1910 college football season

1910 NCAA football season
Total # of teams	74[1]
Number of bowls	0
Champions	Harvard Crimson
College football seasons « 1909 1911 »

The 1910 NCAA football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Harvard and Pittsburgh as having been selected national champions.^[2] Only Harvard claims a national championship for the 1910 season.

Rules

Rule changes were made prior to the 1910 season to permit more use of the forward pass, with complicated limitations:^[3]

• 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.

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
• Game time based on agreement of the teams, not to exceed two 45 minute halves.^[4]

The season ran from September 24 until Thanksgiving Day (November 24).^[5]

Conference and program changes

• The Colorado Faculty Athletic Conference (CFAC) changed its name to the Rocky Mountain Faculty Athletic Conference (RMFAC, now just the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) in 1910 after expanding into Utah.

Conference changes

School	1909 Conference	1910 Conference
The Citadel Bulldogs	Independent	SIAA
Denver Pioneers	Independent	Rocky Mountain
Howard Bulldogs	Independent	SIAA
Utah Utes	Independent	Rocky Mountain

Program changes

• Arkansas changed its nickname from the Cardinals to the current Razorbacks.

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

1910 Big 9 football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Illinois + 4 – 0 – 0     7 – 0 – 0 Minnesota + 2 – 0 – 0     6 – 1 – 0 Indiana 3 – 1 – 0     5 – 1 – 0 Iowa 1 – 1 – 0     5 – 2 – 0 Chicago 2 – 4 – 0     2 – 5 – 0 Wisconsin 1 – 2 – 1     1 – 2 – 2 Northwestern 1 – 2 – 1     1 – 3 – 1 Purdue 0 – 4 – 0     1 – 5 – 0 + – Conference co-champions

1910 Missouri Valley football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Nebraska $ 2 – 0 – 0     7 – 0 – 1 Iowa 3 – 1 – 0     5 – 2 – 0 Missouri 2 – 1 – 1     4 – 2 – 2 Iowa State 2 – 2 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Kansas 1 – 1 – 1     6 – 1 – 1 Washington (MO) 0 – 2 – 0     3 – 4 – 0 Drake 0 – 3 – 0     2 – 5 – 0 $ – Conference champion

1910 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Colorado College + 5 – 0 – 0     7 – 0 – 0 Colorado + 4 – 0 – 0     6 – 0 – 0 Denver 3 – 2 – 0     4 – 3 – 1 Utah 2 – 2 – 0     4 – 2 – 0 Colorado Mines 2 – 4 – 0     2 – 4 – 0 Wyoming 1 – 4 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Colorado State 0 – 5 – 0     0 – 5 – 0 + – Conference co-champions

1910 SIAA football standings Conf     Overall Team W   L   T     W   L   T Vanderbilt + 5 – 0 – 0     8 – 0 – 1 Auburn + 4 – 0 – 0     6 – 1 – 0 Sewanee 3 – 1 – 0     8 – 2 – 0 Georgia 5 – 2 – 1     6 – 2 – 1 Mississippi A&M 4 – 2 – 0     7 – 2 – 0 Ole Miss 2 – 1 – 0     7 – 1 – 0 Mercer 3 – 2 – 0     6 – 3 – 0 Georgia Tech 4 – 3 – 0     5 – 3 – 0 Clemson 3 – 3 – 1     4 – 3 – 1 LSU 1 – 3 – 0     1 – 5 – 0 Tennessee 1 – 4 – 0     3 – 5 – 1 Memphis U. School 0 – 1 – 0     0 – 1 – 0 The Citadel 0 – 2 – 0     3 – 4 – 0 Gordon 0 – 3 – 0     0 – 3 – 0 Alabama 0 – 4 – 0     4 – 4 – 0 Howard 0 – 5 – 0     1 – 7 – 0 + – Conference co-champions

See also

• 1910 College Football All-America Team

References

1. http://www.jhowell.net/cf/cf1910.htm
2. Official 2009 NCAA Division I Football Records Book (PDF). Indianapolis, IN: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. August 2009. p. 70. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
3. "New Football As Walter Camp Sees It", New York Times, September 15, 1910
4. Danzig, Allison (1956). The History of American Football: Its Great Teams, Players, and Coaches. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. pp. 70–71.
5. "Football Under New Rules Starts To-Day", New York Times, September 24, 1910