the quarterback was at least 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage and the rest of the players, except the two ends, were at least 1 yard behind the scrimmage line.
  • On kickoffs and punts, the kicking team's players could not be touched until they had advanced 20 yards
  • Flying tackles were outlawed, and "the man making a tackle must have at least one foot on the ground".
  • The ballcarrier could no longer be aided in any way by his teammates.
  • Games were now played as four quarters, each 15 minutes long, rather than two halves of 35 minutes each

Other rules in 1910 were:

  • Field 110 yards in length
  • Kickoff made from midfield
  • Three downs to gain ten yards
  • Touchdown worth 5 points
  • Field goal worth 3 points

The season ran from September 24 until Thanksgiving Day (November 24). Prior to Thanksgiving, the season's death toll was 22; the previous season's was 30.

School1909 Conference1910 Conference
The Citadel BulldogsIndependentSIAA
Denver PioneersIndependentRocky Mountain
Howard BulldogsIndependentSIAA
Indiana State Normal Fightin' TeachersIndependentDropped Program
Louisville CardinalsProgram EstablishedIndependent
Utah UtesIndependentRocky Mountain
  • Arkansas changed its nickname from the Cardinals to the current Razorbacks.
ConferenceChampion(s)Record
Kansas Collegiate Athletic ConferenceKansas State Agricultural4–0
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic AssociationAlma1–0
Ohio Athletic ConferenceOberlin3–0–1

The consensus All-America team included Walter Camp's selections:

PositionNameHeightWeight (lbs.)ClassHometownTeam
QBEarl Sprackling5'9"150Jr.Cleveland, OhioBrown
HBPercy WendellSo.Roxbury, MassachusettsHarvard
HBTalbot PendletonPrinceton
FBLeroy MercerSo.Penn
EStanfield WellsJr.Massillon, OhioMichigan
TRobert McKaySr.Harvard
GAlbert Benbrook240Sr.Chicago, IllinoisMichigan
CErnest CozensSr.Penn
GBob FisherJr.Boston, MassachusettsHarvard
TJames WalkerMinnesota
EJohn KilpatrickYale
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