1896 college football season

Total # of teams

30^[1]

Number of bowls

College football seasons
« 1895	1897 »

The 1896 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing Lafayette and Princeton as having been selected national champions.^[2] Lafayette finished with an 11-0-1 record while Princeton had a 10-0-1 record. In the second game of the season for both teams, Lafayette and Princeton played to a scoreless tie. Both teams had signature wins: Lafayette defeated Penn 6-4, giving the Quakers their only loss of the season, while Princeton defeated previously unbeaten Yale, 24-6, on Thanksgiving Day in the last game of the season. Princeton was retroactively named the 1896 national champions by the Billingsley Report, the Helms Athletic Foundation, the Houlgate System, and Lafayette and Princeton were named national co-champions by the National Championship Foundation and Parke Davis.

The Western Conference, now known as the Big Ten, began its first season of play in 1896.

Conference standings

The following is a potentially incomplete list of conference standings:

	Conf					Overall
1896 Western Conference football standings
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Wisconsin †	2	–	0	–	1	7	–	1	–	1
Michigan	2	–	1	–	0	9	–	1	–	0
Northwestern	2	–	1	–	1	6	–	1	–	2
Chicago	3	–	2	–	0	15	–	2	–	1
Minnesota	1	–	2	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
Illinois	0	–	2	–	1	4	–	2	–	1
Purdue	0	–	2	–	1	4	–	2	–	1

† – Conference champion

	Conf					Overall
1896 Western Interstate football standings
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
Iowa †	2	–	0	–	1	7	–	1	–	1
Kansas	2	–	1	–	0	7	–	3	–	0
Nebraska	1	–	1	–	1	6	–	3	–	1
Missouri	0	–	3	–	0	7	–	5	–	0

† – Conference champion

	Conf					Overall
1896 SIAA football standings
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
LSU §	4	–	0	–	0	6	–	0	–	0
Georgia §	3	–	0	–	0	4	–	0	–	0
Vanderbilt	3	–	0	–	1	3	–	2	–	2
Tennessee	1	–	0	–	0	4	–	0	–	0
Auburn	3	–	1	–	0	3	–	1	–	0
Georgia Tech	1	–	1	–	1	1	–	1	–	1
Texas	1	–	1	–	0	4	–	2	–	1
Alabama	1	–	1	–	0	2	–	1	–	0
Kentucky State	1	–	1	–	0	3	–	6	–	0
Sewanee	2	–	3	–	0	3	–	3	–	0
Tulane	1	–	2	–	0	3	–	2	–	0
Nashville	0	–	1	–	1	0	–	1	–	1
North Carolina	0	–	1	–	0	3	–	4	–	1
S. W. Presbyterian	0	–	1	–	0	0	–	1	–	0
Ole Miss	0	–	2	–	0	1	–	2	–	0
Mercer	0	–	2	–	1	0	–	2	–	1
Central	0	–	2	–	0	0	–	2	–	0
Mississippi A&M	0	–	2	–	0	0	–	4	–	0
Clemson	0	–	0	–	0	2	–	1	–	0
Cumberland			–					–

§ – Conference co-champions

References

↑ http://www.jhowell.net/cf/cf1896.htm
↑ Official 2009 NCAA Division I Football Records Book. Indianapolis, IN: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. August 2009. p. 70. Retrieved 2009-10-16.

NCAA football seasons

Pre-regulation	1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905

IAAUS/NCAA	1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955

NCAA University Division/ Division I	1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977

NCAA Division I-A/FBS	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

NCAA Division I-AA/FCS	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

NCAA Division II	1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

NCAA Division III	1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

1896 college football season

Conference standings

See also

References