1921 College Football Final Rankings

The college football season is getting really close. The first game of the 2011 season begins on Thursday, September 1st at 6:00 PM EST when Louisville hosts Murray State. We have finished our analyses of the modern college football era, going back to the 1912 season, which was the first season in which college football teams were given four downs per possession, six points for a touchdown and three points for a field goal. We probably won't have all of the results posted before the first game of the season, but that is really just academic, since we won't begin posting our weekly rankings for 2011 until week three or four anyway. We do plan on posting our updated program rankings entering the 2011 season (based on our unique formula that balances recent team performance with historical success in college football's top division) this coming Wednesday. Spread the word and make sure to come back and see where your team ranks heading into the 100th season of college football's modern era.

Today's rankings are for the 1921 season. In many of these early years, there was no single national championship awarded. Okay, to be honest, that's kind of true today ... but even more so back then. In fact, five different teams were recognized as potentially national champions of the 1921 season. To illustrate how early 1921 is in college football history, 1921 was the first season in which a college football game was broadcast on radio. Because there weren't a whole lot of cross-regional games and even the number of games that different teams played varied greatly, the analysis of these early years is shakier than the others. Our system performs best when there are more games and especially games between teams from different conferences and regions. Regardless, our analysis declares that Notre Dame had the best season in 1921, which ironically is not one of the five teams mentioned above. (Notre Dame wasn't even undefeated, although seven other teams were. The Fighting Irish lost 10-7 at Iowa, which was undefeated and ended up #10 in our analysis. Iowa's ranking was hurt by close games against #37 Illinois and especially against #98 Purdue, both of which had losing records.)

Here are our final rankings for 1921:

1. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (10-1) - 1.8
2. Nebraska Cornhuskers (7-1) - 2.7
3. Cornell Big Red (8-0) - 3.8
4. Penn State Nittany Lions (8-0-2) - 4.2
5. Vanderbilt Commodores (7-0-1) - 5.6
6. Centre Colonels (10-1) - 5.7
7. Lafayette Leopards (9-0) - 6.2
8. California Golden Bears (9-0-1) - 7.4
9. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (8-1) - 8.8
10. Iowa Hawkeyes (7-0) - 9.7
11. Washington & Jefferson Presidents (10-0-1) - 11.2
12. Georgia Bulldogs (7-2-1) - 11.6
13. Wisconsin Badgers (5-1-1) - 14.1
14. Navy Midshipmen (6-1) - 14.5
15. Yale Bulldogs (8-1) - 15.5
16. Pittsburgh Panthers (5-3-1) - 15.9
17. Chicago Maroons (6-1) - 17.5
18. Texas Longhorns (6-1-1) - 18.0
19. Furman Paladins (7-2-1) - 18.2
20. Tennessee Volunteers (6-2-1) - 19.6
21. Sewanee Tigers (6-2) - 20.9
22. Dartmouth Big Green (6-2-1) - 22.4
23. Harvard Crimson (7-2-1) - 23.0
24. Auburn Tigers (5-3) - 25.2
25. Texas A&M Aggies (6-1-2) - 25.5
26. Michigan Wolverines (5-1-1) - 26.5
27. South Carolina Gamecocks (5-1-2) - 26.6
28. Syracuse Orange (7-2) - 26.9
29. Mississippi College Choctaws (7-2-1) - 28.0
30. Oklahoma Sooners (5-3) - 31.0
31. Missouri Tigers (6-2) - 32.2
32. Drake Bulldogs (5-2) - 32.9
33. Princeton Tigers (4-3) - 33.4
34. Kentucky Wildcats (4-3-1) - 33.8
35. LSU Tigers (6-1-1) - 34.9
(tie) Oregon Ducks (5-1-3) - 34.9
37. Illinois Fighting Illini (3-4) - 37.9
38. Virginia Tech Hokies (7-3) - 38.9
39. Ohio State Buckeyes (5-2) - 39.7
40. Alabama Crimson Tide (5-4-2) - 40.1
41. Utah State Aggies (7-1) - 42.0
42. Erskine Flying Fleet (6-2) - 42.1
43. Kansas Jayhawks (4-3) - 42.4
44. Washington State Cougars (4-2-1) - 44.5
45. Iowa State Cyclones (4-4) - 45.8
46. Washington & Lee Generals (6-3) - 46.4
47. North Carolina Tar Heels (5-2-2) - 46.5
48. Mississippi State Bulldogs (4-4-1) - 47.1
49. Colorado Buffaloes (4-1-1) - 47.5
50. Baylor Bears (8-3) - 48.2
51. Virginia Cavaliers (5-4) - 53.2
52. Denver Pioneers (4-2-1) - 53.7
53. Florida Gators (6-3-2) - 54.4
(tie) West Virginia Mountaineers (5-4-1) - 54.4
55. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (4-4) - 55.3
(tie) Newberry Wolves (3-3-1) - 55.3
57. Citadel Bulldogs (3-3-2) - 56.1
58. NC State Wolfpack (3-3-3) - 59.7
59. Kansas State Wildcats (5-3) - 59.9
60. Idaho Vandals (4-3-1) - 60.8
61. Colorado State Rams (2-3-1) - 62.0
62. Oregon State Beavers (4-3-2) - 62.6
63. Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels (5-4) - 62.7
64. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (4-5) - 63.1
65. Pennsylvania Relays (4-3-2) - 64.0
66. Arkansas Razorbacks (5-3-1) - 66.0
67. Utah Utes (3-2-1) - 67.6
68. Tulane Green Wave (4-6) - 68.1
69. Rice Owls (4-4-1) - 68.4
70. Richmond Spiders (4-3-1) - 69.0
71. Washington (MO) Bears (4-3-1) - 69.4
72. Oklahoma State Cowboys (5-4-1) - 72.5
73. Brown Bears (5-3-1) - 74.2
74. Clemson Tigers (1-6-2) - 74.3
75. Colorado College Tigers (4-4) - 74.9
76. Spring Hill Badgers (4-4) - 75.8
77. VMI Keydets (3-5-1) - 76.1
78. Minnesota Golden Gophers (3-4) - 76.2
79. Mercer Bears (3-6) - 78.6
80. Davidson Wildcats (3-4-3) - 80.2
81. Colorado Mines Orediggers (1-5) - 82.5
82. Tennessee-Chattanooga Mocs (4-6) - 82.7
83. Colgate Raiders (4-4-2) - 83.2
84. Wyoming Cowboys (1-4-2) - 83.6
85. Indiana Hoosiers (3-4) - 83.7
(tie) Stanford Cardinal (4-2-2) - 83.7
87. Maryland Terrapins (3-5-1) - 84.9
88. Samford Bulldogs (3-6) - 86.9
89. Washington Huskies (3-4-1) - 88.2
90. Ole Miss Rebels (3-6) - 89.8
91. Grinnell Pioneers (2-5) - 91.6
92. Birmingham-Southern Panthers (4-4-1) - 91.9
93. FCS School (40-208-10) - 93.0
94. Phillips Haymakers (3-4-2) - 94.7
95. TCU Horned Frogs (6-3-1) - 95.5
96. Presbyterian Blue Hose (1-7) - 96.1
97. Northwestern Wildcats (1-6) - 96.6
98. Purdue Boilermakers (1-6) - 97.0
99. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (2-8) - 98.1
100. Wofford Terriers (2-7) - 99.8
101. Columbia Lions (2-6) - 100.0
102. SMU Mustangs (1-6-1) - 101.8
103. Southwestern Pirates (0-6-1) - 103.0

Special thanks to James Howell's College Football Scores, which provided the data for our analysis.